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businessentrepreneurship
FL281 - We tell you how to launch a virtual summit and build your email list
About this Episode
In today's episode, we tell you how to launch a virtual summit and build your email list.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Jocelyn Sams: Hey, y'all. On today's podcast, we tell you how to launch a virtual summit and build your email list.
Shane Sams: Welcome to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast, where life always comes before work. We're your hosts, Shane and Jocelyn Sams.
Shane Sams: We're a real family that figured out how to make our entire living online. Now, we help other families do the same. Are you ready to flip your life? All right. Let's get started.
Shane Sams: What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast. It is great to be back with you again today. Super excited to bring another member of the Flip Your Life community on the show to help them grow their online business.
Shane Sams: And I'm really excited about today's show. We got two guests, two great friends of ours who we've met in person and have worked with in our private mastermind, Gena and Jerry Lester. How are you guys doing today?
Gena Lester: We're great.
Jerry Lester: We're doing good.
Gena Lester: Very excited to be here.
Jocelyn Sams: Yes. We are very happy to have you. We are happy that we get Jerry to talk. When they first came on, we were just talking, and we asked, "Hey, you know, is Jerry there?" And she's like, "Oh, yeah, he's here." And we're like, "Oh, is he going to talk?" She's like-
Shane Sams: Is he going to participate?
Jocelyn Sams: I don't know. And I totally feel you, Jerry, I do.
Jerry Lester: Hey, I'm the support.
Shane Sams: Hey listen, that's how we all do, right? Sometimes you got to have lurkers that make the world go around. You know what I mean?
Jocelyn Sams: Okay, guys. Before we dive in and talk about all the good stuff this episode is going to have, I want you to tell everyone a little bit about your background and what you were doing kind of before you discovered online business, this whole world.
Gena Lester: Okay. I am an independent educational consultant. And what that means in layman terms is basically that I help families as they walk through the college admissions process.
Gena Lester: And so I help them figure out like what the perfect college list is, how they're going to ... is the school a fit, or a great school for them. Can they afford that particular school? Are their children going to be successful? What they're going to major in, how they're going ... what essays they're going to write, and everything that goes in between that. I help them choose like what classes that are the best for them to take.
Gena Lester: And I work with students that do everything from going to Ivy league schools, to learning differences, to everything in between, to schools that are just middle of the road, to families that homeschool. All of those things are included in my services.
Gena Lester: And so I have been doing this for ... I've been in education for almost 30 years. And I started out running a private school and then people kept asking me to help them with their students as they were going through the college process. And so I transitioned into my own private practice. And so I've been working with kids for probably about six years now in my private practice offline.
Gena Lester: And I knew that I wanted to scale my business and I didn't really want to hire ... like have a whole brick and mortar business, because I thought about that. But where I'm at in my life, it was just not the best option for me. So going and doing an online business would allow me to scale without having to bring in the whole, you know, lots of new employees and things to that effect. So that's kind of how I transitioned-
Shane Sams: So basically, you were ... what you're saying is you were trying ... you were saying you didn't want to bring in a bunch of other counselors that you trained-
Gena Lester: Yes.
Shane Sams: ... to do what you do, to you know, say like they work in a ... I mean not a cubicle, but like offices and you're ... you didn't want to-
Gena Lester: Yes.
Shane Sams: ... this big thing-
Gena Lester: Yes.
Shane Sams: ... where just all these people showing up for work every day and you had to manage those people.
Jocelyn Sams: And I totally feel you on that, Gena.
Gena Lester: Yes.
Jocelyn Sams: I'm of the opinion more people, more problems.
Shane Sams: Yes. Yes.
Gena Lester: Yes. Exactly.
Shane Sams: We are in-
Gena Lester: That's right.
Shane Sams: ... support of small and mighty teams. That's our-
Gena Lester: Yes.
Shane Sams: ... philosophy.
Gena Lester: And it really ... Once you have that type of a business, it ties you down to having to be there to unlock the door every day.
Shane Sams: Oh yeah.
Gena Lester: And I just really like having the freedom of doing it myself. And so that's why online business is perfect. Because I have more control over my time versus having to be there to unlock the door and clean the toilets for everybody.
Shane Sams: Do you right now, like, meet with people virtually in your one on one stuff?
Gena Lester: Uh-huh.
Shane Sams: Or do you meet with people like in a place? Like how do you do it?
Gena Lester: No. I actually started out meeting in a place. So I would ... I work in a co-working space. So I'd come here and I'd meet ... and I still can do that.
Shane Sams: Yeah.
Gena Lester: But in the last year and a half before I came ... started working toward where ... you know, the membership stuff that I'm doing now, I actually started to transition my students all to virtual because of their schedules. They're so involved, obviously, you know, with your kids, that between, you know, all of the activities that parents and kids are running between. And living in a big city, it can take 30-40 minutes just to drive five miles.
Shane Sams: Oh, I gotcha.
Gena Lester: Yeah. And so this allowed me not to have any breaks and I could, you know, within from student to student, and then it keeps them, they can sit and eat dinner after football practice and work with me while we're doing that, versus ... and then jump right into their homework. So I see everybody virtually.
