Hello beautiful people!
Our September 2022 meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 13th at 11:30am PDT at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85965793555 and its replay will live on this page within a day of the live mastermind session.
Reminder: That’s your Zoom link for all of our 2022 JFDI hotseat sessions. Keep it handy! And keep an eye on my events calendar for any changes to our dates (time will always be 11:30am Pacific). So excited for where we’ll GROW from here!
If you’d like a refresh on any of the JFDI with Bon curriculum goodness without having to comb through alllllllll the content we’ve covered since March 2020, check out this lovely orientation page over here. Yay!
To get your very own “Dave Triangle” complete with samples from Cricket Feet, Inc. (and, yes, a blank triangle for you to adapt to your needs and use to plan out what goes where in your business), click the image below. Or this text.
Keep inspiring one another… and ME! 🙂
All my love,
hey y’all – !
long time no see! i truly hope each of you are well & have been thriving this summer.
as some of you may know, i’m a questioner & i’ve got questions. haha!
i’d love to talk more about s-corp/c-corp practices. mainly, we’re wondering what happens if ALL of our income is paid to our business. what do we need to do in terms of paying ourselves (payroll?) & covering personal expenses? is going whole-hog truly a benefit re: taxes & saving money? i’m wanting to gather intel so i know what do we need to review with our accountant. we may not be able to do this, but before i push for the possibility, i want more information. (the push, btw, would be how Marc’s company pays him.; i’m already paid as a loan-out.)
i also still have loads of student loan debt (that 10k, though wonderful, is a drop in the bucket!), so i’m wondering how, if in any way, going all-in affects my filing for student loan repayments.
Bonnie, i know Keith & you have been through & do all of this, so cannot wait to discuss.
yay, money-matters!
smooches, y’all – !
Something I neglected to mention, but it’s important, is the use of a PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNT + the business bank account. When we first got going with Ray the CPA, the first thing he told us we were doing wrong was NOT using our personal accounts for anything. We were taking the whole “run everything through the corporation” thing SO literally that we neglected to do any separating of our finances. Now we do.
Sure, most of our LIFE is the business, but the WAY we’re able to write off MOST of our apartment for the business (even pre-pandy) is because I, personally, write the checks for the rent, and then I, personally, claim that expense as “for business.” I pay our renters insurance out of my personal account. Keith buys all the groceries out of his personal account. We put money into these accounts from our corporate account, of course, but we prove we are living our personal lives AS officers of this corporation without running 100% of everything THROUGH the business, which at some point just gets red-flaggy. We didn’t know that, ’til Ray.
BTW, on the student loan thing, Connie, one of the things Daddy Biden did is make it so everyone can apply for ICR/IDR (Income-Contingent Repayment or Income-Dependent Repayment) status. Make sure you do that! With that, you’ll only ever pay a max of 5% of your annual income toward your student loans. Like I mentioned on the Zoom, I’ve had some years in which I’ve paid $300/mo. in student loans and other years in which I’ve paid $12/mo. Yes, really. And if I didn’t have ICR, I’d be paying $1200+/mo., which is just NOT doable on our revenue.
THAT is the bonus — on top of the rest of the year with no payments and that $10K individual/$20K married amount knocked off the loans — I’m most excited about. Not for me, because I didn’t take OUT the loan if I couldn’t get them to give it to me as ICR, back in the ’80s! But for everyone else. It’s so good a deal! Take advantage of it.
Oh, and also loan forgiveness… coming soon. My last loan came through in 1998-1999, which means if they DO switch everyone to a 20-year forgiveness dealio, I’ll be DUNZO with payments right away. Otherwise, I have to keep paying under the OG terms of the loan through 2029. Bleh. But, hey… at least there’s a light at the end of that tunnel somewhere. I’ll get this brain paid off or its loans forgiven before I’m too senile to appreciate the irony of it all. 😉 Ha ha!
Accountability time: I got a new iphone and in the configuration and deleting of things for space and weird astro of it all, I deleted the video that I was about to caption and put up as an IG reel. I’m reshooting today to go up tomorrow before we sign in to class, and have written week 2 and will probably shoot that soon so that I can stay on track. My focus this month is to get reels out one a week, as the last time I did this I did not have the level of gigs I currently do. Excited to hear the corporation talk too.
Woo HOO! Go go, Jaki! I know what you shot will be even better with the extra go at it. Mercury is so very retrograde. Congrats on the new phone!
I don’t like it better lol, but it’s captioned and it’s up and that’s what’s important! One a week for the next five weeks, and then I can think about the lead magnet portion of my triangle of Dave.
Right now I am primarily 1-1, but my IG reel content is the bones of an infographic or checklist or article that I could send out for free, and I can probably think of a low-tier offer after that.
Taking note of the idea of pre-launch bootcamps for my middle pyramid! Thanks Bon!
Yayayayayay!
Looking forward to seeing y’all tomorrow!
I’m facing a good amount of resistance to re-writing my Amazon product copy, so that’s what I’m grappling with this month (probably more ongoing in the comments than specifically on Zoom). I know my current copy is a little vague, too long (shocker), and I’ve since learned more about what the books are and who they call in. Mainly, they call in Heather (the dance teacher), but over the holidays and recitals, they also call in the parent/caregiver needing a gift for their ballet-obsessed child. So, I’m toying with how I’ll cover that gap in one go… or if I’ll just completely change the copy for holiday season, then back to teacher mode the rest of the year. (My website is different- it has almost no sales-y copy on the books… it’s largely photos and a link to Amazon to purchase.)
I think I’ll re-employ an exercise Keith gave me when I was obsessing over my bio: use an inner “hype/wing woman” and take dictation, writing a draft that’s what she says about the books. I know I also have a plethora of benefits to the teacher laid out from my seminar (next one I present live in 2 weeks!), including the lot about ballet brain hacking (aka cognitive science, lol), and a tip from the Ashlyn Carter Youtube vids (Bonnie mentioned her several months ago re: email subject lines). Ashlyn talks about addressing the elephant in the room- the objection to the sale- which is easy enough to identify here: not enough time to cover syllabus already. So… I’m amassing building blocks. Just have to compel myself to put them together. Draft incoming soon…
One of my favorite techniques when selling to two buyers is the use of:
“This is for you if…”
…and then the language after that includes a specific teacher thing and a specific parent thing and a less-specific everyone thing.
