 One thing I always like to mention is that I have never unpacked a wordpress thing in my life. So you can run a business and not really know how to develop wordpress. It's almost like it's better because you have to hire straight away. So I always like to lead with that. Alright, so first things first, let's stand up. Up, up, up, up, up. Alright, so you all just had lunch, right? And you're probably like really full in the stomach and you're like way too much out there because it looked really, really good. So I just want you to like shake it up and get the blood going anywhere else but your stomach, yeah? Are you feeling better? Alright, you can really act. That is the participation that I wanted. Thank you. Alright, so running a business can be like riding big waves. So I'm obviously from Sydney. I love surfing. I would not attempt anything of that size. I do little baby waves. But this is what running a business or lead generation can be like. At one point you're at the top of the wave and you're just chilling and sitting and you can see exactly where you're going to go. And the next minute you get completely wiped out. You're like, God damn it. It's not working. Business sucks. Now most businesses that are sitting at the bottom of that pipe are sort of relying on word of mouth. Now I don't know if you say this in your business speak or if you've got friends that say this. But I'm like, oh, how do you get your clients? Word of mouth. Oh, I've got the best word of mouth business. I'm referral based. Well, I've got to tell you sitting in the back of the business, that's what referral marketing and word of mouth marketing does. You have no idea where the next lead is actually coming from because you're sitting back and you're waiting for it to come to you. You can't just simply turn on, let's say Facebook ads and go, hey referrals, come at me. That's just not going to work. So you want to actually put a system in place so that you can turn leads on at any point so that if you do need some more leads, you can go and get it. Get a bit of a referral here. All right, sweet. Big car fan. I want to give you the power and I'm going to show you in four simple steps how easy it is to actually turn your business on its head and actually start generating some leads for yourself. Now, this is a typical day. You might start at nine till five and there's like eight hours in every single day and you might be answering emails, checking project management, talking to one of your lady bosses, talking to your developer. I don't know, going to lunch, having a coffee. Like, I don't know what your typical day looks like, but in the end, if you're doing 20,000 things, it's going to start looking like this and you're really spread thin. Think about if you were applying for the Olympics and you were going to be, you know, you wanted the gold medal for sprinting. So in between eight and nine a.m., if you trained for the 100-metre sprint and then you stopped at, you know, nine and then from nine to 10, you then did marathon training and then from 10 to 11, you did some high jump training and then at 11 to 12, well actually you spanned it out to one because you got long jump, you're not very good at it. That's might be how you're running your business right now. Every single hour is a very different thing. If we actually just did ding, one thing, we'd all be gold medalists, yeah? Hands up, who's running their business? Like the previous slide? Almost sorry, I love the honesty in the room. I was definitely here doing all of this, 100%. I mean, I was doing logo design, in-design design sheets. I was doing some WordPress work, I was doing some Magento work. We were doing some, a tiny bit of Joomla work. I mean, a little bit of hosting, woohoo, making eight bucks. You know, and no wonder I wasn't profitable. But then when I got really simple and just did one thing and offered one thing then everything got much easier, okay? I know, bless you. Alright, so I Googled web designer Sydney, right? And this is the first guy that came up, so I'm really sorry Jimmy Webb, but you're now on the spotlight inside this chat. So Jimmy Webb, website. I don't know what your website looks like, but this one is a typical one that I see from my coaching clients. So home page, about page, services page. I've popped over that services page tab, and then whoa, I was met with a whopping mega menu of all the things that this gentleman or female, Jimmy could be both sexes, is doing here. So as a customer, you've just put in web designer Sydney, let's say. And you've got to this guy's site, now he's paying good money on SEO because he was like first, and then you get to the website and there's like, well, we do design, we do travel design, fashion design, handbags, jewelry, do you want to set a steak knife? Development, e-commerce, hosting, marketing. Can you see how cloudy the customer is going to be when they come here? They're not going to know what to do. All they know is that someone said either, oh, you don't have a website? You should get one. Or, oh, your website sucks. You should go and fix that. So they're going to come here and just be completely confused. Now, click us over here. Good example is a tradi's niche that I run, and basically there is nothing else you can do on this website. Except go to the Prime Service