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In this episode, get a deep-dive introduction into Jennie and Alyson. You’ll hear about the mistakes we’ve made in our businesses, how we met, and a bit about how the System to THRIVE came about.
We’ll also talk about our THRIVE methodology to business success – from being Transparent to Engaging your following… and everything in between.
- (0:29) Who should listen to this podcast
- (2:27) Alyson’s Story
- (4:41) Jennie’s Story
- (7:53) Alyson’s first summit
- (10:04) How Jennie & Alyson met
- (12:07) Why we’re doing this podcast
- (13:44) What you can expect from each episode going forward
- (15:39) The THRIVE System
- (20:39) Where to get your THRIVE worksheet (just scroll down!)
- (26:30) How to keep engaging your past clients or prospects
- (30:33) Where to connect and engage with us
THRIVE Worksheets Mentioned on This Episode – these worksheets will help walk you through the THRIVE system that we went through and help you apply them directly to your business. From brainstorming your specific offers to writing your invitation script, you'll be able to begin building your business authentically. Just click the button below and you'll be able to opt-in.
Alyson 0:01
Hi, everyone, and welcome to the system to thrive episode number one. I am super excited that you're joining me and my business bestie. Jennie Wright. We are super excited that you're here, Jennie Say hi.
Jennie 0:16
Hey guys, how are you? So glad you guys are here. Thanks for being on the very first podcast.
Alyson 0:22
Yay. Jennie, tell us who should be here.
Who Should Listen to this Podcast
Jennie 0:29
So, yes, absolutely. So the reason that we've created this is for people that are coaches and speakers and authors, entrepreneurs, people who are trying to grow their business, spending time trying to build up some success. But you need to know some of the finer points, the things that are actually going to help you grow your business in an authentic and really succinct way.
Alyson 0:53
Absolutely. I think what we also need to make sure is that these people who are listening who we keep in mind when we're developing our content, and when we're speaking and teaching, is to hate those skeezy sleazy marketing tactics that make us feel like we're trying to pull one over on our customers. That's not what we're looking to do. We want to meet them where they are and serve them authentically and fully and build that real community. That is really what the THRIVE is all about in System to THRIVE. And that's why we're here. That's what Jennie and I believe in.
Jennie 1:26
Absolutely. I'm really excited to do this simply because there needs to be that voice. And there are other voices in this space. And we know there's other voices in this space. But the way that Alyson and I have developed a relationship, we're going to talk about that in a little bit. But the relationship that we've developed in the friendship and the working relationship has shown time and time again that the methods that we use to attract our ideal client and serve those clients works, and it's not the skeezy in the spammy in the salesy stuff, it's authentic marketing and it's, you know, attraction marketing and permission based marketing and all these wonderful, great juicy things that help your business grow through, you know, real organic ways, and we're really excited to talk about it. So we're going to dive in, we're going to tell you a little bit about ourselves and who we are. So if you're listening to this very first podcast, thank you for being on with us. We're going to tell you a little bit. We're going to dive into some content today on what THRIVE is, and hopefully you'll be joining us for this journey.
Alyson’s Story
Alyson 2:27
Absolutely. So my name if you didn't catch it is Alyson Lex. I am from Baltimore, Maryland. I am the mom to an incredibly precocious four year old boy. And in eight incredibly crazy cats, which is why I am the crazy cat lady. And of course my husband is amazing. I am a direct response copywriter. We've been doing it for just about 13 years as of the time of this podcast episode and my dream When he really started when I was in college was an education major to be a teacher. And I realized through a series of decisions and wrong classes and all that, that I did not want to teach, but I didn't know what else I wanted to do. So I got a big girl job, the kind of benefits and paid vacation. And it is what we're supposed to do.
Right? Well, I was like, you know, I don't know what I want to do. I'll just go out there and see if I can find something that fits. I ended up as the administrative assistant at this marketing company called Glazer Kennedy Insider's Circle, which if you know anything about direct response, it's a pretty big name in the industry.