Looking forward to what you come up with!
I thought this might be a useful tidbit for someone’s tool box here. It just came to me through Ash Ambirge’s “Vivette” newsletter:
Nomad Business: “Client Casually Asked Me If I Can Add These Other Big Things Onto the Project…But Didn’t Offer to Pay More. How Can I Charge Them Without Seeming Like a Greedy Boob???”
Ah, scope creep! A freelancer’s most EXCELLENT adventure.
The good news is: there’s an easy breezy way to handle this without making it a big deal at all.
Here’s a script I wrote that you can use or adapt for your needs!
Hi, [Client]!
Sure, I’d be most happy to help you with that.
Since it’s an added cherry on top of our original project scope sundae, turnaround time would be 7-10 days, billed at $X per hour.
If that’s cool, send over the details and I’ll add it to our deliverables!
[You]
And voilà: you’ve just set magical, healthy client boundaries without even a hint of drama. Save this one for sure!
Love it! My version of this — say, when an actor has an updated target list after a coaching sesh in which we did all the targeting work already — includes language like: “Yay! I’m so glad you were inspired by our session to do MOAR TARGETING! Isn’t it empowering to get so much clarity on who your business partners for the next tier could be? I’m happy to jump back under the hood on your newest list! Here’s the link to my online scheduler. Pretty sure a 15-minute audio-only Zoom will be plenty for us, based off the work we’ve already done together.”
And, of course, my online scheduler has a “put your credit card info here” place. 😉
MOST of the time, my team does the answering on stuff like this via email, which makes it even easier for “me” to set that boundary, but when it’s me doing it (usually after receiving a very “quick question”-like DM at Instagram), this is basically what I use.
I just popped into Amazon and did a little refreshed poking around categories. My highest rank is still in Nonfiction>Performing Arts>Dance>Classical & Ballet, so I kept that for now. But I swapped out Juvenile Nonfiction (where I was getting knocked around by various picture books- think Peppa Pig and Fancy Nancy) for Performing Arts>Dance>Reference. There seems to be pretty low competition in there, with only one legit book that is similar and has the sales (it’s more of a coffee table book). The rest are mostly incorrectly categorized… random coloring books, agendas, low-content Yahtzee score sheets… they must be playing the same numbers game. The only category I saw that had more cobwebs was Choreography Notation, but I can’t legit say my book is about that. Anyway, I’ll see how they do over in the Reference category for a bit!
I also went in and added some photos/videos to my Amazon Author page, and grabbed my top-ranking screencap to re-post on IG soon! Will refresh my keywords, too… have to think about those a bit more. But, I’m building some momentum against the resistance. 🙂
Perfect. You definitely don’t want to be miscategorized just for the sake of getting that #1 banner. You just want to be strategically categorized. Well done, Stephanie. I’m thrilled to know you’re slaying dragons.
So far, so good. I woke up this morning to see that the re-categorization has put the Kindle version of Act One in the Dance Reference Top 10 on Amazon.ca, without any new sales in that time period. Amazon.com is a tougher nut to crack, but it still gave me a good jump of a few hundred. Hopefully it will translate to more/better recommendations by the algorithm.
Plus, while poking in KDP, I discovered I now have access to a thing they call “A+ Content”, which is the section where you can add photos/text/bullet lists under the product description area. So, I’m going to use that to feed the beast alongside this new sales copy, and a few “Author Updates” (aka repurposed IG posts). At the risk of sounding like the witch in Hansel & Gretel, I’m hoping this’ll plump the beast up and get it to play well for holiday. 😉
Perfect! And YES. When we see Amazon as a search engine and “free ad” rather than a sales page for our books, it’s actually fun to gamify a bit. You’ll start showing up in searches of similar books differently now too, with the recategorizing. Hooray! That can make a big difference too. Also, coordinating sales to a group to happen all on the same day.
Case in point: I preordered a friend’s new numerology book a few months back. It comes out soon. So now we’re all being asked to coordinate writing reviews that land ON the book’s release date. This, plus the presales all dropping on that release date, will get her book up to #1 right away, which she’ll take advantage of in lots of ways. She has incentivized our participation by giving us bonuses upon providing the receipt number of our preorder. She’s also given us templates for social media and she’s holding webinars to walk everyone (prebuyers and potential buyers) through the book, throwing in bonuses in those live events.
All of it is aligned to help get her book enough momentum EARLY to help her stay anchored in with some of the bigger dogs in that niche.
Denise DT does this with her books too, including doing a pop-up Facebook group to go through the book, bookclub style, for people who preorder.
Make it a party, even if the book is already out! Create a date that’s the official #30SecondBallets day and even if you drop the price at Amazon that day to get a bunch of sales, it can pay for itself with momentum and future performance in searches and such.
Woo HOO!
I love how you somehow yes-and-ed my underlying thought, even though I didn’t actually type out here. 😉 I was mulling the idea of doing another giveaway-for-reviews thing in advance of the holiday push, and what that item might be. (I know I want to ask for photos in the reviews this time, as well.) I already have my worksheet bundle, which was the giveaway last time, rather than building new. But, I also had very, very low engagement. Could’ve just been a numbers game with my list size then, rather than the bait itself. I’m almost at 100 now, and can amp up some visibility to try and crack that.
But, as usual, you’ve got me thinking on a grander scale. I mean… I could totally do something like what you describe. It’ll take some brainstorming to decide what feels aligned in terms of offers/bonuses/events, and what I know/suspect works as Heather-bait, but it’s possible. (There I go, sounding like that witch again. Lol. I mean it in a more positive sense, not in a subversive alpha-hunter sense, though I do find it fascinating that so much of the sales jargon pulls from there.)
I’m going to start by looking at my KDP record from the last two years to pinpoint where the sales swell happened. That should give me a ballpark to guesstimate when it will happen this year, and therefore consider when/how a party like this might be well-timed.
I’ll also circle back with either an A+ draft or copy draft I’m reasonably happy with shortly. Within a week, for sure. #UpholderingMyself
According to the KDP charts, I actually have two holiday waves- one starts a couple days before US Thanksgiving and peaks through the Black Friday/Cyber Monday frenzy, then the second is mainly between the 10-20 of December. Logical. (And also how wonderfully Sagittarius for me to offer a book in this energy.)
