Crafting Powerful Consulting Offers: Attracting Top Clients | Ann Carden

#031: Meet Ann Carden, a seasoned consultant and business strategist. She's all about helping professional entrepreneurs like you build premium, high-end businesses. Ann's goal? To help you make more money while working smarter, not harder. With over 30 years of experience, she knows her stuff. Her secret sauce? Strategic positioning, killer marketing, and crafting irresistible offers to attract top clients. Ready to take your business to the next level? Ann's got the insights and strategies to help you thrive in today's competitive market.

00:00:00 - Helping Entrepreneurs Build Premium Businesses
00:01:21 - Identifying Your Niche and Expertise
00:03:24 - Niche Selection and Marketing Strategy
00:07:37 - Market Positioning and Online Visibility
00:10:10 - Impact Pricing and Value Articulation
00:12:44 - Impactful Pricing Strategies
00:13:48 - Performance-based Pricing Models
00:16:01 - Crafting an Offer
00:19:38 - High-Impact Marketing Funnels
00:23:06 - Client Acquisition and Positioning
00:25:21 - The Pitfalls of Online Strategies
00:27:32 - Building a Strong Foundation
00:28:44 - Attracting High-Value Clients
00:29:03 - LinkedIn Content Strategy
00:32:37 - Where to Learn More


Ann Carden's Link:
IG: anncardenconsulting

Dylan's Links:

• 🎙️Podcast: BusinessConfessionsPod
• 📽️YouTube: @BizConfessions
• 📷Instagram: DylanWillx
• Linked-In: /dylan-williams

Other Episodes you might like:

• 7-Figure Blueprint for Any Business | Chandler Saine
• Building a Unique Online Fitness Empire | Lee Maasen
• Land Investing & Building Multiple Streams of Income Daniel Martinez
• Hiring Top Talent Overseas | Stratton Brown

Past Guests: Chandler Saine, Daniel Martinez, Stratton Brown, Lee Maasen, Nico Lagan, Daniel Roman,Tim Branyan, David Van Beekum, Nick Hutchison, Deirdre Tshein, Sanchez Zehcnas, Christina Lopez, Keigan Carthy, Hemant Varshney, Taniela Fiefia, Jennifer Blake, Nicki Sciberras, John Chan

Transcript

Track 1: 0:00

Man, what do you do?

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 0:02

Hey, good to see you, Dylan. What do I do? I work with entrepreneurs, mostly in the professional space, who want to really build a high end premium business so that they can work less and make more. So I really help them three to ten times their revenue and be a lot more profitable, but not work on a volume method. So at

Track 1: 0:22

Gotcha.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 0:22

scale, yeah,

Track 1: 0:24

So are these new consultants, coaches that are coming in? Are these more that, they currently already have something going on? What's that like?

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 0:32

it can be both. So a lot, most of the clients that I work with already have things going on and they really want to level up their business. So they want to get more visible. They want to be seen more as an authority. They want to bring in more premium clients and grow that way. so they're running those big deals, those 000, a hundred thousand, 400, 000 deals. So that's one side. And then the other side is I work with people that truly are experts. So maybe they're coming from some sort of a career. They've got this expertise, this brilliance, and I help them really package, market, sell, and build a business around that, a coaching and consulting business, some sort of a service business, anything where they're doing professional services.

Track 1: 1:14

Love it. Okay, cool. This is going to be interesting one today then. so I want to take you through that. I want to see the ideation and everything on that end. I want to create a million dollar consulting business. All right, this year. Let's break that down step by step. So whenever I'm your client here and I want to go through how would we first, identify that niche?