Eventually, I worked my way up to marketing director, actually within three years, so it was a little bit of a quick rise to that corner office. But I was burned out, and I wanted more and I was ready for another challenge. And so I went out on my own. I struggled a bit before I found my footing, but now I get to serve some really super successful Entrepreneurs as well as some business owners and entrepreneurs that are in the earlier stages of their success. And I genuinely get to help my clients every day. One of the things that I love, especially about working with coaches, and experts, is the ripple effect.
And I think this is something that Jennie can really relate to, as well as when I know that when I help, for instance, a relationship coach, sell his or her program, that program is changing lives. And it ripples outward. And I get to be a part of that I get to help them change lives, which means I'm helping change lives. So it's kind of a big mission for me. I know Jennie can relate, right?
Jennie’s Story
Jennie 4:41
So a huge, huge, huge, hugely can relate to that. So if you don't know who I am, I'm Jennie Wright. I am a list building lead generation expert. I started working online about 12 years ago at the time that we're recording this. So that was in 2012. Before that, I worked The regular you know, office job. It was a bilingual position, which was great English and French and I was a communications and investor relations person. And that meant that I was doing a lot of communication work writing a lot of writing a lot of ghost writing, I was the ghostwriter for the president and CEO, I wrote all of his speeches. And then those would get bedded by about 15 different people through red tape, but you know, but I was the ghostwriter. And it was amazing, because I would get six minutes with him at 6:30 in the morning, and he would just dump to me, whatever it is, he wanted to say that day or in that newsletter, or in that press release, and I would write a four page, like practically a manifesto on what he was talking about, from six minutes. And it was incredible, and I really loved it. However, it wasn't the right job for me. Now, previous to that I had worked in a big box retail store and I had learned everything. My parents were entrepreneurs, and working in this big box retailer. I learned every single job basically what I did when I worked for my parents you know everything I pushed buggies I made chicken I you know, churros words in the back office it all those things and became actually went into marketing funny enough I fell into it because I got injured at the time going into marketing was you know, in this particular company what you did when you were on disability, if you could believe it, I was on short term disability and I learned marketing. And then from there I actually became a marketing supervisor. And then that's when I left to go to this corporate job because benefits and office and my own cubicle. But I left.
I left in 2012 and I had a bit of runway [where I] didn't know what I wanted to do. I started working at a call center where I was the person that would say, you know, thank you mister such and such, the lines are now open. You can ask your question right on these huge conference conference calls that you would hear on television. I was one of those voices –
Alyson
You do have a good voice.
Well, thank you. And then I became a virtual assistant. And I VA’d for lots of coaches and entrepreneurs making 10 bucks an hour. In the beginning, it was crazy crazy considering what I've been making at corporate but I, you know, was working my way up and I knew I had to do it. And I learned the ropes. And then I discovered online summits, figured out how to do online summits did about 250 of them perfected it [and] helped loads and loads of people figure it out. And then I knew I wanted more from that. So then I've transitioned into coaching and speaking and building courses. All of that to say, Here I am ready to provide as much information as I possibly can to help people hopefully not make some of the same mistakes I did, (because I made a lot) and get on their journey to growing their businesses faster.
Alyson’s First Tele-Summit
Alyson 7:53
Right, my first summit… Well, let me back up: my only summit was in 2013. And my coach at the time said, This is what you're going to do. And so I did it and I built the website myself and I did everything myself and it was a TELUS summit with instant teleseminar that's how they started. And it I mean, it was a disaster from the outset but so, you know, my to do list was 18 miles long but the one thing on my to do list that I was like, I definitely need to do is record my segment.
Yep. And I never actually did it. So I did it live.
I was like, whatever, I'll just do it live. And maybe this is where my fear of live things comes from because I use the landline. The Silva landline I've plaster walls in an old house and so my cell phone doesn't always get the best reception. So I still have a landline and my landline dropped the call, four times. During that live session…
Jennie 9:02
Clutching pearls over here!
Alyson 9:05
…now add that technical nightmare. This was the first session of the whole thing. So I really started strong before that it was not niched in I was like if you have a business you need this
Jennie 9:24
Oh yeah well my first summit was not niched and either it was called “The Dream Business Summit!”