page, which is the tradi Accelerate system. That is it. And it's second. It's the most important thing on the page after the homepage because that's got the downloadable free bait thing that generates leads. But this is it. Like this is my services page. So when a tradesperson, now what's a tradesperson? A tradi in Australian slang is like an electrician, a plumber, carpenter, you know, that kind of thing, yeah? So when a tradesperson comes to the homepage, they might download the free thing, or they'll end up on the many calls to action to get to this page. Then they'll just see our one offer. We've got one offer that pulls them in and targets them and talks to them specifically for their biggest problem, and we're talking about the solution. So we're saying, even in the speech here, like, you know, attention tradies are ready to be the superhero of their local community. Dominate your local area with the tradi Accelerate system. Oh, what is that? No one else can sell the tradi Accelerate system, can they? Because I made it up. So just doing this has completely simplified everything that we do in the business. And now when those leads come to this site, they get funneled straight to our core offer. Now, there's only two things that we do in this business, either the tradi Accelerate system or a Quick Start system. Everything has got a name because that's marketing. Can you imagine working with these guys? Like, what do they do? Like, think of your own site. What is your website? Do you have one of those services pages that have like web design and web development and WordPress? It's too much. So it's too much. He was number one. So yeah, he's SEO'd. He's very good, obviously. And he would get calls of course. He's first. There's like a thousand people searching for WordPress, you know, designer, Sydney, et cetera. So he would get good leads. But imagine if he simplified his offer. Most customers have no idea what they want. They want you to tell them what to do. And if you show them a ray of all this stuff, they're going to get real cloudy and take a step back and take a breathe in because this is tech. They've got no idea what this stuff is. And they're just looking for someone to lead them to the path where they can get a solution. Okay? So in all of this, I want you to stay solution focused. Yeah? Let's keep moving. All right. Three reasons why most marketers don't niche. So lead generation, the best way to speed up lead generation is to actually pick a niche and to stick with it. Now, why do people not think to stick to a niche? One, they feel like they're going to lose an opportunity. Like, oh, I can't just work with photographers because there's not enough photographers in this world for me and I'm never going to run a profitable business. Or, you know, I don't think that I've got an accountant that's asking me for work and so I also want to do some work with my accountant and I'll get back to the photography stuff eventually. And you're like in the middle of two worlds. I don't know how many clients you guys are working with right now but if you're working from eight to nine, let's go back to that dial, if you're working eight to nine on an accountancy website and then you go take a break and then maybe 10 to 12, you're working on a cupcake shop and then you're going to have lunch and then in the afternoon you might work on, I don't know, a financial planner's website. Your day, like, your brain has jumped from how does an accountant market himself online? What do I need to do to build his site? Oh, okay. Now, what does a cupcake person do and how can I influence customers so that they buy and can distribute more cupcakes? You're completely separating yourself and your energy is being split between different types of mind, things that you've got to do just to get through your every day. Now, when you just have one niche, it's so much easier because it's the same damn thing every day. And I know that seems really boring but running a profitable business, I mean business is fun, right? But if you can get things so simplified that it's one type of lead and they're coming through the door in one fashion and they're talking in a certain language and you can match their language because that's sales, you're building rapport. You'll start to have a lot more success with those leads. Number two, I don't know what niche to pick. There are hundreds. I've actually got a worksheet to give you. There are hundreds of niches to jump into and every single person I talk to doesn't niche because they cannot decide what niche to work in. Now, you can start by looking at your passions. So what are you passionate about? What do you really enjoy doing on your every other day? I like mountain biking, fast cars, surfing and my dad was a tradie so that's why I did tradies. But those would all be really good niches for me because I would enjoy the work and I would enjoy the people because I am one of those people, yeah? So if all else fails, look for your passions. Otherwise, consider picking a niche is a little like dating. You just try it out for 90 days. And if you don't like it, you swipe left or right. I don't know what way it is between that. I'm married so I don't know. But you just try it out for 90 days. You don't have to get married to your niche. So pick a niche and work with