I first heard of Ali Brown when she was teaching the email newsletter business to entrepreneurs here in Los Angeles. She was mostly speaking to small audiences at the time, but fast forward 3 years, and today her business is doing $3.8 million in annual business and it’s on the Inc 500 list.
I invited Ali to Mixergy to talk about how she built her business and how other entrepreneurs can follow in her footsteps.Andrew:
So Ali, I actually went into the internet archives, to Archive.org, to look up your old website…
Ali:
Oh no!
Andrew:
I know!
Ali:
Andrew:
Compared to what it is now, it’s so beautiful, it’s slickóback there I could see how you were just getting going. You’ve accomplished a lot over the last three years? I guess the first page that I saw was 2003.
Ali:
Wow.
Andrew:
So before we tell people how you went from there to here, let’s talk about what you’re doing right now.
Ali:
Yeah.
Andrew:
What are you doing online right now?
Ali:
Wow. Well if I could just give people a snapshot because I sometimes just have to pinch myself. What has been happening this year, I mean, first of all, I was just confirmed a few weeks ago that I am in The Inc. 500. This year is one of the fastest growing companies in the nation, which is amazing and I just want to put a big ‘Thank you’ out to my whole team as well ’cause it couldn’t have been possible without them. We’ll probably talk about ‘team’ today–it’s been a big part of my growth.
I have several different brands online now including: Ali Magazine actually, I have a copy here. You can see it. That’s me on the cover! We can talk about that as well, which I felt was a big gap out there for women and entrepreneurship and being complete entrepreneurs. You know, being the ‘holistic entrepreneur’ because our lives are no longer black and white. I mean, you know, as you’re skyping me right now, I’m sure you’re also making lunch and also have plans with a friend later in the weekó
Andrew:
Twittering!
Ali:
Back and forth… you know, that whole ‘work life’ line has been completely blurred. And so the magazine is something that I launched about…God, it’s been about eight months ago now, and it’s subscription only, and that’s been a huge endeavor. I have a coaching company called the ‘Millionaire Protégé Club’. The tiers range from $10 a month to $100,000 a year working with entrepreneurs at many different levels. I have an online boutique with some fun stuff for working at home–from gadgets to work-at-home-ware. And I also have a big even coming up in November. It’s called ‘Shine’ November 5th -7th and it’s in Las Vegas. We’re going to have nearly a thousand entrepreneurs in the ballroom at the Venetian, and it’s looking at the whole new way of doing business as a complete entrepreneur.
Andrew:
What is your mission? If we tie all this together, what is the goal of it all?
Ali:
My personal mission, and I’m glad you asked ’cause I think a lot of people start a business to help people, which is great, but the purpose of the business is to make a profit. And you can do both at the same time. My personal mission, personally, is to help more women around the world than ever before embrace entrepreneurship, and use it as a way to empower themselves and to help heal the world. I really believe the women are going to be a big part of helping to heal this planet. The business itself is to educate women, to get people’s attention, to get them thinking about becoming an entrepreneur (if they haven’t already), or help them grow their business if they already have one.
Andrew:
What kind of businesses do you help women start and grow?
Ali:
Most of the women who come to me have a ‘solo-preneur’ type of business, so they could be a personal trainer, an accountant a gal in my group who’s a tantra expert (that’s an interesting client), we have women who are already doing maybe sales or marketing for another company or just for themselves, but come to me and want to learn how to leverage their business model. Most of them want to use the internet as part of that and that has been myówhat I’m known for, mostly. I got started way back, as I’m sure you’ll share as the ‘E-zine queen’ … start helping the market with E-mail newsletters. And online is still the best way to get started and get your message out in a big way. But there’s a lot more to business than just being on the internet as you know.
Andrew:
You mentioned that you’re an Inc. 500 company, 3.8 million dollars in 2008. That’s incredible growth overówhat are they compared to… 2006, I think they had?
Ali:
I think it was a 3 or 4-year spurt there. Yes.
Andrew:
And what was the revenue about 3 years ago, in 2005?
Ali:
If they start in 2004, I think 2005 or 2006 was probably when I first jumped to a million. And then…
Andrew:
What are they compared to, 2006 I think they had.
Ali:
I think it was a three year, a three or four year spurt there. Yes.
Andrew:
What was the revenue about three years ago in 2005?
Ali:
If they started in 2004, I think at 2005 or 2006 was probably when I first jumped to million. And then it doubled and then doubled again.
Andrew:
Yeah, so tremendous growth here, one of the fastest grown privately held companies in the country. And I told you earlier that I saw your early website and it looked pretty basic. It was basically a picture of you, some text, and an audio file explaining how people could start with e-zines and build up businesses. So how did you go from there to where you are right now with the magazines, and the following and everything else?
Ali:
Well, the biggest boon that I found, I think most entrepreneurs should use this, is that people wanted to get to know me as a person. And something I saw years ago with the big Dot Com Boom was people were using the internet to look like these big stoic companies. When I got online and started talking about things that I thought people would have no interest in, like my cat or that I went on a blind date over the weekend, or little things like that, my readers would go nuts. And so they were staying on my list because of the information I was offering and the business building advice, but I realized they were getting more engaged with me as a person and that connection that we have, it’s really rampant now with all the social networking, like Twitter and Facebook and all that. So starting back with that first page, I realized that they would get a lot more engaged if I mentioned that I got a new kitten or that I was planning a trip to Italy or anything like that.
Andrew:
But doesn’t that take away a little bit of the credibility of the personality? I mean, they’re coming to you because they want to learn how to build a business, and at the time when you were just getting going, it was how to use e-zines to grow their business. So they’re coming to you as the expert who’s going to teach them, and you’re talking about your dates, you’re talking about your cat, doesn’t it make them think, ‘Well, she could be a good buddy, but can I really turn to her for business advice?’
