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Published: Jan. 8, 2020, 9 a.m.

Good Morning Onward Nation \u2014 I\u2019m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host. And holy bananas \u2014 it\u2019s a New Year and a brand new DECADE!

This time of year is special\u2026maybe it\u2019s because how much I love Christmas\u2026or maybe it\u2019s the second chance to get things right that each New Year represents.

Between Thanksgiving and New Years \u2014 I intentionally take time to reflect back on what was accomplished in the previous year \u2014 and \u2014 consciously direct my attention toward the year ahead.

I map out strategies, action steps, draw out illustrations in my journal of how it will all coming together \u2014 and when it\u2019s done \u2014 I feel at peace with what is about to be put into place.

Then with each passing day \u2014 as we get closer to January 1st \u2014 the excitement builds and I can\u2019t wait for the starting line to get here!!!

Because that line was just a few day ago \u2014 I elected to focus today\u2019s solocast on two topics that will be helpful to you and your team if your goal for 2020 is to Double Down!

And for covering the two topics \u2014 I\u2019m going to take you behind the curtain to shine a light on some of the biggest obstacles to building and scaling that we experienced during the early days of Predictive ROI.

I decided to share these lessons with you in full transparency \u2014 although embarrassing \u2014 because getting them right was a key to stabilizing and then growing Predictive. And \u2014 I wanted to share tangible examples with you\u2026not marketing hyperbole or theory.

I also decided to share these lessons in the hopes that if I can help you avoid some of the mistakes, missed opportunity, or gain traction faster than we did\u2026well\u2026that\u2019s rock solid awesome!

So buckle in \u2014 here we go\u2026

The early years of Predictive ROI started over a decade ago.

I wrote my first book \u2014\xa0The Small Business Owner\u2019s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization\xa0\u2014 back in 2009. Shortly after it was published \u2014 I started getting offers to do side work projects for companies.

At the time \u2014 I was part of faculty and academic staff at the University of Wisconsin \u2013 La Crosse and happy with my position within the\xa0College of Business. I was teaching at UW-La Crosse and several other UW campuses include the\xa0School of Business at UW-Madison.

I was also involved in on-campus research, publishing, and serving our community through board seats and committee work.

I loved being on campus and my plate was full.

For a while \u2014 I just declined the side work that came as a result of my book. I said \u201cthank you but no\u201d because I didn\u2019t want there to be any conflict of interest with the university.

But then I did some research \u2014 determined that it would be fine to say yes here and there \u2014 did a project \u2014 and holy bananas\u2026it was a lot of fun.

The side work grew to the point that I had to make a difficult decision. Was I going to stay at the university \u2014 or \u2014 take on the challenge of trying to build a company?

I couldn\u2019t say no to the challenge \u2014 so I resigned from the university and most of the people who knew me thought I was making a mistake.

Not going to sugar coat it for you \u2014 the first 5 years of Predictive ROI felt like an impossible grind. There were exceptionally long hours, we aimlessly wandered through wins, losses, and tried to figure out our identity.

On the personal side \u2014 my wife and I invested everything we had into the company \u2014 and we racked up personal debt.

We were beyond\xa0\u201call in.\u201d

Now that we\u2019re on the other side of it \u2014 Praise God \u2014 I can see that we struggled because of several fundamental flaws within the business.

One \u2014 we lacked clarity around a vision for Predictive.

Two \u2014 we had zero idea of what an ideal client or prospect looked like.

And Three \u2014 because of points One and Two\u2026we said \u201cyes\u201d to every project and every client, which cost us time and money each and every time but we were too blind to see it.

But thankfully \u2014 with the help of incredible mentors and lessons learned from our generous Onward Nation guests \u2014 we began to see that in order to be excellent at points 2 and 3 \u2014 we had to get our vision for the business down on paper and begin living by it.

So we dug in. And when we did \u2014 we learned that \u201cvision\u201d actually meant three things:

1) defining our core values

2) getting clear on our purpose

3) constructing a mission that embodied a bold and audacious goal for Predictive

We didn\u2019t have any of these in the early years.

Because here\u2019s the reality. We were working hard just to survive and we didn\u2019t give ourselves the time to think strategically about the direction of the business.

Candidly \u2014 I would have rolled my eyes at the notion of taking the time to work on it. I likely would have said,\xa0\u201cYeah, that\u2019s all well and good \u2014 but I have sales to make.\u201d

It\u2019s really hard to think about vision when the pressure of making payroll is upon you.

Sound familiar?

Ever heard the expression,\xa0\u201cRunning a business feels a lot like fixing the plane while flying it\u201d. Whoever came up with that line was so spot on.

