market like a mofo Archives - ⚡️Kristen Kalp

Posts in "market like a mofo" Category

Secret Tool Alert! Meet…Scope of Work.

In this episode of That’s What She Said, let’s walk through how feelings of overwhelm (and dealing with all things ‘unprecedented!’) can be tamed for your business by managing one simple concept: your scope of work. 

Listen in below or keep reading for a transcript(ish) version!

Your scope of work allows you to determine exactly how much capacity you have to work in the coming months.

It also means you don’t have to despair when you notice person after person roll out their ‘this is exactly what I’m doing this year’ emails full of compelling copy and amazing offers.

You don’t have to know what your work year will look like eleven to fifteen months into the future.

The most brilliant and amazing things I’ve ever made weren’t plotted out like points on a graph years in advance. They were simply the next right thing that wanted to be made, so I made them. If you’re beating yourself up for your inability to know what 2021 and 2022 and even 2023 will look like, you’re not alone. Also! If there’s anything the past year has taught us, it’s that your plans may be interrupted or eliminated by forces beyond your control. (Like how the thing I love MOST IN THE WORLD about my job is teaching in person, and that’s gone until vaccinations are widely distributed at herd immunity saturation levels across the globe.)

There’s a number at the heart of your business that will help you move through overwhelm and whatever the year holds with greater ease.

It’s your scope of work: your current capacity to take care of your business without losing your sanity.

It’s okay if:

Your scope of work today is not the same as it was in 2019. (Mine is way smaller in scope.)

You have less capacity for work today than you did at some point in the past. (Post Covid, my brain takes about twice as long to write and to shape teaching materials as it did in 2019.)

Today’s version of you is overwhelmed more easily by thinking about your scope of work than you would have been at age 19, or 24, or whatever you’ve mentally tabbed as your glory days.

The pandemic has shaped and is shaping each of us as it moves through.

You might find diminished capacity in some areas.

That’s okay. You’re a human.

I’m here to help you stop throwing your hands up in angst when you try to look to the future of your business and instead you sink into the pit of despair. We’re trying to get to that spot where we’re not judging ourselves for our capacity, nor are we beating ourselves up for having failed to predict a global pandemic.

Okay? Okay.

Your scope of work is a function of time, money, and energy. It’s about working toward a place where you’ve hit ‘enough’ with all three.

Let’s start with time.

For the purposes of keeping this scope from being overwhelming, let’s imagine the next three months.

How much time do you have to work in and on your business on a weekly basis?

Multiply that number by 12, and voila! You’ve got precisely the amount of time on your plate for tackling the next question.

______ hours per week x 12 weeks = _________ (exactly how much time you’ve got to work in the next 3 months)

Next up: energy.

This is an overlooked aspect of business planning! Everything your make or offer takes not only time, but energy. You may be dragging yourself from day to day, or your may have FANTASTICALLY WOW WOW levels of energy. You’ll need to be honest about your energy level patterns in order to create a scope of work that doesn’t completely suck you dry.

Which programs, products, or services are you actively offering at the moment?

How much energy/capacity do you have to fulfill those active programs, products, or services?

HINT: THE ANSWER IS NOT INFINITE.

Marketing gurus the world over will talk about evergreen products, passive income, and making bajillions of dollars in 3.7 seconds using only click funnels and Facebook ads. But the answer to how much you can sell in the coming months is NOT infinite.

There’s a cap on how much follow-up, customer service, tech help, and individual attention you (and your employees/subcontractors) can provide at any one time.

What’s your capacity for fulfilling your services in 2021?

If, for example, you’re a wedding photographer, you can’t suddenly book and fulfill 317 weddings this calendar year. Your body, mind, and spirit can only support X clients. What is X? ‘Cause that’s your scope of work.

Likewise, how many sales can your business handle before overwhelm wins or the wheels come off? How much energy do you have for your business in THIS moment of 2021?

Selling evergreen products isn’t without its headaches and energy drains, so nope, you can’t sell 34,000 of that item without any hiccups this year. What’s your capacity for marketing and selling products and programs in the coming months?

Compare that against how much time you’ve got, and you’re closer to defining your scope of work in a way that’s actually doable. It’s easy to say you’ll write 4 books and 2 programs and take on 45 new clients! That looks fucking MAGNIFICENT written as a goal on your wall, doesn’t it?

But when you figure out that you’ve got 20 hours per week to work, times 12 weeks…meaning you’ve got 240 hours to work in the next three months…you can see how utterly unrealistic it is to ask yourself to write 4 books and 2 programs and take on 45 new clients.

