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Automate your income to get the lifestyle you want!
“It All Started with a Blind Date and Ended Up Being All About Automated Funnels to Fund Our Lifestyle...”
This is why automated funnels are so important to me...
Money can be the biggest stressor in your life, but done right, it can also be the tool that allows you to live the life you've always wanted - no matter who you are...
As I’m writing this, Charlsa, my wife, and I have been home from a 5-day trip to New York for less than 12 hours. We’re dog tired, energized by the trip, and really happy to be home. 
We had an awesome trip and loved every minute of it.
And it reminded me why I do what I do, and why automated sales funnels are so important to our lifestyle.
You see, we did more than five figures in sales while my wife and I were doing the older-than-60-version of painting the Big Apple for 5 days.
I left my computer at home to truly be present on this trip.
Still, we reaped the rewards of truly passive, automated income. And I’m going to explain the key to this entire way of life in just a minute, but first…
Travel with the right person is a dream come true!
This trip was really Charlsa’s Christmas present. As an opera singer for nearly 35 years, getting a chance to see a performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera is a real treat.
So, in December, I discovered her favorite opera, Turandot, was playing in March.
I booked it.
We had special seats and a special reservation in the Belmont Room exclusive to Guild Members and Metropolitan Donors. We were living the life of the rich and famous opera fanatics where the caviar was $155 for a small tin.
We didn’t take advantage of that 🙂 We’re pretty frugal folks...
The difficult part was working the trip in around all our other travel…
I’m not complaining. That’s a great problem to have. And it's one that I designed for our lives several years ago with our automated, online business. More about that in a minute...
But let me explain why this is so important first...
One of the big reasons for our big trip to New York last week other than the opera was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our blind date.
Yep, 20 years ago, I was a wannabe biker with long hair and a Harley - no car. I roared into the outdoor cafe R Thomas's on Peachtree in Atlanta for a 1-hour meeting to have coffee with this woman named Charlsa.
My friend Beverly (and Charlsa's really good friend) had been pestering us both to meet for 3 months. We finally agreed - mostly to get Beverly off our backs.
It was my first blind date. And Charlsa's last. I never thought I'd get married again. And I really wasn't looking. In fact, I was quite comfortable (although misguided) with the bachelor life.
But within minutes of sitting across from Charlsa in that restaurant, I knew this was different.
Twenty years later, it's turned out to be the best thing that's ever happened to me.
We share a life, love and a home. And no matter where we go, it's always great to be home again - together...
Don’t miss this point!
Sharing your life with someone that you actually want to spend nearly every moment with is a rarity among relationships. And certainly a blessing I never thought I'd experience.
But that’s what we’ve got. We live in the woods on a lot of land and spend a lot of time together.
And we travel. Quite a bit. On purpose.
In the past 20 years, we’ve traveled the world and the US.
Each fall, we plan every home game weekend with the Alabama Crimson Tide football team and a bowl location. We make a weekend out of it going to lunch with Coach Nick Saban on Friday, tailgate with our friends on Saturday before the game, and drive home on Sunday.
We go to our favorite beach in Florida for a couple of weeks twice a year. And we visit my elderly parents at The Villages in Florida several times a year.
Traveling is an opportunity to recharge and reconnect as much as possible.
The time in the car is our time to be really alone when no one else can get to us...
Not long after that blind date, I realized I wanted as much time with this fantastic woman as I could get. And luckily - and inexplicably, she feels the same about me.
It’s ironic then that during the first 7 years that we lived in Alabama, I was a traveling consultant leaving town on Sunday night and returning home on Thursday night - sometimes Friday night.
Essentially, for 7 years, I left her alone in the woods.
But I was making nearly $250k a year as a consultant. And missing my life.
We had to do something about that...
That’s when I decided to become a full-time, work-from-home business person.
I loved my consultant work, and even though I was self-employed with great clients, I was beholding to them. I wanted more freedom and flexibility.
In 2010, I quit, and soon realized that full-time, online business people can choose one of two paths:
- Scramble daily to make sales by hawking as many products as possible, or…
- Focus on building a passive, automated business that pays you whether you work or not, AND delivers exactly what your prospects are looking for.