Ali:
That’s exactly what I was scared of happening, and it’s why I was so ultra professional and reserved for so long. But their response and how my sales increased spoke for itself. And the key though is you always want to make sure that what you offer is about 75% useful, good, meaty content and then I tell people about 25% fun information, engaging information and that personal connection.
Andrew:
How much is real and how much is a projected personality that you’ve got to put out there so that people buy your stuff?
Ali:
Well, for some of us it comes naturally, because I’m naturally just a person who loves life, and is funny and sometimes over-shares, and my audience likes that. I think for people who may have a little trouble with it, you really do have to try to embrace this and open up to other people online, and some people, it is hard for them if they are really shy. But again, just sharing the simple things. If you have pets, or maybe your daughter is getting married, little simple things like that, I guarantee sharing just a little bit about your life will help your sales dramatically. Because remember, going back to old school sales training, people buy from people they know, like and trust, and it’s no different online.
Andrew:
Do you remember one of the first times that you shared publicly and maybe said, ‘Whoa! I should have been a little bit more professional?’
Ali:
I’m trying to think… there was a very interesting blog post that I did several years ago when I decided to get divorced, and I was married for a few years to a nice guy, but the wrong guy, and decided to share about it. And I do remember when I posted that, I was thinking, ‘Okay, when I have this feeling — like that nervous feeling — I’m thinking, did I over-share? Do they want to know about this?’ I had more click-throughs than I ever had in my e-zine when I mentioned that, and people were sending me cards and notes of support saying, ‘I hope that this is a good next chapter in your life for you.’ It really was engaging. There’s never been a time that I felt like, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t have said that,’ because as they say, any press is good press. So I really embrace that fact. I don’t tell people you really shouldn’t go sharing details about your hysterectomy, or if you’re having an affair. You don’t need to go that far, but just again, little things about your life that engage people.
Andrew:
What about this. Maybe it works for you because you’re beautiful. I actually thought, maybe she must be air brushing it, I can’t wait to see what she looks like on Skype where there’s no lights, when there’s nothing, and you look good. So maybe for you it works because you look good on camera, maybe for you it works because you’ve got one of these personalities that people are drawn to, but for the rest of us, we’ve got regular looks, some of us aren’t even as handsome as I am, and we’ve got to put ourselves out there to be judged and compared to the movie stars who are out there online right now, to the articulate people who are professional speakers… maybe it’s good for people who have that natural talent and the natural gifts, but not for everybody else. What do you think about that?
Ali:
I think people are looking are looking for people they can relate to so, whether you are all styled up or one of the Susan Boyle’s of the world, you know from American Idol, it’s really up to you, just about connecting with people and you know, I love being a cover model for E-zines, but more importantly I love being a role model for women and I think people are looking for leadership and they’re looking for people to speak out and have opinions and I think it doesn’t matter what you look like, you always want to put your best foot forward, but people are looking for the message that they’re going to resonate with, that’s the most important.
Andrew:
So just put yourself out there and trust that your message is going to connect with people and if you’re not the top presenter or the top most beautiful person on the planet, they’ll hopefully relate to you as more of a person because you’re more relatable maybe than Aston Kutcher is.
Ali:
Yeah, I do think the more relatable you are and again, you can share things about your life and you are a real person and you do make mistakes and I’ve shared about mistakes I’ve made in my business and some things in my life where you know embarrassing things that have happened to me or that I’ve done and I, again, that’s why it’s important for people to relate to you, connect to you and then they really get to hear your message.
Andrew:
OK, alright so we’ve mentioned E-zines a few times. E-zines, is that what got you your start?
Ali:
Yeah, the very first communication I ever made online was starting a little email newsletter and I started with a list of 10 people and that included my parents and a cat and from there, oh you’ll die when you hear this, it was using AOL and oddle [not sure] group in my address book, and this is how I started publishing online. So that’s how I started and I realized the power of online marketing because it was practically free, I had a dial up modem, but people were starting to forward my emails around, and that’s how the message started spreading and I started to get my first clients and my first business and start spreading the word with email marketing and actually my best selling business is a product called boost business with your own E-zine and that’s the course that started everything. When I started sharing how to publish and email newsletter that makes you sales.
Andrew:
And in fact, I actually was watching testimonials of people who have taken your programs and watching them up on stage talking about your programs before you and I got on together and they’re still talking about email, still talking about how that’s helped them. I thought email was dead. I thought that blogging was the future. I thought that email was the past, we’re moving maybe to text messages and all kinds of other things. Are you still seeing that you’re getting orders from email? That email is as effective as it was before?
Ali:
There’s no doubt there’s definitely more challenges these days with some of the deliverability issues but email is still the least expensive, most effective way to get your message out there that is simple and something that everyone can do
Andrew:
Why is email more effective than blogging which is pretty cheap and it’s out there on the internet and you don’t have to worry about into inboxes past spam blockers?
Ali:
I’m a big fan of blogging as well, but there’s nothing like people getting that message in their inbox that’s from you, that personal connection just like a friend who wrote them and you’ll see I do do blogging as well, you know I’m all over Twitter and Facebook and all that, but if you’re not covering email still, you’re really missing one of your basic steps.
Andrew:
Ok, so the first email that went out to 10 people and then grew from there, what were you doing then by email?