This is NOTHING to feel bad about or beat yourself up for, okay? Capitalism skews toward goals being simple and MORE-based. I’ve seen this play out for clients who are looking for ‘more’ clients or ‘more’ sales. When they fail to define what ‘more’ is, it quickly becomes infinite and unreachable. You will NEVER feel like you’ve successfully gotten ‘more’ clients, ’cause the answer to getting more clients is…getting MORE clients.

Based on your physical, mental, and emotional energy — as well as the time you’ve got — what can you realistically handle creating, offering, and marketing in 2021?

Finally: money.

I’ve covered determining your enough number in this podcast episode in detail, so you can determine your ‘enough’ number and then come back here if your finances aren’t crystal clear at the moment!

A clearly defined scope of work helps you turn your current time and energy levels into what you deem ‘enough’ money.

How does your time and energy measure up to the earnings you’d like to bring in for the next three months?

When you’ve got the capacity to market and fulfill X products/services/programs, how does that alter your pricing?

Maybe nothing has to happen and your capacity matches your offerings.

Maybe your work is underpriced and so you need to raise some prices.

Maybe earnings aren’t the issue and acknowledging your current capacity instead of getting (more) burned out could help you feel less overwhelmed right now.

Maybe you’re totally burned out and need to take a break, so your usual numbers or estimates no longer apply.

I don’t know what your specific circumstances happen to be! I only know that nailing down your scope of work is helpful and stress-reducing.

Nailing down your scope of work leads to radical clarity.

Let’s say you need 6 clients per month. You talk with potential clients on calls before they purchase your services and about half of inquiries book. Fantastic! Then your scope of work is to have 6 clients, which means hosting 12 discovery calls per month.

I’ve seen KK on Tap clients go from swimming in ‘I JUST NEED MORE CLIENTS!!!!’ to ‘I need to book X discovery calls in order to get Y new clients.’ Can you feel the CALM that comes with that sentence? It’s finite. It’s not MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE. It’s a clear and precise number that’s actually doable.

Suddenly, most marketing efforts are reduced to one clear goal.

In this example, it’s getting discovery calls booked. I’ll talk about my clear goals ’cause that’s easier than making up hypotheticals about yours.

My scope of work this year includes the capacity to take good care of 20 year-long KK on Tap coaching clients, to create twice monthly That’s What She Said podcasts, and to host ongoing live breathwork meetups and a secret podcast for Together.

That means all my marketing efforts are geared toward one of two options. Instead of being like, ‘WHAT DO I SAY OH GOD WHAT DO I SAY…?’ I know that I’ve got to talk about either KK on Tap or Together, since those are my active programs at the moment.  (There are *3* spots left in KK on Tap, so reach out and talk to me if you’d like business coaching for the next year!)

What is it that you need to talk about, focus on, or spread the word about in order to fulfill your scope of work this year?

What’s a reasonable amount of work that takes into account all of 2021’s nonsense while keeping you active and challenged in your business?

Where can you let go of services, products, or programs that you resent, are no longer excited about, or actively hate — so that your scope of work is more fulfilling?

Where can you forgive yourself for your inability to perform, make, or market at pre-pandemic levels?

Where can you give yourself room to make, market, and enjoy your work without falling into the infinite ‘I NEED MOOOOOOOORE’ pit of capitalism?

When you’ve got a clear sense of what you’re capable of doing, as well as a hold on the ways asshole brain will try to trip you up (like yelling “You need mooooore!!!!” no matter what), you’re closer to defining your scope of work. Because your scope of work is grounded in the present moment and keeps an eye toward having enough time, money, AND energy, you’re free to do your truest work in the world without making outrageously impossible goals! (Oh, you’re going to write 14 books and singlehandedly stop the pandemic — while losing 34 pounds and eating only organic greens?  TOTALLY DOABLE, says asshole brain.)

I’d love to hear about your scope of work for the next three months!

What are you doing, making, dreaming up, marketing, or bringing to the world right now? Email me via k@kristenkalp.com, or shoot me a DM on Insta via @kkalp — FOR REAL FOR REAL.

P.S. How to overcome perfectionism and just keep shipping.

Market Your Magic Part II ⚡️M-School Part 7

In this, the final episode of M-School — i.e. magic school for entrepreneurs — we break down *exactly* what you’ll be creating, promoting, moving, and/or shipping for the next six months.

We’ll walk through each part of making a marketing calendar, step by step, without freaking out or being overwhelmed by all the possibilities.

I know this is difficult.

Your brain will naturally tell you that you have no idea what you’re doing. It will say that what you’re coming up with won’t work, hasn’t worked in the past, or is just plain stupid. It will say that marketing can’t be this simple, or that your ideas are dumb, or that you’re too fat/lazy/stupid/tired/busy to do this right now.

That’s just your asshole brain coming in to sabotage you.