“World Ballet Day” is November 2 this year. Could work, but might be a little too early and will give the Amazon algorithm time to work me back out. I like Tuesday, Nov. 15 (Leo Moon, 5 day, Mars forwardness). Friday Nov. 18 also looks nice (Venus day, 8 day, Venus and Mercury will both also be in Sag with some beneficial personal transits), and it’s only a week before Thanksgiving, so less time to get digested out by Amazon.
Maybe I’m putting the cart before the horse, but it’s good to have a deadline to consider, even if I only do my original small idea. (Lol, like that’s going to happen as long as I’m in here.) As I type this out, maybe these are options 3-1, in that order, but I’d love thoughts on strategy of timing if there’s something I’m not seeing!
Making note of this great back and forth for when Dragonfly is ready to be published. Very inspiring.
Silly question: Dragonfly is the title of your children’s book, yes? I don’t think I’ve heard it by name yet. 🙂
Yes, you are correct. I have mentioned it by name on a call (maybe the first one or two…) but… when was the last time I talked about writing? So, fair enough. If you’re curious, it’s based on the animated short I made that’s available on Amazon. It is also called Dragonfly.
I must’ve missed it, somehow. Apologies, but I’m glad to know now. 🙂 I’ll definitely go check out the short!
Jacki, I see you signed up for the photo newsletter. Thank you for testing it. May I ask when you did so and if there were any kinks? I made some tweaks so I’m not sure if it was before or after. In short, did you get an automated email after and did the DropBox link in it work? Thanks so much! And if you want to be removed from it, let me know – I won’t take it personally!
Hi Sarah! I didn’t a notification for this or it got lost, my bad. Yes, I got your confirmation email! The dropbox link also worked! I look forward to receiving your emails.
Thank you and thank you!
Okay, I took the GIGFNT framework as a guide and made a framework for my DJ teaching stuff.
Take a look: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CMN9NvTCqB_BtkpdXUxT-y28_QvfvhGQ/
I wish it looked prettier or cooler or whatever. But I am proud of having just sat down and hammered this out. I don’t know if this is the final version. I don’t know if it’s at 85% yet. haha. But here it is.
Thoughts?
I just took a template and did something with it. Tried to find a free one. With three circles. With room to edit. Some of my ideas could go in different little spots. I didn’t like that Practice was on its side like that.
But again I say: here it is.
I could do a monthly zoom call and invite folks (who pay) and explain anything about any of these topics. I didn’t even mention actual mind, actual body, and actual soul. all of which are affected. But I digress.
Here it is. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CMN9NvTCqB_BtkpdXUxT-y28_QvfvhGQ/
I. Love. This.
So great, Greg! If you’re game, I can even play with it in my Canva Pro account to see if I can get the visuals more proportionally balanced. Is this the font and color scheme you prefer? Or just what came with the template?
I’m so proud of you! For SURE this is 85% if not more!! Well done! You have a framework! Now you can pick any sliver of it and do a webinar or pop-up or downloadable checklist or social media post or anything else you’d like, to generate interest and engagement around your offers! Woo HOO!
Sure I’m game! THANK YOU.
No, I’m not married to these fonts or colors. it was just what came with the template. I was meaning to ask if there are colors and fonts that are more aligned with me and how to figure that out? Is there a woo-woo answer? Am I overthinking? haha
How do I best get this to you?
Greg, Day 35 is particularly about looking at corporate branding and color usage (that’s the one I was reaching for in the Zoom). Maybe doing a pass of that will help shake some things loose!
I know for Brand Stephanie, the choice of color was an energetic, woo, color theory, and I-just-like-the-color choice (purple). For #30SecondBallets, it came differently. I initially went with pink because it evoked the pink pointe shoe, and because it harmonized with the cover image. (BTW, pink is absolutely not a Brand Stephanie color.) When I wrote Act Two, I again just went with image harmony from a design perspective. So now, the main brand colors are pink and orange (with a hit of teal on rare occasion; blue is opposite orange and pink is opposite green on a color wheel).
Hopefully that’s helpful? Anyway, way to go on building the thing!!
oooh thank you for directing me back here
No prob! It’s one of my fav days. 😉
How’s this, Greg? https://cricketfeet.com/jfdi/QE%20DJ%20FRAMEWORK%20JFDI.png
this is magnificent! Thank you!
Okay, here’s an A+ Content draft with sales copy embedded. I don’t hate it (lol), but I do think it could use eyes and a little polish to get to a comfortable-releasing-to-the-world 85%. This is just for Amazon itself, not for the book’s actual webpage. (Interestingly, I use very little copy there.) At this point, I’m not sure if I should/will use the same copy for both the plain-text product description and this A+ content. When I’m on Amazon, I often skip the plain text and scroll to this part, so…
https://kdp.amazon.com/aplus/api/GetContentPreview?contentId=76d49291-ba28-43a7-9dcb-b4d57724882d&projectId=76d49291-ba28-43a7-9dcb-b4d57724882d&revision=1663186316258&deviceType=DESKTOP
If you prefer to see it on a gadget, swap out the last bit for MOBILE instead of DESKTOP.
Thanks so much for taking a peek, and offering any thumbs-ups and suggestions!
OH I clicked on it on my phone first without seeing your note for how to make it look good on my phone. haha. Whoops. Then I went to my laptop so look at it. and when I came here to comment I saw your extra instruction.
hey it looks good to me. I have no suggestions! THUMBS UP!
You’d think it would automatically switch, right? Lol. Thank you for taking a look, Greg! And thank you for the thumbs up!!
I wonder if you delete the device type off the link… would it just automatically detect which one you were on and show the person that version?
Ah, good guess. I just tried though, and no, lol. I think it’s because it’s a creator-only page from within KDP, and intended to be used to show drafts of the various gadget views in-house. Once it is on the product page IRL, it will do its thing and adjust accordingly, I’m sure. 🙂
Looks good to me and way to brag about how you’re qualified to have authored this. One quick thing, and it may be dance-specific jargon (could go either way).