Ali:
That was just a little tip that I decided to offer, you know how this started, I need to explain to, I was going to all these networking meetings and I was not good at explaining to people what I did and I was happy to meet these people, but I needed some business and it started as just an email with me giving just a tip of the week, a little about marketing your business, which is, I was selling my services as a copy writer, so I would wright brochures, brochure ads or newsletters for people, just very basic stuff, so I shared some really basic tips and then have a paragraph that promoted a little bit about my business and that’s all this was and that first email started to get forwarded around and I didn’t have a website, I didn’t have a plan, I didn’t have a clue, but this little email is what started spreading the word about my business and today is a list of nearly 40,000 members and a good percentage of them are just raving fans and that’s why I just keep creating great new programs and events just for them.
Andrew:
How did you grow your mailing list?
Ali:
For me, it was very organic because in the first few years, I mean, I was broker than broke. I did everything I can just to put out some good and get people to want to spread it around. I did any type of speaking gig I could, I did a lot of still just face to face marketing. Anytime I could get in front of a group, I would make sure to invite them to sign up for my list. I would attend events and try to you know exhibit or put out that fish bowl and collect those cards. It was very, very organic. As I started making money with my business I moved into some different methods you know, pay per click, ads helping to get more traffic to the site. Another low cost way was article marketing as well but the biggest thing I think you have to remember when you’re building a list is the who is more important than the what. So if you figure out who your target market is, go to people who already have access for them. Do joint ventures for them, do teleseminars for them. Advertise on their sites, get articles in their newletters. Try to get posting on their blog. Go where those people already are. So, if you’re unclear about how to build your list, think about who you’re going after and where they already are online and offline.
Andrew:
And then wherever…when you go there make sure to bring back e-mail addresses for your list from there.
Ali:
Absolutely. Always be promoting, you know, the good old free special report or audio or just something. People still like value. Now these days you have to make very, you have to take care that your stuff is good. I mean, no doubt, like seven, ten years ago you could put up anything that was free and people would be signing up. Remember websites that used to say “Join my guestbook” or “Sign up for our mailing list” I mean
Andrew:
Yeah
Ali:
no one wants to give you their e-mail anymore so you really have to make an irresistible offer.
Andrew:
So, how do you make an irresistible offer that’s so compelling that people are willing to get over the lack of trust when it comes to giving away e-mail addresses?
Ali:
I think a personal message is best. Now you’ll see like I, right now, we redid my site from the typical old kind of squeezed page to a more general site now. But I’m still going to be putting up individual landing pages for specific topics, products, ones that I want to make a specific offer or message for. Video is pulling great these days and obviously there’s just such more personal level of trust. You want to make sure that you’re very clear with what the person will get and not just what they’ll get but the value of what they will receive. So, for example, let’s say that you are a financial planner and you’re putting up a page to help get people sign up for your newsletter. You want to, tell them that you have this great newsletter that comes out once a week, is going to give them tips on how to save more, how to invest better, how to make more money, but also give them something they’re going to get right away. And this has been used for years on the internet. The people want that instant gratification piece so it can be a special report, on for example, you know, ten ways to make more money starting tomorrow, you know with investments. It could be an audio of something you recorded. It could be a video. Or even better, if you’re willing to spend the money, have them something sent or mailed to them. Then you get a mailing address, which is very important, cause these days people change e-mail addresses very often. So if you get a physical mailing address, you know you’re going to get a good address if you’re sending them something, cause they want to get the gift. And so that’s another great tip, is to mail out something to their door so you have a list of mailing addresses that’s much more valuable.
Andrew:
What can you mail out to their door and still keep your cost low?
Ali:
I have clients doing CDs, doing DVDs, you know, these days, if you reproduce as many, you know, even just a few hundred you’re really not paying that much. And I know some people who do free offers or some people upgrade the person. They ask, they get them in for the e-mail first and then will make an invitation then that oh, if you want to just pay something like $2.95 for shipping and handling, we can ship you this informational DVD or CD as well. And, what’s great is, though, now you have their address. You can mail to them over and over, special invitations, postcards, mail. Some studies have shown that if you mix the offline marketing with online you can increase your response by 300, 400 percent.
Andrew:
I’ve also seen some memberships done that way. Where you get them, you get a user’s credit card for the $2.95 just so you can send the free CD and then you’ve got them signed up for a monthly membership after that.
Ali:
Yeah, it’s great if you do have a membership program, you want to make sure you try to get something in people’s hands right away, whether it’s a download, or something you can mail out. Now, something I did with my membership program this year that caused a big stir is that I actually decided to drop the price of the silver tier of my Millionaire Protégé Club to only $9.97 a month. We decided to blow up the forum because it was a big mess [laughs]. I don’t know if you run a forum or not, but ours have become this big mess. We really just simplified it and we’re getting even better response now that people are just…we’re keeping it nice and cheap, people can come to the call, they also get Alley magazine and they get an MP3. Really simple. The biggest mistake I see when a lot of people are starting membership programs is they make them really complex, and you really just want to get down to thinking ‘what do these people most need? How do they want to get it delivered? And how can I keep this simple?’
Andrew:
And so what are you giving people for $9.95? What, what are you teaching them?
Ali:
For $9.97 a month…
Andrew:
$9.97 excuse me
Ali:
…two cents [laughs] yeah, big difference. They get a copy of the Alli magazine. Now this is the print magazine actually mailed to them so this isn’t just an online version, I mean this is a 120 pages. Big, big project for me was launching this, but people are going nuts, they love it. They get that, it’s a bi-monthly magazine, they get it every two months. They get a monthly phone call with me. Sometimes the calls are me only, talking about a specific marketing or business strategy and sometimes I have a guest expert. Tonight, for example, I have one of my diamond members, who she’s a member of my Millionaire Protégé Club, her name is Sheri McConnell. She’s talking about how to build an association model, similar to membership but there are certain different parameters there. So, they get the live call and they also get an MP3 of the call. So, very, very simple, but my goal this year was to bring in more people to experience what it’s like to grow a business, to own a business. I’ve a lot of new people who I’m reaching from my interviews on TV, a lot of women who are maybe home with the kids and haven’t even considered starting a business yet. So, I wanted, for my purposes, a nice, affordable entry level program.