Remember your personal Voldemorts. Remember why you’re choosing to be in business in the first place.

Remember why you’re choosing to have a business and reach your ‘enough‘ place.

From there, keep going. Keep going. Keep going. You’ve got this.

For now, refuse to be overwhelmed. And get to listening. 😉

P.S.  This is episode seven of M-School, my magic school for entrepreneurs!  Here are episodes one, two, three, four, five, and six.   (The entire That’s What She Said podcast lives here.)

Show Your Work

show work painting Kristen Kalp

Heads up: this episode of the podcast is coming to you from a bubble bath in California, ’cause inspiration struck.

Lots of us do invisible work and then resent the crap out of people who fail to see it.

In this episode of That’s What She Said, we talk about making your work visible. Even your boring work, your dull work, your everyday work, and the work you’re sure you’ll be stuck doing until the end of time.

What if we made our internal checklists visible to other humans?
What if we changed up the ‘just shut up and be a martyr’ pattern and instead, asked for help?
What if we asked for people to acknowledge our completed tasks, to-do lists, and the many items we accomplish on a daily basis?

Once we tackle small to-do’s and offload tiny tasks, we can build up to asking for help for big and/or important tasks. Like parenting. Like entrepreneurship. Like being human.

Then, we move on to actually showing your work to other humans instead of minimizing it, pretending it doesn’t matter, or turning it into an albatross that causes you to hate everyone in your life.

One step outside of the domestic world, there’s the career-related behind-the-scenes work you complete and don’t share.

For example: breathwork is the energetic reset-slash-scrub down practice I do on a regular basis, and I trained in both New York City and Los Angeles to become a practitioner in 2017, with more trainings coming up this year.  Work. Made. Visible.  You can take a class here, schedule a 1-on-1 session here, or learn more about breathwork itself here.

You’ve got behind-the-scenes work, too.

Whether it’s editing video, shooting images, writing copy, making art, holding workshops, planning, prepping, and/or training, it’s time to let your peeps know that secret, private, or often-minimized work happens, and to make it more and more visible.

Listen in to get started, to stop resenting your family members and/or loved ones, and to dig deeper into exactly how much you accomplish on a daily basis.  HINT: IT’S SO MUCH.

P.S. Vulnerability 101: how to stop hiding your work and be seen by all the people who matter.

3 ways to get a harder working website with Tiny Blue Orange

Let me be perfectly honest: I don’t often send frantic e-mails. Every single frantic e-mail I’ve penned in the last six months has been sent to Tiny Blue Orange.

In the past month, I’ve sent the company’s founder, Alison Monday, questions about my CNAME, broken webhooks, and getting my auto-redirects in order. All of them OH GOD HELP ME I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING, and all of them returned with the problems solved in no time flat.  To which I respond with, YOU ARE A MIRACLE.

In her own words: Alison Monday is a responsive website developer + support system who focuses on WordPress sites. She’s fixed/maintained/built/hosted/improved online presences for dozens of amazing clients over the last 10 years.

When she’s not ruining the fun for hackers, you can find her in CrossFit, teaching yoga classes or carrying on serious conversations with Brutus + Pixel (her 110 pound bullmastiff + 95 pound lab/pitbull/mastiff mix, respectively).

Discover what it’s like to truly fall in love with your website + web developer by hiring tiny blue orange for development, hosting + support of your online presence.

I had Alison pop in on this episode of That’s What She Said to fill us in on the most common mistakes she sees entrepreneurs making with their websites, and how to fix ’em.

Before you’re like, NO KRISTEN I CAN’T LISTEN OR I’LL FALL ASLEEP AND CRASH MY CAR DUE TO BOREDOM, no.  You won’t.

Alison keeps it light and simple.  There’s no shaming involved.  If you don’t have a website opt-in or a Google Analytics account or even the faintest clue about how to work the tech end of things, it’s okay.  You can start where you are, and no one is going to make you feel awful about your current location.

In this episode of That’s What She Said, we also talk about:

  • how to keep your website from overwhelming visitors at first glance
  • making your website a hard-working employee
  • why it’s okay if you don’t have an opt-in right this moment (YUP REALLY)
  • beautiful and effective alternatives to Google Analytics that don’t hurt your eyeballs
  • the importance of fine-tuning your website on a regular basis (even though you couldn’t give any less shits about image optimization and website load times)
  • simple WordPress security tweaks that take just a few minutes
  • the differences between hosting providers (in non-robot language)
  • why Tiny Blue Orange is the name of Alison’s company
  • Alison’s experiences with self-employment through chronic pain
  • how the hashtags #chronicpain and #chronicpainwarrior have helped her connect with others
  • her broken-hearted teenage poet years and why she loves poetry to this day

To hire Alison and the Tiny Blue Orange team, you’ve got options! Opt into her Nerd Alerts right here. Take the wordpress security quiz here, or hire her to handle your hosting, security, optimizing, and tech-ing of all kinds right here.  (Also you can follow her on Instagram right here.)