Shane Sams: So, let me just clarify this for the listeners, okay. You were in education all these years. You started helping kids one on one. You're doing this virtually, like on Skype or Zoom or whatever.
Gena Lester: Yup.
Shane Sams: Okay. Are you talking to the parents or are you talking to the kids? Like who are you talking to?
Gena Lester: No, I work ... my private clients are actually my ... are actually students. So, parents will hire me to sit with their student and take them through step by step the process. So parents can ... I do meet with families as a whole a few times through the process. But typically I'm working straight with the student.
Shane Sams: Got you. So like basically it's you ... Like are you telling them how to fill out FAFSA? Are you telling them how to get their grades right? What are you working with the student on? And like how is that going to ... How does that translate into like a virtual, you know, membership or whatever?
Gena Lester: Yes. Okay, so basically what I do is because college has become so competitive and especially scholarship money and things to that effect. So, the things that I'm really known for is I am very passionate about helping kids find what makes them unique, what makes them stand out, what makes them different from every other student.
Gena Lester: So, I work with them from the beginning to figure out like what their aptitudes are and what their strengths are, where they really, you know, should go as far as their majors and how that ties in to their next steps.
Gena Lester: And so then what we do is we figure out those things, then we go into create a college list. I help them do the research and figure out, do their mission, just what their passions and all those things to that ... like do that line up with the college's mission. Because it may not.
Gena Lester: And then from there, we go into, obviously, there are different platforms plus every college has its own platform. There's all these deadlines. If they miss a deadline, it's just done. If they miss a scholarship deadline, it's too bad. They can't go back. So I have all the-
Shane Sams: So, do you provide accountability to keep them on track? Like you write down the deadlines and you're like, "Hey, Johnny, you've not turned in X, Y, Z." Or whatever.
Gena Lester: Yes. I have an online system that they go in and it sends emails to their parents. They have assignments every week. They know what is due, when it's due. Depending ... Now seniors have them every week. Freshmen ... I work with kids that are freshmen. So those kids are just starting ... We're just helping figure out what they need to be doing.
Gena Lester: I help them understand like what they need to do on college visits or interviews or essays. Essays are a huge part of it. So I probably edit 100 essays between November ... just the month of October, November.
Shane Sams: Wow. That's unbelievable.
Gena Lester: Because it's time for that. Yeah, tons of essay editing.
Shane Sams: Not scalable.
Gena Lester: No.
Shane Sams: And it's not scalable at all.
Jocelyn Sams: Yeah, this whole thing, I mean, I'm really fascinated by what you do. Because I think back to when I was graduating high school or like when I was in high school, and I really had no idea what I wanted to do. Like I was one of the first people in my family to go to college. My dad also went to college. But I was one of the first people to like actually go out and go somewhere totally far away. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I had no idea-
Shane Sams: And she was 17 when she went to college, by the way.
Gena Lester: Yes.
Jocelyn Sams: Like a baby. And I thought I was so grown up. And yeah, I had life all figured out. But really, I had no clue what I was doing. Like I just picked the college because I wanted to go there. And I mean everything worked out okay, but it's just now I'm looking back ... You know, I'm almost 40 now.
Jocelyn Sams: And you know, like I'm just now starting to do some of the things that you're talking about. You know. What are my attributes? What am I good at? What should I be doing? That type of thing. Like I'm just figuring this out now. And to be able to figure it out when you're like a freshman in high school, I mean that's really amazing.
Gena Lester: Yeah. People ... the families always say to me, I where ... I run into people who are, you know, in your stage of life or they've just graduated. And they're like, "Well, where were you, how come I didn't know about you?" And I think that's why it's so ... I'm so passionate about it.
Gena Lester: I went into fashion design, believe it or not, when I graduated high school, because I had no clue. My friend was doing it, so I thought, "Hey, well I learned to sew, so that was great."
Shane Sams: That's a good reason to pick a major.
Gena Lester: But totally not, totally not what I should have been doing. And so, you know, college is so expensive. And if you're a student or your child can figure out ahead of time, they may not know do I want to be a doctor, but they may know, "Okay, I really like the sciences."
Gena Lester: And so we find a major that kind of gives them some leeway there. Then they can prepare and even cut a year off of college. They can take some college in high school. Not spend as much going to college, they're not going to lose credits if they transfer, because even though everything quote, unquote transfers, it doesn't always transfer into the degree they change to. So they can lose that.
Gena Lester: And then also, kids, if they stay in too long, they get discouraged and they end up dropping out. Then you've got student debt or whatever. And your student's not ... your child's not even finished college. So the whole purpose of this is to kind of keep all of those things from happening.
Shane Sams: Awesome.
Gena Lester: And then with the online, what I'm doing is I'm actually taking everything that I teach to the students, I'm taking that out of my head, and I've made a course, I guess basically, in there. So a parent can go through and it's designed where a student can sit and watch the classes and go through it on their own. Or a parent can sit and watch it and then sit down with their child and do it.
Gena Lester: So, I kind of done it where both parent and child, depending on the dynamic of the family.
Shane Sams: I love your story. Because this is the classic how to get into, like, online business. How to scale your business, how to create more ... we say passive income, but it's really just scalable income. Because you have this career, right? You've built up over 40 years in education and six years doing this one on one thing, this knowledge base, right? That only you possibly have.