My team and I did a lot of\xa0\u201cfixing while flying\u201d\xa0and we knitted the early years of the business together.

Then \u2014 we got a little breathing room. Then a little bit more. We paid off several chunks of debt and began to see the sun through the clouds.

But as nice as the breathing room was \u2014 we also felt some obstacles to going further. We could see ahead but also felt stuck.

Then it clicked \u2014 we had taken Predictive as far as we could without putting a proper foundation into place.

Thanks to lessons from our mentors (Drew McLellan and Brett Gilliland if you\u2019re reading this\u2026THANK YOU!), and the hard work put in by my leadership team \u2014 and all of our teammates \u2014 we now have a foundation (vision) for Predictive that include values, purpose, and mission.

You can find our core values on PredictiveROI.com here.

And funny thing\u2026

As we were going down the path of doing our vision work \u2014 I was also interviewing successful business owners for Onward Nation episodes \u2014 and I kept hearing our guests talk about the importance of vision, values, purpose, and mission and how completely that work made a huge difference in the trajectory of their companies.

Quick aside for a second\u2026

Have you ever bought what you think is a unique car? And then \u201call of a sudden\u201d as you\u2019re driving along \u2014 you see versions of your new car driving down the road?

The cars were of course there all the time but you didn\u2019t see them because of the \u201creticular activating system\u201d \u2014 or RAS \u2014 inside your brain.

Your brain was literally blocking your ability to see the other cars. But your RAS let them in once there was commonality and that data point became relevant to you.

Weird how our brains work, right?

The lessons around vision were always there in front of me \u2014 either from mentors or Onward Nation guests \u2014 but my brain blocked the knowledge until I was ready to receive it.

So I\u2019m hopeful that if your goal is to DOUBLE DOWN in 2020 \u2014 you\u2019ll be open to what I\u2019m sharing with you.

Getting your vision down on paper, building the right team around your vision, and having a structure in place to measure progress is critical if you\u2019re going to scale to an 8-figure business and reach $10 million+ in annual revenue.

I\u2019m going to share two resources that will be helpful as you do your visioning work.

First \u2014 I recommend reading some of Jim Collins\u2019 earlier work. You may be familiar with Jim as the author of\xa0\u201cGood to Great\u201d, which is a rock solid awesome book to be sure.

But in my opinion \u2014 Jim\u2019s earlier and a lesser-known book,\xa0\u201cBeyond Entrepreneurship\u201d\xa0is better because of the deep dive around vision, values, purpose, and mission.

You can find Jim\u2019s book on Amazon here.

Second \u2014 I encourage you to attend the free training that I\u2019m co-hosting tomorrow (January 9th) with Brett Gilliland, CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs. As I mention earlier \u2014 Brett is one of my mentors and he\u2019s also a 2-time alum of Onward Nation.

Before founding Elite Entrepreneurs, Brett was one of the key executives at Infusionsoft that helped grow the company from $10 million in annual sales to over $100 million. He now teaches his Elite members the principles he and the team at Infusionsoft used to build, scale, and dominate their industry.

Because I felt the tremendous impact of working through vision alongside Brett and his team \u2014 I asked if he would be open to sharing his expertise in a free training session so you could learn directly from him, too.

He graciously agreed. The free training is TOMORROW, January 9th at 1:00 Eastern. This is a private training \u2014 just for you and other business owners in our community.

You can find the details here. If you can\u2019t make it live \u2014 still register so you get the recorded replay.

Okay \u2014 just a couple more insights around the visioning work we did at Predictive.

One \u2014 it doesn\u2019t have to take you and your team years to get the work done. I wish we put ours on paper WAY BEFORE year 8 in our journey. Good grief.

Learn the framework from Brett on January 9th, study Jim\u2019s book, and get your vision down on paper\u2026quickly.

If you do that \u2014 you will be YEARS ahead of your competition as you step into 2020. Most of them are aimlessly wandering through the wilderness \u2014 but you won\u2019t be and that\u2019s a powerful advantage.

And Two \u2014 no matter what you put down on paper\u2026just recognize it will evolve over time.

As you bring more people onto your team \u2014 they will make it better by pushing against it in new ways. And they will add things to it that you would have never thought of and likely help make it even more audacious. Awesome.

Stop waiting. Push the fear to the curb \u2014 take an afternoon. It won\u2019t kill your business if you step away for a few hours (you just think it will \u2014 trust me \u2014 been there).

Promise yourself that you\u2019ll get it done.

Good?