Andrew:
So, I keep hearing about how powerful and how profitable it could be to have a membership site. But, that’s as easy as it can be. You just get…well, magazine’s pretty tough to put together, but beyond the magazine, you’re giving them one call, live or recorded. No forums, no nothing else.
Ali:
No. We decided to get rid of all that. We’re saving the forums and all the air activity, and of course, the access to me for our high level programs. There’s still a big gap in there. Our next level, which is Platinum, which is up to $18,000 a year. That is live retreats with me and my team. They get online networking and access. They get a full curriculum in building an online business, and the next one I’ve put there is Diamond, and that’s a hundred grand. We have a group of 10 people. It’s nine women and one lucky guy. We have three retreats [xx], the last one was in Mali. There’s a lot more activity with those groups.
But, I do think it’s important in these days and also with everybody being credit crunched that many businesses considering offering a really affordable low level program. But keep it simple or it will drive you crazy to manage these programs.
Andrew:
I thought that if you charge too little, you’re going to pretty much end up with the same number of people because people aren’t making the decision. The decision to just take out their credit card is a tough decision to go from $10-$20 a month isn’t that hard. Are you seeing your audience grow meaningfully because of that?
Ali:
We’re actually seeing more members than we’ve had before.
Andrew:
Is it a meaningful increase?
Ali:
Yes, absolutely.
Andrew:
Can you say at what percentage?
Ali:
I don’t have it right here because I wasn’t ready for that today. But I [xx]. I mean, we are far over a thousand members, which is more than we’ve had before the lower level.
Andrew:
So a thousand members are paying $10 a month to you every month.
Ali:
Yes.
Andrew:
Got you, and then many of them are going on to higher and more expensive programs.
Ali:
Exactly.
Andrew:
And you’re teaching them how to do this, too. Right?
Ali:
Yes. Absolutely. Now, there are many businesses that can charge a lot more financial level depending how niched you are. So, for example, if I went really further and said, ‘I’m only going to teach online marketing for chiropractors.’ That’s when you can charge a lot more for a month in membership. But, I wanted a nice general level that people could come in, learn more about starting and growing a business, and then make decisions what programs they want from there.
Andrew:
All right. So, Ali, if somebody comes to you today and says, ‘I want to be like Ali. I want to have people paying me monthly. I want to have products that are bringing in revenue. I want to have an audience of maybe 40,000 people, maybe more, maybe less people. But, I want to have my own audience. Where do they start?
Ali:
The first thing I would do is, does this person have passion or a topic of interest already? Look for ways that they could use that in their business. I’m a big fan of doing something you love. I really don’t think you should go start a business for business’ sake. It can be done but it’s a lot…
Andrew:
All right. Let’s talk about that woman you talked about earlier, the Tantra woman. In fact, let’s invent another person who’s in a similar business. Tantra meaning tantric sex. Right?
Ali:
I’ve learned a lot more about love [??] from here. It’s a bigger philosophy, but it is mostly associated with sex.
Andrew:
OK. So, let’s assume some woman comes to you and says, ‘I’ve got this passion. I read about Tantra. People think it’s just tantric sex, but it’s bigger than that. I’m passionate about it, I want the whole word out about everything. Where do I start? What do you suggest to them?
Ali:
The first thing I’d do is how [xx] research, all the places this is being taught already. You have to research your competition. It’s amazing to me how many people go and try to start businesses and don’t know what else is out there. It’s so easy to look online. But, you know, no matter what type of business we’re talking about here that the important thing is that they have a strong business model. A lot of people start a business without knowing exactly how they’re going to make money. It’s kind of like, ‘Hello! What are we doing here?’ Yes, this could be a great hobby, but you need to know exactly how you would make money doing this.
Andrew:
Is there a model that you recommend to people? Is it selling media online? Is it membership? Is it those two? Is it something else?
Ali:
My strongest forte in teaching people how to build a business model is the online info marketing model because that’s what I’ve become so well known for.
Andrew:
So, sell information, sell it online. Right?
Ali:
Yes, and that can range from ebooks to videos to audios to even at live events. I mean, that’s really how info marketing stretches into live events as well.
Andrew:
OK. So, we’ve got this woman, she’s coming to you, she says, ‘This is my passion. I’ve researched all the competition.’ Most of the people out there are kind of shady. There’s some high-end quality books that are being published, but there’s nobody who’s doing the personal touch. There’s nobody who’s a personality online. Now, what do they do? Do you tell them to start off with email? Do you tell them to create a squeeze page?
Ali:
Yep, I would take her through my model which is called the Online Success Blueprint.
Andrew:
Okay.
Ali:
Which starts with, again, looking at your target market. So I would say, ‘who is looking for this information’? On Tantra Are they mid-age women? Younger women? Married women? Single women? You have to do your research. Start there and then, design your programs around, for that type of women. For example maybe older women may not be comfortable with video training, or and maybe like to get books or manuals or courses in that method?
Andrew:
But how do you know who’s out there buying this stuff? There’s no research on this. We’re taking this topic specifically, there’s no research on this topic that says ‘Only middle-aged women want to find out about tantra’.
Ali:
There’s probably- I don’t know for sure, I mean, this topic, I’m no where saying I’m an expert in this, in tantra for sure.