Of course, either path has consequences…
You can’t do one without the other. If you focus on building an automated business, you still have to promote other products to create cash for your business or you’ll die quickly while building the automation.
But you can promote excellent products selectively and with moderation.
Building is the keyword…
And with building, there is work that must be done. Without a clear vision and a clear plan, that work can easily become overwhelming.
That’s why we had to get very clear about the basic building block of our business.
And I’m revealing it here today with a challenge.
“Implement this one thing in your business, and you’ll always build on what you did yesterday.”
It starts with a decision diamond…
This is so simple, most people overlook it completely.
They are so focused on getting the prospect or lead to buy something, they forget that at least 90 percent of your visitors didn't. What about those folks?
The key to every automated funnel is this simple programming concept.
And it starts with a “Decision Diamond.”
A decision diamond is a basic software process function.
It simply recognizes that every option presented to your prospect is a choice.
It requires a decision and there’s a consequence to that decision, whether you control it or not.
Most marketers today send an email expecting a prospect to click to an offer, and hoping she takes the action the marketer wants - making a purchase.
If the prospect doesn’t make the purchase, they fall into a black hole of nothingness with no action because the marketer didn’t account for that choice. But it was a choice, remember?
But by default, there’s a consequence.
”No Action” is a choice...
And in automated funnels, you never want “no action” to be the choice.
Every decision diamond requires two (or more) choices.
And when everything you do comes from this perspective, the following equation becomes your driving force.
“If this (selection is made), then do this action, ELSE do this action…”
You see, this is where most marketers fail…
Instead of letting prospects and leads fall into the nothingness black hole, I’m proposing you do something else.
If the prospect didn’t take the action you hoped he would take, then make sure he takes another action - one you control.
It's up to you to present another action.
Or record the choice the prospect made so you can help him take a different action later.
It may look like this:
Notice, the prospect has multiple positive choices until we discover the information (problem and solution) they really want.
Once that’s known, offer the right solution and chances are much greater the prospect will buy and become a loyal customer because you’re offering what they want.
Why should you use this in your business?
This is how you fund the lifestyle you want.
If you’re tied to your computer all the time, you can’t possibly enjoy your life to the max.
Listen, Charlsa and I had a great time in New York. We have a great time everywhere we go.
But I also love knowing that our business supports our lifestyle and it only gets better and better. Having this freedom in our lives allows us to focus on one another.
To quote a wise old man (my dad!),
“When poverty comes through the door, love goes out the window…”
You might argue with that and say it’s pretty cynical, but me?
I’ve experienced poverty, and life is much better with automated income.
If this is your problem, let us help you solve it…
If you want to find out how you can create real automated income in your life, join us here for a life-changing program to get more automated cash in your accounts every day...
The Art of Storytelling in Business
The Art of Storytelling in Business
There is no denying that there is a special art of storytelling.
When your readers feel connected to you they trust you. And trust is incredibly important when you're moving your prospect through the customer journey.
Actions like:
- Clicking To Read Your Blog Posts
- Downloading Educational Content
- Following You On Social Media
- Replying To An Email
- Purchasing Your Products
- Telling Their Friends About Your Content
I hear this a lot...
"Noone cares about what I have to say"
If that's true then you're going to have a hard time building a loyal following, that's for sure!
Quick story...
I live in the woods on 100 acres. With a lake.
Beavers love my lake.
The beavers and I have a love-hate relationship.
I love that I have a place where wildlife is protected and can flourish.
I hate that the beavers create dams all over my lake and streams because it means more work for me.
A few years ago, we were entrenched in a full-on battle. Those beavers built those dams faster than I could rip them out.
I posted this mini-drama as it was unfolding on my Facebook page.
Then I finally surrendered and let the beavers win!
But to this day, my followers ask me about those dang beavers!
I never in a million years thought THAT would be the story that my community became so involved in.
You don't always get to chose what your followers take hold of and care about.
So it's really important that you show your readers and community that you're a real person.