Right rock your business. Build your dream business over here. Yeah, so bad so bad. But you know what we've learned a lot we've been
Jennie 9:47
Oh, yeah. And we met we met let's talk about let's talk about that for a second because people need to know how we like actually develop this like crazy relationship. And it is a relationship. It has gone past friendship, y'all. And this is like relationship
Alyson 10:00
Girl crush!
How Jennie & Alyson Met
Jennie 10:04
We met in a Facebook group about what five, five years ago from like right now five or six years ago? Yeah, I was gonna say five and a half I think was November we started talking about your your honeymoon where you'd go on this cruise.
Alyson 10:18
Do you really remember this?! Oh, yeah, we met I know what Facebook group who met him I know we were in the Facebook
Jennie 10:22
No no, I remember all the details. I remember that you were talking like somehow there was something about you taking this cruise, this Viking cruise or something? Yeah through and, and I know that I had wanted to go on that cruise as well. Like I wanted to, it's on my bucket list kind of thing. I want to do that specific one. Yes, that specific one and then I remember asking you a ton of questions about it. And you were telling me all the places that you went and what you did and everything and then you were buying your you know, because you're still pretty newly married at the point you're buying your husband this jersey for Christmas and all these different kinds of I remember all of it. And then you know, we would talk like…
(Obviously, I was crushing earlier than you.)
Jennie 11:04
And we would talk on and off, we would talk like once a week on Facebook chat and you're there and things like that just a little bit. And then it started to grow and grow and everything. And now it's gotten to the point where in the past, I'd say in the past two years, you know, we've done several webinars together, you've done trainings with my partner, Jay like showing up and doing stuff with him. You know,
Jennie 11:26
I have loved using your copy that you've so wonderfully written for my sales pages and converted it 44% but that's a whole nother update.
Like, you know, and that and the friendship has just kind of grown from there and you know, the friendship goes beyond business like we always talk about really good stuff. And we want to see each other in person we've never met in person but we're gonna!
Alyson 11:49
We were supposed to be there. Thank you. Coronavirus.
Jennie 11:53
So all this to say that You know, there's this relationship,this friendship, this family feeling that's built families,
Alyson 12:05
Familyship!
Jennie 12:06
And we've served clients together, we've created trainings and opportunities. And we worked with clients together. And people have seen some really good success from the things that we've done with them. And, and that's one of the great things I love about working with you. So let's dive into a couple things.
Why The System To THRIVE Podcast Exists
Let's talk about why we're actually here. So we have a, we took some time when we thought about why we're actually doing this, this podcast, and one of them is is that you know, as entrepreneurs and coaches and business owners, how do we consistently sell our products and our programs and our services without making customers feel like we're in it just for the dollar? And how do we serve them in a way where it's meant to show them how to run a profitable business, right? How do we put good out into the world and put dollars in our pockets and not feel gross about it like you need to shower after it, right? And how do we change the lives of our community, while bettering the life that we lead like for your family, for my family, for our friends, like for, you know, for our circle? And that's really important.
Alyson 13:13
And those are the questions that we knew we needed to answer. We knew that we needed to, to answer that it is possible that it's not a zero sum game, there can be winners on every side. It's not an either or scenario and it's possible to completely thrive in your business while serving your clients to the best of your ability. And that is exactly what this podcast is designed to show you how to do. A System to THRIVE.
What To Expect From This Podcast Moving Forward
Jennie 13:44
Heck, yes. And we're going to sprinkle in a lot of really good stuff into these podcasts. This is not just a listen to Jennie and Alyson chitchat and talk about cats or you know, the fact that we're both left handed or any of the other amazing things that we share like permaculture and growing our own food, but we won't go down that road.
But what we are going to tell you and share with you is some really great tips. We're going to have downloads for you, we're gonna have things that you're going to be able to, you know, pop on over to the website and check out the show notes and get really good information because I think that's lacking a lot of podcasts. And yeah, they're fluffy. They can And, look, I love podcasts. I don't consume quite as many as you do, because you're crazy. But I love listening to podcasts. And what I find is that there are some that you just want to get to the meat.
