About Jenn:

Jenn Scalia coaches smart, successful women on how to get clear on what they want (as opposed to everyone else). Her clients have suffered from self-doubt, have trouble setting — and keeping — boundaries and don’t know how to love themselves more.

She helps them transform all that and ultimately change their lives. Do you know who you’re showing up in the world? Take the quiz atJennScalia.com to find out.

Transcript:

00:15 Stephen: Hey guys, Stephen Esketzis here from “Marketing on the Move”. And today I’ve got Jenn Scalia with me. Now, let me… Did I say it the right way? Names are always an issue for me.

00:24 Jenn Scalia: It’s okay. Scalia is the way that I say it. [chuckle]

00:26 Stephen: Scalia. Okay. Well, we’ll make sure we say it, how you say it, ’cause I think that will be the right way. Scalia. Jenn Scalia with me. So Jenn, welcome aboard. Welcome to “Marketing on the Move.”

00:37 Jenn: I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to chat today.

00:39 Stephen: Yeah. It’s exciting to have you on! Tell our audience a little bit what you do and what your main focus is in with your business.

00:48 Jenn: So, I work with female entrepreneurs to really help them hone in on their message and get that out there into the world in the biggest way possible. So I help them do that through visibility, through really understanding online marketing but doing it in a really authentic way, in a way that doesn’t feel too slimy or sales-y or anything like that but just in a really authentic way and playing up on their message so that they can make a big impact.

01:12 Stephen: Yeah. Awesome. And what have you seen is the biggest difference that you’ve made to your clients? What’s the biggest thing that you bring to the table that a lot of people are already doing wrong? What have you noticed?

01:22 Jenn: Well, like I said, I think it’s more of an authenticity to it rather than… I love systems and I love strategy and while that’s all well and good, it still has to feel good for you as the business owner, you as the entrepreneur so instead of just always hopping on the band wagon and saying “this is the next hot thing” or “this has to be done”, it’s really just looking inside and thinking about what feels really good in a way that you can connect with your people and still feel like it’s you.

01:53 Stephen: And do you think that a lot of people are mistaking that right now? I know that authenticity side of things is important these days and you see so many people becoming more authentic and obviously they deliver a stronger message with that because it’s their real self. Do you think… How do people become more authentic? What are some of the steps people can take to bring that authenticity through in their business?

02:16 Jenn: I think that the first way that you can do it, and this is how I actually built my business, is really through story telling. It’s through sharing who you are, sharing why you’re doing what you’re doing, and really connecting with your audience on more of a personal level rather than just looking at them as a sale or as a transaction, but really caring and giving to your audience, based on just you wanting to serve.

02:41 Stephen: And what’s the best way of, I guess… So if you’re an entrepreneur out there and you’re wanting to become more authentic and you wanna show how you can serve people, what are some of the steps people can take?

02:52 Jenn: I think that they can, like I said, just tell a story. That would be the first thing. I love email marketing and I think that that is the best way to really connect with your people. Obviously a lot of people use Facebook and Twitter and other kinds of social media, but I really feel like those people that are on your list, you have to nurture the heck out of them, and really show them that you care about them and that you want to serve them but also let them into your world and show them what it took for you to get where you’re at and why you’re so passionate about what you do.

03:22 Stephen: Yeah. So, with email marketing, I know email marketing is huge and for good reason. You own that list, it’s your web property, it’s your followers, it’s your fans. How often do you email people and how often do you story-tell them? How often do you have to actually connect with them?

03:39 Jenn: I’ve mailed to my list about two to three times a week, it really depends. I used to be on a very strict, one time a week at this time and that was it, but I found that I had a lot more to say. And I found that the more that I communicated with my audience, the more they connected with me. Within those two to three times a week, I would say that about half the time, I’m really giving them really good useful valuable strategy and then the other half, I’m bringing in my story and talking about that and then kind of leading into some of the other things that I do.