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 1:34

So the first thing that I look at when I work with somebody is where is your expertise and what does that look like? what is, what are the skill sets? So a lot of people would teach pick one thing and go all in on that. But I don't believe that if you have a lot of experience and expertise, you have to do that. But you do need to come up with something that's all encompassing. So let's say you're great at market. For example, I say I'm an A to Z coach or consultant. I can do everything from your business model, your revenue model, what are you going to sell and help you put together those packages and those offers. to the marketing side of it, to the sales side of it, to the scale side of it. So building that team, automation, all those things. So that's A to Z. And that came from many years of experience, 30 plus years of experience as an entrepreneur building multiple businesses. So the first thing I look at is, okay, what do you have to bring to the table? What do you have to offer? And then where does that best fit into the market? First of all, we want to really okay, what can be the highest value because I help people work at the higher end of their business and bring in premium clients. So where is the most value that we can package market and sell? And do you like that? Are you good at it? do you like it? So it's really your area of brilliance, your area of expertise. And then how can we put those pieces together? Once we figure out what that's going to be, we want to decide who is that for. And if you've already been doing things, even if you're coming from a career, you probably have a network. You have people that you're connected to. You've been working in some sort of a, maybe an industry. So we look at what is really the low hanging fruit? What is the easiest, the least, the path of least resistance really. And do we need to niche in that? Does that make sense to niche in that? And if the answer is yes, then that's what, that's where we get started. And a lot of people think niching, just to clarify, they think niching down means, Oh, you can't work with other people. It's strictly from a marketing. standpoint because you can't go after everybody and you can't get the marketing piece right if you're not clearly speaking the language that's going to be relevant or you don't have the offers that are relevant to the people that you're trying to attract and trying to get on as clients. So you've got to pick a lane.

Track 1: 3:55

Could you give me an example on that end on how, a niche would work and when it wouldn't work?

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 4:00

Yeah, I think, when we talk about in a niche, there's money in every niche. And so it really comes down to if what you're putting together, is it going to be relevant for that audience? I don't know that there's a niche really that wouldn't work. It's just, you have to make sure the pieces that of what you're putting together will work for that niche. So if I, if you want to go after people in the healthcare industry, speaking to them I. T. Language isn't going to make sense, and you want to be able to really call out the people that you're wanting to work with so that they know that you're for them. And then you want your offer to be relevant. What is it that what problems are you solving for them? What is that expertise and that brilliance that you're bringing? What makes you different from everyone else out there solving those problems? And then once you do that, once you figure those foundational pieces out and Then you can put together the marketing pieces. A lot of people, Dylan, start with marketing. It's okay, I think this is what I'm going to, I'm going to be a coach. I'm going to be a consultant. This is what I'm going to sell. And they start with the marketing, but they don't even really know if their offer is going to be relevant for that industry for that type of client. And you have to really understand. so you know how to put the pieces together. So you can either, there's two ways to do it. You can look at your expertise and start with your offer and then say, okay, who would this be for? Or you can start with the niche and then say, okay, how can I put an offer together for them? So it there's not a right or a wrong here. It could be either or, but those two pieces need to be done before you can do anything else before you can sell. even before you can price really, because. a good example when I first came into the coaching space I was with the company and they had this whole pitch I can teach you how to Fight we can find ten thousand dollars for you in 45 minutes. Okay? that might sound great to a startup business owner That doesn't have any money yet, but that's not going to sound great to a contractor that's making millions of dollars a year. And so that's a perfect example of things not matching the audience and what you're trying to help people do. Does that make

Track 1: 6:16

Yeah. yeah, absolutely. That reminds me of, somebody was talking about marketing on different platforms, and pushing it out to, let's just say was going crazy on tick tock and trying to, their avatar was not on tick tock, their avatar was like linked in, and they're talking to a totally different audience and wasn't able to get sales, even though they were putting in all that effort into the wrong platform. The wrong messaging.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 6:39

