126. Leveraging for Quality & Quantity with Amber Vilhauer

So what happened, Wade, as I went from a twenty five percent sales close to a year, eighty five percent sales close, closing half the time. And by the way, during this time, I also doubled my rates.

And the the feedback that came in is people were just so grateful that I didn't waste their time. They were so grateful that I gave them full transparency upfront. They felt like they had the power and the control. Welcome, everybody. I am so excited to have Amber Vilhauer with us Amber V. to talk with us about how you can leverage for quality and quantity.

And so much of what she and I have talked about leverages so much of what she does. She does huge book launches. She helps people with their website. She helps people with their branding. There's so many cool things she does them. Let her talk about that a little bit more. But what I really love about Amber V. work is she's unapologetic about being awesome. And there's a lot of people that have trouble that shoot. I've got a master's degree in psychology and I still struggle with that.

So first of all, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for coming out. You're the best Wade. Thank you for having me. So one of the things you and I have talked about, so the first thing that actually really just blew my mind, I had met Amber through a mutual contact and that interview with her for a different podcast. But her onboarding process was so clear and so full of value of how I could be the best guest to the show and what I should do that even in the process of being on the show, I was being coached up.

I was being brought to a different level and one small. You meet somebody where just in doing business with me, like, OK, what are they whatever they do, I want to do that. Do they sell cookies? Do they whatever it is. And as I looked further, I wanted to see what she's up to. Now, of course, when you meet somebody that does higher and stuff all of a sudden, at least for me, I'm like, OK, so how high end does this get and how many zeroes and kind of freaks me out.

And she had this really simple. Oh, by the way. And how many things do I have to go through in strategy sessions of two hours of sweat and blood and tears to then finally find out what they're charging? And she didn't have that. It was really simple, like this pricing thing that said, here's what I do. Here's how we Rockit, here's what the investment is. And it all made sense to me. And so I wanted to just start with that.

I want to get to the quality and quantity first. But as somebody who helps people with their brands to again be unapologetic, there's so many coaches out there that in a lot of people's minds overcharge and then there's so many people. If you're in the fields like so many of us that undercharge, how do you first start helping somebody look at. Not just what they should be charging, but how to be delivering in a way that other people look at them, because when I look at your prices, I was like, yeah, that makes sense, that school might not be able to afford all of it right now, but it's a cool I want to, which was a very different thing from sometimes like how do you how do you do that?

How do you deliver that and how do you help your clients with that?

Well, I have to tell you a little story, Wade, that when I first started in GMG, which stands for No Guts, No Glory back in 2007, I was a website designer. Right. And I did marketing. And so what would happen is you'd go to my website, you'd read a bunch of content, you'd, you know, click the contact button, request a call. I'd have an hour long call with you. That would really be our first time to interact.

We'd build a relationship. I'd learn about your project, and then you would ask me like, well, what's the process to build a website? So I'd go step by step through the process for the eighty seven millionth time on these calls. And then the question that always made my heart thump faster, well, what's it going to cost me? And then, you know, sometimes people would say, wow, that's a no brainer, let's go.

Other times people would say, oh my gosh, that's so expensive. And other times people were neutral and said they'd circle back and usually they wouldn't. But about twenty five percent of the time, at the end of these hourlong conversations, somebody would want to move forward. And a percentage of the time they were great clients that I really loved working with. And most of the time it was like it was OK. Or some clients were conflict clients, but men Wade after two years.

I just thought there has got to be a better way than this. So then I thought back to my cutco days when I sold cutco cutlery and what I learned at Cutco cutlery that made me such a great salesperson is it's all about the education that you provide and the experience that you provide. And I also put myself and my prospect's shoes and I thought, well, what would I want if I went to a website? I wouldn't want to have to go through a bunch of hoops to find the answers to the questions that I want.

I would want to know who is the person really that I'm about to do business with because I understood persuasive copywriting. Right? I knew how to write a sexy marketing headline, but that doesn't mean that you really understand the person behind the sale. And so I thought, all right, I have to find a way to get people to know the real me up front. Then I have to find a way to educate them about my process and then I have to find a way to give them full transparency on my pricing all up front.

And if I can accomplish that, well, then instead of an hour long call, I could have a 30 minute call and then people would actually start to come into the conversation. Wade saying, Amber, I feel like I already know you. OK, so I was looking at your pricing menu and I want to get a 60 hour block of time on a six month payment plan. But here are my questions. And I'd be like, what?

So what happened? Wade as I went from a twenty five percent sales close to a year. Eighty five percent sales close, closing half the time. And by the way, during this time I also doubled my rates.

And the the feedback that came in is people were just so grateful that I didn't waste their time. They were so grateful that I gave them full transparency upfront. They felt like they had the power and the control, which is great because I don't need the power and control. I just want the right people coming in. I don't need to trick you into hiring me. I want you to want to hire me and be confident in that decision by the end of our conversation before we on board.

So this was the process that I rolled out Wade. And what you spoke to, basically, people go to my website, they get to watch a video. We're getting connected and engaged. I asked them to download my pricing menu and only then are they given an opportunity to book into my calendar. Since then, only my dream clients keep coming in. I've never had to worry about where my next client is coming from. Our retention rate is through the roof.