04:13 Stephen: Yeah. I guess that brings the question to: How do you structure your funnel around that sort of authenticity in your email marketing? How do you get people to your products and your services by creating that authenticity? When is it time to sell or do you start pre-framing that you’ve got your products and services from the beginning? What’s your idea on that?

04:33 Jenn: Yeah. I mean, it took me awhile to get here. Because I think in the beginning especially just being a coach, I didn’t wanna sell. I was like “Oh, I just don’t wanna sell to my list,” just wanna give them information but obviously if you want a sustainable business and you wanna scale your business, you’ve gotta sell, right? Right now, the way that I get people on my list is through… I do have a funnel through Facebook ads and basically they just sign up for my lead magnet which is an… It’s so good that I’ve had it up for almost a year and people have told me that they’ve gotten more out of my lead magnet than they have out of a $2000 course. I think right there, I automatically build trust with my people just by…

05:16 Stephen: So what was your lead magnet? What are you using as your lead magnet?

05:19 Jenn: It’s “26 Ways To Be More Visible Online”.

05:22 Stephen: Yeah. Awesome.

05:23 Jenn: And it really is just… It’s not that they have to do all the 26 ways but it’s really just showing them that there are so many different ways that you can show up, so many different ways that you can connect with your people. And you’ve gotta choose the ones that feel really good for you. Once they download that, they actually do get an email from me and I do kind of hint a little bit. I have a membership site and that’s what I sell, that’s the back end of my funnel. And I hint at it but it’s not a hard sell. And throughout my funnel I give them very valuable contents, webinars that I’ve done, that have been excellent and I do share my story probably in the second email, the second or third email that they get from me. And then, again, I’m just kind of hinting, “Hey, I have this amazing membership site, these are the kinds of things that we learn,” and then by the end of the funnel, I do a little bit of a hard sell into the membership site. And it’s working really well this funnel that I have going on right now.

06:22 Stephen: Yep. And at what price point is your membership site at?

06:25 Jenn: Right now it’s at $47, and if somebody does come in on my funnel, I do offer a trial for $7 for the first month.

06:33 Stephen: Yeah, and how’s that converting? Is that doing well, do you think? People like getting a little taste of what’s going on?

06:39 Jenn: I believe so and I think it kind of takes the sting out of it, because even though $47 is a low price point, it’s still continuous. They have to pay it month after month after month, so I really believe by letting them in, and having them be in the community and see all the content that’s in there, they can then make a decision, “This is really great I wanna stay,” or “Not so much.”

07:02 Stephen: Yeah, that’s really interesting. I think that, like you said, bringing that authenticity to your email marketing and across your entire brand is really important. You look at guys like, for example, John Lee Dumas of “Entrepreneur on Fire” who publishes, now, income reports publicly, all those sort of things bring authenticity to your brand. Because now people seeing the inside of what you do and people do lifestyle round-ups and photos and this and that. I guess, is there one thing that’s more important than the other, or do you just have to be everywhere doing everything at once?

07:33 Jenn: I don’t know if one is more important than the other, but I do feel that people love that transparency. I think it’s really important for us, as entrepreneurs, to show people the real picture, to show people what it really takes to be successful. Because I think that there is a lot of noise out there and people are getting fed a lot of lies and people are getting fed a lot of smoke and mirrors. I think that, you mentioned John Lee Dumas, him doing that, just really shows his transparency in the industry and in what we’re doing. And I’ve done something similar, where I’ve done a webinar, a webinar that it’s gotten over 5,000 views. And it was, “How I made 100k in 90 days.” And I literally broke down exactly what I did, step-by-step, I broke down how much I spent, what my expenses were and what I actually pocketed and people still, to this day, this was almost a year ago, thank me for showing that.