yeah, and we're talking about a strategy there. So be, but before, this is where people want to jump right to the marketing, Oh, I'm going to be on LinkedIn. Oh, I'm going to be on Tik Tok. Oh, I think I'll do YouTube. I think I'll be on Facebook. Oh, let's do a Facebook group. This happens all the time, right? But they really don't stop and think about, okay, but is my person there. Is that how I can reach that person? What is the best way to reach them? And if you don't know who those people are, then you don't, that's part of the first part of a marketing strategy is you have to know who are you trying to reach? What is it you're trying to sell them? What's the end game here that you're trying to accomplish? And most people don't start with these pieces there. And so they're like, Oh, I think I want to sell this. And so I'm going to get out there and I'm going to go over here. When it doesn't make any sense. so that's why it's really important to do things in sequence. And a lot of people don't know to do that. So if you're starting a coaching or consulting business, figure out who you most want to work with, figure out what it is you have to offer them. Is it something they will want? Is it something they will need? Is it something in my, in the case where I'm working with clients, is it something they'll pay big dollars for? That's where we want to go. That's where I want to go with my clients. And then once we determine that, okay, now how can we get to them? How can we put the marketing strategy in place to get to them? So the next piece then would be what we call market positioning. And this is where you start building that online, foundation of the outside perception people have of you and your business. So if you look at. me across all social media channels or you google me, you're going to see that I help people build premium businesses. I help them get really high end clients. I help them build that million dollar business with a handful of premium clients. You're going to see that across the board. My message is congruent everywhere. You can go to my website, you'll see the same thing. is an important piece and why you have to really decide where you want to play, because this, you want to start building that strong market positioning so that you look like the only person who does what you do in the way that you do it. And that's how you stand out that. And then from there you want to start building up, that online visibility. That being seen as a thought leader, being seen as the best. I teach speaking, get on stages, do virtual speaking, lots of ways to do that. How are you going to build up that authority? that visibility in the market and then, but you also need that's your foundational piece of your marketing, but then you also need a marketing system to actually be able to get in front of these people, attract them, pull them in, Get them to book on your calendar. And so a lot of people don't realize there's two sides to marketing. There's what I call the influence system. That's your branding, your positioning in the market, what people are seeing. And then there's, then there is your marketing system that's bringing in revenue and there's, so there's two sides and I see most people are doing one or the other, not both. so you have to congruently do both. And then of course you have to be able to close those high end sales. And so that would be the next piece that I would work with someone on is, okay, how do you close these? How do you do, proposals or how do you do agreements versus proposals? of those pieces. And then also, scale. Let's add more revenue streams. Let's automate, build your team. What are all the things that are going to help you grow this? So million dollar business, I would say, okay, what's the most, if you think about everything that you have to offer and that we decide who that's for, what do you want to charge them? What do you feel like You could charge them and get it. It makes sense. It has to make sense. And if you said 50, 000, I would say great. That's 20 clients. Let's put the plan in place to get you 20 clients. That's where we would start.

Track 1: 10:34

Gotcha. So what do you base that on? Is it, you're going to bring X amount of value to that one client and that's how I price it based on what they're going to make over the next 12 months. Or how's that kind of, how's that priced?

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 10:44

Yeah, that's a great question. It can be. It can change depending on who it is. You know who you are targeting. So because I do help people make money and that I help them grow their business. That's, that would be the value that I would bring to them is how to help them do that, how to help them build that million dollar business with a handful of clients. But it could be, it could even be someone teaching, how to not get a divorce. It could be a marriage coach. It could be, it doesn't matter. It's about the value of the clients that you're targeting. What is it worth to them? And then also, how What is it worth? It could be over time. I call it impact pricing. So let's say I go in and I work with a sales team and a company I, the, this, everything that I help them put in place, the systems, the messaging that I train them, I teach them everything. Let's say that it can help a company get a million dollar bump. they're going to get that the next year and the next year. So in that case, you could. price and build out an offer that could be a two or a three year plan on the impact that you're going to get them over that two or three years. you could do it by percentage. So there's a lot of different ways it can be done. And this really, this is where experience comes in from me doing this with so many people, helping them figure these things out. Because most of the time people are not overcharging, they're undercharging. that most of the time they cannot. See all the value that they can bring to a client. And even if they, in their gut know that, wow, I can really help my clients achieve this. They still don't know how to package it. They still don't know how to articulate that sale and get that client to see it. The client has to see the value, not just you, but the client has to see it as well.

Track 1: 12:36

Yeah. Yeah.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 12:36

of this is a CFO that might go into a company and let's say they could save a company a million dollars in taxes a year. that could be a three year plan. So then you could impact price. So there's no right or wrong answer here.

Track 1: 12:52

With that though, that amount that they're saving them, what would that, what would you suggest you purchase or price that, consulting at, I guess I would say.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 13:01

Let's say, let's just use the example of a CFO. They go into a company. they know their stuff. They know what to look for. And they say to the CEO, know right now you have a million dollars in taxes that could go right into your bank account. And I know how to get it. I know how to get it for you. They could charge half of that. it's all money that the company wouldn't have had. realistically they could say, I'll come in, you don't pay us anything. We'll find what we find. We'll make sure you get this money back. We'll make sure you get this tax refund and you're going to pay us half of whatever gets refunded. That would be one way to price something like that because it's still money to the company that they would not have had that they didn't have or didn't know about.