Our word of mouth rate is through the roof. And this is how you can also build a very profitable seven figure business with a fifteen hundred person Instagram following. I mean, I don't have the world's biggest following, but I have the right following. That's awesome. There's so much that's it's in there and I'm going to speak to a couple of things and sometimes I speak to the audience almost as if you're not here like God, we should talk about them.

It's not about, I figure which Wade is on. The thing of it's that way. But so is somebody who's had a software business for 20 years with less than a fifteen hundred person email. It sounds very similar to things I've done when I got down and in my case, in my insurance agency background, which I've been in for years, I know their world so well and I describe it. And just like you're saying, and some of it's word of mouth and some of it's from videos I create.

But it kind of goes back to that shift when you realize in life that you don't want to try to have friends, you want the people who like you for who you are, to be your friends kind of a thing and or whatever it is or jobs or whatever it might be. And. What you're saying, I think that's so. Hard to replicate, at least I found at times different ways to replicate it, but I find I get better the more I communicate.

Here's who I am. Here's what I do. Here's how I roll.

Because some people are like you, disgusting, want nothing to do with you and all those different things. But to your point. You know, it's kind of an unsavory experience on both sides. The Strategy Session and it's an evolution that happened over the years. But this you know, there's so many different versions of it. The one where you really push the pain button and you keep pushing and make sure the client feels the pain and it feels so.

And I've not done that.

I've been absolutely not like I don't want to do that now because it feels icky. And then there's the other one where you just say, OK, now, for example, I don't want to waste someone like your time because especially.

If I feel like I'm talking to somebody that's currently operating in the business world at a higher level, I mean, we all loved and all that stuff, but I'm aware when somebody is operating a higher level or lower level for the most part.

The last thing I want to do, especially if I want to be in somewhere a business partner of them or associate a client, is to waste their time because that's one of the most embarrassing things. So then I found my clients telling me, hey, my friend wanted to talk to you, but they didn't want to waste your time. And so in some ways, in my case, I had some data that they would fill out on there, at least these Insurance changes, because I know their business model is like, OK, if you tell me what's going on, I'll spend 30 minutes talking to you about exactly what you can do with your business model.

So it's slightly different, but at least I felt like, OK, this is not like you said, the can sales calls. Oh my God, they're so painful for both sides.

Totally.

And yet what really struck me was how well you were able to again, as I literally OK, so I get referred by another friend. There's this girl, Amber, don't know who Amber is. Her podcast is such and such. Maybe you want to be guest on there. Thought OK, I don't know. Sure. Let me check it out. And again, the onboarding process.

Not only did I feel I got to know you, not in the sense of where best, but like, OK, I know what she's about. I align with that. And I also saw that because there was this five video series that would teach, OK, how to be the best guest. And along the line I saw, wow, this is so brilliant because there's certain people that after two, I'm not going to I don't want to get into too much work.

It's it's, you know, just like watching videos. So thinking through the process, maybe you explain it because I think I kind of have a handle on it.

How does it when a person then has to first watch a video before they can even get on your calendar and see your your price? I don't know. It's almost like, yes, we're going to have kids her name on this, this, this and this. We're going to live here. My mother in law's like this. So now are you still interested in me? I don't know.

It's like this really like expedited thing, like when some of those dating shows or whatever, how how does that how does the process screen in and screen out people the way you design things? I'm assuming it's pretty intentional. Everything I do is super intentional, like guaranteed if you go to my website and you see a button in a weird place, it's there for a reason.

Everything is very intentional. But I think I first just had to really identify, like who I want to attract and the most I want to attract and people who are really serious. And so if you're serious, you're going to want to be prepared. You're going to want to have thinking time. You're going to want to really get to know the person that you're about to hire, like they're just things that matter to people who are serious about getting results.

And they also don't like wasting their time. I don't like wasting my time. Right. So actually, this process, though, it appears like I have these barriers in place where you can't get access to me. It really is designed thoughtfully for your benefit to save your time so that you're not getting into a 30 minute call with me just to find out that you hate my personality or something like I'm way too smiley for you and you don't like all the flowers in my background.

Totally, OK. So it is I have had one person complain about this, by the way, Wade and it was this grumpy man, super grumpy. He was like a financial adviser. And he goes through hoops and he gets into a call with me and he's just frowning and kind of grumpy about everything and how are you going to help me?

And I have got to get the leaves. I mean, seriously, you can't even make the stuff up. And what happened was I gave him unbelievable strategy. I mean, like, it was some of my best stuff. I was really proud of myself. And at the end of the conversation, he's like, that's pretty good. But I have to ask you a serious question. Why don't you have your your what? Your phone number on the website.

And I said, well, actually, it's by design. You know, I'm really careful about who I let into my inner circle. And I don't want to give my personal cell phone number out for privacy reasons that I'm telling him. And he looked at me like I was just disgusting, like the scum underneath his shoe. And I thought, oh, by the way, he ended up not moving forward. I kind of said, I don't think this is a fit.

And he agreed, but it was perfect because that showed me it reinforced. Again, this is somebody who was frustrated about my experience. Well, you're not a fit for me. And he was the kind of guy that just wanted to fling money at an agency and have leads come in and be hands off. That's not my people. I couldn't have thrived in an environment like that. So you just kind of have to all to say Wade you really have to look at like what are your boundaries, what's important to you?