Alyson 14:39
Yep. And I know that for this episode, we're really just kind of introducing ourselves. Yeah, letting you get a feel for us whether or not you like listening to us, or grating or any of those other things. But if you've followed us for any amount of time, you know that Jennie and I are anti fluff, we always desire and really just intend, and our purpose is to over deliver and provide a ton of value. So that there are actually actionable steps that you can take. After everything you do with us, we'd love to see success from information that we've given away. And that actually is a really good transition into the content that we have prepared for our introductory episode, which is the fact that thrive is an acronym.
The THRIVE System For Success
Jennie 15:39
Yep. And this is an actual system. This is the system that Alyson and I employ for ourselves and for our clients to help them through to actually help them thrive wherever they are in their business, brand new middle, you know, pretty experienced trying to get to the next level, whatever. This system works at all levels, and we're going to talk about this so thrive as an acronym right?
T – Be Transparent
So THRIVE, so the T in THRIVE is about transparency. And transparency isn't, you know, it is some things and it's not some others but being transparent is about setting your intention and being quite honest about it.
I'm here to grow my reach online, reach more people who are interested in the topic that I'm talking about and yes, make connections and potentially find some really great clients Not gonna lie. #transparency.
Alyson 16:28
I'm here to step out of the shadows. I've been behind the scenes for a lot of really smart people. I am here to be front and center to use my knowledge to help other people to grow my business and make a difference. Yep, absolutely. World and my pocketbook.
Jennie 16:49
Absolutely not. But that's not your I mean, with all transparency, that's not the driver, but it is one of the things that you want, right? You know, it's okay. It's okay to want to make money. We're running businesses. It's okay to want to make money. As long as you're upfront with your intention, so you don't come across as inauthentic or spammy later on when you make an offer, you know, when you do something, and we're going to show you that in later episodes about sales, and lead generation and lead transformation and authentic marketing and permission based marketing, and all those different types of marketing that we're going to talk about as, as what we've used to grow our businesses. So we're going to talk about that.
How Transparency Works In Your Business
Alyson 17:27
I actually wanted to give a quick example of how that transparency works. So Jennie, and I, as she mentioned, have done a ton of webinars together. And in my recent memory, we did one a few months ago. And we've always been talking about this #transparency to the point where we say it all the time. And at the beginning of that webinar, we said hashtag transparency, there's going to be an offer at the end of this thing. If you want it awesome. If you don't, awesome, there's some great value in between now and that offer and we want you to get as much out of it. as possible. So yeah, hashtag transparency. And I was looking at the numbers when we started our pitch. We did not lose a single attendee between the last five minutes of our content and the end of that pitch.
Jennie 18:16
Nope. Because we talked about it. We said it was coming. And we'll show you how to do that technique.
Jennie 18:19
Totally. And if you've run a webinar, and you know that you like, kind of sneak in there. People start dropping.
Alyson 18:28
Oh, God, yeah. And that's one of the biggest things that my biggest things that I had to overcome, was doing webinars on my own, and knowing that the pitch was coming and my stomach was starting to let go, and that my nervousness was getting up and then what would happen? I rushed the pitch so fast, because I wanted it over with the people who are going, what what was right What did you say? And it was, it was really, really brutal. And you know, I rushed it and obviously no, we would nobody would buy. So it wasn't until I cracked how to talk about the pitch throughout the webinar in such a way that lets people know you know what this is going to come, this is coming, this is coming. But until then I've got great content. And you know what makes great content here too. So there was a definite way of doing it, then we're going off topic, but we'll definitely talk about that in more detail. Just wanted to give an example of something that worked
H – Be Helpful BEFORE You Ask For Money
Jennie 19:21
The H is to be helpful before you ask for money. That's what we were talking about with the pitch at the end of the webinar, we were genuinely very helpful. We genuinely delivered a lot of content before we asked for $1. Right? If you end up asking for money before you help them come to terms with whatever situation brought them to you in the first place, you're very likely going to leave a bad taste in their mouth, and they're not going to feel good about working with you further.
Alyson 19:57
Correct. Yep.