Okay \u2014 I look forward to hearing more about your 2020 plan with your newly defined \u2014 or updated \u2014 vision. Drop me a line at\xa0stephen@predictiveroi.com\xa0\u2014 would love to hear from you.

Now that the foundation of a vision has been set in your business \u2014 let\u2019s work through how to go about building a sales funnel to ensure you have enough opportunity flowing into your business\u2026so there\u2019s enough cash to fund all of the things you need to get done in order to DOUBLE DOWN in 2020.

And let\u2019s start off with setting some expectations and some definitions around what sales funnels are \u2014 and \u2014 what sales funnels are not.

I\u2019m starting us here because there is so much marketing hyperbole around sales funnels that I can barely spend time on Facebook any more.

If I have to see one more Facebook ad from \u201cbusiness coach\u201d claiming that all I need to do in order to build my business is to download his or her 7-figure email swipe file\u2026I think I might scream.

Most of those ads are gimmicks and are being promoted by coaches who don\u2019t really have an actual business. They have built a revenue stream by selling you a thing that will show you have to build a similar revenue stream by selling the same thing to other people just like you.

Do you remember back in the day the classified ads\u2026mail in $7.00 and you will get this thing that will show you how to place classified ads and you will make a ton of money?

Same game \u2014 it\u2019s just now being played on Facebook.

That\u2019s not a business. And that\u2019s not a sales funnel that will help you build a 7-figure or 8-figure business delivering real value to your clients.

And here\u2019s another reality check about those 7-figure business coaches we see and hear on Facebook.

Did you know that\u2026

According to the US Department of Labor \u2014 only 4% of the 28 million businesses in this country ever\u2026like ever\u2026reach over 1 million in annual sales.

And I\u2019m pretty sure that the majority of coaches and quasi-experts making the 7-figure claim haven\u2019t truly reached a million dollars in their business, they haven\u2019t owned an actual business, or they\u2019ve never built and scaled a company like what you and I are building.

So our discussion around how to build a sales funnel is going to be much different.

You and I are going to focus on the content you need to create to establish yourself as THE AUTHORITY in your market \u2014 and \u2014 how to structure your service offering into a VALUE LADDER that actually works for filling the sales pipeline in your business.

No gimmicks. But instead \u2014 it will take time and effort but you will have something in the end that is actually helpful to your business.

Good?

The speed at which you build and scale your business will largely depend on two things:

1) your ability to teach and share your expertise to build and nurture your audience through consistent cornerstone content\u2026

And 2) how well you construct your value ladder.

Okay \u2014 let\u2019s tackle each of these.

How do you build and nurture your audience?

You do that by creating\xa0\u201cCornerstone Content\u201d\xa0and sharing it with your audience.

So what is cornerstone content?

Drew McLellan, CEO of Agency Management Institute and host of the\xa0Build a Better Agency Podcast, and I recently finished writing a book entitled,\xa0Sell with Authority. So here\u2019s how Drew defines Cornerstone Content\u2026it\u2019s content that\u2019s:

• Meaty enough to produce lost of smaller pieces
• Significiant enough to serve as the epicenter of your promotion, activity, and eventual fame within your circle of influence
• Consistent in how often you create content and how much you stay focused on one topic or area of subject matter
• Sales-free. This is about teaching and helping. Stop. Period. End of story.
• It\u2019s always about your audience. That should be your primary goal.
• It\u2019s a long term play. No one\u2019s going to recognize you as an Authority after three months.

Now do you see why I think the 7-figure email swipe file sounds ridiculous? Argh.

Cornerstone Content is meaty, dense content that gives you plenty of opportunities to slice and dice into what Drew and I call, smaller \u201cCobblestones.\u201d

Depending on the channel you choose for your cornerstone content, you might only need to create it once a year \u2014 like a research study \u2014 or in the case of a video or podcast series\u2026it should be once per week.

As you and your team talk through how, what, where, why that you should be creating cornerstone content for your 2020 content strategy \u2014 I encourage you to go back to\xa0Episode 676 of Onward Nation\u2026because I break it all down.

I think it will be helpful to you and your team.

And it is through consistent cornerstone content that you will build and nurture your audience.

Drew and I are often asked, \u201cBut\u2026how long will it take?\u201d And as you may have guessed \u2014 the answer is\u2026it depends and there are several factors\u2026

First \u2014 the consistency of your content creation. Are you disciplined with a weekly schedule?

Second \u2014 the quality of your content. Are you saying something fresh or just repeating old news?

Third \u2014 the amount of time and effort you spend promoting and sharing your content.