How do you want to protect your time? It's scary. It's scary when you unpublished your phone number on the website or when you put barriers up like this because you think nobody's going to hire you, that's not what happens. It just simply weeds out the people. That would have been a problem for you anyway. It's the client that would have cost way more than whatever you quoted them and would have made your life a living. You know what?

Instead, the right people come in. They appreciate your process. They want to emulate your process because they want to protect their time, too. And it just sells them even more. They're like, wow, this is top notch. This is what I want for my life. I'm going to hire Amber and that's how it works.

That's awesome. There's so many things there that just for those people who are perhaps either starting out or, you know, anytime you start a business, it's easy to say, oh, gosh, I just I just need to get cash flow coming in. And my short answer to that is have a job and start a side-hustler first and be really particular in your side-hustler. And when you're rich, you know, eventually reach a point, you might not have that luxury.

Sometimes things happen in different ways. But if you can. It still takes a certain amount of time to attract quality, to figure out who you are as an entrepreneur, what you're doing, what you want to do, who likes you, who doesn't like you, and to your point, the most dangerous clients.

So if you're a newer entrepreneur, you're an older entrepreneur and serious. I'm sure you already know this.

I think you know the right you know this the hard way because yes. Is done.

That's one of the worst clients is the one who writes the big check. And but they do it like this. Like here you do it and you're like and when you're first you're like you're just so excited the first time you get the check released. I was and I didn't see it. And in my case it was it was coaching and sales coaching with team members. And I literally had the guy was undoing what I was teaching the team because he liked to be at the center of attention, but his method wasn't effective.

So I teach the team and then a week later, one of the the assistants would say, Wade, just so you know, every time you teach this is going back and doing this. And of course, in that case, I was able to manage it was a longtime friend of the family and whatnot. But it turns into if you're not careful, that person's out there saying, well, I spent X thousand with Wade or X dollars with Amber on this and it didn't work out.

And so all that gets out is that when basically what happens is they didn't show up ready to play. This is this is a big boy, big girl deal we're trying to do here. And in your case, it's a website, a website if you don't realize the website's a big deal. Then you may be missing things that you might not have the budget for a big website, but it's a big deal. What I'm doing, coaching people about, you know, their lifestyle and what they do on the weekends and how they spend time with their family, their friends and their work.

That's big stuff. If you're like, oh, yeah, well, you know, maybe you can save me an hour, like, if that's all you get from what I do. Like some people say Wade, I hear you do productivity work. Yeah, that's what I do like no, I hear you do WordPress Web sites, you know, great. You know, there's something so much more to it and yet. I think part of the piece that has impressed me also is just not just your materials, not just your communications, but in even dealing with you and or at times your team members how things are done.

So it feels to me like you've applied the same concept to the people you work with. The people you hire, maybe speaks a little bit about that, about how the quality of the people, not only the clients you attract, but the people you work with allows you then to scale. Because, you know, one of your business models is called leverage discounts about scaling things. But as I think, as Bill Gates has said, you know, if you're scaling inefficient things or unprofitable things, we're just going to be more profitable.

If you're buying bad real estate. Stop buying it. How do you have that quality? Then lead the quantity and then allow for that possibility of quantity and scaling and the efficiencies of outsourcing and all the other stuff you do. It really starts with identifying your core values. I'm not even kidding you and I didn't really understand the value of this until later into many years later of owning the company. Now, I've always had kind of a pure heart, and that comes from having a really, really difficult time growing up.

And so I just kind of turned into a little bit of a softy. But I like that about myself. And because of my good heart, it makes it easier for me to build relationships with people and to connect with them. But I still didn't understand the value of core values until, you know, in the past few years, I'd say. And that's when things were a total game changer for me. Wade. So what I did was I really evaluated what matters most to me and meaningful connection was at the top of the list, better together, you know, really seeing how much I enjoy collaboration instead of working by myself and needing all of the eggs in my basket.

Leading into change was a really important one because change is constant. I want to be a person of courage. I don't want to be a person of fear. So these are just some of my core values. And, you know, unwavering excellence is another one. I really, really high standards. So once I really identified some of my core values Wade, everything became a lot easier. The only other thing that I had to do was to identify the one person I wanted to work with, like stamp this person out, work with them for the rest of time.

Because what happened then from a from a marketing and sales perspective is I was able to live my core values when I was doing a video, when I was writing an email, when I was being interviewed on a podcast, whatever it was, it wasn't sloppy. I prepared I leaned into the interview. I made connection with the podcast host or with the camera because I was always holding my ideal person in the back of my mind, even though I thought about her several times.

It's a girl named Heather. I know everything about Heather. I know what she thinks about when she wakes up in the middle of the night in her guilty pleasure. When you know a caramel frappuccino that she's sipping on at the checkout of the grocery store after writing this blog post that she loved writing the blog post, but she hated the technology. And it was always frustrating to her, like the little details of who this woman is. I know her intimately.

And every time I've even done it today, I've been talking to Heather through this camera lens because I know that not that I'm just trying to attract women, because actually 70 to 80 percent of my clients are men. But it's that we share the same core values. I know how to speak to Heather. I know how to protect Heather and how to nurture Heather. And when she needs a big kick in the you know what? And when she just needs somebody to say, I understand you start to develop that relationship and it transforms your marketing and your sales and who you ultimately attract into the business.

