Six days ago, we launched the newest level of our business. Those inside of the Total Life Freedom Community and Mastermind have heard me teach on the concept of building a “stadium” for your business. Business freedom comes from being known, trusted and excellent in one area and creating multiple options for potential clients around that one area of expertise. As I taught this, and studied the massive success that sports teams have in building their stadiums and franchises, I realized that we had room to grow ourselves. If you go to a major league ballpark, you will find that they offer what many refer to as “the cheap seats.” Essentially, you don’t spend a lot of money on the tickets, you know you won’t have access like the people down below have but you are in the stadium. This would go for most sporting events aside from the Super Bowl, which had their cheap seats in excess of $3,000 for Super Bowl LVII. What I realized about six months ago is that we haven’t offered our version of cheap seats. Something at a very low price, where you get to be in the stadium. After months of brainstorming, planning and recording, Total Life Freedom School launched last week. It is a school where I teach you how to build a business around your purpose through video lessons, courses and homework. From there, I show you how to create multiple income sources to give you a life of freedom. What I wanted to do for you in this newsletter is break down what I learned through the first week of the launch.
1- Less Is More
When we decided to launch a membership that was less than $10 a month, it was vital to research what others in that space have done. One of the first things that stood out to me during this research was that some of these memberships offered a ton of content. I was genuinely surprised by how much was offered for such a low price. After having a plan to offer something that was more “to the point” and concise, I got into second-guessing mode. Should we offer more? As a customer for a membership at that price, I wouldn’t expect more. But I saw some people that I respected offering all of that content. So I had a ton of conversations. Yes, I got on the dreaded phone and asked. Every day, I inquired with people who I knew were in some of these memberships or who would be knowledgeable about what we were building. And I learned something new. (I always do in these conversations.) What I learned from this market research is that not only did they not expect more, they didn’t necessarily even want more. The online world can feel debilitating with so many things to follow, watch and do that we throw our arms up in the air and give up. The idea for the school was to create content that is specific and to the point. The lessons take you on a path towards an attainable goal. Every week, I guide you to the next step by giving you the roadmap to create a business that gives you that life of freedom. So, it doesn’t need a Facebook group. It doesn’t need more bells and whistles to make it seem more valuable. The main thing is the main thing. And, the feedback also was that they really liked that it was once a week. They liked that they had one assignment and weren’t overrun with more content, emails and distractions. If you are thinking of creating a low-priced membership, you don’t need tons of content for it to be helpful. Often, too much is overwhelming. The number one reason why people leave memberships- or they don’t engage in the content- is because of overwhelm. Quite often, less is more. 2- People Like To Be Asked If you are a self-proclaimed “creative entrepreneur” like I am, you might not like the idea of selling, promoting or marketing. You might just love doing the work but feel uncomfortable about the idea of selling. Your biggest fear might be coming across as sales-y. I felt this way forever. I almost saw it as a badge of honor that I could create successful businesses without the idea of selling. But what if you are making these fears up in your head? What if the people who need what you have actually want to be asked? Or more organically, what if they like being asked for feedback? For two months, I got on the phone with at least one person a day to get their feedback. Feedback on the idea. Feedback on the website copy and design. Feedback on the message. It was probably the most valuable time spent during the building and launch phase. Every person gave some type of input that made the launch better. The feedback helped structure how the school content was going to be laid out. The feedback offered ways to improve the landing page. The feedback clarified the pricing and the offers. And there were two other things I gained by doing this. I gained appreciation, because they all expressed gratitude for me taking time to talk with them, and for trusting their insights. Never underestimate how special you make someone feel by asking for their advice and feedback. And I gained members for the school. Without “selling”- I only asked a few if they wanted to join- and still a large number of the people I talked to asked me to put them on the waitlist for when the school opens. In less than a week, more than 60% of them have now joined Total Life Freedom School. 3- Free Doesn’t Get People To Take Action I am an advocate for giving away really good, free content. Hopefully, we are doing this for you with this newsletter. As is the case with sports teams, they put their games on the radio for free. So we do it as well, with blogs, podcasts and other ways. But I learned something very interesting with this launch. For years, I did a short daily podcast. And what I found over time was that people got used to just getting free content. They consumed it when they wanted. They were entertained. They took notes. But quite candidly, I didn’t hear of a tremendous amount of people that took a whole lot of action. When we launched the school, we put a low price tag of $9 a month for the founding members. A tad more than a Starbucks speciality coffee but enough to make them have some skin in the game. The sample size is small, because we just launched a week ago, but the results in that week were eye-popping. The majority of people who joined Total Life Freedom School watched the first video lesson. That in itself is an impressive stat. But what was even more astounding is that, for those who watched, all but a few watched it in its entirety. And for the few who didn’t, they watched until the final minute. That is like a podcast having all of their subscribers listen to the show, and almost all listen all the way through. That would be completely unheard of! That is a big deal. First off, as creators, we want to make an impact with our work. We want people to engage, listen and take action. To have a large majority of people in the school open it, watch it and watch all the way through tells me something important. Having skin in the game makes people take action. I know it does for me as well. And I rarely value things that are given to me for free. A big takeaway is this. Don’t be shy to charge for your content. If your purpose is to help people achieve a result- having them pay gets them to take action. If putting out endless free content lulls them into being endless consumers and not action takers, are you really helping them? Would they be better off paying even a small amount of money and getting that little nudge than getting it all for free but not valuing it? Don’t be afraid to charge- it allows you to stay in business and it allows them to achieve the desired results. Have an AMAZING day! Vincent | 