08:31 Stephen: Yeah, see that’s cool. Especially when you’ve got that opportunity to just be open with people and just share that sort of information, they’ll appreciate it a lot more. Because you’re going deep with them specifically, which is cool. But, yeah it’s like authenticity, I think as well, like you said I think is so important. What about things like Snapchat and social media? Obviously Snapchat gives you… It’s really all the buzz these days. I know I’ve jumped on the bandwagon and everyone’s going on there. It brings that transparency and authenticity just to everyday life. Speaking with people while you’re at the airport or while you’re out for dinner, or whatever. What do you think about that? How does that play a part in it all?

09:10 Jenn: Yeah, I’ve tried Snapchat. I’m “on there,” but I haven’t really utilised it yet, but I do like it because I think it’s just you being real, right? There’s no faking it. You can’t mess up and start over again, you have to put it out there on the line, so that again that builds the trust and people just get to like you and get to really know you and see the behind-the-scenes stuff, so I think the live streaming is an incredible platform, whatever platform you choose, whether it’s Periscope, Facebook…

09:42 Stephen: Yeah, ’cause they’re all coming out now, like even Facebook. Yeah, Facebook, what is it? Mentions Live, or Periscope, they’re all hitting out now and you see more and more of these authority guys just pushing it pushing and pushing getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Yeah, it’s pretty interesting. Do you think that comes into your marketing plan overall as well? Should that be primarily pushed instead of email marketing or should that be used in conjunction with it?

10:08 Jenn: Definitely in conjunction, I don’t think anything should be used instead of email marketing, I still think that is the top. And I think that, as these new things come out, you really have to choose. You have to pick and choose which ones you want to do because just a few months ago, Periscope was all the rage. And now, not so many people are talking about Periscope, now it’s Snapchat. I think it’s really important to just really stay with the tried and true, right? Because it’s been around for so long, for a reason. But then again people talk about being one of the first ones on a social media and that’s how you can really leverage it, when these new social media platforms come out. But still, do what feels good for you. Some people just don’t like being on video, so that’s not gonna work for them, so how else can they communicate with their audience?

11:00 Jenn: So maybe it’s creating a podcast like this one, maybe they’re really, really great at writing and blogging and that’s how they communicate with their audience. You really have to think about your zone of genius, and also think about the best way that you’re able to communicate with your people so that they get you and understand you.

11:15 Stephen: Yeah, I think that’s key. You just play to your strengths, right? And so whether you’re audio or video or whatever it is, you just play to your strengths.

11:23 Jenn: Absolutely.

11:23 Stephen: Yeah, that’s cool. And I noticed on your website, I was visiting there and it mentioned that you’d been featured on a couple of awesome places like Huffington Post, and some really other cool places. Do you think that that kind of authority as well really helps push people forward in where you’ve been featured and actually telling people about that? Have you noticed a bump in automated conversions or just people connecting with you because of those things?

11:47 Jenn: Yeah, absolutely, and it is definitely another way that I work with my clients, to help them build that authority and credibility in their space. Because there’s so many coaches out there now, thousands of coaches graduating every day probably, and I think that you have to stand out and that gives you just that little bit of edge, that credibility that, “Oh my gosh! She was featured in Forbes and Business Insider, and there must be something about this girl,” so I think it is really, really key. And I think that it may be a little bit easier than most people think to be featured on some of these bigger named sites, maybe not Forbes and Business Insider, but things like Huffington Post or Mindbodygreen, or some other industry blog sites where they can just go on and get that credibility up front.

12:36 Stephen: Yeah, I think that’s definitely important, and I don’t know, I’m kind of caught between two mountains, cause it’s something I’ve been featured in a couple of those things as well. I’m wondering whether you weigh that over something like building an email list and having a funnel as well. I guess it all comes together, I don’t think there’s one right and one wrong. I think you just have to have them all happening together and just keep busy. I don’t know, do you agree with that?

13:00 Jenn: Yeah, I think they all definitely do have to work together. It would be kind of pointless to be featured on big blogs and podcasts…

13:06 Stephen: On Huffington Post and not have the funnel.