Third line under “waiting in the wings”:
“You’re looking to deepen your knowledge of the world of ballet, spark your artistic curiosity, and keep on your toes!” Do you mean “keep YOU on your toes”? or “keep on your toes”? I can see “keep on your toes” being a pointe reference, so ignore if that’s what you’re going for. It’s been decades since my dancing days.
Well done! Looks good.
Well-spotted, it is a pointe reference! And yes, in an earlier draft it was somewhere else as “keep you on your toes”. But, the current wording was just to keep the grammatical consistency within the active verbs- looking to deepen/to spark/to keep. Though, point taken that the sentence might be a little long and funky. (Mea culpa.) Do you prefer “stay” rather than “keep”? Or maybe the addition of “to” before the verb to guide the eye better?
Thank you very much for looking it over, and thank you for the nod of approval over the qualifications, too! That was a dance to get it in there without pinging off my enoughness. (It did a little, but I’m okay with where I landed.)
I like the addition of “to”, but only if it’s before all 3 verbs, and the use of “stay” over “keep” because either option is easier for ME to read/follow/understand, but I would go with whatever is most dance-appropriate terminology that THOSE people (and Heather) will appreciate. Kinda like an inside joke. I understand it, but don’t appreciate it the way they would. Using “inside baseball” dance phrasings also show… that you know your shit. So if a dance person has no problem reading that as is, then I don’t see a reason to change it.
The keep/stay isn’t the inside wink, just the “on your toes” part is. 🙂
I actually tripped over it once or twice myself reading it during the editing phase, though I chalked that up to having read the first 500 drafts of it first, lol. So, yeah, I’ll go back in and tweak. The fact this sentence is standing out to you- and popping up question marks- is good data. At the end of the day, I want this to be comfortable and welcoming language more than wow-Steph-writes-long-sentences language. 😉
Much appreciated, Sarah!
Agree with Sarah. Keep YOU on your toes is what the mind does with that sentence, and even if the way it is written IS correct (it is), it snags the reading brain.
Maybe: “…to deepen your knowledge of the world of ballet and spark your artistic curiosity while always keeping you on your toes!”
Even though that breaks a rule or two, grammatically, it’s got style that forgives that AND provides more clarity (unless that phrasing actually makes the meaning LESS accurate, which is certainly possible).
Love seeing y’all do this workout!
Thanks, Bon! And thanks again, Sarah! Done and dusted. 🙂
(That A+ Content link won’t show updates, but the live product page will.)
Hi, y’all! Just quickly reporting in- I’m back from my BATD Seminar presentation earlier today, and it went swimmingly. Some minor hiccups with slide presentation again (though I was prepared for it), but otherwise, everyone participated and it was a good group. Small, but good. Proud to also say I sold 7 books! In a room of 10 people plus Zoom attendees, this is an excellent return rate, so I’m quite pleased.
The one little thing I want to pick at for myself is a money-mindset lesson that popped: They sent me the speaker fee last night, but I didn’t/couldn’t/felt weird to accept the transfer until I completed the seminar. Part of me says this is quite logical (the part trained by society), and part of me says “Girl, you SHOULD get paid in advance, so accept it”! I think this is a muscle to build, getting not only comfortable, but wholeheartedly welcoming of money in advance of work. (Well, okay, I actually did do a crap-ton of work in advance, just not the presentation part. That in itself can be my way in to reframe this.)
Hope you had a great weekend, too!
Yayayayayayay! And WOW! A 70% conversion rate?!? Outstanding!! Nothing like the data that is measured by money in the bank!
As for your issue with accepting payment until after the presentation, I wonder if you have this same issue with all financial exchanges? I know for performing arts, until a certain tier we may be chasing down payments long after the work is done, but I guess I’m asking whether you experienced this issue today due to lack of practice with EVER being paid up front?
Revisit GIGFTNT Money Track 5 for my story about shifting my business from collecting payment after doing the work to getting paid to START work. If you’re just not practiced at getting paid up front, that’s easy. Get more practice. 😉 And start allowing yourself to put money in your bank before you’re fully comfortable doing that. Because eventually, it’s the only way you’ll do it. 😉
IF, however, you have plenty of places in your life where you’re already practiced at this and it’s just for this NEW business venture that you’re feeling this little stickiness, that’s an enoughness thing and you know we have a bazilliondy tools for conquering that bit of mindset work.
Either way, I’m so freakin’ proud of you!
I’m stoked by that rate, absolutely! It’s excellent data, that this particular group of people and this particular setting is “right” for finding Heather. And also, that the adjustments made to the presentation itself do indeed still convert. I’d want to do a little more testing, but on paper, this version elicited a better conversion than the OG content at Expo. (Biggest difference: this version had some interactivity with the exercises themselves, the other just presented them as options.)
That’s an interesting question, Bon. I wouldn’t say I have issues paying others in advance (coaches, classes, whatever). But you’re right, now that I actually think about it, it is rare for me to be paid in advance myself. And I’ve not been in a position to ask for it often. I *just* did this last month with a studio in Michigan that commissioned me to virtually choreograph a few routines, but I still only asked for a portion of it ahead.
So… a little of both! Practice and enoughness in asking for it, and in then receiving it up front. I’ll circle back to that page in the Track, thank you. And I’ll see if I can build a little boilerplate language for myself to shift my mindset and shore up the “script” for future contract negotiations. Not such a terrible thing to have as homework, go get paid… ;p
Thank you for your cheers! I’m proud, too!
Congrats on a successful expo! And please do know that you are clearly worth getting paid in advance for all this. You know your shit, and deserved to be treated (by yourself and others) as one who knows their shit. Glad you noticed the weirdness right away. Building muscles! And, *only* 70% conversion rate??? I expect more from you Stephanie. Next time. Next time.
I know, Sarah. Sorry to disappoint. ;p
In all seriousness, though, THANK YOU for this. I’m going to have to screencap it and stuff it somewhere where I will see it over and over. And I will indeed work on treating myself as someone who knows their shit. <3
Thinking of changing Jiggy from “Getting Jiggy Puzzles” to “Getting Jiggy Crafts”. I think it more accurately describes what I do, that I’m not just putting together jigsaw puzzles, and will help separate me from “Jiggy Puzzles” which was on Shark Tank and has cornered the Google SEO market on anything with the phrasing “jiggy puzzles”. The name’s available everywhere so… probably gonna do that. Am I being crazy? I like to think it was that whole lightning striking in a moment of brilliance/creativity (the watery trusting of Neptune, I believe it was?) and me acting on it knowing it’s right.