Track 1: 13:47

That's yeah, that's no out of pocket. that's really good. And it's a high day as well. That's really smart. Do you have people actually doing that kind of stuff?

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 13:54

yeah, absolutely. I had, I worked with a client, who did expense management and he could go into hospitals, for example, and he could, he had, because he had, resources and relationships with different vendors and things like that, he could get discounts for them. And so he actually would set them up on a plan, whatever I am able to set up. Save you a month. I get half. You get half. It was gravy to them. It was money that they wouldn't have had they not been working with him. And so he did that and he would usually put them on a three year minimum agreement and he would just save them money month after month and he could show because. Without him, they would be paying this amount of money with him. They're paying this amount of money. So he would get, he would get money off of, off the money he saved. So yes, that can be done actually very easily with companies.

Track 1: 14:52

Yeah. And at that point, that's a no brainer. that's a great offer at that point.

14:57

Guys, real clear. Think about this. Share this episode with someone. It could create an ideal and you'd be responsible for that. You never know what opportunities that could create. All right, guys, I'll let y'all get back to it. Thank you.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 15:12

is. Yeah, absolutely. And again, they don't have any, they're not out anything unless you save them or unless you get that tax return or whatever. but it could be the same way if you are helping people make money, where are you at? If I can help you implement these things and we can get you a 10 percent bump, for example, let's say you have a 10 million company and I know for a fact, I can help you get a minimum 10 percent bump with what I know. And I, And we track that and I get, I get 30 percent of whatever extra over and above this amount you bring in. there's all kinds of ways to price like that. So there's not a one size fits all. These things all have to be figured out. And also if a company's too big, they don't necessarily want to go off of percentages. So there, there's just a lot of factors. So it's a little difficult to get into the details, but this is really how you impact price.

Track 1: 16:09

Love it. Okay. I want to back up a little bit here too. Now, back to the offer creation. cause this is actually something I'll give you a little quick pitch to on my end. I've helped, I can't say I've done consulting, but I've helped a few friends with their businesses, over the last few years. And, I've also built up a few, small businesses to seven figures over the last six, seven years now. been dabbling and stuff like that. Now I say I've retired, when I turned two years ago, but, I still, I dabble in things. I invest on the side and things. I was thinking of creating an offer, something where I could help people. Cause I get a lot of questions and people ask me what do you do? how did you do it? And I did it all through like real estate and investing, but, I did it in a different way. Now I'm more so just focus on like strategic business and that's just what I enjoy, improving and giving my input on things. with that being said, I'd love to know what are the questions that you'd be asking me to articulate an offer?

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 17:01

Yeah, so I would want to find out first of all, what are you really great at?

Track 1: 17:05

Yeah.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 17:05

some results that you've had before? do you want to work with? So those would be some of the basic main questions that I would find out. So business owners is too vague. You have to dial it in. Again, it goes back to, we can't create the message and the marketing piece if you don't have the who dialed in. Because will be off. The offer will be off. and so those would be the first things. Who do you really want to work with? Who do you have access to that? Because I'm all about, okay, how can I help you get the fastest results? and so who do you have access to? What would be things that they would respond to or want? what kind of value can you bring to them? Why would they, why should they hire you over somebody else? And so that offer has to be really irresistible. So what are the pieces that you would put into that offer to really make that robust and for them to say, Oh my gosh, this is a no brainer. For example, if I can help somebody bring in, client that closed to 413, 000 client. if I can help her bring in a 413, 000 client, what realistically, what can I charge somebody? And so it all has to make sense. It has to be relevant. And that's just one, she could go do that again and again. so those would be the questions that I would first find out is results. That you've had, who have those been for, why are you different? What, what makes you better? what would be that positioning that we could use in the market? then you have to be able to really show people, Hey, this is what I've done. And this is how I do it. And you have to be able to walk people through your process. my process in a nutshell, four steps, it's redesign your revenue model. It's revamp your marketing, restructure your sales process, and rev up your revenue. That is put into sort of a visual of a pyramid. And those are the four steps. Now within each of those steps, there's a lot of stuff, right? There's a lot of moving parts. But in, I like to call them buckets. What are the buckets that you're going to take people through that are high kind of high level. And then within each of those buckets, there's a lot of details and nuances and things like that, but they have to be able to see what are the areas you work in? So that's how I help people create those offers.

