My Biggest Mistake in Business

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[00:00:00] I’ve been in business over 20 years, and there is one mistake that I have made. I would actually call it my biggest mistake in business, and I’ve made it way more than just once. 

 

[00:00:13] Welcome to Tools to Create a Better Life with myself, Glenyce Hughes. Thank you so much for being here. I am so incredibly grateful for each and every one of you.

 

[00:00:23] This is an intro to my upcoming Business Success Training Series. We have five different trainings. You can choose one, you can choose a few, or you can choose all of them. If you were to choose all five of them, you also get a 15-minute session with me.

 

[00:00:40] So, the five different trainings. There’s one on turning strangers into clients. There is one on increasing the sales. There’s one on creating content. There’s one on repurposing that created content. There’s one on creating affiliates in your business, but also being an affiliate for other people. 

 

[00:01:01] Again, there’s five different ones. Choose one, choose a few, or choose them all and get the extra bonus. You can find the information above or below. If you don’t see it, reach out and I’ll get it to you. If you’re listening to this via podcast, it is all in the show notes or of course, in an email from me, or reach out and I’ll get it to you. 

 

[00:01:17] So, the biggest mistake that I have made in business over and over and over. Yeah, I know. Maybe you’re doing this, too. It’s gifting content — gifting goodies, whatever you want to call it — without asking for something in return. 

 

[00:01:40] Meaning if I have an audio — let’s say, a clearing loop that I would like to gift somebody, a group of people, or all you listeners — in the past, what I would do is say, “Here’s the Dropbox link. Go and grab it!”

 

[00:01:58] Now, that’s very kind of me. However, guys, when we are doing business, when we are in business, when we are running a business, please, run a business! Please, which means you still give that gift, but you actually request something in return. 

 

[00:02:18] What we call it is “opt-ins” where we opt in. Now, if I’m going to gift you a clearing loop, I’m going to send you to a page where you opt in, meaning you put your email address and your name, and then you’ll get into my email system and it will send you an email with the gift.

 

[00:02:36] Now, you don’t have to do it. I call it my biggest mistake because it truly did limit what was actually possible with regards to growing my list. 

 

[00:02:46] What a lot of people don’t recognize in business and unfortunately, a lot of people don’t recognize it until they go through this is that all your social media stuff isn’t yours. Facebook can close your account tomorrow. It can close it in the next moment with no explanation, with nobody to talk to to get it back there. WhatsApp, TikTok, or any of the social media platforms that we all use and love, they can go away. The only thing that you actually have, I’m gonna say control over is your email list. That’s it. 

 

[00:03:26] All the years, I was just gifting and gifting and gifting and gifting. Great, except for what might have been created had I been gifting and receiving — yes, it’s a two-way street, guys. It really is.

 

[00:03:44] I would say, for myself, the energy behind not having opt-ins and all of that was more from actually two things: (1) I didn’t know how to do it, and (2) it was really a valuing of me thing. It was really that I didn’t really value me so I just wanted to give away, give away, give away, hoping that somebody liked it rather than valuing me, valuing the time it took to put together the gift it was, the gift I be, and asking for something in return.

 

[00:04:18] In lots of cases in business, the ask in return is money. It’s different than what I’m talking about right now, which is opt-ins, but a lot of it is. “Here, I will give you this if you pay this,” and that’s the gifting and receiving. With what I’m talking about here, it’s the free content we’re putting out there.

 

[00:04:36] You could even say that with this radio show. I’ve never really seen my radio show as something that people would need to opt in for. That would be very difficult. I wouldn’t be able to have it on all the platforms like Spotify, iTunes, and all the places it is. I couldn’t have that if people needed to opt in for it.

 

[00:04:57] What I do a lot on this show is I either talk about my offers that I have coming up like I did at the beginning of this show, or I have a gift that people require to go opt in. That’s really the energy behind it is really that gifting and receiving. 