But then to your point, you need a solid team of people that are going to take care of Heather because I can't do it by myself. So then I had to really you start with the same core values, and that's the standard by which you manage your operation internally. It's the standard I hold people to when I'm hiring them. I have hired some of my best people in the most random ways. I am so unconventional Wade I don't post a job ad and let millions of people porin and interview them painstakingly and blah, blah, blah.

Instead, as an example, my most recent hires, I was sitting at a restaurant and I'm really I've always been impressed by this restaurant, good culture, great people. And they were headed into their second round of lockdown. And this was like the waitresses last day. And I said, you know what, I'm so impressed by you. Here's my business card. If you'd like some extra income, I'd be happy to have a call with you and on board you.

I hired that server and the hostess that night, both full time. And they've been phenomenal employees. So you just start to once you identify those core values, you know, who are the right fits for the culture. You know, who's going to take care of your clients? I can teach you how to build a website. I can't teach you how to be a phenomenal human. So you get the right people internally. You build documentation that teaches that that team how to operate at the level and the efficiency and with creativity that you require you in your marketing.

You have your approach, you're sharing your values that way you're communicating and connecting. And then all of a sudden, as the business owner, you get to sort of elevate up. And I'm not saying it's easy. Running a business is for sure one of the hardest things I've ever done. But it's very fulfilling because you get to see how many lives you're impacting and the team you're you're making them for. Filled and they feel like they belong and they have ownership and they have control and they get to thrive, and your clients are having such a good experience, they feel held.

And it was because you did the work in the beginning. You didn't slap it together and cut corners and just try to make money. You were thoughtful, you were intentional, you cared and people paid attention. And now they just want to tell others about their experience. That's awesome, and, you know, for those listening, I've invited Amber to be a speaker on an event that I hosted part of the speaker selection for, I mean, it's just what you're saying is because I just saw the way you operate and.

If you've been in the business world long enough, you see all sorts of operational, as you mentioned, something really about, you know, sexy sales copy, I come from the insurance industry. We've heard every word.

We made up most of the words, you know, hey, Amber V. today or is it tomorrow you're going to buy my stuff and, you know, just all the stuff that you like.

I really want nothing to do that. What I love about what you're doing, to put it in a different way, as you hear a lot of people that talk about, OK, well, there's these airy fairy ideas. They call them blue or they call them soft or whatnot. And then there's people like I'm a bottom line person and it's like, OK, well, we have an emotional and spiritual dimension. Woohoo!

We have an intellectual and physical dimension, you know. Yes. Bottom line to me, those have to integrate.

But a lot of people, you know, don't seem to understand that.

One of the things that you and I talked about in the preinterview is the idea that. The team, you know, those those softer skills, the humanistic skills, the relationship, those are important also because your team members aren't machines. So your team members, hopefully you're going to give them a solid process as left brained and as, you know, detailed as possible.

But if that's all you give them, that's not going to work.

And on the other hand, if you're just happy and you're OK, we're going to help people. But you have no process.

You're not going to get very far. Mm hmm. You mentioned something about how, you know, you're speaking to Heather. And obviously you said yet 70 percent of your clients are male. Would you say then that there is that sort of sense of that multidimensional person you're trying to attract that kind of gets it? Like, yes, there's multiple things going on. It's not just one thing or the other.

Sure. And that's also why you kind of have to really look at your values. You don't just have one thing that you value. So even your values are multidimensional, you know, having unwavering excellence and being able to lean into change and then better together. I mean, these are different slices that make up the organization. And so what's happening is when I'm speaking in an environment like this, there's going to be Bob who's like I like that she's a go getter.

And then there's Beth who's like, oh, but she's really thoughtful in her approach. And everybody is is being drawn into a different side. Right. But it's a side that they might not even consciously be aware of that really matters to them when making a purchasing decision. And that's why I honestly Wade I don't get the whole scarcity thing. I mean, there's eight billion people on the planet. Like how many WordPress website designers do you think are out there?

I mean, seriously, there's so many WordPress website designers out there and how have I been able to thrive during that time? By the way, most of those designers are men. Most agency owners are men. So how is able to do it? By not paying attention to what other people are doing, believing in abundance, being clear on my values, being fully expressive of who I am and trusting. And it worked. I love that that proverb leap and the net will appear.

And sometimes you just kind of have to take that approach in business, too.

I really love what you just said there about ignoring what other people listen to one of the coaches. I've been blessed to learn from it from a time Dan Sullivan the strategic coach he talks about. You know, it's one of the toughest things as an entrepreneur is by our nature, we're like, I'm doing it my way. And of course, there are times when you have to listen to the marketplace because the marketplace ultimately decides.

But there is this sense of how you're going to do things. And you mentioned something earlier about and it relates to the scarcity conversation around how you didn't make your phone number available to something of a certain generation that's like, oh, that that to them that might be a red flag. That that's OK. Shady. She's Fly-By-Night because maybe twenty years ago. Yes, that would have been shady. Fly by night today, maybe not so much. And but the other thing you mentioned, it has held so true for me.

So for years I was trying to work at 4-Day Work Week, as Yoda might say, but not actually working the 4-Day Work Week. And one of my coaches had just said Wade, either you're going to do it or not, stop using your software seasons excuse to say, well, you know, this time of the year I work for days and this time I don't. So I just do it. And even my software clients, I was a little kind of skittish.