Shane Sams: Like this is unique. Right? Now there's other people that probably help people get into college. But your experience is unique. And you have an opportunity to teach and help other people with your unique experience. And then you decide that this needs to scale, because you don't want to hire people. That was clearly a way you could scale. Right? You could have done that.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: But you want to ... you want to take it online, you want to go online, you want to make courses, you want to spread this out to as many people as possible and facilitate a more one to many instead of one on one approach. And that is exactly how you can grow a business of a thousand customers paying $50 a month or whatever. By going online.
Shane Sams: So, like what made you ... Like how did you hear about us or how did you hear about this model. And like what made you say this was what I want to do. I want to create this course, I want to create this community of my own. Like what happened there? Like what was the next step to say, "I don't want the people in the cubicles, I want this." Like what happened there?
Gena Lester: Well, I began probably about a year ago, at this point, deciding okay, I'm going to sit down and do that. And being in a co-working space, there's lots of different entrepreneurs here that have different businesses and so sometimes we sit and just kind of, you know, brainstorm with each other, talk about different things. And so I had been talking about my business.
Gena Lester: And a friend of mine, one of the other owners here, she was listening to the Profit First podcast. Which we ... is a big thing I do, as well. And I implemented that in my business a year and a half ago, so I love that. And she was ... immediately texted me and said, "Oh, my gosh, you're not going to believe who I just ... I just heard something on his podcast and it's absolutely what you need to do." And so she immediately sent me the link. And so I listened to it. And I was like, "Yes. This is, yes."
Shane Sams: Mike ... This is Mike Michalowicz's Profit First podcast, which we did an interview on air. That's where-
Jerry Lester: That was the interview we listened to.
Gena Lester: And so when I listened to his podcast, listened to that interview and I was like, "Absolutely, they understand education, they get what I'm doing." You know, that type of thing. And there were just a lot of different reasons that I felt really connected with you guys. Began to ... I binge listened to all your podcasts, I think in about a month period. And I was like, "Yeah, I'm jumping in." And I don't even ... I mean, I know I signed up for the trial, but it was ... I don't even like wait for it was over. I think I sent a message to the community person, said I want to do the whole year in this. I'm going to do this. It's ... yeah. You know, and I ... definitely, it's been a road. Because I realized there's a lot more involved than I thought.
Shane Sams: Sure.
Gena Lester: But, that's okay. You know. So it's been a great, you know, year. I think my year renews in April. So in a year, I'll have been end of the year in April.
Shane Sams: That's awesome.
Jocelyn Sams: Awesome. And not only did you guys commit, we love it when people commit. Not just for financial reasons, but because that means that you're really invested and that you're determined to do what it is that you set out to do. So we love people who make that type of commitment. And also, not only did you join for the full year and the community, you guys also made the decision to come to the event in September. So let's talk just a little bit about that. Like what made you make that decision, and what are some things that have come out of that?
Shane Sams: And also, too, like because I love when we do the podcasts, because the hard part on our side is we know your story. Like, right?
Gena Lester: Yes.
Shane Sams: So then I'm like trying to peel the onion back and reveal your story to everybody.
Jocelyn Sams: But it's so exciting.
Gena Lester: People-
Jocelyn Sams: We just want to tell people.
Shane Sams: I know, right. Like I want to just say, like, "Here's all the things that they did." Right. It's hard to do that. Like when you signed up for the event, at this point it was more like you were in the creation phase, right? Like that was kind of the catalyst or the anchor on your calendar. The goal was to do X, Y, Z, before the event.
Shane Sams: So, what did you do before the event? What did you create and like leading up to the event, how did you prepare for that?
Gena Lester: Well, I started out really ... I had a website. It was on Squarespace, though, so I shifted it over to WordPress, which I did. Tried to do on my own for the most part, but decided I ... I did hire somebody to help me with that. Because I got a little stuck there for ... that probably was a-
Shane Sams: Outsource that every time you get a chance.
Gena Lester: Yeah. I wish I had done that earlier. But anyway. It was great, because I was able to create what I wanted. And I really liked the flow of how your website looked. And so mine's different, but it still was kind of ... that helped me ... I'm a visual person, as well. So that really helped me to be able to see, okay, this is what I need to do.
Gena Lester: And then began to really set up the membership site, set up like the classes. I think, for me, the time consuming has been the classes. Because I ... it's more difficult for me not to ... and I'm getting better at this. But I wanted to not just ... I needed to have more classes in there. Because I felt like what if a senior joins. And they're in the middle of the process and I don't have those classes created. It's going to be stressful. So I wanted to make sure the senior year was completely done before I really launched. And so now I've got almost all of the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior completed. So it was a learning process for the, you know ...
Gena Lester: I had to get comfortable using video and audio and feeling comfortable doing YouTube. And so I definitely learned a lot in that respect. So all of that kind of stuff helped me lead up. I had never ... all of my business had grown organically. I had never ran an ad, I had never had to market or sell anything. My business was always just full just from word of mouth.
Shane Sams: Yeah, this is a different animal now, though, right? Because it's online.