Fourth \u2014 the hunger of your audience. Some of them are starving and will gobble up everything you share. Others may only consume the tastiest of offers.

Fifth \u2014 the level of competiton and how narrow you decide to go. If you\u2019re writing about general healthcare marketing, for example, it\u2019s going to be a long haul. If you\u2019re writing about marketing to women over 50 with breast cancer\u2026you\u2019ll have much quicker adoption.

And sixth \u2014 those luckly-strike moments like having someone else with a similar audience share your content in their world.

But as I said earlier \u2014 building a nurturing your audience is not a get rich quick scheme. Drew and I will often say that you should count on taking six months to a year before you reap any significant benefit from your efforts. By year two, you should be dancing a jig at how well it\u2019s working, and by year three, you should be well-established as the authority you are.

If you go back to\xa0Episode 864 of Onward Nation\xa0\u2014 I walk through the pros of going narrow\u2026and how going narrow is the secret to monetizing faster.

Now that you have a framework for your 2020 content strategy \u2014 we can turn our attention to how your content ought to be structured in a sales funnel that will act as a pipeline to grow your business. In order to do that\u2026you need to think of your audience in four different categories.

You have a MACRO audience\u2026a MICRO audience\u2026a NANO audience\u2026and an EXISTING audience.

Let\u2019s break each of these down.

When someone is part of your MACRO audience \u2014 they engage with your cornerstone content from the sidelines\u2026at a distance. They consume\u2026they may even subscribe to your podcast via iTunes or your YouTube series\u2026but they are not addressable. Meaning \u2014 they yet haven\u2019t stepped forward and shared their email address with you in exchange for a downloadable thing or some other resource.

Website visitors, most social media traffic, and podcast subscribers are all part of your MACRO audience.

For example, iTunes doesn\u2019t allow you to download an email list of your podcast subscribers. You also can\u2019t download an email list of everyone who visits your website on a daily basis.

Yes, your website visitors can be retargeted through paid ads \u2014 but even then \u2014 they\u2019re still not addressable one-to-one via email.

So your goal is to grow your MACRO audience while remaining focused on your niche. You don\u2019t need a million downloads of your podcast episodes if you\u2019re focused on serving a small, super profitable niche.

Now for MICRO\u2026

Once someone decides to share their email address with you in exchange for a piece of content like an eBook or some other resource\u2026they become part of your \u201caddressable\u201d MICRO audience.

They have moved to the second stage of your sales funnel. MACRO is stage one \u2014 and MICRO is stage two. They have raised their hand and said \u2014\xa0\u201cOkay \u2014 you have earned enough of my trust that I am willing to give you my email address to get access to X resource.\u201d

Yes, one could argue that social media followers are addressable because you could send a direct or a private message to a specific follower.

Or\u2026you could download the email addresses of all your LinkedIn connections and send them an email campaign.

All true.

But \u2014 in reality \u2014 you have a business to run and will not likely have the time to do much one-to-one messaging on social \u2014 and \u2014 GDPR made downloading the email list of a LinkedIn connections and hitting \u201csend\u201d \u2014 pretty risky.

So \u2014 in thinking about what\u2019s realistic \u2014 MICRO for you is most likely when someone opts in for your e-newsletter or downloads a helpful resource from your website.

Before we move on to NANO \u2014 I want to share another lesson from Drew that had a significant impact on me\u2026and my guess is\u2026it will be helpful to you, too.

And that is that someone may stay in your MICRO audience for a day or a decade. All you can do is be helpful over that period of time. Provide them with helpful resources, great recommendations they can take and apply, and be patient.

When someone in your MICRO audience feels comfortable \u2014 and you have delivered the best of what you\u2019ve got \u2014 and have done that for years \u2014 and have always put their interest ahead of your own \u2014 some of them will be ready to move on to stage three\u2026or NANO.

NANO is where the monetization happens.

A whole lot of trust needs to be built before someone moved to NANO.

For example, if one of the podcast guests who happens to be a member of your\xa0\u201cDream 25 Prospect List\u201d\xa0decides to engage you and team for a project\u2026or a guest books you teach a workshop, deliver keynote at their conference\u2026or you offer a course to your MICRO audience and it sells\u2026these are all examples of monetizing at the NANO level.

But \u2014 and this ties directly into the next chunk of what I wanted to share with you during this solocast. It will be difficult for you to monetize at NANO \u2014 or to build a consistent sales pipeline for your business if you haven\u2019t taken the time to build out a value ladder.

Your value ladder provides new and existing clients with defined ways to begin or continue doing business with you. It starts with a low price point and limited scope of work\u2026and progressively increases in price and scope.