Track 1: 19:22

Love it. So we,

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 19:23

brilliance.

Track 1: 19:25

yeah, so we have our offer created now. We know how we're different, how we're going to stand out and what we help people with. So now what goes into the funnel creation at that point? Cause I know people start off as simple as, Hey, book a call here, or they had these crazy funnels that, go forever on to something else. So I'd love to know how, what you suggest, where you start at and what you go from.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 19:51

Yeah. That completely depends on who you're trying to reach because, and by the way, funnels like the traditional funnels, let's sell something really low and then let's ascend people. No, it's let's sell something really high. And then if they can't buy that, you move them down. It's the opposite. It's a top down approach. The reason for that is because people that are. at a high level, which is where I help people work, play in the, I call it blue ocean, they're playing in the top 30 percent of an industry, not the mainstream where everyone else is. do not go through funnels in the same traditional way. And so you have to know how can I best reach them? So I like to use high impact marketing strategies. This could be, I'm interviewing, like actually interviewing your clients. your potential clients. it could be, that could be through a podcast. That could be, I'm writing a book, I'm writing an article, I'm getting published. speaking is another way, getting on stages or virtual speaking. Those are, high impact marketing strategies. So it's really about you stepping up, you being the expert, you being seen, you being heard, and then having the strategy behind that to actually Get to have conversations with the people that you want. That's the kind of funnel. So I use those high impact marketing strategies. I have several of them, virtual events. that's another one, but not virtual events in the way that a lot of people do them, virtual events in the way that you're vetting the room, you're pulling exactly the people in that you want in the room. so it's a very different model, podcasting, how to go after getting, there's a whole strategy that we use both guesting and. Also hosting and podcasting to get to these high level people. That's the kind of funnel that we use. And it can be as simple as even outreach, sharing a case study, sharing a piece of content that would be, that would pull that person in to book a call. those people do not want to go through, they don't want to jump through hoops. Don't make up. They're not, they want fast. buying speed. They're buying a shortcut. If I have to go buy a little bitty course before I ever get to work with you, Dylan, I'm not interested in that. That's not the way I buy or, and it's not the way high level people buy. And this is a huge mistake people make in the industry is they think everything's about a funnel. It is a funnel. Everything's a funnel, right? But not in the traditional way, send them to a landing page, get them to opt in a high level. CEO may never opt in for something, but they might watch a 10 minute video of

Track 1: 22:26

No.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 22:26

sharing pain points. and walking through why they need this. And then what your call to action is book a call. So you still need to warm up your audience and you still need to, warm up those leads and generate those leads, but it's just different. You don't ask them to jump through a million hoops to do it.

Track 1: 22:45

They don't need to go through a low ticket funnel or,

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 22:48

they won't

Track 1: 22:48

yeah,

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 22:49

Yeah,

Track 1: 22:49

that caliber of clients not going to do something like that. And I can attest to that. I don't sign up for any of that stuff. even when I'm interested in that stuff, I'm like, I just work in somebody's funnel. Like I get that. I rather just pay. To be done and have a conversation with you and then be, I'm fine.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 23:03

why I can learn from my competitors like I can learn something. So I will because I, that might be something that I want to put into my, now I'm not saying copy people. I'm not saying that, if I can pick up a nugget here that somebody knew that I didn't know. So for me, it's research it's making me better at my skills. But if I am buying, I absolutely will not go through a funnel. people can reach right out to me on LinkedIn and if they are saying the right thing at the right time to me, I will get on a call with them or I'll go look at, and here's the other thing that when we talked about the positioning, the market positioning, the outside perception, these people will check you out. This is why the positioning is so important. So important. It's so essential that you get that piece in before you ever start marketing. Because once you start getting visible, people will check you out. Once you start reaching out or getting in front of the person that you most want, to bring on as a client, they will check you out behind your back. You will never know. And if you're not, if you don't have strong positioning, if you look like a jack of all trades, if you look like you're running 10 different things. does not, that doesn't build confidence or trust in them and they will not choose you, but they will if they see the right things. They'll, when people book on my calendar, they'll say, Ann, I already know you're the person that can help me. I came across this and then I went and checked you out and then I saw this and then I saw this and they never went through my funnel. They're not on my email list. They, they just see what they like. They see what they need and they book and they buy. And that is the way these people buy. And a lot of people are not teaching this that's why people are getting low value clients and not getting the fees they want and of those things.