them and if you do fall in love with them, awesome. Roll them over for another 90 days. If it was the worst experience ever, then wrap that one up. All right, number three. But I like working with a variety of people. Yeah, no one ever said that ever. I was going back to the point before where I was saying in the morning you with cupcakes and in the afternoon with the accountants and then you go to the financial planners. Like who here has a niche? Like does anyone have one single? Oh yes, Rockstar, yes. So like look at that. Two people in this entire room. One company. Oh, one company. In this entire room, niches, yeah. The fastest way to get ahead of your competition is to niche. Hands down. Because lead generation is going to get so much easier for you. Instead of you just winding up at web designer Sydney, let's say, I mean that's good volume there. You're actually going to turn into the accountants web designer or the hair and beauty website designer or developer or whatever your trade is. You're actually going to become the specialist and all your messaging. I mean if we go back here, you can't see the site. I'm sure it had something really awesome like we develop websites as like the headline. You know what I mean? And it's like cool, I've come to the right place. Attention tradies who are ready to become the superhero of their local community dominate your local area. They're like this person gets me. So again, when you want to attract high quality leads if you can talk directly to the lead this is not tech crap that I'm saying. It's everyday human stuff that they would be saying. Trades want to dominate their area. They want to become the local hero. They don't want to drive around Sydney. The traffic is really bad. So I've taken that, you know, trying to take as much out of conversations I've had with them and then drive all that content straight into my website. So if I was working with everybody I couldn't say that on the site, could I? Because I mean I would then upset everybody else and I'd be like oh my god that's scarcity. Let's keep moving. How do you go from unwanted guest? I never use animations and I actually worked out how to use them so I was very excited. To welcomed guest, okay. Do you sometimes feel like an unwanted pest? Are you ringing people? Hey, your SEO sucks. And you should totally take my audit and get this thing fixed or oh I did a website audit and I would like you to watch this video. Please let me know. Like are you this person over here doing like cold outreach and trying to generate some sort of conversation with your customers? Or are you over here? The welcomed guest. The one that's preaching about the hair and beauty salon website market and how, you know, if you want to cut and colour, if you want more cut and colours coming into your business then you need a website that does this. That's going to make you a welcomed guest. Because you're not like everybody else, yeah. Trust. Clearly forgot that one. Unwanted pest to welcomed guest. You just need to build trust. Alright, so I niched in 2013. So my story goes back a little bit. Technically, I'm a graphic designer. I then got a job in websites. I fumbled my way through. I got a job. I got retrenched and then I started a business and then I hired a whole bunch of stuff and everything is awesome. You could say that. But in 2013, I was running Summit Web Design, the business that I just made up the name. Woohoo, that's what you do, I guess. And I was like everybody else. I was a web designer in Sydney. I mean, I have an office in North Sydney and in my office there are five other web designers, Sydney. So I'm sure it's similar to where you live too. How on earth are you going to break out and be that one special person? So in 2013, I was like, you know what, I've heard of this niching thing and I think it's a really good idea. And so I just picked a niche and my dad is a tradie. So I was comfortable and I knew their language and their smell and their trucks and all this sort of stuff. And I just got real deep in the niche. Now the thing that I didn't do back then that we do now is that I was all on foot. So I was going to communities, I was talking to these guys, I was getting databases, I was taking the database back and then emailing them and trying to follow them up and then running around town and trying to get them into my world. My messaging sucked. I mean, look at this. Like email marketing, website, online marketing and SEO, social media. Like I was doing everything again. So my mistake here that I want you to learn from is that although I niched, I was still doing way too much. Now for us to run a profitable company that offers social media, email marketing, website. I mean, there's some software there that I'm going to have to pay for. There's some staff that I'm going to need. So if I've only got one social media account, I've got to put one staff on and manage that one social media account. That's not very profitable. Like, you know, that's not very scalable. When you simplify your offer and you just do one thing, it gets a lot easier. So yeah, learn from my mistake there. All right, things to look out for in niches. They need to be in motion. So don't go into a niche that has no idea that someone like you is really important for their world. So you want them to actually