No, I don’t think you’re “being crazy”. I actually think this might be a good move; I wasn’t aware of Jiggy Puzzles. But, if they already have the market cornered on that phrasing, then I’m willing to bet you’re going to have some trouble, have buyers find you harder to find on Google, or eventually get poked with a trademark infringement claim down the road. Using “Jiggy” still gets the idea across, if you ask me. Just one opinion, but I’d say go grab the social media usernames now (since those are free anyway), and see what others have to say here. Notice how your gut feels when you grab these, too… That might give you the answer you need. 🙂
I already started grabbing the social as I was commenting here. :). Not sure if she has a trademark on it (don’t think so) but it’s more about name recognition and the fact she’s been around since 2019. I knew of her/the name going in when I was researching what to call my thing, but seeing how I’m including not just puzzle things into what I’m doing – it makes sense. And when it comes to Google/SEO, for some reason my Etsy store IS NOT indexed. And it’s been since April. Not sure why that is or how to rectify it because my store has been optimized from the get go. Argh. But name change will at least help differentiate. And clarify.
You could always search the US Trademark database, if you haven’t already, since that is publicly available and searchable. Of course, it won’t show if a trademark has been filed and not yet approved, though. But, theoretically, if you tried to trademark it today and she had filed yesterday, she’d get the rights to it. Regardless, I think you’re right with name recognition, official trademark or no.
If I’m not mistaken, there is a way to force Google to index a page on demand. Funnily enough, you’ll have to Google it because I don’t know exactly how I got to it once before… only that I did. Maybe Bon or Keith can help you, there…
I HAVE Googled it (eye roll) and still can’t figure it out without it being a way that’s overly complicated on my end. I decided to put it aside at the time and “follow the fun” as we say in improv.
I like that phrase “follow the fun”.
100%. And frankly, I think you’ll get more traction from other sources than by landing in a cold-search right now anyway.
I’m pretty sure I saw the function from within the Google Search Console, though I haven’t been in there recently. Apparently, you can just pop a URL in the Inspection Tool to request Google to re-index. However, you need to be a full owner/user of the property within Search Console. I’m not sure you can do that with an Etsy page. That might be the snagging point, something between Google and Etsy. It is weird, though.
You’re 100% correct and why I haven’t looked more into the Google Search Console angle (which seems to be the only viable option). According to my Etsy stats a lot of traffic comes from my own doing through Instagram, so… yeah.
Change it! Gives you more flexibility and prevents you from being the target of what could be a big-attorney-well-financed trademark battle down the line. A shift like this is small enough that your superfans won’t care AND you’re still new enough to market that you’re not risking losing a ton of brand momentum. 🙂 AND it gives you way more room to go beyond puzzles, which, as you said, you’re already doing!
Done and done. The last pieces were buying the domain and officially changing the Etsy store name. Next thing will be to eventually change the IG profile image to a more solid and final branding. Will probably do that in a week or so, (still working on the new logo) since I want people to get used to the name change (if they noticed) before the image is completely different. I’m sure for the most part I’m being overly cautious in the switch over, but just in case people on IG noticed the name change, don’t want to also have a different image so they don’t realize it’s the same account.
Solid reasoning. There’s no rush.
https://uspto.gov is the site that has information you seek. Navigation is complex, but not complicated.
Hover your mouse over the TRADEMARK menu and a submenu shows up. In the 2nd column, “Application Process,” the first item, “Searching trademarks,” is what you’re looking for. Click that guy.
That’ll take you to a weird page with a bunch of mostly useless information on it (it’s actually quite fascinating if you want to learn about the process). What you’re looking for is the gray box/button, “Search our trademark database (TESS).” Click that.
That’ll take you to a seriously throwback website color scheme/site layout that it the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS).
On this page, once your eyes have adjusted to being back in the late 1990s, gives you lots of options, and you want the top one, “Basic Word Search (New User).” Clicking that takes you to a similarly colored, Lycos Angelfire website-looking place where you can type in the trademark name you’re looking for… if you leave all the choices at their defaults and click the hard-to-see button, “Submit Query”, you’ll see that no one has a national trademark for Jiggy Puzzles.
If you search self-management for actors, you’ll see what a successful search yields.
Note: it’s easy to get lost on this stie, and it’s designed for patent and trademark LAWYERS to fuck around on and do business in, so the reason it’s hard to navigate is that it helps justify higher legal fees.
I will answer any follow-up questions as they arrive.
BTW, I’d vernacularize Getting to Gettin’ whether you go with Crafts or stick with Puzzles… Proper grammar and spelling do not good ad-copy make.
Thanks, Keith. I did already poke around and had noticed that they didn’t trademark. And yes, the website, short of a “site visitation counter” at the bottom felt very 1990s. Thanks for the “Gettin’ ” suggestion.
Accountability. Realized I had more levels of the triangle for each business than I had initially assumed.
Photography
-Freebie, Lead Magnet, Opt-In Bonus, Automated, Upsells/Engagement
-Email List & Free Wallpaper Images (for as long as you retain the link)
-Tripwire, Low Cost, Purely Passive, Automated Delivery
-E-Book Travel Guides, Cheaper Priced Items for sale
-Low Touch Membership, Largely Automated
-Photo of the Month Membership, Artwork of the Month Membership
-Small Group Membership
-HQ Prints
-1 on 1
Commissioned Prints (include photo session and print)
Main thing I want to point people towards is buying high quality prints… and/or the monthly photo memberships maybe.
Jiggy
-Freebie, Lead Magnet, Opt-In Bonus, Automated, Upsells/Engagement
-Email List with Discount Code (for now)
-Tripwire, Low Cost, Purely Passive, Automated Delivery
-DIY kits, Cheaper Priced Items on Etsy
-Low Touch Membership, Largely Automated
-Higher Priced Items on Etsy
-Small Group Membership (aka level 4)
-Made to Order Products
-1 on 1
-Commissioned crafts
Main thing I want to point people towards are commissioned crafts/made to order products.