Andrew:
Oh so lets, about any subject, how do we know who’s out there? Who’s buying it? If I were going to say ‘I want to teach people how to trade stocks and I want to teach them how to trade stocks in paper companies because I think there’s some money to be made there and I want to teach people how to do it’ I don’t know who’s out there, who’s a potential customer. Is there research that I can use? Or am I just taking a shot and saying it’s probably going to be this group. It’s probably, for the stocks, its probably going to be men between the ages of 17 and maybe 35. And they’re probably going to be guys who are- who have a job and aren’t happy with it.
Ali:
Yeah Looking-
Andrew:
Is that the way it works?
Ali:
Well, often in the beginning you are giving it your best shot. I mean unless you have access to some high end research firm and most people don’t have research dollars to spend in the beginning. So, just taking a look around at who are buying books on that topic? Who is online? Looking at whatever demographics you can find.
Andrew:
I see.
Ali:
And just starting there. And often, for many of us, that’s just looking around, and sometimes the answers are right in front of us. It took me a while to figure out my target market until I had my first event and realized most of the women there- well first of all, there were mostly women who came and I have a lot of men that come to my events but I do attract more women I think ’cause there’s just so few role models out there, and a lot of them were coaches and consultants. So, I then started targeting my marketing to those women because I thought well if I’m going to spend marketing dollars why not go to the ones that are naturally attracted to me in the first place. So, when I’m working with a client to help find that target market, and especially if it’s a business that they’ve already had for a little while, I’ll say ‘Who do you naturally attract and also who has the money to spend with you?’ That’s also really important. You don’t want to be marketing to people who don’t have money to spend.
Andrew:
Okay
Ali:
Make sense?
Andrew:
Absolutely. Alright, so we’ve figured out who our market is, or we’ve taken a shot at it and we’re going to learn as we continue who the real target audience is. We’ve made sure they have money. Now what do we do? What do we-
Ali:
The next thing I would do is focus on building your audience. So, you want to again, get up a landing page or some kind of website that invites people to sign up for a newsletter or monthly audio, just for something. You want to start collecting contact information. And again, to speed this up, you want to reach out to people who already have access to this type of audience. So, for example, you know, for my upcoming event Shine, I know that I’m mostly going to have women there, they’re mostly solo-preneurs, ok, and I’m doing heavy marketing to my list, but I’m also reaching out to people who have access to women who are solo-preneurs, a lot of coaches and consultants, and you know, giving them some great content as well to invite them to come over and sign up for my stuff.
Andrew:
Beyond content, what do you give these marketing partners in exchange for sending people to you?
Ali:
I have a great affiliate program and I think affiliate programs are really powerful. There are people who take them to much higher levels that I have. I keep mine really simple and we offer a 25% commission on ticket sales for events, and also many products and programs. And it’s great, and I’ve found we’ve had a lot of success with affiliates using Twitter and Facebook because it’s so- you know people maybe hesitant to send out an email to their list if they are emailing them to much, but everyone can send out a tweet on Twitter. So, we’re getting a lot of new people finding out about our stuff coming in, calling, asking about the event. It’s been really effective.
Andrew:
I saw it. There’s a link to the affiliate program on every single page on your site I think, right on the bottom.
Ali:
Yeah. We have it at the bottom, it’s not s huge link on the top but it is at the bottom and easier- easy to find. One big thing I learned you know, that one of the reasons I went from the separate pages to more of a portal is that I started having so many different products and programs, people were like ‘I can’t find this. Where’s this product? Where’s this program?’ and now we have that hub site. And it was interesting and I want to bring this up ’cause a lot of people ask me and said ‘Ally, this isn’t the model you were just teaching. You teach the whole funnel. The landing page, get them on the list. You know invite them to the next offer and the next offer’ but my business has shifted so much, and most people will get to a point that they will need some type of hub site where people can find what they’re looking for.
Andrew:
Okay. And by the way, the credibility increase of this current web site, the fact that you’ve got that magazine up on the top, the way that site looks, it’s incredible. It’s incredible. It’s- I knew you, I saw you in person I think. You used to do live events here in Los Angeles, you used to come out to different speaking engagements here. So this is the same person who used to come out here, man the growth over the last few years is phenomenal.
Ali:
And there was a conscious decision I want to emphasize
Andrew:
Up on the top the way that the site looks it’s incredible. I knew you I saw you in person. I think you use to do live events here in Las Angeles. You use to come out to different speaking engagements here. I said this is the same person who use to come out here.
Ali:
yea
Andrew:
Man the growth over the last few years, phenominal.
Ali:
There was a decision I want to emphasize when I was putting together the site, I thought where do I want my business to be in 5 years? One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned that I wan to share with entrepreneurs is I shifted from making major decisions from where I was to making decisions from where I want to be. So I looked at Ali the media mogul, what would her site look like? What would her magazine look like. this big mass that she wants to get out to the world. How would this resonate? What would it feel like? What would it look like? That’s how that site was developed. So I want to encourage everyone to not make those decisions from where you are, but think what’s the next step, or even the next few steps? You want to aim from up here.
Andrew:
You know I did an interview the other day with Albert Lai an entrepreneur who started out in high school. I asked him how he got credibility as a high school nobody? He said, “it’s the quality of the website today”. Back then it was the brochures, the business cards that he had. Today he tells students that “if they have a good looking website, they’ll have incredible credibility”. It’s fairly easy to do to have a good loking website. To have something that’s sharp.