know, like, of your service and they know that it's of value. And then you come in like a fresh glass of water and you're like, yeah, use me. So make sure they're in motion and they value exactly what you do because there is nothing worse and I'm sure this conversation has come up before. There's nothing worse than going, hey, would you like me to build you a website? And you're like, I don't know. What's a website? You're like, oh, well, you know, we can build a four-page website home services about contact page. It's got a footer and a header and all this stuff. And they're like, I don't know. Do I really need a website? Because I've got a couple of clients coming in and out. You don't want that client. You want someone that when you say, hey, we build websites for hair and beauty, let's say. They're like, oh my God, my website really sucks and it's not converting and analytics is showing me stuff and you're like, oh, they know what analytics is. Thank God. That's someone who's actually in motion. They need to have pain and urgency. So I guess, again, let's go hair and beauty, like waxing clinic, right? They need more people coming into their clinic to get hair removal or they need a haircut or makeup or facial or whatever. They sit there in their office every single day and wish that more leads would come in. That is pain and it's urgent because a good business owner would know that there's only so long this cash flow can last and we're going to start running into the negative. So I really need clients. So make sure your niche has pain and urgency. The easiest way to speed up diving into a niche is to actually get one that already has a community. So like in 2013, there was trades, builders, networking, big event companies that I could pay $500 to and go and see 500 people and that instantly got me into the niche and talking to real people straight away and I would do one a quarter. So if you can find a niche that has a body or it has an awards ceremony or just some sort of community that you can attach yourself to, you're then going to be attached to an entire marketplace of people rather than just trying to scrap and get them on the internet. All right, this is where I'm going to jump in and hopefully tech doesn't get the best of us. All right, let's get some clarity here. I'm going to take this out. Bear with me. Let's hope that Zoom actually works. All right, so this is a little exercise I've got for you guys. Stop my face. It's on the wrong screen. Screen's gone dead. Come back. That screen's gone dead. That shouldn't go dead though. Where the slides go? Technical difficulties. I knew this was going to happen. Bingo. Come at me. Come on. Can you see that? Sweet. That's not it. All right, sweet. This is an awesome exercise that I want you to do. Password. That's actually not it. Never work with babies or animals. Or live tech. Yeah, exactly. I'm breaking all the rules here. No, it's not going to work. Oh, yes it will. Go, go, go. Okay, that's not going to work. All right, we're going to stick to this. Okay, this is a good exercise. This is not going to work here. That's great. Okay, great way to see what's actually going on in your business. A, B, C and D clients. So draw a quadrant. A clients, they're awesome. So think of clients that are actually awesome and you love them. An awesome client for me gives me their credit card straight away. On a sales call, they're 10 minutes and they're paid for. It's done. A bad client, a dog is like, that's really down. D for dogs. A bad client will actually call my number on the website and then want to just talk to me about, oh, what does a website do? Okay, I'll come back to you, I guess. That's a D client for us. I know if someone calls the office or leaves a voicemail, I know they're not going to be a client. An A client goes to that trading website. They hit apply for a call. They walk through a pretty hefty sales form. Name, email, how much revenue are you making? How much revenue do you want to be making? When those two questions come up, the lead has a choice. Am I going to be transparent and actually do I want to change my business here and do I want to grow or do I just want to get on the phone and ask this chick some questions? Move straight down to a D. So consider your A, B, C and D clients. And like honestly doing this example really opens your brain to the types of customers that you have in your business right now that are actually amazing but they're D for dogs or C, I can't deal. They're customers that call you 24-7 all day. They're B for basic. They might do all the good things that the awesome clients do but they're just missing a few things. So if you know the kind of A clients that you want to attract into your business then when you actually know what that customer looks like you can drive them into the business and you can start to recognize exactly who they are. Again, like me, I'm trying to get distracted by Ricky. A clients basically, I know that again, D for dog if they call me on the phone and start asking me questions they're never going to be a client. But I know and I recognize that A clients if they fill out my really scary form that asks them a lot of real questions holy cow it actually works. Then they're actually going to get through and become a client. Alright sweet, let's quickly jump