Do you have to share everything on social media? No. That's just how I do it.
There are tons of ways you can entwine storytelling in your business.
In your emails, on your sales pages, in your social media posts, in your webinars...the sky's the limit.
It's a 7 step fill in the blank template to help you create stories to help you monetize your content in business.
These storytelling templates will help you master the art of storytelling, build rapport, create a community and ultimately generate more revenue!
Just fill out the information below and we'll send the templates right to your inbox!
How to get affiliate love
As an affiliate, what's the key element that makes you promote someone?
Nicole Dean asked me this question a couple of days ago...
What's the #1 thing someone (a product owner) can do to get your attention - so that you'd consider promoting them as an affiliate?
Man, that's a simple answer for me. I've built my entire system at MyNAMS around this answer.
Show proven results!
When I looked at Nicole's affiliate account a few days ago, I pinged here and asked, "Nicole, did you know that you've made money every day with MyNAMS since May 1, 2012 except for 5?"
That was 5 days out of 139 when she didn't make a commission at MyNAMS. That's a powerful story!
First, her response was "Holy Cow!"
And second, she said that's an e-mail...and a blog post.
That was EXACTLY the reason I told her. Numbers don't lie, unless a liar cooks the numbers. But I knew that when I pointed that out to her, she'd want to promote again really quickly. So, I began checking other peoples' reports.
When I choose who I'm going to promote, I look at the numbers too.
For example, I received this offer JV offer this morning:
"(Big Name Marketer) has a new webinar that's killing it - we're doing $150-$170 per attendee that shows up...converting 15% up to 27% on the webinar..."
That's just part of a much longer message, and usually, I wouldn't have considered it because I don't have the relationship with the marketer, but...
...the numbers stopped me. Those are good numbers. He had my attention.
Now, I ask the other questions:
The answer to the last question stopped me. Yes, it did conflict with a good relationship that I already have and products that I already promote. I won't risk messing that.
But the numbers got my attention and I'll respond back honestly.
Can I see it?
When you, the product owner, have numbers that reinforce the truth, and enhance the potential reward of my effort, I'll pay attention, ESPECIALLY if we have a prior relationship.
When I can click on a report that sho
ws me exactly how much money I can expect if I drive a certain number of clicks using the average historical conversion for my interactions, I can plan my business accordingly.
The example above is from Nicole's affiliate report at MyNAMS.com. Notice the key numbers are there:
- Unique Clicks
- Conversion
- Click Value
- and Value Per Transaction.
With this kind of data, you can decide to drive enough traffic to generate the kind of money you want each month.
That's the way the corporate world conducts business too!
McDonald's doesn't build a new store on an untried corner without knowing how much traffic they will have on the first day, nor without making projections of first-day totals and follow-up growth based on their historical data.
That data, combined with the location-specific market research, allows the McDonald's corporate office and the franchise owner to know if they're making money when they open the doors.
I'm in business too. If I can't plan my income based on historical data, I can't set realistic income expectations.
You can give me special content and lot of promises, you can have celebrity endorsements and big marketers behind you, but if you can't show me average numbers, then I can't do business with you.
Numbers are the affiliate's best friend. That's why I show them and talk to affiliates all the time about their numbers.
It gets their attention.
How $1 Turns into $90
“The Magic of Recurring Income:
How $1 Turns into $90 and
Why You Should Care!”
Every online marketer needs to invest in the long-term, even when promoting someone else’s product…
Short-term vs. Long-term thinking
This is the question most marketers ask:
“How much money am I going to make today when I send this email?”
Don’t get me wrong. That’s an important question because we all have to eat. And we can only do that if we’ve got good, positive cash flow working to our advantage.
But the better question is:
“How much money am I going to make today AND over the long haul when I send this email?”
If you’re not looking out for the long term, you’re not adding to your overall wealth.
Wealth is the accumulation of good, financial assets (for our purposes). So, our goal is to always add more monthly, recurring revenue in every way we can.
- Sometimes, that’s by promoting programs like NAMS or membership programs like our MyNAMS Profit Planners and Business Accelerators to create recurring income from affiliate commissions.