And yet what happened is not only the software clients, but especially the consulting clients, the coaching clients when they realized I wasn't available on a Friday.

Aside from the fact that it is kind of like high school dating, like, you know, less supply, more demand, just like basics, but it's like, wow, what's he doing that he can afford to not take a call on a Friday and just be like, yeah. Dernier. And it's not that I'm making millions of dollars, it's number one, I do manage my expenses and my lifestyle as best as I can so that I can afford that.

But also, to your point, when I find the right person, as you've said, there's not a lot of how about this? There's not a lot of nickel and dime. And we're both kind of like, OK, should I be giving you more? Should you be giving me more choice? And I don't know about you, but something it seems like you do because you said this, you know, you want that person engaged. So when I'm talking coaching with people, I like to mention the money investment and the time investment, because the time investment, if you're an entrepreneur.

And so he doesn't mention the time investment. I mean, it's almost like a red flag, like, OK, you don't speak my language because you remember when the courses first came out, like online courses about 10, 12 years ago.

People like I've got one hundred and fifty videos and seventy five hours of content you like. Why I teach me how to do it in two minutes, I actually pay more. I don't want I don't want 150 videos. I just want to learn this stuff. And in my case, because of who my audience is, a lot of them, before I got into more working with entrepreneurs in general and I was just working with that group that their Insurance pensioners.

It's a steady business model. It's a brick and mortar model. They they have a good B.S. filter and they're like Wade. I give me the answer, man. I'll pay for the answer. Like, really, if you got magic brownies, man, give me your magic brownies. I'll buy your magic brownies. I don't need your software or your code. You got no magic brownies. OK, so it's software in coaching.

It is, yeah. But I think that's something that's so huge. I don't know, maybe tweak this a little bit and or pivot because some people listening right now might not know a little bit about who you work with and what you do as far as book launches. And so I've realized I'm horrible at reading bios. So I'm going to ask you.

So just, you know, I'm asking you to brag a little bit now, but where I want you just mentioned, if you would name drop a little bit as far as who the better ones, because quote unquote or. No, but what was it that they said, Amber, this is why I'm doing business with. And how does it connect with with what we've been talking about?

Sure. So I'll answer that first and then I'll circle back. So I don't want to forget, but people hire me because they want what I do, if that makes sense. They they are impressed by the operation and the standard. You know, you go to my website and it's nice and you can feel something on the website. It's not a it's not a typical website. So NGNG Enterprises dot com, Amber V. dot com will give you a sense of how we build websites.

They're more experiential, right? What we're trying to bridge that gap between human and digital. And so we're really trying to create more of an experience with the website. And then because they see the strategy baked into the customer journey, OK, you want you to watch the video and you to get our pricing menu, then you can have a call. It's so well organized. And they they love the experience that I'm taking them through. And then when I have a conversation with them, I make it all about them.

It's not about me. I'm here to just give value. So I give and give and give and connect and give some more. And by the end they're like, oh my gosh, I've not experienced anything like this. What else can we do together? And I say, well, here's the next step. If you want no or pressure. And they can't even believe that's true.

So it's more of. The experience and they think, wow, that's top notch, I want that for me and my business. So that's why people hire me, I think. But I also have a proven track record. So, you know, of the almost 15 years that we've been in business, we've launched more than 50 number one, best selling books. Funny enough, this was not something I advertised until about two years ago, is the first time I advertised, even though I've been launching books for that long.

And I don't know why that is. I think I was just focused on the website agency and the marketing services that we provide and live streaming. But the market kept saying, yeah, but we really want the book launch. So finally I worked with Mike Miklowitz and he told everybody about and GMG, which I really appreciate even to this day, is like there's only one person that you should hire.

And we did his most successful launch today, which was fixed. The snacks next. Wall Street Journal. That was about a year ago almost. And so I really appreciate my clients because they're much more vocal about me than I am. I'm kind of like, you know, I'm not a big bragger. My team even has to remind me, like, they'll tell me, Wade, please go out and brag a little bit.

And it's like I just want other people to do it for me.

But we just launched a book for Martin Lindstrom, who's a well-known conscious thought leader, and we're able to hit number two on Wall Street Journal for his book, The Ministry of Common Sense. Actually, next week we're launching a book for Dr. Daniel Aimen, who's in the brain health space. He's already presold about fifty thousand copies of his book. So well, on our way to his thirteenth New York Times bestseller, I'm really excited in March to launch John Lee Domus book The Uncommon Path to Common Success.

I always have to think a little bit on that one great book about how you can get started in the online world. So we're working with some really well known influencers. I in the past, I've launched books for Less Brown and Lisa Nichols and Mark Victor Hansen, but I've also worked with a lot of No-Name authors who might have influence in their industries. And they have great hearts and they deserve recognition, too. And we've been able to hit Wall Street Journal or number one on Amazon or we have some authors that don't care about the list.

And so instead we're helping them generate like we had an author, two authors last year that generated more than half a million dollars before the book launch even happened. So we're really focused on building a business, not just launching a book. The book is Why People Come To Me, but then what are they on board for? Is because they realize I can help them build their platform, help them with a marketing operation, help them hire a creative marketing assistant, help them with a monetization model.

They're starting to make early sales and building their confidence and managing their emotions. And our entire team does all of that. And there's not really anything on the market like that. So it's a pretty special place to be.