13:06 Jenn: And not have a funnel off the back end. It just doesn’t make any sense, so I think it definitely does need to all coincide and work together.

13:16 Stephen: Yeah, true. I’m gonna throw you a curveball question here, and this one is kind of a scenario question, you may have heard it before but, if you only had $500 in your pocket and you’re starting from scratch, and you had your food and shelter and all that taken care of, how would you use that $500?

13:34 Jenn: That’s a good one. And being where I’m at right now, I would say Facebook ads.

13:39 Stephen: Yeah? So walk us through, what’s the process you would actually use that $500 towards? You can put $500 towards Facebook ads, but you wouldn’t get very far if you didn’t have a website right?

13:48 Jenn: Well, yeah exactly. Assuming that you have a website, I would create a very strategic lead magnet, something that is really, really good. When I talk to my clients, I’m like “You have to make it… It has to pass the ‘would you pay for it’ test.” I want this lead magnet to be so good that it could be a course, or it could be something that people would pay for because too many times I’ve downloaded something and I thought it was gonna be really great, and it was rubbish.

14:16 Stephen: Just crap, yeah.

14:17 Jenn: And it just makes you feel like you can’t trust that person. Create a really, really great piece of content that is strategic with what you offer, and again, that costs no money, that just costs time. And build a simple, five email sequence off the backend, and then I would have the ads running to the lead magnet, and then the lead magnet would go into the five day funnel where at the end of the funnel, you would either… Let’s say if you’re a one-on-one coach, I would probably recommend offering some sort of strategy session or assessment. And if you have a product, offer the product.

14:53 Stephen: Yeah, awesome. I guess with that in mind, how do you create… When you tell your clients that there has to be a product or a service they need to pay for, what goes through your head when you say alright, “Well, what needs to go into this lead magnet to make it amazing?” What are some of the things that you look for in a lead magnet that you’d create to be successful?

15:12 Jenn: Gosh, I’d say everything. [laughter] I’m the type of person who really believes that you can’t give too much away for free. Even if I sat here and wrote a 10,000 word blog post and told you exactly my funnel and exactly what I do to get people, there are gonna be people who take that and run with it. But for the most part, people can’t and they still need you for accountability, for support, for additional strategies. I really say go all in and make that happen, whatever that is, and if you want to beef it up… For example, my “26 Ways to be More Visible Online,” I didn’t just list 26 ways, I actually turned it into a workbook that they could print out, or that they could easily fill in online and actually do the work right then and there. And then I also included an audio where I went through the process and why I had done it the way that I had done it and the importance of each of the 26 things.

16:08 Stephen: That’s awesome, I think that’s taking it to a whole other level, especially when you look at all those different scenarios which people might want to us it.

16:16 Jenn: Yeah definitely, and definitely for them it’s like this value. Like, “Oh my gosh! I didn’t just get a download, I got a workbook, I got an audio, I basically got a mini course.”

16:27 Stephen: Yeah, that’s cool. I think that a lot of those mini-courses are really powerful these days to bring people into your funnel. I know that whether you’re doing podcasting or online course or Facebook ads or whatever it is, putting together a free course of some sort, whether it’s just an autoresponder series or through a lead magnet or whatever, it can just drive so much value to your product on the back end, it’s just crazy. Yeah I think that’s a really important thing people need to realize, and if you can bring some authenticity to that funnel as well, I think your conversions will just sky rocket.

17:00 Jenn: Absolutely.

17:01 Stephen: Starting to round it up, what’s some of your biggest tools that you use in your business to keep you on track with what you’re doing, so your productivity, or with your instant marketing, what are some of the key tools that you like to use in your business?

17:15 Jenn: Okay, we are using Asana with my team, I have just two team members. I have a VA who does small tasks and then I have an OBM, online business manager, who is actually helping me structure my entire business, helps me with my Infusionsoft… Infusionsoft I think is an excellent tool.