 

[00:05:14] There’s lots of people that listen to the show that I’ve never had on my email list and probably never will, and that’s not right or wrong. I don’t sit back and go, “I’m gonna stop the show.” It’s not that. It’s never from this reality of giving and taking where I have to give this and then I will take there email address, or they have to give me their email address so they can take it. It’s not that. It truly, to me, is a gifting and a receiving, and in that gifting and receiving is something, as I’m gonna say, logical as an opt-in. 

 

[00:05:49] If you’re like me and you didn’t know what an opt-in is or how to create one, there’s so many things out there nowadays that make it so much easier. I have recently switched from Infusionsoft. I used that for years and years and years and years, and I switched to something called ConvertKit. 

 

[00:06:06] ConvertKit makes it so easy. They have landing pages. They have the opt-in forms. You simply design it, put it out in the world, and then it collects, and then you can email from there. Infusionsoft had the same, and there’s so many out there. I don’t even know all of the different platforms out there that have these things, but there’s so many so it’s very, very easy now to do that. 

 

[00:06:31] This is where you want to look at if you’re not doing that. If you’re just consistently giving away free content, is it possibly time to change that because what is it you’re gifting it for? 

 

[00:06:46] You could say you’re gifting it to be nice, and so people have the thing and they can change their life with the thing or they can do whatever with the thing. You can, totally. Totally. That’s awesome, except then you’re probably not in a business. Ouch! I don’t mean to judge that as you are or you aren’t. If you have opt-ins, you are. If you don’t, you’re not. I don’t mean it like that. 

 

[00:07:06] But really, recognize that when you are gifting goodies, whatever goodies they may be, whether they’re audio downloads, video downloads, patterns, templates, or whatever, what is it that you would like in gifting that? If it’s just gifted away so people utilize it, cool. That’s awesome. Nothing wrong with that. It just won’t grow your business in the way that it could. 

 

[00:07:33] That’s when I talk about the biggest mistake I made when I look at that. I probably didn’t start using opt-ins honestly until, oh boy… I bet it would be 2015, 2016. I know, right? Remember I showed up my business in 2002? 

 

[00:07:50] For a few of those years, opt-ins weren’t even really a thing. If they were, they were so much more difficult to create because we didn’t have the different platforms that we have now. But even in 2010 and on, I could have easily been. When I started using Infusionsoft back in, I think 2013 or 2014, I could have very easily been, but I didn’t. There was this, “Oh my gosh, I should just give it away for free.”

 

[00:08:14] I believe it was last year or the year before. Let’s say 2021. I did this whole beautiful Magical Money Tricks or something and there’s a video. It’s a beautiful opt-in. People did have to opt in for it, but it didn’t go anywhere, meaning they got the email with the gift and that was it.

 

[00:08:38] This is the other part with opt-ins, guys. Yes, create an opt-in, something that lights you up, but also make sure it invites people to something else with you. There’s different pieces with that. If this is a brand new concept to you, at least get your opt-ins. Please, get your opt-ins.

 

[00:08:56] If you’re not familiar and you would like more, that is the very first class we’re doing in the Business Success Trainings. It’s really working with opt-ins and the funnels, the sequences behind them, the emails that go out. Once they get the free thing, then what do they get, then what do they get, then what do they get, whatever that might look like, because there’s more to it than just gifting free things and hoping somebody comes to your class or somebody buys your thing. 

 

[00:09:21] There’s so much more to it. I don’t mean more in terms of form and structure like, you do this and you send out this email after two days and you send this. It’s not that. It’s a totally different spaciousness with the stuff that works.

 

[00:09:35] I will tell you — opt-ins work. Yes. There will be people that opt in, get the free thing and opt out right away. That’s totally cool. They’re not your people anyway. They’re just people that want to take. Nothing wrong with that, but that’s what they’re doing. Cool. The other people though, it becomes an invitation. 