Gena Lester: Yes.
Shane Sams: Totally different animal.
Gena Lester: Now it's like fun. I'm like, I don't feel awkward ... I mean, I guess I feel a little awkward every now and then. But for the most part, it's like really ... you know, I've gotten more comfortable with it. I've gotten more confident. And I'm like, "Yes, I can do this."
Shane Sams: And I bring that up, because ... okay, so I'm just going to fill in some gaps here as we get to the next ... because we ... You have some amazing questions that we want to talk about. And you did some amazing things after the live event.
Shane Sams: So we got to the live event, and we have a really strong philosophy in the Flipped Lifestyle, you know, universe, of product first. Like you really want to get something to sell. Like that's our mission. Because if you can't take money and you can't give something of value for the money, you don't have a business. You have a hobby. Like that's it. And everybody else teaches build your Instagram account and build your this and build your that. And like there's nothing there. You don't make any money, you don't do anything with it.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: So you basically get all these products done, you're building this membership community type thing out, you're getting the infrastructure finished. We get to Flip Your Life Live, we get to meet in person, we get to talk, and you joined our private mastermind. And the first question that you basically gave us was, "All right, now who's going to buy this?" Like how do we grow an audience, right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: And your situation was really interesting because, you know, a lot of times we talk about, you know, okay, we can go the organic content route, we can show a lot of ads, we can do a lot of things like that.
Shane Sams: But as we worked with you and we listened to your story, I kind of realized that you had a lot of connections with people in the college space, there was a couple other members of the community at Flip Your Life Live that were kind of in your space. And we kind of connected you guys with them. And this, that, and the other. And we kind of came up with this virtual summit idea.
Shane Sams: And so, like, first, how did you feel when I said, "Hey, Gena, I want you to host a virtual summit with like 20 speakers. How does that sound?" Like, what did you ... how did your heart explode when I said that to you?
Gena Lester: Actually, it did. I was like so excited. Because I knew what a virtual summit was. I had just never thought about doing one. And it, you know, when I ... When you said it, I was like, "Oh my gosh." I mean, my mind went in just a million directions. And so I literally sat down and immediately went to work. You know. And started putting it all together.
Gena Lester: And it's funny, because I started a private school back in the '80s for students that homeschool. And at that point, there wasn't anything for them. So this was a way for me to offer something. And I had no clue what I was doing, I just went out there, put an ad, and had 80 kids sign up in the first like week. So I was like, I should find a building.
Gena Lester: And so that's kind of my personality. So when you said it, I was like, "Oh, jump off the cliff." And I was like, "I can do this in like three weeks." And Jerry's like, "You probably want to give yourself a little more time."
Jocelyn Sams: The voice of reason.
Shane Sams: The voice of reason, always.
Gena Lester: The voice of reason. So like, yeah. You're right. So I kind of backed out like, because it was right in the middle of Christmas as well. And just when would be the right time for it. And so I was like ... it was the greatest ... It was a genius idea for me.
Shane Sams: I love the conversation thread. We talk on Voxer in our private mastermind. Like I can ... like it's funny, like I see the ... It's like a little graph that goes up and down. And like, I know when we've hit a chord, because like the messages immediately get longer. And it's like I can scroll back through. And I'm like five minute, five minute, five minute, five. Like this was a good conversation. You're excited.
Shane Sams: Probably explain a little bit, first, what a virtual summit is. And a virtual summit is basically where you get a bunch of experts together and you basically do a ... It's like a glorified webinar, is what it really is. So you're not going to be live, you're going to record all of these interviews ahead of time. But you're going to release them like on a certain day. You could do it live, I guess. If you wanted to.
Jocelyn Sams: And some people do.
Shane Sams: And some people do. In this case, we decided that Gena would go out and get interviews from all these experts in the field. So it might be in her space it might be like an admissions counselor or someone who was really good at, you know school aid or someone like an expert of the SAT or whatever. Just anything in her space that was related to this summit. And a summit is like bringing people together to speak. Right?
Shane Sams: So basically, then all the people involved in the summit will all email any list they've got. Share it anywhere they've got. Run ads to anywhere they got. Drive traffic to one page to register. And the goal is to combine the efforts of as many people as possible to build a huge email list and then everybody gets to share the email list and they can go do what they want with it, like after the event. Right?
Shane Sams: And this is a great way to build an email list fast if you have good connections, if you've got some people that you can get to do a virtual summit with. That might even have an audience, and we're gonna talk ... some of the people had really big audiences that you worked with. And then ... but also, it doesn't take a lot of time. But you don't have to put a lot of ads into it. You divide up the resources between everybody. And you don't have to create a ton of content yourself. You just interview people, basically.
Shane Sams: So, you have your summit, and you ... how many emails ... like what happened to your email list? How'd that work out?
Gena Lester: It definitely blew up. I mean, I went from having zero to having 400 and something.
Shane Sams: Oh man. That is absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. 400 emails.
Gena Lester: Just by doing the summit. Which was phenomenal. And I will say, you know, we talked about originally sharing those emails. But one of the things I found in my industry was that some of the people were concerned about sharing ... like the people coming in and sharing those lists. So everybody actually asked me not to share them and for me to keep the emails myself. I know. I was shocked.