17:34 Stephen: Before we jump forward, with Infusionsoft… I use ActiveCampaign and I really like that. But with Infusionsoft, I’ve heard mixed reviews, I’ve gotta say. With the complexity of it, how do you find that, or do you think that you just need someone to handle it for you? How do you work with Infusionsoft software?

17:50 Jenn: Pretty much. I think you just need someone to handle it for you. I think if I had to do it myself, I would probably have a different perspective on it, but my online business manager is so smart…

18:01 Stephen: Is just an expert on it.

18:03 Jenn: And she is a pro, and she’s an expert. And I can just tell her “Look, I want my funnel this way and if this person downloads this, then I want them to go in a different funnel and if they don’t, then I want them to go in a different funnel.” And she’s so smart with it that she’s able to really put it together for me. But yeah, if I had to do it on my own, I probably would have definitely a different view.

18:21 Stephen: Yeah. But that’s cool. Because you set up that system, obviously it works for you. But anyway I didn’t mean to interrupt, keep going.

18:28 Jenn: No, that’s okay.

18:28 Stephen: You have Infusionsoft?

18:29 Jenn: Yeah, so Infusionsoft, we also use Groove which is really, really cool. So Groove is basically, it’s an app that works with my Gmail, so every time someone emails my support email, we can assign tasks. If it’s something that’s just like an interview request or something that I shouldn’t handle or client care, I send that to my OBM. It’s really cool because it helps me keep my inbox clean and it helps me keep sane. [laughter]

19:01 Stephen: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And what about, this is a weird one because not many people ask it. But what about mobile apps? I know mobile apps are pretty crazy these days, what are your some most used ones?

19:11 Jenn: Well for me it’s more like the creative type apps, so I like…

19:16 Stephen: Really. Interesting.

19:16 Jenn: To use Word Swag. ‘Cause I’m an Instagram person, I have like 25,000 followers on my Instagram.

19:21 Stephen: Killing it, that’s awesome.

19:23 Jenn: Yeah. [laughter] So I love using Word Swag to really create my apps and things like that. And I actually have a Asana on my phone as well so I can check in and see what needs to be done and what doesn’t need… And you know what? Good old Notes on my iPhone, I use constantly, all the time to… If I get an idea or if something comes to me, I’ll just type it in my Notes and Google Drive and Google Docs, I’m obsessed with.

19:51 Stephen: Yeah for sure. And I know that on Google Docs and stuff like that, it’s just so powerful and they’re the free ones, isn’t it? It’s crazy that the free ones are that powerful.

20:01 Jenn: Yeah, I can assign things… If I create a document and I want my OBM to put it in my newsletter, I can just assign it to her, I can make comments, we can comment back and forth on different activities. It is really, really cool.

20:15 Stephen: That’s awesome. Well look, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast. And if you had one last piece of advice to give other coaches and business owners out there on how to really bring that authenticity to their brand, what would it be?

20:29 Jenn: Gosh, it’s just to be yourself.

20:30 Stephen: Be yourself, yeah.

20:31 Jenn: You know stop… Don’t be fake, don’t follow the hype. Be yourself and do what feels good and you’ll be successful.

20:38 Stephen: That’s awesome. Jenn, that’s been amazing having you on. Where can people hear more from you, where is the best place to reach you?

20:45 Jenn: My website, jennnscalia.com. Easiest way to find me and all of my social media, I made it super easy for everyone, it’s just Jenn Scalia everywhere.

20:54 Stephen: Everywhere, easy. And it’s an easy surname to spell, if you look at mine, no one can spell it.

21:00 Jenn: [laughter] Yeah, I was having a tough time.

21:01 Stephen: So at least yours nice and easy. That’s awesome, well thanks for jumping on today, I know it’s evening there in the States but yeah, appreciate you jumping on, and I’m sure we’ll speak to you soon.

21:10 Jenn: Thank you so much.