Ali:
Yea it’s not that hard to have these days. I mean from people who…it’s amazing how many shoty websites are still up there. I’m not saying you need a real glamorous site. You know that fit me fit my brand. I love style I love fashion and I wanted my site to look that way. But at least folks let’s not have no typos. Let’s have maybe some kind of color scheme going on and make it like your 10 year old kid didn’t do it. It makes…remember people are judging you solely by what they see online, so put your best foot forward.
Andrew:
Okay so that’s you and where you are now. Going back to that person that needs that funnel. You’d suggest a landing page. How do they get traffic to this landing page?
Ali:
Simple one page website, and the quickest way to get started is with pay-per-click ads. That’s the easiest way, but this all depends on…this is something I would teach over 3 days, but to boil it down you need to make sure you have some key words that people are interested in. There is a lot of good information out there and free information and google has a great tutorial. I am sure many of you are watching and are aware of. If you don’t have money, money always buys speed. If you can work it into your budget, get some traffic instantly. Otherwise I would really reach out to groups again and joint ventures. That truly is the quickest way. You know article market is great but it’s slow. I use to go out and just speak to groups, I would speak to anybody I could and just to collect them business cards and just get them on the list bring them in. Anything you could do to just reach out to that target market.
Andrew:
Can you get…isn’t pay-per-click too expensive right now? You are competing with people who are monetizing like crazy, and you got to go in there and buy ads just to get email addresses?
Ali:
The trick is to choose keyword phrases that are not as competitive as other ones. So for example, you know many of the women I work with are coaches? Well your not going to market for life coach you’re going to compete with people like Tony Robbins, who like go and buy islands. (laughs) If you don’t have an island of your own you are not going to compete on that. See you got to look for phrases like for example you’re in Montreal okay and you’re a life coach for women so Montreal life coach for women. You see there is probably not a lot of competition and you will be bidding much less for keyword phrase. So look for ways to really identify yourself in a niche. When you’re doing that marketing that landing page really clear message. This is where you have to be really concise.
Andrew:
Okay so we’ve created our landing page, bought some ads, we’ve done some joint ventures, we’ve written some articles for some bloggers. All these people are coming into our funnel right? Some of them are giving us their email address in exchange for a report, or a dvd, or some kind of program. We now have them on the list what do you tell people to do next? To create an info product right away?
Ali:
Well the first thing I do is to start building a relationship with them. The biggest mistake people make when they start an info business is they create a product, and then they say great where am I going to sell this? Who am I going to sell this to? You need to build your audience first. This is one of the things I happily did by accident. I learned because I started that little email newsletter remember with the 10 people? Well it started to grow and grow. By the time I had my first product idea for the ezine product the boost more business with your own ezine. I had already built a relationship with this list. You know they knew a little bit about me. They had been getting good information for a while. So having that weekly newsletter or a series of messages via auto responder. Build that relationship up. You can make an offer right away, but make sure you give them stuff of value. And remember it has to happen on an ongoing basis. People especially even more these days. People are so busy, they don’t want to make decisions unless they really have to. So give them time give them good information, and give them some timelines that will make them want to take action.
Andrew:
Alright we’re going to come back to the deadlines. I’m going to put that down here. How do you know what product to create first?
Ali:
Well first you have your market right? So you have the who. So based on…one of the great ways is if you have a list, you have an audience to come up with that first product is to do a survey and simply ask them. One of the great tools I have used, it’s the best and it’s free. It’s called Survey Monkey, I don’t know if you’ve probably heard of that.
Andrew:
There’s an article today in Tech Crunch about how they’re just killing it right now.
Ali:
Oh great. Well you want to pay for the next level up. I think it’s maybe 20 bucks a month or something. I mean, just don’t go cheap. There’s a free version but do the next one up because you can get over 100 responses. And when I had that audience the first thing I did was I sent out a survey, when I was considering the next product after the XXXXX one, and said ‘What other topics are you interested in?’ The biggest one they wanted to learn about was how to build a list. So guess what my next product was? It was how to build a list. It was a whole special report on that. So asking your current list is a great way to find out. Also looking what people are searching for online as far as key word searches, which is very easy to find with Google or there’s tools like Word Tracker, things like that. Looking for the key words that people are searching for. Now when it comes to a product though it’s really good to choose a topic that not many people can find a ton of free information on. You want it meatier and more useful to them ñ
Andrew:
Like what? I thought everything was free online right now?
Ali:
If you can make it easier for people to find the information or give an angle on it that maybe people can’t…Let’s take my first product for example, which is How to Publish an Email Newsletter. Well, I’m sure if you dug all around you could find articles, templates, some ‘how to’ advice here and there. But here’s my angle of saying, ‘Hey. I’ve done this. I’ve gone through all the trial and error. Here’s the step-by-step foolproof system. I give you templates, I give you step-by-step advice.’ And people will be like, ‘Finally,’ because it saved them a ton of time and a ton of wasted energy. So if there’s an angle like that you can deliver you will always do well.
Andrew:
What about personality? I could find lots of information on line but I can’t find it coming from Allie, the person who I’ve gotten to know. Do people value that or when it comes to dollars and cents they’ll go free and forget about you?
Ali:
If they come to trust you, especially if you’ve become trustworthy in one area, they’re more likely to buy from you again in another area. And one area of a business most people overlook when they’re looking to grow a business is going back to people who have bought from them already and asking them, ‘Hey. What else am I not delivering that you’d love? What would you love to hear from me? What topics would you like to hear me sharing on?’ I’m amazed how many people in my programs continually ask me to talk about mindsets. They love me talking about how you have to think differently as you grow your business. It’s just a dramatic shift. And so probably my next product will be in that area. Talking about how you have to think about business completely differently when you want to make a seven figure…a multiple million dollar business then you did to break six figures. It’s a completely different shift.