R – Create Resources That Meet Your Client Where They Are
Jennie 19:59
We want you guys to provide really good Resources, we're going to share how we build really great resources because not everybody is ready to work with you at the level, potentially, that you want them to work at, with you like maybe your signature program or your product, but providing and that's totally okay that they don't, this is your opportunity to create resources that meet your ideal client where they are right now, and help elevate them not only to the point where they could potentially work with you, but they understand the value of what that would be. And we get that through resources. So don't be afraid to create really amazing resources that help people where they are and prep them for where you actually need them to be to work with you.
Alyson 20:39
Yes, one of the things that we have for this episode, and you can get it at https://systemtothrive.com/1 is actually a worksheet that will help take you through all of these steps, we've still got a few more but on that worksheet it will actually help you come up with those resources at those different price points, so that you have something to offer no matter what people are looking for. Absolutely.
I – Invite Instead of Command
All right, the I – and Jennie is so good at this one. I usually make her teach it but I'm gonna give it a shot – the I is to invite instead of command. So when it is time for you to sell for you to pitch for you to encourage the opt in whatever it is that you're doing. You're not going to command them to do it, which is a little bit of a switch from the way I've always written. So I, for years wrote, you know, really super hard sell. But if you temper it a little bit, pull it back a little bit, of course, be authoritative, be the expert be all that but pull it back a little bit with something like does it feel good that we can work together on this? Yep. Or is there a way I can help you with that or how can I help you work this out? We have an idea. How can I help you work on this?
Jennie 22:08
It's all about still having the command of the fact that you are the expert in your field, but not coming across as one of those late night infomercials that, you know, drive people crazy, but it does make them pull out their wallets. And it's also not being passive like shoulda coulda, woulda, please pretty please. Like, it's not all the way back there. It's somewhere in the middle where it's like, Look, you know what I know what I'm talking about. And I'm really good at what I do. And if you give me an opportunity, I'm willing to work with you and show you what that would look like. If that makes sense to you. Does that make sense to you right now? And people go Yeah, it does.
Okay, well, can I tell you more and we'll do a total training on this. It's a real way of coming at people without them feeling like they're getting hit over the head with an offer and making sure that people feel comfortable with the decision. So that's another conversation that goes in there with invite.
Alyson 23:10
I am just thinking about when I invite my son's best friend's family over for a cookout, which they're both in daycare. So social distance is not a thing right now for them. But we'll say, Hey, we're having burgers and dogs at four o'clock on Saturday. Do you want to come over? We aren’t like, “um, maybe if you want to, when we're thinking…” it's, “hey, we're doing this. Do you want it?” If we bring that to our business, it comes across very friendly and authentic. Yeah, absolutely.
V – Provide REAL Value To Your Prospects
All right, the V deliver value before all else. Okay, so no matter what you do, provide real value. Whether it's a couple minutes of consulting on your sales call – not just a script that agitates a pain – or a plan that you've put together in the form of a proposal, which is how I do it, I put together a plan.
And then I tell them, here's how much it would cost to have me do this for you. Or a list of resources that they can use if they don't work with you, which I get a lot of people who don't want to work with me or can't work with me for whatever reason. And I say, Okay, I want you to go here, here and here. And these are going to help you kind of meet those goals that we talked about you having providing that value, not only takes you out of that sleazy I'm only in it for the money territory and into that authentic, I care about you and your success. But it also solidifies you as the expert who will do the right thing in their mind. And so when they can work with you or are in the situation to work with you or do want to work with you, they feel good about coming back.
Jennie 25:04
So frickin literally, that's, that's a preach moment right there I love it really is.
E- Engage Your Prospects Before, During and After Your Sales Presentation
So the last one is, is engage E for engage. And this is before, during and after the sale. Now this is something that Alyson has taught me. And it's kind of funny that I'm talking about it. This is an Alyson thing that Alyson taught me so we kind of switch roles a little bit. And, and I'm cool with that because I get to talk about something that I've learned and employed in my business with great success, right? So engaging before, during and after the sale means, you know, before, during and after your content delivery or your sales presentations, that you're engaging with your prospects. You're showing them that you care, you let them know that you see them that you understand them, and why they're making the decision that they're making. If you engage your prospects before during and after, you'll have less of that. regret that post sale regret and people wanting a refund. There's a lot of stuff that we were that's built into that. And we'll go into a training all about that whole podcast about it. But suffice it to say, you know, engaging with your audience, throughout all of the processes to becoming a client, even after they've made the sale is highly important. So they feel seen and heard, and that you're not just chasing money. So this all relates to being authentic and true and not chasing the dollar. Yeah, again, all in business. Want to make money? Heck, yeah. Do it in the right way.