That's awesome. So one of the things that comes up when people delegate again switch because there's a lot of things you do. So in my mind, I'm just going through the different things you do and how people. So the leverage of scale, which has a lot to do with helping people train teams on how to do social media and different things. And of course, you can speak to more. How do you know in general, though, as an entrepreneur, what are the signs that you're either delegating too slowly?

We were delegating too fast. I know a lot of times, if it was 10 years ago, most of the clients I met, they were delegating way too slowly like they weren't, you know, they don't want to delegate anything. And then now when I talk to people, especially since after Tim Ferriss wrote the four hour work week, that a lot of people like I'm a delegate, everything that I was one of those. I'm a scout delegate, delegator.

Sometimes I get delegates, I don't deal. And then all of a sudden, like a Wade, it didn't get done. Oh, wait. That's right. And give them good instructions. I didn't. Or at least I thought I did. Or, you know, maybe there's a language difference as far as how you refer to things. But going back to that core question, how does somebody know that they should be delegable more, perhaps even when it's perhaps scary financial times when they're like, OK, I'm not sure if I can afford Delegable?

Yeah. And then on the other side, how does somebody know when they're when they're perhaps not connecting with people? They're not training their people. Right. And so they're scaling something that that's kind of, you know, not not coming back to bite them, but they're just kind of throwing away time and money.

Yeah. And it probably will come back reputational speaking to bite them. If you are delegating too slow, then it's probably that you are unhappy, you are frustrated, you're doing the work yourself.

You wish that you could have more help, but you do still have this mindset of scarcity. You don't think you can afford it, you've never been through it. You have some level of fear about it. So you keep trying to do it yourself. And instead of hiring even an agency, you're probably buying do it yourself courses and then you're getting sucked into the course and you're probably not completing the course. You keep doing it yourself or you just don't do it.

Let three more months go by until you hold yourself accountable and then try to kick yourself in the butt to go back and do it. And then the cycle just continues. But what you need to realize is that if you could spend your time focused on right activity, which as a business owner is speaking and selling, largely building relationships, right, creating content only you can create, such as a podcast, show, videotapes, that sort of thing, that's the only thing that you should be spending your time on.

Everything else can be delegated. And if you were to focus your time in that area, let's just pick out a hypothetical number for a minute that you could on average make one hundred dollars an hour. Like that's your rate of what you could go out there and sell divided by 40 hours in a week. That's your rate. Well, think about that. The average virtual assistant is twenty dollars an hour, which means that if you can just stretch your mind a little bit to realize that for every hour that you get this virtual assistant to do the things that you hate doing anyway, you're actually profiting.

Eighty dollars an hour, if you can hold yourself accountable, be disciplined and focus on money making activities. So if you feel like I don't know about this, then really the root of the problem is your insecurity around selling. If I can then come in and fix your insecurity around selling and help you do it in a way that doesn't totally freak you out or feel like misaligned with your values and personality, then you will actually be excited to go out and grow your business, in which case you're going to realize all of the time that you're wasting and think, of course, I need to hire somebody to do all this other work for me.

Then you are a challenge will become training that person to do what you need to do, which to your point, Wade. That's how leveraged to skill was born. Most business owners don't like optimizing their own videos on YouTube and crafting a blog post that search engine optimized and doing their own social media and sending an email to their email list. Terrible use of your time, even if you do enjoy it. It's not a good use of your time. But we need to make sure that your assistant is trained properly so that they can do all of those things and act as you be your voice, your personality.

And that's what leverage to scale. Does it train somebody on your team to do all of that as if you're doing it?

I'll tell you, though, the big game changer and why leverage to scale so successful is because I don't just train your virtual assistant on what to do. I teach them why that step is important. It's not just, oh, you need to add a tag and here's how to do it, because they're only going to understand it so much. But when you say here's the importance of a tag and why we need to be thoughtful about doing keyword research and how many tags and why that is, all of a sudden they get it.

It's anchored in you've improved their thought leadership. So now they're starting to think like you, which means that they're able to make decisions like you. And then all of a sudden you're not going to run into those issues that you talked about earlier, Wade, where you're delegating too fast, where all of a sudden it's just systems breaking down. They're not doing it the way you want. That's so frustrating. Why can't they just do it? Right?

Well, because you didn't tell them what to do or more importantly, why that piece was important to you, like in email, formatting, Wade. I will tell my my assistant I when you call out somebody's name in an email like you're trying to get their attention, I want you to bould their name and highlighted in pink. Now, the reason that we do that is because people scam emails. And I don't want somebody to miss the fact that I've been trying to call their attention.

So we're going to build it, but then we're going to use pink so that it's really obvious and then they can't miss it.

Well, now they get it. So they're going to do it every single time because it makes. Sense, so that's how you're going to delegate properly as far as delegating too quickly and this will be a short one. I don't have experience with that personally, because, you know, I think as long as your documentation, your training, your your leadership is in place and the right kind of way, you know, you just have to, I guess, be careful that if you start hearing complaints from customers or followers that that there are issues at hand, then maybe slow that slow your roll a little bit, fix the problems, develop thought leadership again, then start speeding back up.