Track 1: 24:53

It's not flashy, nowadays it's everything. What sales, everybody's selling the same thing. They're just packing it up in a different way, and it's not the flashy quick money that everybody wants. Now, nobody has the attention span to actually do the right thing and what attract people that they want to attract.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 25:07

Exactly. And they'd

Track 1: 25:08

Yeah,

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 25:09

sound so easy, but Hey, I have worked with when, if I can take somebody making 1, 700 for 90 days and turn them into somebody that gets 50, 000 clients, working a couple hours a month with that client. That's a significant bump. That is a significant change in their business. And, and that's what happens over and over again, because again, I work with people that know their stuff. They know what they're doing. They really are great at what they do. They just, they're, they fallen into. All these online strategies and sort of these traps that people are out there teaching. And so to me, it's not the best way to build a coaching or consulting business. If you're here's an example, I saw a doctor one day in a Facebook group, I was doing a presentation to a huge Facebook group. And she messaged me after and she said, where have you been for the last three years? And I said, what do you mean? And I'm talking about getting high end clients. and she said, I've gone broke in this industry trying to make it. And I said, what are you selling? And she said, I have this, I don't know if it was nine 97 or 97 course or whatever in a Facebook group. And I said, what was your background? And she said, I have a PhD in it. I just about cried. I thought, and you're in there trying to sell some silly little course making, going broke because you're not selling anything significant enough to make any kind of money. If I could have her, she could have easily brought in probably 250, 000. 150, 000 clients, maybe even much more, but because she fell into what everybody is out there teaching, it, she never could make a go of it. And by then she was so burned out. And and she had told her home. it was a crazy, sad story.

Track 1: 26:59

man. Yeah. it's the unknown unknowns is what I like to say, like just what people just don't know,

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 27:04

don't know. Yes.

Track 1: 27:05

you have what a lot of people don't know right now.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 27:08

why I love to get on podcasts and talk about this it's a game changer for people when they do it. Now, I just want to say having those little bit of courses and stuff, those are great scale strategies. They're fine. You're making your million or you're, you've got enough clients. You can get clients anytime you want. You're working with these high dollar clients. Now you've got money to build a team and build your little course. and you've got the money and the resources to get that up and going. Absolutely. That can be passive revenue, but most people try to start with that. And that's where the mistake comes in, but it is a great scale strategy, but it's not the fastest path. If you're really wanting to build something,

Track 1: 27:47

yeah, you need that foundation. You need to build up, you need to build up the cash reserves, build up the clients, build up the process, that proven process you need to prove first, and then you can scale it from there.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 27:57

and it's easier to be honest. If it's not any harder to go out, if you're talking to the right people, it's not any harder to close a 50, 000 sale. In fact, it's been easier. I, when I talked about the one client I had that was selling, something for 1, 797, and then she went out and closed the 50, 000 client. That happened in 10 minutes, 10 It took her to close that 50, 000 client. And yet she came to me because she was struggling. Because I always say if when you're working with these higher level clients, it's not about money for them. It's about shortcuts. It's about time. They're going to save. It's about finding somebody, wow, I've been looking for you that can help me with this, right? You can close this gap for me, this piece that I was missing. That's what they're looking for. When you're working with lower value clients, it's okay, can I, should I pay Dylan or do I pay my electric bill? I'm not sure which one. come on. It's, so it's just, it's easier when you're closing people that, money's not the issue for them.