Alyson 26:30
Absolutely. Now I have people that I've worked with. And it's been a while since they've hired me to write copy, but I'll see an article that will remind me about them, or, hey, this is in their niche, and it's a new development, or I was thinking about them, and I’ll send them a present.
How To Engage With People Who Didn’t Buy
And I just do little things here and there. And it lets them know that it wasn't just about that PayPal transfer for me. Yeah. Now it's also really cool to engage with people that haven't bought from you, after the sales call, I do this a lot with people that again, are a no or not right now. I throw it on my calendar, I shoot them an email X number of days or weeks or months later, hey, how did that work for you? I'm really just, how are you doing? And it just opens up that relationship and builds a relationship. Now, T-H-R-I-V-E, we went through them all, are they easy? Not always.
Jennie 27:32
Not consistently! It's hard to be consistent with them, but it works.
Alyson 27:39
It's really it is actually really easy to just say, you know what, I don't need to worry about them. I've already got their money.
But when you show your customers, as well as your prospects, that you care about something deeper than that. It not only feels good to you, but it builds that community of people who want to work with you. They become what a good friend of ours Jason calls a raving or super fan. I call a raving fan, but I like super fans.
And those are the people that recommend you. Those are the people that show up to everything you do and build you up. How great does it feel to know Jennie that when we go on a facebook live together, but there are going to be people who show up and comment and say, hey, it's so good to see you guys!
Jennie 28:24
Exactly. Or when you send an email and they hit and somebody hits reply and tells you exactly what's going on with them and says hi, and I appreciate what you sent me and all those things. I love that.
Alyson 28:38
I think the System to THRIVE is about building more than a business. Don't get me wrong, we're gonna build a thriving business with you. But it's about building something that goes bigger, that feels better, and serves more than just the financial side of why you're in this to begin with.
Jennie 29:00
Absolutely. And we're going to document some of that. Some of this podcast is going to be documenting our journey as well as showing you behind the scenes, you know not absolutely, we're going to have guests on here, we're also going to be pulling on some clients and talking about their stories and their, you know, what their struggles and their successes have been and what they've had to go through, you know, how they've been, how they've learned or succeeded. There's going to be lots here, that's going to help. And we're going to try and make this as concise in content but diverse in topic, if that makes sense. Almost unlike making sure that we know you know, no stone left unturned kind of thing to let you know how you can do this, and we hope to improve. So if you give us a chance, and you listen to this podcast, and if you've made it to the end of this, dear gosh, look at you, congrats!
Alyson 29:50
We had fun!
Jennie
We did, but if you've made to this point with us, then you'll hopefully gives a chance for future episodes and I'm sure that You know, we'll do something that will catch your eye and make it worth your while worse.
Alyson
Of course, this is our introduction, we hope that you found some of our content valuable. If you want to snag that worksheet that I mentioned, you can go to https://systemtothrive.com/1. If you're on the show notes page already, that's where it is. If you're on YouTube, it’s in the description.
Jennie 30:33
And we're also starting a community so we're going to be creating a community on Facebook where if you're interested in the podcast or interested in the things that we teach in the podcast, and you want to have a community of people who are also trying to thrive, you can come and join thrive, The Thrive Collaborative on Facebook, just go to www.facebook.com/groups/thrivecollaborative. So come check that out as well.
Alyson 31:11
Thank you guys so much for listening to our pilot episode number one of The System to THRIVE. My name is Alyson Lex.
Jennie 31:19
I'm Jennie Wright.
Alyson 31:20
Thank you. We'll see you soon. Take care everybody. We'll see you soon.
Jennie 31:23
Bye.