Andrew:
Okay. And you said earlier deadlines help. I’ve done interviews with people who keep saying that to me. How do you do deadlines effectively when you just have an info product?
Ali:
You need to create an event around your launch. And one easy way to do that is to have a limited price, a price for a limited time, price discount, a bonus for a limited time. These days more than ever if you offer payments or break up payments for people… like instead of a $500 product you can have…divide that by seven, have seven payments over seven months even, you will see a dramatic rise in sales. But maybe that payment expires so there’s a deadline for you. So creating some reason for people to take action. I work with a lot of business owners who are very timid at first about their marketing. They’re saying, ‘Well I don’t want to force people into buying or feel like I’m hitting them hard.’ I said, ‘You know what? I’m busy too. I appreciate having a reason to make a decision. I like saying I’ve got to do this today or this is a great offer. I’ve got to take advantage of this now.’ People are overwhelmed with too many decisions these days. Decaff, regular coffee, unleaded, 2% milk, soy milk. We’re just all over the place. You want to give them a reason to declare action now.
Andrew:
Okay. All right. So now we’ve got a simple step-by-step. I took notes. I’ll hopefully include that with the video so people can read through it. We now have them established in business, right? Do you have an example of somebody who did something like this? One of your students who did it well? That you can share the story with…whose story you can share with us here?
Ali:
Let me try to think of who lately…I can share a great story actually. One of my members, her name is Lisa Sassovitch, and you’ll find her all over twitter and FaceBook. When she joined my program she had one page with an eBook. She’s the queen of sales conversion. This gal, and I’ve seen her ñ she can sell on stage, this is what she teaches and she had a great eBook around it. What we did was look at her business and look how to grow it and leverage it. So when she joined my Diamond program we came up with ways for her to then create different levels of programs, more products. She now has her own $100,000 coaching program and I’m excited to share, she broke a million dollars already for the year. I think it was in June, after last year having a low six figure business. So the steps she took were very similar to what I did with my business in that first I created a product and had a following and email list. Then I looked at what they were interested in and started creating products and programs that I was credible to teach and had experience in but giving more value, more service…
Ali:
Investment for people to have access to a six figure business. So the steps she took were very similar to what I did with my business in that first I created a product and had a following and email list then I looked at what they were interested in and started creating the products and programs that I was you know credible to teach and had experience in and but giving more value, more service charging different levels of investment for people to have access to work with me. So now she has a variety of products and programs, she’s doing a lot of events, several times a year and doing a lot of personal coaching. I think her coaching is like thirty grand a day, having clients lined up, flying in from all over the world. So it’s taking that one area of expertise but looking how to really broaden it, give people of all income levels opportunities to learn from you whether it’s a book or a hundred grand coaching and it’s really about leverage
Andrew:
what’s she coaching people on for a hundred grand?
Ali:
They sign up to work with her and she works with a partner as well and they learn how to completely reinvent their business and sell from the stage, that’s her specialty.
Andrew:
I see how to sell from the stage
Ali:
As you know, at these live events, if you do well, that’s a guaranteed six figure day, usually if you sell well from the stage so her clients really appreciate the help crafting their talk to sell
Andrew:
Didn’t I see that you had a program teaching people how to do that too? Or were you selling hers. You did.
Ali:
Yes and actually I pulled her in as my partner on that program, that’s one of our programs at AliBrown.com
Andrew:
Okay, we talked earlier about how people need a little encouragement now because the economy’s doing poorly, because they’re going through all kinds of crisis, ’cause they’re doubting themselves, and one of the first things you told me was that ‘Andrew, it’s part of the process to have these doubts,’ right? Can you talk about that a little bit?
Ali:
It’s funny because people say, ‘well Ali wow now you’ve reached this certain point it must be nice to not, you know, go through these ups and downs [giggle] and be scared anymore,’ I said, ‘Oh, it’s all the same, there’s just more zeros at the end.’ I mean of the risks that you take, I mean, launching a magazine during a recession, I mean who does this? Nobody, nobody I know does magazines
Andrew:
Who does a magazine even, why
Ali:
Yeah
Andrew:
Yes
Ali:
This is a, taking leaps is part of being an entrepreneur and when I hear people get scared it just breaks my heart because they look at people like you and me and they think, ‘wow, it’s just so easy.’ This is a way of being and the word risk is part of the definition of being an entrepreneur so you know we go through those times too that we’re looking at a month going, ‘Oh my God.’ My business partner, Liz, who actually started as my first assistant, ten years ago, we’ll always look at each other, at least once a month and we’ll go, ‘how are we going to do this?’ ‘I’m not quite sure, but we’re going to figure it out.’ And I want to just emphasize to those of you out there who are scared or having you’re a little bit timid about the economy right now and all this, how you get through this is going to be dependent on how you think and something we have to remember as entrepreneurs is that we are different, we are different from the rest of the population, we have to think differently, we have to be a little stronger, a little tougher and get through this. But, I mean, I see there’s no better time to get into business and actually businesses are being started now more than ever because people are being laid off and finally realizing, ‘hey, you know, I wasn’t happy doing this job anyway let me think about what I’d like to do with my life.’ So it’s actually a time of great opportunity. But I know it is challenging with the media, right, I don’t even turn on the news anymore ’cause it gets me depressed. You really have to stay around successful people and talk about your business so that you know you’re not alone. Really important.
Andrew:
What do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night worried about your business. I’ve had that, I still have that, I thought I’d be done with that at some point in my life, I still have that. What do you do at that point? First of all, actually, let me go back, I’m piling on the questions here, do you feel that way to? Do you ever get to the point where in the middle of the night you’re waking up and going, ‘what am I going to do here with this business?’