Gena Lester: But everybody totally promoted it. I ... yeah, I was just amazed. And everybody had a speaker page. So they all had a link to a free something, so that then people could go in and opt in to their stuff. And that way if somebody wanted to know about what one person had or another person-
Shane Sams: Perfect.
Gena Lester: So, it ended up for me ... I think it could be done either way. Because originally that was my first thing. And when I started talking about it, I was like this is what I'm going to do. And then there was just ... I think maybe because of my space, that there was just a concern among everybody, like-
Shane Sams: Privacy, basically.
Gena Lester: Yeah, the privacy basic. Part of it. So I ended up not sharing those emails with anybody just based upon the speakers' request. So that was kind of amazing to me that that even happened. And they were like ... My speakers were emailing me every day saying I had given them a list of emails that they could send out. A lot of them actually took them and even went a little bit further. They were sharing it on their social media, sending them out to their group. And then asking how statistics looked. So I was able to go in and share and say, "Yeah, the statistics look great, there's a lot of people." I think every speaker had over a 100 views.
Shane Sams: Wow.
Gena Lester: Which was pretty amazing. Yeah.
Jocelyn Sams: That is awesome. And I love how you did it that way. You know, it just goes to show you that you don't have to do things a certain way because other people do it that way. If it doesn't feel right to you, change it around. We do stuff like that all the time. So I love it that you guys said, "Hey, I don't feel right about just putting all these emails together. Let's have everybody opt in separately." I think that's totally fine.
Shane Sams: And you created a baseline. Like our baseline was, let's present it like this and see ... and then you see what it's turned into. And that's why you ended up with 400 emails. And like you ... and it's still reciprocal. Like that was ... you found a way to make it reciprocal, though. Because they had the opt in page on their speaker page.
Shane Sams: But the cool thing about a virtual summit, people are going to share it. Because it's status. It's like, "Look at me. I'm speaking at this virtual summit." It's like if you're speaking on stage, it doesn't matter who or how many.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: Like I'm speaking at this event. So like it just creates this like reciprocity between everybody and there's kind of an ego thing that gets some energy behind it. And people feel good about the content they create. And so like they're going to promote it. Right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: It's even better than like an affiliate thing. Where it's like, "Oh, you sell my thing for me." No, this is more just, "Let's all do this together and have fun."
Gena Lester: Exactly.
Shane Sams: And support our industry. And like 400 emails is nothing to sneeze at. Like I'm telling you, like ... I mean if you could convert 10% of that at $50 a month, that's 40 people paying you $50 a month. Like that's good, talk about real money. Right? So I mean, that's an amazing ... I think we had less than 400 when we first launched our first product. It was like under 300, I think. So like a huge business can be built on the back of, you know, 400 emails.
Gena Lester: Yeah. And you know, I ended up setting up a Facebook Live ... Facebook group. Where everybody gave them a link, they all ... like I would say, probably about 130 people from the summit joined the group. And then I went live twice a week. Because what I did was I dripped out a different speaker every day. Even though they could see them all ... you know, the members or the people who signed up could go in and watch whatever they wanted at any time. But every day I focused on a new speaker. So I said-
Shane Sams: Oh, that's smart.
Gena Lester: "This is this speaker and here is their information. And here's a link straight to their stuff." And so then that speaker also then was promoting their stuff out that particular day. I actually figured out how to do Facebook, YouTube, and them inside of a system which was kind of ... the first one was a little rough. But then I figured it out and we got it going.
Gena Lester: But people were asking, you know, questions and it was like really interactive. And so those people will still be part of that group. You know, since the summit.
Shane Sams: So you're saying that's like 130 additional contacts on top of even all the emails? Or it's at least another channel to get-
Gena Lester: Yeah, I think it's more of another channel. I did promote it out. And so they're ... I got to put the link on my Facebook and different things that say even if they didn't sign up for summit, they could come. So I think there are some new people in it, as well. But a lot of it is the same ... the people who were from the summit that joined.
Shane Sams: That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, that's just an awesome example, guys, of you don't have to do it like we do it. You don't have to do it like anybody else does it. And you can just go out and build your list. You just have to find what works for you. If you know 10 people, if you know ... If you're a networker, like somebody who knows people or you've developed a network over years and years, why would you not do a summit? I mean, why would you not work together to move mountains? Right? And go build that email list up.
Shane Sams: And you guys are a prime example of how something big can happen really fast, right? Like I mean, it's only a few months. And bam, 400 emails. Went from zero to 400 like it was nothing. So.
Gena Lester: Right. And what was cool is that I had ... I wanted to do 15 speakers. And I have a lot of connections in every different like discipline. But then I would speak to somebody and they're like, "Oh, you have to have this person." And so I ended up only using maybe five of my own contacts and so I've already had people saying, "Are you doing this again? Are you doing it in the Fall? How are you going to," you know, so I know that this is something that will happen ... like I can take it and do the same ... now that I've got the system down, I can do it again. I can do it twice a year and still, you know, add to my email list.
Shane Sams: That's amazing.
Gena Lester: So, that's exciting.
Shane Sams: It's like automatic emails without spending money.
