 So how much free content do you have to create before you start getting more clients? Now, this is a question I'm asked very often and Here's my response to this If you are creating free content primarily for the purpose of getting more clients It might not work out for you here's why Have you ever been part of a a free Facebook group where You know you joined because it was a challenge of some kind and they gave free content in that inside the Facebook group And then they started to sell to you they started to say oh join our other program Etc. Now sometimes that works of course some people join But a lot of people are turned off by that in fact I want to read to you a comment that someone posted on my Facebook page and I thought that was quite You know indicative of this kind of thing. So this person said I just unsubscribed from a group Which I had been a member for only three months She was sharing free content along with a few live videos Eventually she posted that people are taking advantage Not hiring her as a coach after consuming her content Literally, she said if you don't want to move forward just leave So I left because I sensed anger and lack Now this was interesting because she said that she has been a member for three months Now three months is already quite patient for the group creators part if her ulterior motive Is to convert clients with that free group? By the way, this is why I also don't create free Facebook groups because I know that that is a A potential resentment. So here's here's the here's the core idea that I want to share with you today When you create Free content with the ulterior motive that ah, this will get other people to buy from me Then you tend to start manipulating people Or resenting when they don't buy from you in your own timeline And yet, isn't that what much Much of the marketing is out there that we're taught to do Which is why we don't like most marketing because it tends to eventually become manipulative in some way pushy in some way And that's why a lot of us don't want to do marketing because we think well, that's that's how you're supposed to do it You're supposed to pretend to be generous Pretend to be generous with free content, but then really secretly have an emotive So while I'm really creating this free content so that eventually you'll be indoctrinated and buy from me Is there a better way we can approach content in a way that's better for our hearts Better for our spirits and better for guess what our relationship to the audience If you knew that you were always being set up for something How does that feel with the relationship? You're always being set up so that they can ask you for a favor You're always being set up so that you know eventually you can help them with something Doesn't feel good And it doesn't feel good as an audience member to feel like I'm always being set up By somebody or for you to feel that way if if you felt like I was always setting you up for something So here's the thing You have to realize that yes Creating free content has enormous benefits over time, but here is the problem Nobody can tell you When those benefits will accrue to you. I'm sorry. Did you think that somebody could tell you? Oh Yes, you create and you write this many articles and then that you know 100 articles equals 10 clients No 10 videos equals three. No Nobody can not the smartest business expert or marketing guru in the world Can tell you whether your Free content will ever generate a single sale or client Nobody And even if it might generate lots and lots of sales, nobody can tell you when that will happen So how does it happen? How does it happen? So let me let me first talk about The real purpose of creating content and then I'll talk about and then I'll share with you what the steps are to actually Create clients or get sales by creating content Which let me just say it should not be the main purpose of why you write or why you make videos and put them on social media So why then do why are we doing all this if we're not going to get clients from all this george? Why why am I bothering spending all this time writing articles and posting videos and You know recording podcast episodes if i'm doing all this. I thought I was doing all this to get clients Really? Are you really enjoying it? Because you know that if you're doing something pretending to be generous but not really Being generous you don't really enjoy it. So let me tell you let me tell you what What's really worked for me and for a lot of people that I've helped as the purpose of creating free content It is as a ministry to your audience As an and and also as an exploration of your calling Let me say that again the purpose of creating free content Is as a ministry to your audience? and as an exploration of your calling And you can actually flip that around it's it's an exploration of your calling and a ministry to your audience Maybe that's actually makes more sense So what do I mean by exploration of your calling? How do you know What your what service or product you're supposed to provide to the world? Have you been trying to journal to figure that out? Have you been trying to work with a marketing coach? Can I as a marketing coach help you figure out what service or product you're supposed to provide? Or even what audience you're supposed to reach? Anybody who's telling you that they can help you figure out what audience to reach and what service to provide They're not really telling you the truth Because from my experience 11 years of experience coaching hundreds of entrepreneurs helping them Eventually figure out what their service and their audience is. Here's the secret of it Not an expert can tell you your journaling can't tell you either the only way to figure it out is Experiments with the audience Experiments with the world. That's the only way. I'm sorry I'm sorry if if you were waiting for your marketing expert to tell you or you're waiting for your journaling And you're lots of lots of journaling to tell you what's what you can finally provide to the world That's going to work now. You could provide your journaling or your marketing expert can tell you all kinds of things But you don't know if it's going to work until you put it out there humbly You know say oh will you buy this? And then see if they'll buy it That's the only way. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's the only way I can't tell you if your business is going to work You can pay me all the money you want to hire me I'm not going to take it because if you if you're going to pay me the money and spend time with me I say george tell me if this is going to work. I'm going to say i'm sorry I'm not going to take your money. I'm not going to spend time with you And I encourage you not to spend time and money with any other marketing expert If you're if that's the answer you want Because the answer you're looking for is in your relationship to the audience only they can tell you Now if you say well george, I can't be true because then aren't marketing experts supposed to be smart and tell me what's going to sell Really? Is that is that what you think? Well, let me ask you this question then Why is it that the smartest investors in the world frequently Invest in startups that fail Have you ever thought of this question the smart the billionaires the smart the most Business savvy and marketing savvy experts in the world frequently invest in startups that fail What is venture capital venture capital is where they invest in as many startups as they can Knowing that most of them fail, but they don't know which ones. Did you know this? Okay, did you I mean if you didn't know the VC worlds they invest in as many startups as they can Not knowing which ones are I mean they have hopes that certain ones will succeed, but they're frequently surprised So because if you think about it if if it was if it was so easy Well, not easy, but if it was possible for a marketing expert to say, oh, yes This product for this audience will succeed Then investing will always win. I mean think about that. Isn't that true? Oh because oh you marketing expert or you group of marketing experts Can always tell us where pride and service are gonna. Oh great. We'll always investing you will always win, but that's not the case That's why markets go up and down and investments often fail Because nobody Only those of us who have a lot of marketing experience can tell you What the truth is which is that it's always about the It's always about experimentation and the relationship with the mark relationship with the audience. That's it I can't tell you if your business is going to work. I'm sorry I can't tell you if your content is going to ever give you one single client after a hundred years of writing It could get you a client the next day But the thing is this If you are waiting For that to be the purpose if you're if you're depending on that to be the purpose If you're waiting for that client to come and say yes before you say well My writing has been worth it or my videos have been worth it or my podcast has been worth it then the whole time You're experiencing some form of chasing Maybe even suffering, but certainly a bit of anxiety and like holding your breath So instead if you think of content creation as this is an exploration Of what my purpose is I I don't really know what my purpose is in in terms of serving others I mean we have met multiple life purposes But in terms of the purpose of our business the purpose of our business is to provide a product That genuinely has a positive impact On those who buy it And and is worth more than they paid Right. I mean if you talk about the purpose of business, right purpose of life is something else, but So therefore How do you figure that out is by creating content And then creating product services and humbly asking that the audience will buy it and and and being curious and say Oh, isn't it interesting they bought that. Oh, interesting. Interesting. They didn't buy these other three, but they bought this one Oh, isn't it interesting? so The purpose of creating content is to explore your voice To explore your thinking to explore your life's experiences as related to your business It helps you to become a better communicator It helps you to figure out what those experiences were all about It helps you to kind of put into a framework what your experiences and your learnings are The more you create the more of a framework you have So it's to explore your calling Right, and then it's also as a ministry to as you're exploring your calling just right now For example, right this very moment. I'm exploring. How do I explain this? How do I really think about this this experience that I've had with so many clients? How do I think about this? How do I I'm exploring that right now with you and in my explorations with myself and with you Hopefully you're also served in some way Because of course having thought about this probably more than you have that's my job and that's I've had so many experiences then Having been a few steps ahead of you you'll you'll benefit from saying. Okay. That's what's coming up for me So content is an exploration of our calling even if not a single person reads it. We publish it sure But even if not a single person reads it, we will have benefited From having explored our experiences our thoughts our message our framework. Does that make sense? If you come to understand this it will change everything for you when it comes to content creation Because then you'll create for its own sake You're not creating so that oh my god. I have to do a chore because George told me to create and It's a marketing chore and it's supposed to get me clients It's such a that's it's not fun to do that It's much more fun. It's I'm creating because I know I'm doing public journaling public Journaling I could do journaling privately but I might as well journal publicly Because it might help somebody else who's a few steps behind me Because I've thought about this stuff more than most people have whatever your thing is So create free content as an exploration of your calling and as a ministry to your audience All right, so that's the purpose so then George, okay great, but Now that I know that that's the main attitude I'm bringing to this that's the main Benefit that this is going to have for me. It's exploration and ministry Wouldn't it be nice if it also had the side benefit of building my business? Yes, it does. So let me tell you how that side benefit happens Now I've talked about in the past, you know, the seven disciplines of authentic business If you haven't read that blog post, I recommend that you go to google and type in the seven Disciplines of authentic business and essentially that's how free content Creates clients. Okay But let me just summarize it real quick for you I'm not going to go through all seven disciplines of authentic business You can google that and read it, but I'll just tell you a couple of them that relate here So when you create free content with the right mindset and the heart set with the with the real purpose in mind You also now want the side benefit of growing your business. Here's what you need to do You need to make sure that content is seen by a lot of people A lot of the right people And the easiest way that I know How to do how to get your content seen by