Ali:
Oh yeah, all the time. All the time, I want to emphasize that. I mean but there’s so much, the joy from it is so much better and I consciously made this leap this year to take this to a level that I’ve never taken it to before and I knew that was part of the package. You know, that comes with it, the being scared, the working through your fears, and, you know, I tell my students I know no better personal development tool than starting your own business. This brings up any issue you ever had, all your bullshit comes out, just, it brings up every fear or challenge that you can imagine
Andrew:
So how do you get past it when you’re by yourself, dealing with this issue?
Ali:
When I’m by myself I have to step back and really look at the big picture of what I’m doing. I look at the lives that I’ve changed, I look at the people I’m influencing, I look at the impact that I truly want to make around the world. And that is what keeps me going. And I think it’s important that everyone locks into a purpose or a passion in that way and that’s when, when you are doing something you love, it’s a lot easier.
With a big enough purpose you’ve got a big mission that will keep you going through it and you’ll be willing to take on the pain to get there. What about this, women entrepreneurs, I put out a call I can find men entrepreneurs to interview all day, they’ll email me. More, they’ll email me
[laughter]
Andrew:
if I take every one of them I won’t have an hour to sleep. Female entrepreneurs I’m having a hard time finding. Why is it so hard for me to find them? Am I not looking in the right place, are there not as many of them out there, are they not speaking up
Ali:
I think you’re going to see more now than before. I think there are a few challenges you know maybe going back maybe a decade or two the traditional working world was designed for men right the Industrial Revolution that’s how all this got started now and for women which traditionally had the child care model and had to deal with a lot more things with the family, it didn’t jive now with technology and especially this new era of embracing creativity in business I’m not sure you maybe even interviewed him, Dan Pink, have you read his book the right brained, why right brained nerds will rule the future we’re entering this whole new era where creativity design function things like that are very balanced thinking women will be excelling at it more than ever and also now with technology I have a lot of my students who are doing two conference calls while they’re changing the baby they may be taking the kids to school and they’re talking to clients you’re going to see a lot more women starting businesses than ever before I do think taking it to a bigger level is a big decision you know I’ve decided to grow my business to a much larger level and that requires some sacrifices and you know
Andrew:
What kinds of sacrifices?
Ali:
Well for me right now , I’ve been single southern working myth I don’t have a family yet and you know, when I do decide to do that that may change things and for right now I’m really kicking butt while I can and working this thing for many women with families it can be challenging but the woman I mentioned already, Lisa Saskavitch, you know, she’s a mom with two and her husband has been in school to become a heart surgeon so she hasn’t been lying around eating Bon Bons all day either, and then she broke a million dollars this year so it’s very doable I think as women see more potential and to create a business around who they are you’re going to see a lot more women entrepreneurs
Andrew:
All right, you mentioned about building a team now as an important part of your business how do you do it well considering you’re such a brand right now right people want to talk to you you want to project everything the way you do it certainly
Ali:
It’s been a real interesting year building the team because last year I think we had I had two to three people working for me and now i have twelve For me this was really about learning to I was a leader already for my readers and my students I now to be a leader for my company and that was a lot a big shift to learn and kind of keeping the shift going it’s been a big lesson
the leverage has been the biggest gift in my life because now all I have to do is generate ideas and if I can come up with the plan, the team can execute them big challenge for many entrepreneurs is learning to let go and it has been a little difficult I hired as I mentioned my first assistant ten years ago and Liz and I have been together for a long time and this was a big deal for us to build the team to the level it is but everyone should have at least one assistant or a virtual assistant in their business because if you’re spending time doing ten dollar twenty dollar an hour tasks you are not building a business you’re back at a job
Andrew:
Do you have a virtual assistant?
Ali:
Liz started off as my first one and then from there actually I don’t have an office I have the twelve gals I mentioned they all happen to be women they’re all over the country some of them I’ve never met we all work from home we talk on the phone at least all together once a week and they all will be actually they all will be at my event Shine in November so I’m going to get to meet finally the whole team all together and they love it because they have kids they work their own hours and it works out beautifully
Andrew:
What’s the best part of all this success?
Ali:
For me, I’m really proud I have to just share I’m really proud and I get a little emotional about it because my dad passed last year and I saw him work himself literally to death He died of heart trouble last year after his whole life running a business that he hated that took up all his time that literally killed him and doing this now with so much joy in a way that suits me in a way that is changing lives as well and healing the world and for me like the money’s great I love being able to live in a beautiful house and drive a nice car and take beautiful vacations and experiences but it comes with the joy of being able to change other people’s lives as well and that really is true
Andrew:
And finally any bit of advice you think people need to have right now?
Ali:
Get off your ass, this summer it’s like people have just been just wanting to lay around and kind of calm down and listen to news and see what is going to happen I think now’s the time especially once that Labor Day weekend has passed we’re ready to rock ladies I’d love to see you at Shine and actually if there’s any single guys we’d love to see you at shine because it’s going to be a room of hundreds of successful
Andrew:
Gosh if there’s any single guys you better get out there
Ali:
Please.
Andrew:
Smart, right I’m happily engaged and going to be married by the time you guys do Shine but if anyone’s out there watching this and single, go do it and then send me an email and tell me how it was
Ali:
You got to come we’re going to mix the passion and the purpose with specific business models and plans and so you leave with a plan for your business to take it to the next level and it’s about shining for yourself and for the world.
Andrew:
All right well thank you, thanks for coming on here it’s good to meet you and good to get to know you.
Ali:
Thanks and I hope to see you all, alibrown.com
Andrew:
alibrown.com everybody.
Ali:
Thanks so much.
Andrew:
Thanks so much, bye.