Great work! This is exciting!
Okay yall. Please look at this. Beginner’s DJ Guide for Introverts: Everything You Need To Start DJ-ing.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15xG9FBaf9ePBnOkoY01oOa0SUD6UlKhC/
1) I spent all night on this so please be gentle in your critique. 😉
2) this would be at the bottom of the Dave Triangle. my free offering to get people going.
3) i didn’t know how to mention that if they would work with me, I could just buy the gear for them and mix it into the cost. I figure I would just mention case by case as each person’s needs would be different. Sounds exhausting. There is probably a way to automate it. But one thing at a time I guess.
4) I wanted to work in the framework somewhere. Because i’m really proud of it. But I am guessing that goes in a different spot on the triangle. I remember the suggestion that a video explanation of this would be the thing that cost money. Is it worth $50 ? I don’t want to overdeliver or underdeliver. I feel like doing a huge explanation of this PLUS the framework is too much. Plus they could use that money towards getting the gear? I dunno. I do want them to give me money tho. I just am thinking on which thing to create next. and which thing gets money coming in soonest.
5) This is two Canva templates. I went ahead and am using the Canva Pro trial right now. So I used a furniture catalog template to do the gear part and some crypto money guide template to do that front page. I am mentally and emotionally drained so I couldn’t figure out how to make it look good again. I did go in and delete a lot of elements. The two templates are definitely clashing here. But hey I did it. The artist in me wants to make it all uniform but I would totally post this and start giving it to people as is. Just because I’m tired.
Okay, thoughts? Gentle encouraging and affirming thoughts but also helpful and here’s what you can do next thoughts with some “you’re doing it right” thoughts sprinkled in?
Also, hello
Super quick reply just to let you know this is awesome and you are a badass and I am so freakin’ excited for you and where this can go! I do have more things to say but it’s late and I’m tired and you need more gentle care than I have the ability to use at this hour. 😉 So, just a quick YOU ROCK for now and I’ll be back with some tweaks/ideas/examples of ways to integrate framework, an “about me” page, and a really juicy pitch for “how to work with me” too. Go, go, Greg!
Thank you!
Okay. I’m back.
First, I want this guide to have a catchy name. Think of “SMFA Hot Sheets” and how for nearly a decade, those free PDFs to supplement my book helped remind people how great the book is and got people to buy the book just off having downloaded the freebies. “The SMFA Type & Brand Guide” and “Your SMFA Business Plan” also do this. “The SMFA Dip Kit” too — what are some ways you can build IN branding so people begin to associate this AWESOME free guide with YOUR brand (and your business, your bank account)?
Next, I want each of these awesome products/write-ups to have AFFILIATE LINKS to the products at some place that will PAY YOU for having sent buyers over for the sale. Like, we recommend a TON of books here in our world. EVERY one of those book titles is linked to the evil overlord Amazon with a little code at the end of the link so we’ll get a few pennies off every sale. It’s not a ton, but it’s not nothin’. Probably a few hundy a year. Also, having those linked will make the guide even more of a time-saver/helpful guide. They won’t have to search for the product you mention and get confused by all the things that come up on Google.
I want each page to have 2 pieces of equipment and 1 NON-EQUIPMENT thing. Since this is EVERYTHING you need to get started DJing, it needs to include things like the soul and the mind and the prep and the relationships and all the stuff that’s in your framework. THIS is how you work in those things. So, for example, one page has in position 1, turntables. In position 2, headphones. In position 3, a well-curated playlist.
In that last one, you can put an image of a stack of playlists printed out or a view of computer screens with playlists up on them, or even a person working WITH YOU to put together a playlist, huddling over the work product. (You’ll see an image of me with clients doing exactly this kind of stuff here, on the coaching PACKAGE top offer. You’ll also see images like this in a freebie workbook sample I’m going to link below.)
You can list the PRICE for each of those non-equipment items as either a fixed price (like the $50 you’d charge someone to huddle about a playlist with them for 20 minutes) or a starting price (brainstorm sessions begin at $150/hr. or whatever) or NO PRICE (see page X for details on how to work with me to get this done — and then you save the details for YOUR expertise and their ability to tap into it for a gorgeous “how to go deeper” page at the end of the workbook — I’ve got an example of that coming for you soon).
After the GORGEOUS cover of you absolutely in the FLOW, I want an “about this guide” page or “how to use this guide” type thing. Something that introduces people to what they’re getting, lets them know why YOU are the guy to help them change their life forever with this info, and of course cements the value they’re getting which amps up the KLT (know-like-trust) factor. Again, I’ve got an example coming shortly.
I want an “about me” page at the end. (Ditto. Example forthcoming.) AND a “how to go deeper” page (Tritto).
As for the vid walk-thru or other personal touches, call those upsells. For anything you show them that you KNOW they’ll get confused about, note (on that how to go deeper with me page) that you offer a VIP walk-thru or whatever you want to call it, so they don’t have to wonder if they hooked up their gear right. You’ll be there walking them through every step for X price.
AND, since you want them spending money on YOU vs. the GEAR, here’s a great way to do that AND STILL make money off affiliate sales of equipment people do decide to buy outright (for the people who are never going to pay to work with anyone; they’re just the DIY types and your list is truly everything they need). Definitely have links in the document for buying gear and buying one-off sessions with you like the gear walk-thru or the playlist brainstorm session or whatever AND on the page where you mention “how to go deeper” stuff, you can have a year-long or months-long or X number of sessions or whatever package… and when they sign up before X (have some end point on this, so you’re not rewarding lollygaggers) the money they’ve paid in to YOU already can come OFF their year-long apprenticeship.
Example: I download your free PDF, I realize I’m gonna need you looking over my shoulder as I do X so I buy a one-off with you for that $50 or whatever. We do that session and I really enjoy your vibe and want to keep working with you because clearly I’m getting such value from this experience, blah blah blah… you have a slot in your year-long mentorship, which is $3000 (or whatever it is). Because I already did a $50 walk-thru with you, you’ll get me in for that mentorship for $2950.