Gena Lester: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Gena Lester: It was.
Shane Sams: You know what I mean. That's great.
Gena Lester: It was.
Shane Sams: Okay, so first of all, you guys are awesome. I love you guys so much because you don't mess around. You are decisive, you take action, you get on ... you get on a plane or a car and you go to live events.
Jocelyn Sams: You don't worry about if it's perfect.
Shane Sams: That's right. You don't worry about if it's exactly like the experts said to do it. You know what I mean?
Gena Lester: That was ... I edited it myself. And I can tell you, it's not perfect.
Shane Sams: Exactly. That doesn't matter. But it worked. It worked.
Gena Lester: It did.
Shane Sams: Right? And now, we have 400 emails that we get to market to of people that are directly interested in exactly what we're selling.
Gena Lester: Right.
Jocelyn Sams: Okay, so you did the summit. You got some emails. And where are you at now? Like what's your ... What's your next thing? Have you tried to sell them anything?
Gena Lester: No. So I did on my page, I did put like a link to ... you know, to my EPC campus, but I haven't really used that ... the summit yet as that selling tool. Because I knew that would be the next step I wanted to get them in, and know my content, and know me first. So, yeah. Now I need to launch and I need to get members into my campus. So that's where I'm at now.
Shane Sams: So, basically, though, you've got the campus ready. It's just that you've got the sales page ready, you just got to figure out a way to bridge the gap between, okay, I now know about Gena's universe and I am into her product.
Shane Sams: Well, you've done everything perfect so far. And I've no doubt you're going to be successful at this. Because you had a real world experience, you had an idea, you turned it into a course. You figured out a way to grow an audience and get emails. And now it's just a matter of marketing it to them. Okay.
Shane Sams: So, usually in this case, especially since you have this new email list that's right in the universe, the world ... I keep saying universe today. The world that you're in. You've got them. Like they're fresh. Right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: The next step, usually with a really fresh email list, is something live. Right?
Gena Lester: Okay.
Shane Sams: You want to do a beta group. I probably do not recommend getting 100, 200 ... I mean, it sounds great to have a ton of people come in at once. But you don't know yet what's going to happen when people start interacting-
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: ... with the content, asking questions, so-
Jocelyn Sams: You need to get a few super fans in to break things. Because they're very forgiving.
Gena Lester: Right.
Jocelyn Sams: They will be cool with it. Like even if you screw it up, we do this all the time.
Shane Sams: Like, they'll say this link's not working, this video won't play. Something, you know, something you missed.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: Usually we recommend a beta list of about 20 people, a beta group.
Gena Lester: Okay.
Shane Sams: Get 20 members ... What are you going to charge for your membership?
Gena Lester: I have it at 599 for a year or 54, I think, per month.
Shane Sams: So basically like if they buy the year, they save a month or two, basically?
Gena Lester: Yeah.
Shane Sams: So I'm just going to use ... I'm just going to say 50 and 500.
Gena Lester: That's fine.
Shane Sams: Okay. So basically, like join and save two months for free. Or whatever. So beta group members probably need to come in cheaper at like a dramatic discount on the first round. Like maybe like even like $25. Like it's going to be 50, but you can get in for the whole time you're here for $25 a month. I would probably go ahead and say $250 and not do like a monthly with that level. Because these are people that will graduate out eventually.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: So, maybe do an annual of like, look, it's going to be 500, I'm going to let you in now for 250. You're going to get everything for the thing, but I need you to come in to help me develop it. You're going to ask me questions, I'm going to make stuff for you that nobody down the chain will ever get.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: And Jocelyn was talking earlier, right before we got on the call, about doing maybe an email launch and then something a little more low key live, because these people are kind of already with you.
Jocelyn Sams: Yeah, so because you have the emails, like I think it's important to kind of indoctrinate them into your universe and what you're planning on offering. And maybe you've done this already, this is something that you've already done. Like have you sent them any emails?
Gena Lester: No. I've sent them emails that are strictly based upon the summit. So like these are the speakers, yeah.
Jocelyn Sams: Okay. Yeah. So what I would probably do is just do a little bit of warming up. And what I mean by that is just kind of talk to them. And be like, "Hey, thanks for attending the summit. I am Gena, I want to get to know you a little bit better. I want you to know more about me. Here's a little bit about my background."
Jocelyn Sams: And just sort of get into a little bit of that. Talk about some success stories of people that you've helped along the way. Like let them get to know you, let them get to know things that you do, and as you go along, I would probably ... I might even go ahead and pitch them in the email sequence.
Shane Sams: Yeah.
Jocelyn Sams: But then you can also have something live as well. Like to answer people questions. So basically, let them know, "Hey, I'm here to help you. Here's the way I'm going to do that. And I have a really unique opportunity for you. This membership is very new. I am developing it now. And I know that with your help, it can be something truly amazing. So for a limited time only, I'm offering this beta program. It is available for X dollars for Y amount of time. And you are going to be able to help me create this and make it the amazing place that it is going to be when I open it up to the whole world."