- Or sometimes, it’s investing in automation processes that execute money-making systems without you having to monitor them every day.
Hopefully, it’s both.
But today, we’re talking about the first…
Recurring income from affiliate commissions
We see a lot of low-cost and $1 trial products available in the marketplace today. And usually, they’re at the 50% commission mark.
Why would anyone promote a product that yields a $.50 commission? It just doesn’t seem to make sense to most marketers… unless you understand the hidden math.
But frankly, most marketers can’t see past the low commission. After all, if you make 100 sales today, you only make $50.
And the short-term thinking marketer will get out as fast as they can.
What if I can show you how to turn that $1 sale into $90 of commission for you?
The long-term thinker is looking ahead to the renewals and future commissions as well to see what the real return on investment is.
For example, Ian Del Carmen - one of our best affiliates and a real long-term marketer - promoted our MyNAMS Profit Planners and Business Accelerators aggressively.
He understood that the for each $1 trial, 7-day trial, he’d make a lot more money down the road.
Let’s look at Ian’s “What If?” situation.
Three of the five products in our sales funnel for this promotion are recurring as indicated by the red arrow and the green numbers. All of them start with a $1 trial.
Commission boosters
We did a couple of things to help affiliates increase their commissions to ease the pain of a low-cost front-end. Especially for those affiliates who can’t see or don’t trust the long-term possibilities.
First up, we added a 1000% commission on the $1 trial. The affiliate got $10 for every $1 trial they signed up. We know our back end and trust the ongoing recurring commissions immensely.
Next, we added a couple of upsells and downsells at the $37 and $47 price to increase the immediate commission returns and fund the $10 commission on the $1 trial.
The only reason those are included in the funnel is to add additional one-time commissions and more revenue to the affiliate.
In the first 4 days of the 8-day promotion, Ian has gotten $663.29 in commission. Not bad, not great. If he’s planning to pay the rent this month with this promotion, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.
But that would be short-term thinking.
On this promotion, 7 days is a magical number…
That’s when the renewals for the full monthly and annual membership fees start to happen. And the picture changes dramatically.
Let’s assume that 5% of the people will cancel before the renewal date. That’s pretty consistent with our previous in-house launch numbers.
And remember, the membership amounts are:
- MyNAMS Profit Planners Monthly - $9.97
- MyNAMS Profit Planners Annual - $77
- MyNAMS Insiders Club Monthly - $47
So, let’s do the math.
We’ve reduced our renewal numbers by 5%.
At the 7-day renewal, Ian will get another $818. 56 in commission in addition to the $663.29 paid previously.
That’s a total of $1,481.85.
But we’re not done yet…
Let’s assume that the average stick rate for these memberships is 6 months (and based on our numbers over the last year, this is a solid estimate).
So, we’ll collect monthly membership fees from those members Ian brought in for 6 months and he is paid 50% commission instantly through Warrior+Plus, the platform provider we’re using for this launch.
The additional 6 months of commissions brings in another $1,619.60 bringing his total so far to: $3,101.45
And, finally what happens at 12 months?
We’ll make another assumption based on historical numbers.
Half of all our monthly and annual members will be gone by then. But at 12 months out, the remaining annual members will renew and we’ll have collected half of our monthly members for the last six months of that period.
The total amount collected during the 13 months (we’ve added the first month in on the promotion front end) comes to $4,185.56 commission paid.
And that total divided by the 46 recurring membership sales to date has a value of $90 per sale.
$90 PER $1 Trial for a low-cost membership trial!
One more assumption:
We’re wrong.
And let’s say we’re wrong by half. (We’re not, but let’s say that…)
That’s still more than $2k in commission over 12 months and $45 per $1 trial signup.
Math never lies
And math is always the friend of the long-term marketer because it only reveals the truth. When you accept the truth about any promotion, the math reveals:
- Holes
- Problems
- Leaks
- Opportunities
- Improvements
The truth of numbers should be driving every marketer to make long-term decisions versus short-term, but it’s really hard to convince most marketers of that. Most need the money now. And that’s their only consideration.