P.S.  Want another interview with a miraculous person I happen to love?  Choose from Branden Harvey, founder of the Good Newspaper, or Nick McArthur, one of the bravest people I know.

Stay on it. (That’s what she said.)

stay on it sales graphic

Today can we talk about why I hate selling stuff, even though part of my job is teaching people to sell stuff? I hate selling because you have to stay on it.

You have to keep selling and marketing far beyond the point where you feel any reasonable person would have purchased, bought, added to cart, or checked out.

When I like stuff, I buy it. Period. On sale, not on sale, 3 left, 37 left, don’t care.

The vast majority of people hem and haw and put off decision-making and “think about it” and ponder it and ask questions and talk to their friends about what they should buy and then, eventually, buy the thing at the last possible second or when the ‘deal’ runs out.

I’m still learning this after 8 years, and it’s still frustrating as hell, but I want to reiterate: most people hate making decisions and avoid them at all costs.  I truly think I’m broken in this department, since I’m mostly like, YUP NOPE no nuh-uh no way YEEESSSSS no no no no no no no no no no fuck yah.

This is what I’ve learned about this staying on it by carefully watching my own impatient tendencies and my peeps’ procrastinate-or-bust behaviors for years and years.

Stay on it rule #1: at LEAST 50% of sales come in at the last possible minute.

When I launched my Sales Without Shame program a few years ago, over 50% of the introductory sales came in during the final 48 hours of the offer. This time around, that procrastinators’ percentage for the Brave workshop Early Bird pricing ending was actually 83%. Had I not sent a series of ‘This is your last chance’ e-mails about Brave, I’d have missed out on 83% of sales.

In case your eyes are glazing over that number: EIGHTY. THREE. PERCENT. Of sales.

That means that if you want to move $1000 worth of product, failing to let your peeps know about a deadline means you’ll walk away with only $170. (That’s an exceptionally procrastination high percentage, but it points to a bigger issue.)

Continuing to push sales at the last minute is the hardest part of marketing by a long shot.

By the time your promotion or your next product/thingie/service/class is even announced, let alone coming to a close, you’re sick of talking about it. You’ve had to come up with seemingly endless ways to discuss your own best features and benefits, and you’re all out of buy-it-now-juice to sprinkle on your potential customers. I know.

But if the doors close at 2:00 p.m., plan on a deluge of action from 1:30 to 1:59 p.m.. Don’t give up and say your efforts aren’t working during the hours beforehand, like your asshole brain will tell you in order to keep you from sending that last e-mail or making that last post. Don’t let your peeps coast through the deadline without mentioning it many, many times.

Humans need deadlines and will naturally put off decision-making until they are forced to make a choice. Your repeated messages as the deadline approaches will naturally cause decision-making, and therefore sales.

If your doors never close — if you’re always perceived as available and capable of taking clients — potential clients don’t have this sense of urgency. They don’t have to hop on board or get in line because you haven’t given them any reason to do so.

Deadlines for promotions naturally regulate the flow of income to your business.

No promos? No deadlines? No one is beating down your 1:59 p.m. doors, since absolutely nothing happens at 2 p.m.. That probably means lower income for your business.

Stay on it rule #2: you can always try again.

Since I launched the Brave workshop at a time when actual, literal tenets of fascism were being introduced in my country — SURPRISE THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN IN OFFICE FOR 48 HOURS IT’S ALREADY A SHIT SHOW — I got considerably less attention than I had planned with each marketing message I sent.

I could either a.) blame myself for being unable to rise above the collective dread, fear, and outrage sweeping through the nation, or b.) extend the timing of my offer and keep letting peeps know about what I had made and why it mattered.

Sometimes, events entirely outside of your control mean your promotion completely fails or you get precisely no attention when you had planned on hitting it out of the park. That doesn’t mean you give up and start over. That means you get creative. You can extend the offer, find a new way to talk about it, or start sending personal e-mails asking for help with promoting to your friends, one-by-one, who tell their friends, and you get your sales the painfully old-fashioned but incredibly effective way: by word of mouth.

For stay-on-it rules 3, 4, and 5, give the latest episode of That’s What She Said a listen.

Listen in, pick and choose episodes from the entire podcast right here, or subscribe in iTunes right here.

P.S. This is part 4 of the 4-part Crash Course in Sales!  Start by reading part one right here.

P.P.S.  You’re right, marketing sucks.  Make it better.