Awesome, thank you. And I think of the times. Gosh, in my software business, I remember I hired a team member, I was at one sales presentation and just sold like five things or eight things, the software or whatever subscription things had to be somewhere the next day. And I'm listening to voice mails in between, like, just crazy, just like, you know, like I had waited too long and it really wasn't even scarcity. I didn't realize I was going to grow that quickly.

And I remember I just. I explain this to my wife, I'm like, there's this technology I just discovered it's so amazing you take this thing off work and you give it to this technology and this technology does it for you.

And you keep some of the profits until it's called an employee, because that's what it's like.

This is like blowing my mind because I didn't you know, I'd started as a solopreneur and again, it wasn't the income wasn't enough. And all of a sudden the income started growing more and more. And because it was seasonal, even I almost kind of played with like, OK, well, I did it the very the rookie way of, OK, I'm going to I'm going to wait through the non season and great game plan and wait till the middle of season.

I'm going to try to hire somebody. And that's how I know, by the way. That's how I know there's a God. So I'm not looking to make this spiritual. But because I actually found somebody on Monster Dotcom, what, 16 years ago out of nowhere that worked from home virtually with me for, what, eleven years?

Awesome person. It was my first hire. I thought it was brilliant. I was like one for one. And of course the future hires. I got my butt handed to me and I came back to the normal average of about one out of three, one out of whatever.

But the thing that was so interesting is to your point is it was it was for me was a combination of insecurity. And yeah, I'm a lifelong entrepreneur. Part of it was laziness. I don't want to have to sell more like I know how to.

But. To your point, and this is why what you're doing. It's so interesting to me because I've tapped into it at times, maybe somewhat consciously, somewhat unconsciously, is if you tell me the wait, hold on. These are the people I like doing business with. Great. I'll I'll talk to them all day long. And ironically, when I do sales pitch with my clients, my cat hears the filters. We got to have the filters in place because in the Insurance energy model it's like Wade all my clients buy auto insurance.

Why? Because they have to. It's the law. How many of them actually want to talk about protecting their income, protecting their family life insurance? Well, maybe 20 percent. OK, so how do I filter those? Because 80 percent of them, or maybe 50 percent of them don't want to talk about it all. And you're actually borderline annoy them and now you risk the business. And yet there's this 20 percent that, hey, if somebody dies, they don't have life insurance.

That's a pretty big deal. And so, you know, there's a lot at stake there. And we talk about somebody's business, an entrepreneur, Wade. If this person's message doesn't get out there, how do you bring your passion? So, you know, you're working with these people that are making huge impacts on people's lives, generally domus less brown Brendon Burchard MicroCon Calvert's. How do you also bring in your sense of. Yes. That's the type of message that I'm about, I mean, does that do you filter out certain people like you?

I don't like this person's work. Does that even even happen?

It has happened twice. And it was very difficult for me because in both instances, I really liked the person and one in particular that I'm thinking of. It was just a topic that I just couldn't pursue. It was very difficult. I mean, it took me two weeks to really sit with it and challenge myself and hold myself accountable and challenge my beliefs. And why did that matter? And did it really matter? And, you know, is it what other people think?

Is it what I think I mean, I really went deep with it and I looked at it as a great learning opportunity. But ultimately, I had to be honest. And I did get to the root of why it bothered me so much and, you know, was just honest. And it was actually a really beautiful conversation. I wasn't scolded or reprimanded or judged for it. They appreciated my honesty. But most times the authors that I work with are nonfiction and their business books, which is totally my passion.

So it's really easy to to get on board and get behind them as well. And, you know, don't really work with very many fiction based authors and website clients. Gosh, in every industry you can think of. But generally the people that I attract are more conscious thought leaders. And so they're not doing bad things in the world and they all want to help people. So it's really easy to get behind whatever their messages and it's really easy to get behind who the person is.

But I would never take a client on that didn't align with my values, which is why I keep coming back to that work. And I think there's also something to be said about really identifying your personal why as a business owner, you know, why? Why do this business why are you even doing coaching to begin with? Like what? Where is the spark and what does let you up? And then how can you expand that and get more of that one piece of it?

And that's actually how you're going to start niching down into a clientele that you just thoroughly love and your work is so fulfilling or in a service that you love. As an example, Wade, I used to offer funnel buildout as a service and we do your landing pages and your sales pages and your webinars and your affiliate programs. And one day I woke up and I was like, I hate doing this work. I am miserable. It's draining. It's you couldn't even pay me enough money to want to do it.

I know how to do it and I'm really good at it. But that doesn't mean I should be doing it. So you have to pay attention to your feelings as well as some people might think that is. It's going to give you that really clear indication if you're doing a service that you don't really like. So maybe you're lazy about it or that you love it so much you can't wait to get on the phone and work and talk about it.

Or if that client is a right fit or a wrong fit. Right. Remember the grumpy guy? I guess I was not a good fit. So listen to those feelings and you'll always know the right way to go.

That's awesome. One of the things I think a lot of people struggle with is. In the social media, this idea of, OK, well, now when does when does it start turn into leads, when does it start turning to bars? Because on one hand, there's the person that says, OK, I've been doing social media three days now. Where am I? Leeds. And then there's the other person that's saying, OK, I'm going to do this forever.

And as somebody who's, you know, done different business models, I thought I was going out first as a coach and I did that.

And a couple of things happened in my just in the marketplace. One, that that shifted that. And all of a sudden I said, hey, would you would you build this software? And I thought, oh, I don't really want to build software. It wasn't my passion, but I'm good at.