That’s called living paycheck to paycheck.
Ian, on the other hand, understands long-term decision making completely. A $1 investment by one of his customer today is likely to yield $90 to him over a 12-month period.
How to maximize the long-term ROI?
Because this is an evergreen promotion, Ian and everyone else is free to promote this product every day of the year if they want. We will as well.
And spreading out those commissions over the next year or two is like building out a completely separate long-term stream of income that is unlikely to go away.
Even a 3-day promotion every month would yield big results.
Problems revealed by the math
- Conversions are low.
To improve the conversions, we’ll have to test the heck out of sales pages variations.
That will mean radical testing at first - extremely radical. Right now, we’re looking at a long sales page that contains a lot of words, not enough benefits and unclear informational graphics.
And it needs some design help too.
A radical test might be a video sales letter or VSL vs. the page we have currently.
Then, we start testing the headlines on the winner vs. the control.
Then, radical design next.
Then, bonuses… and so on.
- Seven days is a long time in the marketing world
At the end of this promotion, we will modify the 7-day, $1 trial to become a 3-day, $1 trial to turn the commissions and the ROI faster.
That will turn up the commissions and marketers won’t forget why they are doing this...
Plus there's another advantage to us. And it's called EPCs. You see, when you do a $1 trial, the earnings per click can be very low and marketers pay attention to that.
My friend Matt Bacak has a formula he uses:
X * X * X = $$
It's not great algebra, but I know what he's saying:
- The first X = Subscribers
- Second X = Clicks
- Third X = Earnings per Click
- And we know what $$ is...
So, this is how it really works:
Subscribers * Clicks * EPCs = Money
1000 subscribers * 10% Click * $2 EPC = $200
1000*.10*2 = 200
When will the money pour in...
Remember, I said that 7 days was the magical number because in this promotion that's when the membership renewals begin.
When the trial ends the members are automatically billed the next membership renewal fee. Thirty-one percent of our registrations were for the annual purchase at $77. The other 69% were on the monthly rate of $9.97.
Assume that we have 100 sales at $77 and 200 at $9.97.
On the renewal, we'll see a payday of $7,700 and $1,994.
Not bad, but it shows us two big opportunities.
- How can we collapse that renewal rate?
- How can we increase the annual to monthly ratio?
And why are these things important?
Faster renewal rate has a few benefits:
- We (and our affiliates) get the money faster
- Affiliates will want to promote early and often because they see more money before they move on to something else (affiliates have to move where the money is)
- Customers renew before they forget what they signed up for reducing refunds and cancellations
- Higher EPCs will be reflected in the stats faster-helping affiliates justify more promotion
Increasing the ratio of annual to monthly signups also has several benefits.
- On renewal, the affiliate sees more immediate revenue
- The incentive of higher revenue helps affiliates focus on incorporating the promotion in their automated funnels for consistent sales
- The annual rate has few refunds and longer stick time than monthly
What’s next?
With all this to consider, our job is pretty clear. We have to do everything we can to make this program indispensable to our customers and very profitable for our affiliates.
It begins with commitment.
Commitment to customers
Continue to improve the product to make a long-term membership something they can't do without and deliver the best value possible for the money. How do we do that?
- Surprise them with great support
- Create a Facebook community to improve engagement and provide bonuses
- Reward customers for loyalty
- Encourage customers to ask questions
- Provide the occasional in-depth course (as a bonus) on one of the topics
- Reduce refunds and cancellations to lowest possible number by building customer loyalty
Commitment to partners
Commit to providing high-quality, recurring value, with long-term results, to win over more long-term thinking marketers. How do we do that?
- Continue to improve conversions by testing sales letters and funnels
- Run monthly promotions to the program
- Create spot contests to encourage participation
- Reward long-term, loyal partners with special bonuses
- Take care of partner's customers and provide great service
- Help our partners promote their products even if we can't do it to our list
And frankly, all we care about at the end of the day is building a profitable relationship with partners by serving their customers.
We want valuable partners like Ian who get it and continue to see the value of promoting this program on a regular basis so they have a long-term income stream.