When you have your value ladder fully built out \u2014 it might include 3, 5, or 8 different rungs that go from free all the way up to your highest priced, and most valuable service level.

But for the ease of discussion and getting started\u2026I want you to think of just three rungs on your ladder\u2026and then you can build it from there and make it more sophisticated over time.

The price point on the first rung on your ladder is FREE. So if you\u2019ve completed the MICRO stage in the sales funnel\u2026you\u2019ve already got the first rung of your value ladder built.

But don\u2019t stop with just one downloadable eBook, guide, or tip sheet. Because if you offer up one thing\u2026it will appeal to a segment of your MACRO audience\u2026but of course\u2026not everyone.

So I encourage you to build out a Resource Library where you are offering your MACRO audience many FREE resources that can be helpful to them across a number of different situations or scenarios.

The Resources Library on PredictiveROI.com\xa0could be a helpful example as you and your team build out your own.

Okay \u2014 the second rung on your value ladder should be a service offering that you can provide a client priced at about 10-15% of your desired gross profit. Gross Profit is your revenue less any cost of goods sold.

So let\u2019s say your ideal client represents annual gross profit of $50,000 to $200,000 for your company\u2026then the second rung on your value ladder would be scope of work that you could price anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000 in gross profit.

The goal of the second rung is for your prospect client to step into a relationship with you. To evaluate what it\u2019s like to work with you and your team. To see if you can deliver what you promise for a $5,000 project before they commit to a $50,000 spend with you.

So maybe that\u2019s you and your team building out a strategic plan for them. Doing some research with defined scope. Maybe delivering a training program on-site for their team that they can take and apply internally for the remainder of the year.

You decide how you want to knit it together \u2014 but the second rung on the ladder is your foot in the door \u2014 and your opportunity to demonstrate the smarts of your team in action.

With that said \u2014 will some clients step into a larger relationship with you right away and essentially by-pass rung two?

Yes, it will happen and has likely already happened with you.

But you also know \u2014 that it doesn\u2019t always happen that way, and my guess is, if your sales strategy is to only present your full scope of work at the maximum price point\u2026you have lost more opportunity than you have won.

So if rung one is free\u2026and rung two is 10-15% of your ideal client spend\u2026then rung three is 50-100% of the ideal clients spend.

Or in this example\u2026$50,000 to $200,000 in annual revenue.

This is where your team is delivering everything. Putting all of their smarts to work in order to solve a client\u2019s business challenges. You\u2019re delivering the best of what you have to offer at rung three \u2014 and \u2014 this is where you are establishing what will hopefully turn into a long-term relationship with your new client because you and your team have demonstrated how you can deliver significant value.

So let\u2019s sum up a few points before we close out and say goodbye.

Building a scaling a business is hard \u2014 I know you don\u2019t need me to tell you that \u2014 but sometimes having someone from the outside acknowledge the struggle and the super courageous thing you are doing\u2026well, quite frankly\u2026it feels good.

Next \u2014 get your vision down on paper. Read Jim Collin\u2019s book\xa0\u201cBeyond Entrepreneurship\u201d\xa0and attend\xa0tomorrow\u2019s webinar with Brett Gilliland.

After that \u2014 build your strategy for cornerstone content.

Then take that content strategy and map it against the MACRO, MICRO, and NANO sales funnel.

And lastly \u2014 build your value ladder so it\u2019s as easy as possible for a prospective client to move from MICRO into the NANO stage and begin a relationship with you and your team.

Okay \u2014 with that said \u2013 I\u2019m over the moon excited for you as you step into 2020.

This is the start of more than just the New Year. It\u2019s the start of a new decade\u2026and my bold prediction is\u2026if you take and apply even just slices of what you and I reviewed during this solocast\u2026you and your team will Double Down in some key areas in 2020.

That\u2019s darn exciting and I\u2019m grateful to you for giving me this opportunity to walk alongside you on the path.

And one last thing before we close out and say goodbye, Onward Nation \u2014 I want to give you a very big thank you\u2026in fact\u2026let\u2019s call it a virtual hug.

There\u2019s absolutely no way we\u2019d be approaching 1,000 episodes \u2014 and \u2014 there\u2019s no way we\u2019d have this opportunity to serve business owners in 120 countries without your support, your encouragement, and your feedback.

Here\u2019s the reality \u2014 you help us get better every day, Onward Nation.

To have you here means a lot \u2014 so THANK YOU!

I look forward to being back with you again next week \u2013 until then \u2013 Double Down \u2013 and move Onward with Gusto into 2020!