And I but I enjoy the challenge because I'm sure. And just like that, something that I didn't intend upon has for over 20 years provided mostly 70 percent or more of my income in a business, I can run in about eight hours a week. So for that sense, for me, I have I have humility around, OK? I might not always be the greatest judge of what is it that I do that's unique. And I think some people are concerned about that.

And then also there's this concern of Wade. What if you know. And I know my answer to this question, but I'm curious to hear yours, but Wade, what if I spend five years doing social media, doing work, doing a blog, posting videos about a topic, and it doesn't monetize because there's a practical side to that and there's an emotional side to that of the disappointment. What's your answer to that person? And I've got an idea, but I'm curious to hear yours.

I don't think that it's the product or service that the person is selling. That's the problem. I think the problem is that typically you are being way too generic in your content. It's not specific enough. You don't know your avatar and who you really want to work with well enough. And likely you have some sort of insecurity that's blocking your ability to direct people into the options that they have to work with you. And one of the ways that you can solve this is by hiring a coach truly, because you need somebody who can see what you can't see because you're in the weeds.

Right? You can't see the forest through the trees. Right. And so I'll give you a quick story that there was a client named Layla who lived in the UK. And she came to me and said, Amber, I've done it all right. Every single thing. Right. I'm thinking, yeah, I've heard that a lot. And usually that's not the case, but I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. Super sweet girl went to her website and I was like, dang, her website was awesome Bakht with strategy and conversion.

And I thought, well, that's odd. And then I went to her social media and looked awesome. And I was like, that's odd. Sign up for her email list, went through her funnel. It was perfection. I looked at her program. It was amazing. And I thought, oh, my gosh, what could be wrong? And she's like, I tried marketing, I've tried selling. I've done all the right things. And I said, well, when's the last time that you surveyed your audience?

And she said, Well, I haven't ever surveyed my audience. And I said, Well, let's survey your audience and find out who you've attracted in. Layla had a business and a product that was teaching pregnant women how to have a successful and healthy labor. When we surveyed her audience, we found out that the people she'd attracted in were not pregnant yet they were thinking ahead and trying to do some research on pregnancy, but they didn't need her program because they weren't even pregnant yet.

So I said, Layla, quick fix. All you got to do is build a program around how to have, you know, how to get pregnant or something. Along those lines. You'll capture everybody into the first program. Then it will be an automatic yes into the second program. And so one coaching call, that's all it took. Her problem was solved. Business totally corrected. It solved. The money started flowing. It was it was beautiful.

So you really have to get a coach to see what you can't survey. Your audience get really clear in your avatar. I think that you need to be really direct and offering them choices and not let your insecurity get in your own way. And you need to also be consistent in your marketing as well. I mean, those are some things that come to mind. But I'm curious, Wade, what was the answer that came to your mind so quickly?

So Oswald God. Wow, I thought I had a good answer. So. Well, there's two answers. One and one was the answer, which I heard recently. I'm to paraphrase it, that somebody apparently had asked, that's a meme. So who knows if this happened? But anyway, apparently somebody asked Elon Musk, you know, I mean, how what he could do or what should be done to help entrepreneurs feel less secure or less insecure about being entrepreneurs.

And he said, don't be an entrepreneur.

Like, if you can't handle that, there's going to be some insecurity in this. Then you're and, you know, just very clearly, like almost like will they be an entrepreneur because they're looking for security? You know, that doesn't that's not that's not what this gig is, not entrepreneurs.

And my answer for the for the second thing relates to what I've done. So I have some books I've written on spirituality that for whatever reason I've chosen not to try to monetize. I just whatever in my brain, in my power, it is running. Twenty years ago. I lightly share them. I, of course, is wrong and whatnot. But for me, the answer is, well, what if I made the videos and didn't make money?

Well, that wasn't my objective for those. And then on the other side, the stuff that I'm looking to make money out, well, I got to figure that out real quickly. And I'm not looking to social media. To me, it's one of many channels. So if social media doesn't work because it's not a matter, at least for me it's not. If it works, it's can I get it to work? To your point, you know, an avatar, does it work with your audiences, your audience, even on that platform?

There's so many mechanics, but I think it depends and it speaks that thing of that. Sometimes people want your job to be your everything. It's going to fulfill me and meet my needs and this stuff that it's going to raise the kids. And it's like, oh, no, it's going to do certain things for you, but not necessarily more. But actually, I like I like your answer a lot better.

All right. So where are the best?

Where can people learn more about you and the work you do?

I am all over online, so pick your channel. I've got a ton of YouTube videos packed with value. My website. There's a lot of great content free offers, a lot of meaningful connection waiting for you. So at NGNG Enterprises dot com and Amber V. dotcom, I also do a lot of speaking to small groups and masterminds and live stream shows. I do it all because it's fun. And why not? You have to get yourself out there if you want to make an impact in the world and feel that fulfillment.

So no guts, no glory, man. Go do it. Awesome.

Thank you so much. And for those lists, in case you haven't realized, listen again, if you missed some of the stuff, really good stuff. And share with us today. Thank you so much. And as always, look forward to helping you in the audience, create the life in the lifestyle you most desire so you can better enjoy your family, your friends in your life. Thanks for listening.