 

[00:09:52] They might watch my video about the money tricks. We’ll put a link above or below if you didn’t grab it when it came out a couple years ago. It’s still brilliant. Now, it actually leads to my upcoming Foundation classes, Bars and Foundation. I got one in Nova Scotia. Oh my gosh, guys. It’s at the end of May. And then of course, the Pool Party. The final Pool Party Bars and Foundation in June. 

 

[00:10:14] The link for that will be above or below also, but that is where it leads right now. People opt in there, they get an invitation to these upcoming classes, and then there’s a couple of follow up emails with that.

 

[00:10:27] It really is looking… it’s kind of working backwards, actually. You look at what you would you like to invite people to and work backwards. 

 

[00:10:38] I’d like to invite people to Foundation. In my case, I have so many free things out there. I have so many, and they’re all been changed to opt-ins so that’s exciting. Over the years, I have done that so I don’t necessarily have to make a new thing. You might have to, that’s totally cool, too. The class will assist with how to choose that. But then you work backwards in terms of, “Here’s what I’d like to invite people to. What’s the invitation to that?”

 

[00:11:03] In my case with a Foundation, that’s pretty simple because in Foundation we talk about a lot of things, money being one of them. I share lots of money tools in it. Looking at all my free opt-ins, this money tool one made the most sense. Yes. So, working backwards. If I didn’t have it, then I could have created it and it can be anything.

 

[00:11:22] Now, just a little tip for those of you who are at this stage in your business. I do a little bit longer ones. However, really the ones that have the best opens and utilizations are PDFs. 

 

[00:11:39] I know. It’s weird because you think that, or at least I think, that something like a video would have more. But the studies are, and again, this is logical but it doesn’t have to be, but the studies are for a lot of people, they want a quick win. They wanna open up the email, open up the PDF, get whatever from it, and then carry on. 

 

[00:12:00] It doesn’t have to be where you record a video and you do a bunch of editing and all of that. It can be a simple PDF that maybe has a pretty picture on it and whatever the information is, and that’s it. It doesn’t have to be difficult. But really, start looking at all of this. If you’re like I was and you’re just giving a bunch of stuff away for free, then start looking. One, what is that for you? 

 

[00:12:26] And if it’s time, maybe get an opt-in in place. Maybe get something like ConvertKit. Again, I speak very highly of it. I’m actually fairly new to it because again, I was with Infusionsoft for years, but ConverKit is incredible. Incredible. I’m switching over completely from Infusionsoft to ConvertKit because of how much I love it and how much more easy it is to actually use. So, something like that where you can have the landing page.

 

[00:12:55] You don’t need a whole webpage of your own, which is great if you have that. I have that, of course. I’ve had it for years. But you wouldn’t have to. ConvertKit would give you that landing page. It would give you the opt-in form so then when people say yes to it, now you’ve got a place where you can set up the emails. It has the download or the download link or whatever it is. 

 

[00:13:14] It’s just so incredible what magic can be created with a little bit of planning, I’m gonna say? That could also be part of, for me, why I didn’t do it for years. I just love creating content. You know that. If you’ve been around here for any time, you know I love creating content. Why? Because I do it all the time. I do it all the time. 

 

[00:13:39] But you really want to look at where would you like to be sending people. What’s the call to action? That’s an official term. What’s the call to action in that? 

 

[00:13:47] I have done, I would say, really well with my radio shows over the years. Podcasts, whatever you call them. And then in the past few years, we changed them, not changed them, we added video to them so they’re in more places. I would say I, 95% of the time, have a call to action.

 

[00:14:02] This one, of course, is the Business Success Trainings or Foundation. But pretty much every show I do has a call to action in it so people don’t need to opt in to listen to the show, but there’s other information that I have. I’m inviting people to something. Looking at that with what you’re creating and what is it you’d like to be, it’s inviting people too and start working backwards.

 

[00:14:25] I would love to invite you to come and play in the Business Success Trainings. Guys, this is all very, very hands-on, very let’s-get-it-done, very much let’s create the business success that your business is asking for. Yes. All right. 

[00:14:44] Have a great week and I look forward to chatting again next week.

 

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