Shane Sams: So, basically, this is ... we kind of ... When Jocelyn and I talk about this with any new email lists we create, like if we do a promotion, let's say we get 500 emails. Right? We know there's low hanging fruit there. We know there's probably 20-50 people that would just buy the thing because it was in front of them.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: Okay. So what you're going to do now first is scoop them up. Scoop up that low hanging fruit. Like there's people that are just excited coming off the summit. All they need is one little jump to know more about you. Like, "Hey, I'm Gena, I created this summit. I led this summit. I'm the expert that brought all the experts together, because I've been doing this for 40 years and I've been teaching people for six years."
Shane Sams: And then the next email, like that's like email one. That's like your ... about you. Right? And maybe you close that one with, "Hey, if you have any questions about the college process, hit reply and email me back right now." Okay.
Gena Lester: Okay.
Shane Sams: Anyone that emails you back, you immediately offer them to join, okay?
Gena Lester: Okay.
Shane Sams: One on one. The second email, then ... well, actually, this is exactly like our indoctrination for our webinar we're doing right now. The second email is a true case study. Like an amazing case study. Like this kid would not have went to college if it was not for me. Period, right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: Like I helped them. If I had not helped them, they would have not made it. Do you want your kid to go to college? You may need to talk to me. Right? Whatever.
Gena Lester: Okay.
Shane Sams: Okay? And then the third email is basically just, "All right, I'm opening this up, I'm only taking 20 people. This is being sent to 400 people. You have 48 hours to join. I'm going to remind you tomorrow or the next day."
Jocelyn Sams: Once it's full, it's full.
Shane Sams: Once it's full, it's full. And what you do is like at 9:00 the night it closes, you send an email that says, "I'm live right now doing a Q and A for anybody that wants to know about my beta program."
Jocelyn Sams: And you may be sold out by then.
Shane Sams: You may be sold out by then.
Jocelyn Sams: That would be cool.
Shane Sams: Then you don't have to do the live.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: You know. But you're trying to just scoop up low hanging fruit first. Now, after you get this beta group, you're going to have to go back to this list. You're going to keep feeding them information and good stuff for a while. There will be a full-blown sales webinar, but we can create that in the trainings in the community. Right?
Gena Lester: Okay.
Shane Sams: So, like that's down the road. Right now, we need to say can we get 10, can we get 20 right now at 250 a year, period. Right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: Let's just get them in there and start breaking things.
Gena Lester: Okay. So Thursday of this week, I'm doing the final Facebook live in the group-
Shane Sams: Perfect.
Gena Lester: ... for the summit. So should I pitch it there?
Shane Sams: Yes. Yes.
Gena Lester: Okay.
Jocelyn Sams: Absolutely.
Shane Sams: Yes. You should say ... Here's what you should say, okay. "Hey guys! Thanks for attending the summit. This was an awesome experience. All that information is still there for you to get into. Don't forget to log in and keep access." Whatever. "Here's my special thing that I'm doing. I'm about to email this out to hundreds of people."
Jocelyn Sams: But because you're here on my Facebook Live, I want to let you know about it right now. This is an amazing opportunity.
Shane Sams: You've got the first chance.
Gena Lester: Right.
Jocelyn Sams: I'm doing this for the first time ever. I'm opening up the doors. And you have the opportunity to be a part of it right now.
Shane Sams: And then they'll click a link to a sales page, basically. And you can say, "This is 50% off." I would even say, like ... what do you charge to do this one on one? Like ...
Gena Lester: Oh, it depends. I mean, it can ... like for one year it's about ... it's like $3,800.
Shane Sams: Okay. You need to tell them that.
Gena Lester: Yes.
Shane Sams: You need to say, "Look, I charge my one on one clients 3,000," don't say 38 hundred. Say, "$3,800."
Gena Lester: Okay.
Shane Sams: Say, "I'm going to charge members who join this later over $500."
Gena Lester: Okay.
Shane Sams: But if anyone wants in tonight, they can get in for this, 250. I'm taking 20 beta members. I'm going to work ... I'm going to work. It's almost going to feel one on one, I'm going to work with you so much over the next few months. Because I really want your feedback about this. And then you try to drop 10, or 20, or 5, or 10 or whatever.
Jocelyn Sams: And you say, you know, because this group is so small, because I'm opening it to such a small number of people, you guys are going to have access that other people who take this course in the future will not have, because I'm going to work really closely with you. You're going to help me develop types of materials that you need. And I'm really excited about this opportunity, I can't wait for you to join my community.
Gena Lester: Okay.
Shane Sams: And then I would probably go back to that group. I would do the beta for like four weeks with 20 people. And get your feet wet managing the community and the ... you know, just all those questions and whatever happens. Just see like ... there's no way you can be prepared for everything that's about to happen. Right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: You got to go through it. But like for ... I would do a live every week, and just jump on and say something. Like even if it's just, "Hey, don't forget, this is happening on the calendar." Whatever.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: Like, keep the live group kind of fresh. And then maybe even come back again and be like, "Beta group two. Wow, what a successful beta group I had." You're trying to scoop up some more people, but it's not as good a discount next time.
Gena Lester: Right, right.
Shane Sams: Like 25% off instead of-
Jocelyn Sams: Yeah, I think that I believe you're going to sell it out.
Gena Lester: That would be great.