No, it’s not a huge discount for me (the buyer) nor is it a big issue for you to NOT get that amount from someone you already got that amount from, right? But there’s this cool psychological thing that happens with that offer that makes more people likely to try the low-cost upsell (the one-off coaching session or workalong meeting). And of course, the more of THOSE you sell, the more candidates exist for your long-form mentorships, future incentive offers, etc.
Okay, so here’s a workbook I made a while back for a free webinar that we did with the goal being getting folks enrolled in Get in Gear for the Next Tier. Obvi, a webinar is different than just a PDF download, but you can see the types of pages and images I’ve described above by looking through this. Specifically, look at pages 2 and 3 for the expectation-setting and early branding intro stuff you can add. Then look at pages 15 and 16 for the “how to go deeper” stuff (and another image of me coaching an actor) and page 19 for the “about me” info.
Does all this feel doable? Even if “not all at once” is the answer, is this a good list of things you can begin to work into your documents/freebies to help people get closer to the buy button? The RIGHT people? 😉
Again, super proud of you for all you’ve built already. Your enoughness really shines through this document and even if you don’t change a thing, you’re good to go! These are just suggestions for ways to help the PDF do more for you. (AND NOT JUST GREG!! Any of you could potentially benefit from working these suggestions into your freebie lead magnet thingies.)
🙂
okay thank you again. working on it.
Alllllllllllrighty, so here’s my update on this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqG-sHTDUO_c11cIaU8sdL7SWECmN8lM/
Did I sleep last night? No. I have been working on this. I realize that I am too close to this thing to be objective. So I need yall to just take a look at it and let me know if this works!
This is with Bonnie’s suggestions. I added amazon affiliate links to everything except Ableton which apparently isn’t sold there. I also got link redirects so I could put my domain links on there. Shoutout to Pretty Links WordPress plugin. Free version.
I added additional slots for MIND, BODY, & SOUL and redirected them to another page where i offered private coaching. I added additional pages to kind of sell me as a teacher and an about me.
I made a Private Coaching page on my site.
https://www.quietentertainer.com/private-coaching/
I kinda took it straight from Bonnie’s page and tweaked the language a bit. I couldn’t figure out how to do a form so I just made a button that takes you to a google form.
The RESISTANCE to sitting down and doing this was at an all time high. Every time I would get home from work, I’d suddenly be too tired to do anything.
I think I tweaked one of Stephanie’s suggestions too. I deleted some unnecessary sentences. I also changed every instance of deejaying to DJ-ing. I don’t know which is right. haha. Okay if yall let me know it’s okay, i’m gonna send this to people. But let me know.
alright, i’m gonna go sleep and cry now.
Rock ON, Greg!! This looks awesome!!! Applauding you hard for doing the thing. 🙂
Bonnie has given you a TON of excellent thoughts and ideas. I’ll add a couple proof-reading things I noticed:
-You have a few capitalization errors throughout the PDF, so double-check. The ones I spotted are: Pg. 3- “Controller” (first sentence, did you intend to capitalize?), missed capital on “Do you want to scratch?”. Pg. 4- missed capitals on “Okay, okay”, “Playing live?”, “Bluetooth”.
-Missed hyphens on “game-changing” and “life-changing”, Pg. 4
-Pg. 5, I think you mean “getting set up”, two words. “Setup”, one word, is the noun.
-You bounce back and forth a little between spelling the verb as “DJ-ing” and “deejaying”. I kinda want this choice of spelling to stay consistent across the document. BUT! I have no knowledge about this world, and so maybe this suggestion makes no sense or there’s a specific reason why you spell it in each place the way you do. Ignore me if that’s the case.
I also just want to point out that there are a couple times in your copy where you suggest a piece of equipment, and then immediately back off. For example, under Turntables & Mixer, your first sentence is: “If you have a computer, you don’t really need turntables and a mixer”. And that led my brain to go “why did he include it, then?” before I read on. So I want to encourage you to stand behind your recommendations! I’d say just drop the first sentence and start with “This will depend on what KIND of DJ you want to be”, then you can end on something like “If you have a computer, you might not need these… but I bet you’ll be happy to have ’em.”
And one other point- the bright blue on your cover page doesn’t show up anywhere else- you switch in the document to dark teal. I’m not sure if that was intentional…? Not a deal-breaker at all, just something I noted. #Virgo 😉 I don’t feel like the templates are clashing per se, just the color change stood out to my eye. I LOVE the opening photo and the contrast between the red and whichever blue(s) you use!
These Virgo notes are GOLD. So helpful to have a detail-diva looking things over. Fabulous, Stephanie!
🙂 Detail is one of my happy places!
And I’ll proudly accept that title. 😉
thank you Stephanie for checking this out!
I can only say that a lot of it is Greg-speak. I just wanted to make something with the information. I will go back and tweak with these suggestions.
the recommendations themselves, not everyone needs every piece of gear. It really does depend on the type of DJ you want to be. Maybe I can word it better, but I don’t think I’m waffling in that instance. I stand behind it. 😉
As for the cover page and the rest, that what I was saying. I used two different templates to do this. I don’t currently know how to make it all work together. I just wanted to do something to make it exist.
This reminds me of something I am noticing lately. I am so exhausted every time I sit down to do any of this stuff. I wonder if this is an upper limit problem. But I just can’t seem to stay awake whenever I have free time to do this. I’ve been sleeping a LOT since I posted this guide in here. Wonder what that is.
I posted this cover and there are people on my list interested but I don’t know if it’s enough to start making money or anything. But, having the framework has helped my actual teaching even as my current sessions are coming to a close.
Totally, just having framework helps you AND your students. There is always a pillar to lean on! There is always an AREA they need to go to fortify whatever they’re feeling blocked by. You’ve drawn it up for them. And having that framework makes everything easier (and better monetized too).
As for the exhaustion, yes. You’re having a vulnerability hangover. You did a big, brave thing and the ULP is trying to stop you from continuing forward on a path that could include growth beyond the cap that feels safe to primal brain. Yes, yes, yes.
As for being tired WHILE you do it, it’s just like anything new. You’re not yet practiced at it. It (designing in Canva) is fussy and counter-intuitive and you don’t know how to make it do the things you want it to do and you don’t know whether it’s because you don’t know what you’re doing or because it’s not possible to do what you want to do. It’s frustrating and therefore it’s (again) an opportunity for the brain to do things to help PROTECT you.