a lot of the right people Is by running Facebook and instagram ads truly i'm not i'm not just saying that because I haven't to teach courses on it I do it myself for years and then I taught courses on it, right So facebook ads have done that for years and then more recently i'm doing instagram ads and i'm just loving it so much It's getting a lot of the right audiences so Yes, create content because it's worth doing on its own and then Make sure it's distributed make sure that you're reaching a lot of the right people You can't just be reaching a hundred people or 200 people. You need to be reaching a few thousand people And so for example by paying ten dollars. Let me hear me out Ten dollars. Do you have ten dollars to advertise your business? I hope so by paying ten dollars To use facebook ads or instagram ads you can reach about a thousand of the right people Let me say that again. You can reach a thousand Targeted people who you're guessing are probably going to benefit from your content and your services You can reach a thousand of them With ten dollars on facebook or instagram ads. Is that worth it to you? Of course. I hope so That's why I recommend thirty dollars a month thirty three zero dollars a month for facebook and instagram ads either one or both That means you reach about three thousand people a month with your content or about a thousand people three times a month, okay So creating content and then distributing that content with paid ads is the easiest way to get it out to the right people Okay creating distributing and the third one is as you start building an audience that is now engaging They're liking your posts. Maybe even commenting or sharing it Then you got to take it to the next step, which is to do audience research It's to realize that oh my goodness. I am so privileged now to have people who are willing to pay me their attention Let me say that again You are not first of all you are not entitled to anything Right as human beings. We're not entitled anything other than our breath Right other than our breath and the beauty of this earth and we've not even titled to that Take care of that We only entitled to our breath and then we don't have our breath. We die But you are only entitled to your breath. You're not entitled to people's attention on your content nor to their purchase purchases So when you have people paying you their attention Their attention and their time is nothing is something they cannot get back. It is so precious They could be reading a thousand other articles. They could be watching a thousand other videos They could be listening to a thousand other podcasts, but they're listening or watching or reading yours What a privilege They're paying you their attention. Okay, so once you have people paying you their attention You're so privileged by that. You can now ask them some questions Okay, try to try to message some of them and see if they're willing to answer some questions from you that will Help your business and maybe in exchange you'll give them some service for free Make a generous as much as you can But you ask them questions like really curious in in the journey of you trying to grow In this area the area of whatever you talk about in the journey of you trying to grow in this area Have you ever purchased any services or products that you can remember? Maybe it's counseling Maybe it's coaching. Maybe it's you've you've bought online courses or books What have you purchased and then they'll they'll tell you and you're like, oh wow That's interesting because I hadn't thought of providing it in that way or I hadn't thought of framing my product in that way Audience research allows you to figure out What people are buying Which is where their money is going which is where you need to shift your service to to speak to their commercial interest If you're going to make any money at all Okay, so content creation content distribution with paid ads audience research and finally You need to offer humbly on a consistent basis What your service or product is that's why you see me every single month. I'm offering you something every month Oh, here's my next course If you're interested you can join me if not, you know, you know that I have something else next month So having a rhythm of offers where you're like curious and go. Hmm. Will you will you like this? That's something you're interested in buying and not everyone obviously not anyone's going to buy But maybe a few people will buy when you have a small audience and then eventually more people will buy When you have a bigger audience and then more and more so that's how creating free content Will get you clients. You first have to start with an understand a deep understanding of the purpose of it all So you can enjoy yourself along the way You can find meaning along the way without having to wait and oh, I got a free client or I got a client for my free content You don't have to wait for all that you're enjoying yourself. You're having meaning along the way You're consistent and you're distributing. You're doing some audience research And then you're humbly offering and then seeing what people buy and what people buy more of you create More product with services around that you don't even have to create product services You can sell other people's product services and earn a commission too. That's fine too so but the key is Back to the original question is yes Creating free content will get you clients It's just that nobody can tell you when But you can have fun and meaning along the way if you find the right purpose in creating So I hope that this is helpful. I'm george cow authentic business coach. I'm always You know very open to your comments and your questions. I love talking about the stuff about creating businesses with genuine heart Not just with lip service heart and spirituality, but with genuine actual experience every day of of enjoyment of connection with our divine service And with that i'm just going to take a quick peek at see if there are any comments and questions in my facebook live I want to thank those who are joining me Jonah Ariel Marco Sharon Alicia Ariel says I love this idea of exploring our calling out in public. It takes the pressure off to be perfect. Absolutely I mean as you can see that's why i'm always trying to model in perfect videos, right and You know because I want you all to to know That your true fans will find you Perfect in a sense because you have the right energy signature match your true fans Might not be my true fans or vice versa, but your true fans will like you and your presence just as you are All right, I wish you well, and I'll see you in the next video. Take care