Jocelyn Sams: Like I think your little updates each week should be like, "Hey, I want to let you know what's going on in my beta group." You know.
Shane Sams: Oh, yeah. That's true.
Jocelyn Sams: Like, "I launched this awhile back, we totally sold out. But, these are some of the things that I'm working on, these are some of the things that my members are helping me to create. And I'm going to be opening again really soon and I cannot wait for you to be a part of it, too."
Shane Sams: So you use the Facebook group weekly. And you're emailing these same things to your list, too. Well, after you all close the beta. Right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: and Facebook, right? And you're going to go on and say, "This happened in my beta group this week."
Jocelyn Sams: Or, "This person had a success."
Shane Sams: Yes. Like look what's happening. I'm going to open this back up. You just keep saying the date. And then like a month later you do it again, now you got 40 members. Right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: And off to the races.
Jocelyn Sams: Yeah. And I would absolutely repeat the summit again. I mean, get some more of those leads. You know, come up with a good time that people are thinking about stuff like this. It's nice to know when that time is in your space, but right before it. That's a great time to do it.
Shane Sams: I would ask, too, that on the summit, like you probably had more people that could have spoke that didn't, right? Like did you-
Gena Lester: Oh, yeah.
Jerry Lester: Oh, yeah.
Gena Lester: Absolutely.
Shane Sams: I would create a new round. And I would not be afraid to do that quarterly. At least like three times a year. I wouldn't do it two times a year. I'd do it at least three times a year. Because-
Gena Lester: Yeah, because I was going to say, I can do it in the ... like parents think about it like at the ... especially junior parents, at the end of school year. Like all their friends are graduating. And they're like, "Oh, no. My child's a senior."
Shane Sams: Yes. Like-
Gena Lester: ... again. And like the early Fall. Like they see their kid. The senior's starting to get ready. So the younger ones are like, "Oh."
Shane Sams: And then there's probably the procrastinating parents and the ... their senior year in December, and they're like, "Oh, no. My kid's got to go to college." Right? So like-
Gena Lester: Exactly.
Shane Sams: There's three perfect places to do this.
Gena Lester: There is.
Shane Sams: And you can rotate through different speakers, so it's never the same. Right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: And you can ... because your ultimate goal now, that you ... this is how it works. You get a product, you figure out a way to get leads, and then you sell the leads the product, and then you repeat the cycle. That's all business work.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: So you've figured out now, you've got this product that you know is good for people. You know this summit works, right?
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: So, this cycle that you're going to get into is, okay, do the summit, get a bunch of emails, open the door, get a bunch of people in, okay. I may have exhausted those thousand people, but now I do another summit, get a new thousand people. Do another summit. And you just keep stacking, brick by brick, all of these members.
Shane Sams: So like you get 50 members out of this crop, right? And then like, okay, let's say 10 leave. You keep 40. Then you do the summit again, you get 40 more. Now you got 80.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: You lose 10, you go to 70. But then you do another summit. You get ... oh, we're at 100. And it just keeps stacking every quarter, or whatever, this way.
Gena Lester: Right.
Shane Sams: Pretty cool.
Gena Lester: Perfect.
Shane Sams: Okay. Well, listen. This has been an awesome chat. And I think all you guys got to do is roll this out. And let's put those first members in. And let them break some stuff.
Gena Lester: Yes.
Shane Sams: Then we put it back together. We see what happens next.
Gena Lester: Right. I'm very excited.
Shane Sams: It's amazing.
Jocelyn Sams: Okay, guys. It has been super fun talking to you, today. I'm really excited about all the stuff that you're doing. And I can't wait to hear more about the members that flood in when you put this offer out there. I know it's going to happen. I just feel it.
Jocelyn Sams: So, very excited for you. Congratulations on everything that's happened so far. But before we go, we always like to ask, what is one thing that you are going to take action on in the next 24 hours or so based on what we talked about here today?
Gena Lester: Definitely, I am going to launch the beta group. I'm going to get that ... kind of tweak my sales page, I think, a little bit. Get that pricing. And I'm going to definitely put it out Thursday during my live Facebook group. And then start that email chain. So I think that's like definitely the next step for me, is getting that out there so I can put some people in the community.
Shane Sams: Start making some money, right?
Gena Lester: Exactly.
Shane Sams: All right, guys. That wraps up another interview with one of our Flip Your Life community members. Super proud of Gena and Jerry for everything they have accomplished. We know great things are ahead for them and their online business.
Shane Sams: And we know that great things are also ahead for you and your family and your online dreams, as well. We'd love to help you take your next steps in your online journey. All you have to do is go to FlippedLifestyle.com/FlipYourLife. And you can learn how you can join the Flip Your Life community today.
Shane Sams: And we know that one of the greatest catalysts in Jerry and Gena's story was attending Flip Your Life Live. Flip Your Life Live is our family reunion for our community that we have every year. And that is happening in September of 2019. You can learn more about Flip Your Life Live over at FlippedLifestyle.com/Live, we hope to see you there.
Shane Sams: All right, guys. That is all the time we have for this week. Until next time, get out there, take action, do whatever it takes to flip your life.
Jocelyn Sams: Bye.
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