I recommend doing it in short bursts. When I first started using Canva, I’d sometimes push away my laptop and cry because I knew something had to be possible but I just couldn’t figure it out. Eventually, I got brave enough to post Qs in the FB group run by the woman who sells templates that I bought when I was first starting out. I would ask a Q, run away and hide so I didn’t feel dumb for asking it, and then I’d come back and there’d be all this support for how frustrating that feature is or how everything unlocked when they learned how to do X, Y, Z… I got support and encouragement AND I got invited to share my pages after I succeeded at designing them. This helped me a great deal.
So, I’d keep practicing with Canva — like turn EVERYTHING you can think of into something done at Canva so you can really build a muscle for it — in short little bursts of time. IF you continue to be exhausted by it, then, yeah… you may eventually want to hire someone to just do the damn things for you. But more likely, you’ll get better at it, feel more confident about it, and BECAUSE YOU HAVE ASSETS OUT IN THE WORLD, SHOWCASING YOUR FRAMEWORK AND POINTING PEOPLE TOWARD HOW TO WORK WITH YOU you’ll have money coming in to support that it’s a GOOD thing to create more stuff like this… and BAM. There’s a rhythm that’s less exhausting! 😉
You’ve got this!
Don’t have much to add, because you already got great info and no need to be repetitive, but I will say you’re adorable and I love the design templates you used. That cover image is fan-fucking-tastic. Makes me want to keep scrolling.
thank you SO much. If you think I’m adorable, I’m just going to fight the urge to disagree!
and thanks for looking at this thing! new version still to come.
A question related to Zoom meetings: I know they’ve throttled back meeting length for Basic accounts, but I’ve noticed my outgoing picture has also gone more consistently grainy with a low frame rate. I’m always running hard-wired on a gaming rig, and the camera is rated at 1080p, 30fps (which I’m not getting to in a meeting). Paired with the fact this seems to be a newer “problem”, I don’t suspect my hardware. So… does anyone know if Zoom throttles frame rate and/or resolution based on Plan now? I’m getting conflicting answers on Google and on Zoom’s own website, so I’m curious if any of you are Zoom experts. I’m thinking ahead to possible #30SecondBallet things I could do, but also just for auditions/coaching. Thanks!
Great question! And one to ask in the SMFA Dojo Facebook group too, as there are so many self-tapers there who may have news (especially those folks who work for WeRehearse or WeAudition or whatever they’re going by now).
I know that — even with a pretty pricey account tier over here — they are tossing up banners and pop-ups and open/close messages on the app encouraging us to upgrade this and lock in pricing that. It’s annoying and for as much as we pay already, I’m like, “Could this NO THANKS button actually mean you stop asking me this?!?”
I wonder if these pushes they’re doing to get people into certain pricing tiers, etc., has something to do with news about competitors or if there might be something coming down from federal regulations with telecom and bandwidth… or what. All sorts of reasons they may do stuff like this.
It’s like when iPhone rolls out an update that is designed to CRUSH battery life on older phones. The idea is that you’ll be so inconvenienced by how often you’ve gotta charge the dang thing that you just go ahead and buy the newest phone, even though you otherwise have a perfectly good phone. There’s a point at which you’re better off NOT updating the software or system files because of how crappy it’ll make your performance.
There was a time when this sort of thing would’ve been illegal. Ah… the ’80s. What a time we had.
Will do! And I have noticed the uptick in popups, banners, and other annoyances. I’m both surprised and completely unsurprised they are doing this to high-tier clients, too. You may very well be right about something coming down the pipeline… Somebody call the 80s, we want that law back here. 😉
Also wouldn’t mind the music from the 80s being back….
I asked, and then circled back with this info over at the Facebook Dojo. Thought I’d cross-post in case y’all want to know the end of the story, too. 🙂
Zoom now throttles all basic/free accounts to 40 minutes, PLUS a maximum definition of 360p (640×360… we’re talking definition from the 2000s) for any meeting a basic account hosts. If you’re a participant, you *might* be able to send 720p if the host has a Pro account, has requested that Zoom enable 720p on their account, and has turned both full-screen and active speaker mode on. (The sheer number of rules!!) No one gets 1080p without a very special request for a “large webinar” (read: is paying Zoom lots of money already).
So… if your picture has been looking a little weird since July or August-ish like mine has, this is likely why. Because they control it from the server side, no updating/downgrading will help. The only way to get to 720p is to pay ‘em. Nice business model. (Full sarcasm.)
Here’s the exact response from “John” at Zoom Customer Service (though I did all these things and it did nothing to improve the quality):
“The ability to send HD video is based on the meeting’s host. If a free user hosts a meeting, all participants are limited to 360p. This also applies to two-person meetings. If the meeting host has a Pro account or higher and has HD enabled on their account, all participants will be able to send/receive HD if the below requirements are met:
Send HD
-Put the meeting window in full-screen mode.
-Use active speaker mode.
-HD enabled in Settings in the Zoom desktop client or mobile app.
-Meet our bandwidth requirements.
-At least one attendee must be in full-screen mode.
Receive HD
-Put the meeting window in full-screen mode.
-Use active speaker mode.
-Meet our bandwidth requirements.
-At least one attendee must meet our requirements for sending HD, as mentioned above.”
I wanted to pop in to celebrate a weird thing I’m proud of! (October’s page isn’t loading up for me, but no worries.)
I’m just back from picking up the books I had out on consignment from the Expo deal. This is the store that wanted them on the spot, but they didn’t sell a single one… and I’m fine with it. They were actually incredibly uncommunicative and technically breached contract. I’m quite happy they ended up not selling any; it’s a blessing in disguise because now I don’t have to chase them down for payment. (Though, I was going to insist they pay me on the spot had they sold any.)
I did ask where they had displayed them- rather randomly in a side room of an over-packed store. I have no reason to believe this result had anything to do with me, and this has not happened before. So, mildly disappointed, but with a much larger, overshadowing sense of relief. Now these books can go directly to another store that requested some instead! Ha.
Just wanted to share, because I feel like this lack of spiraling is a point of growth for me. 🙂