Track 1: 29:02

Yeah. Yeah. That's so true. I know we're getting close here. before you go, I want to know about the LinkedIn content strategy you have going on. I looked at your LinkedIn and I said, okay, she clearly knows what she's doing here. So I'd love to get into that a little bit.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 29:13

Yeah. So it does vary a little bit. The main thing with LinkedIn is you do want to have a strategy. What are you trying to accomplish? And a lot of people don't start with LinkedIn this way. And then everything gets set up for that. And it doesn't mean you can't change down the road, but let's say, for example, I want to go after chiropractors and I want to help chiropractors build websites and build their digital presence. Okay. Then my whole LinkedIn profile should be set up for them for that. I do showing them how I do things differently from other people. And so that would be the foundational piece that you would use. And then what are you trying to actually get them to do? What are you trying to get them to buy? So you first figure out what's the end game here. What's the end goal that I'm trying to accomplish on LinkedIn. And then everything, then you reverse engineer and everything gets set up for that. and so if I, then if I wanted to change to, something else down the road, CFOs or whatever, I could do that, but then everything has to be changed. So the first thing is get positioned right on LinkedIn. And then what is going to be the strategy that you're going to use to get right in front of them? And again, this is going to vary. it just depends on who you're trying to reach. If you're trying to reach high level CEOs, they're not hanging out on LinkedIn. They might even have VAs running their LinkedIn profile. But you can still leverage LinkedIn by using their email, reaching them that way, having the right process. So there's no one size fits all here. I help people customize their strategy for who they're trying to get to. And then we build it out on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a gold mine. It's a gold mine. So

Track 1: 30:51

Where are people getting it wrong? in LinkedIn. what's something, what's one thing that they could change to get right? Love to hear it.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 31:01

in the right way for who you want and showed that you are very different and then you go and connect with the people that you want and you have the right message to connect with them so they will want to connect with you, just that alone can often get your, get you booked. a good example of this is I was working with a client the other day. We were moving her into the hundred thousand dollar per client range from what she's been charging, which was around 20. Now she's going to 100, 000. We read, we redid her branding, her message, everything on LinkedIn. We went out and through sales navigator, we were building the list. And so I was showing her on the call. Okay. This is this person, for example, could be a potential client. We're going to. because we had her profile completely built out, he saw that she viewed his profile because LinkedIn shows you that it shows you who viewed, he said, who is this person building? like looking at me, he came back, saw what she did and booked a call. That's how it can happen when you are. So it can be a lot of different ways that people see you, even just looking at their profiles. If you're set up, You, they, you could get calls booked just like that. But you can also use outreach strategies that we have. I use, we're big on interview and podcasts. That's a big one for us. most of my clients, how can they interview or, get right to those people. but again, there's some, there's strategy behind everything. It's not just the idea, Oh, a podcast. I did a podcast for, I did my podcast. I did for a whole year before I ever made any money on it. Because I was doing the wrong strategy. Like my strategy wasn't dialed in. So those are all pieces that we die that I help my clients dial in.

Track 1: 32:45

I could keep going on this for days, but I know that, we both got to get out of here. and where can people go to learn more about you? and we'll link everything in the description as well.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 32:55

Yeah, absolutely. So if you are wanting to just connect with me, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, you can book a call if you want some help in your business to three to. 10 times your revenue. You can book a call at a card and. com, but if you want to actually build a coaching or consulting business, I talk about building a half a million dollar beyond business. you can go to expert in you dot biz, and that is a free training that you can grab. you can see my process.

Track 1: 33:23

Love it. And I'm going to link all that stuff below, but, and I appreciate you coming out today and let me drill you with the questions.

ann-carden_1_04-03-2024_132222: 33:28

Yeah, this was fun. Thank you so much.

Track 1: 33:30

Love it.

33:32

Hey, if you're still listening, hopefully you got some value out of this or amusement. Either way, I really appreciate you for listening. My goal with this podcast is to build something of value while also showing others that it's possible to do the same. And what I mean by that is, I'm not perfect at this. I fumble, I stutter, and I just want to show that it's okay. If you've been putting something off, This is me telling you to go for it. So I need your help in growing this and there's two main ways a podcast grows. One is through ratings and reviews and two is through word of mouth. So I can only do it with your help. If you can leave me a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as well as post this to your social and it doesn't grow without you. Thank you. Talk to you all next week.