to this. There's only two different types of businesses yet. This is you over here running your business. This here is the plateau line. I don't believe in running a plateauing business. You're either running a business that's being profitable or you're running a business that is being unprofitable. In three minutes a business that is actually profitable is doing the same damn thing every day pushing it out. There's systems and processes and everything works. Those are McDonald's fries. This is a hamburger. This is a fry. That's a shake. And that's a taco. Do you see what I mean? When you are running a business that is pushing out logos, web dev, I don't know, hosting migrations and everything else that you can do you start to lose profit. When you do the same thing for the same person every single day business gets super easy. Two last points. I've got 99 problems but traffic ain't one. There is so much traffic out there. This is the best time to be running a marketing agency because you can just simply jump into Facebook and start driving leads into your business. Now the problem with that Jimmy guy is that he's paying money for leads but he's offering a whole plethora. He's offering the buffet. This morning I tried everything. I really just needed an online. But it's going to be very difficult for you to generate more leads if you're actually doing way too much. Now again, to go back to the start the four most simple things that you can do to take away right now. Problem. Understand exactly what the problem is for your customer. Now again think of one customer. Think of all those A customers. What is the problem that they might all have in common? What is your core solution? What is the thing that you are selling the most nine pounds out of ten or that you love to sell it and you know it's profitable and you want to do it more often? Package it. Give it a name. The tradies accelerate system. What does that even mean? Okay, but for me it means that they're going to get a certain package out of our office. They can't take our document anywhere else because you can't get it anywhere else, okay? That makes you unique. Last piece there is market. I've got a freebie on the site Bitly WPSinger SGA. Yes, I've handpicked 300 niches that are awesome that you could potentially jump into. So if you want to kickstart your niching ideas then you can go right there. That is it. Check your shoes at all. I knew I was walking into a minefield. That was awesome. Again, we don't need questions. Do we have time for questions? Yes, we do. All right, the one company. Yeah, I'm actually talking right up to you. This was great, by the way. Oh, thanks. Because you are focusing on one niche so much aren't you worried that sometimes like someone is going to come over take over your niche and the diversification of your business if you don't diversify you're not thinking about it. You might kind of get stuck in that particular niche and just die. Great question, Eric. We have three websites that are all niche websites that are all ranked and they all have their own marketing system. And so when a tradie searches for a tradie website marketing they get the tradie one. When a hair and beauty person is searching for a hair and beauty marketing website when someone in construction is looking for construction they get my summit site. So the best way to start doing the whole niche thing and this is the most common question I get is should I change my existing website or should I build a brand new one? If you can build a brand new one in a week then build a brand new one because who cares it's just a website anyway it's all about the messaging. But if it's going to take you six months to build a new existing site and just get going because the faster your wheels start moving forward and you connect the message the problem, the solution you market it, you're going to have success. Hey! I just want to try to review I find that this niche concept works pretty well for let's say if you are just thinking of starting your business where you are on a blank piece of paper and you say okay I want to go into a niche and we need business which offers so many different services how would you advise them to niche it from there? This is for your business? Not just for me. So I could argue and say that we were running summit web design who marketed and did everything for everyone and then we eventually just ripped that band-aid off and made that marketing niche one website and we just spent some time in there so I just completely separated myself that would be a good argument point to go from again I think it goes back to point number 2 a lot of people are scared to niche because it means that there is going to be no clients so $100,000 $86,000 a month it takes to get to a million bucks so you are going to have 8 clients paying you 10 grand so you only need 8 clients so how hard is it to niche to get 8 clients a month? Like if we just do the numbers and it's really not that scary because you can still make a great business out of what you are doing does that help answer your question? I know you have got probably a lot of good questions for Steffie but as we are trying to keep on track I will ask you to find the later on and she will be happy to answer any questions Thank you Steffie a big round of applause Thanks guys