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What you’ll learn in this episode:
The road to creating a thriving business with Hell Yes! Offers is riddled with uncertainty, doubt, and many failed attempts. In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, we need to build courage, persevere, and take what we learn and apply it going forward.
In today’s episode with Financial Coach Tess Waresmith, she walks us through her journey of uncertainty and shares a powerful insight and tool that allowed her to take her offer from a rough, lightly fleshed out course to a successful business. As we record this, Tess has just had a record-breaking month of selling out her group coaching program, which focuses on helping women in their 30s and 40s build wealth and retire comfortably by learning a low-maintenance investing plan in 4 weeks, and pre-selling her next cohort.
When speaking to Tess, she attributes much of the growth of her business to her strong and targeted offer, and this one thing that she did with her offer that she shares in today’s episode. And I think it’s an insight that will prove extremely valuable to all of you. I also think you will enjoy hearing Tess’ story and how she arrived at where she is today, as her relatability and easy-to-know nature is truly endearing. Take a listen.
Here’s a glance at this episode:
- Learn why imperfection is often the fastest road to success
- Understand why owning a problem and having a targeted audience promotes faster growth and increased marketability
- See firsthand why a marriage of your Hell Yes! Energy AND your data always makes for the perfect relationship
Mentioned in this episode:
Canyon Ranch Fall 2023 Retreat
Work/Connect with me:
Canyon Ranch Fall 2023 Retreat
About Tess Waresmith
Tess is a financial coach and the founder of Wealth with Tess, a financial education platform that helps corporate women and entrepreneurs in their 30’s/40’s (and beyond) learn how to grow their money using simple investing strategies so that they can have the financial independence to retire comfortably, chase their dreams, and live life on their terms.
After losing 80k in bad investments in her twenties, Tess learned everything she could about wealth building and built her net worth to 1 million as a single 35 year old woman.
Now she’s helped thousands of women learn how to grow their money using simple investing strategies anyone can do (even if you’re short-on-time or a total newbie investor). Thousands of women have attended her free investing workshops, hundreds of women have joined her small group coaching programs, and she regularly shares simple money tips for free on instagram at @wealthwithtess.
Jessica Miller 00:02
Hey, Tess, welcome to the show. We’re so happy to have you here. Jess, I’m
Tess 00:06
so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Jessica Miller 00:08
Of course, of course, for all of the listeners here on the It’s Your offer podcast, tell everyone who you are about your business what you do, so that they can hear it from you.
Tess 00:17
Yes. So I am Tess, I’m a financial coach. I am the founder of wealth with test, which is a financial education platform that helps women learn how to grow their money using super, super simple investing strategies anyone can do, even if you’re a total newbie, even if you have a little bit of debt, or even if you are short on time. And I do that through my signature coaching program called Money confident, which is a small group coaching program. And I post a ton of stuff on Instagram. So that’s a good place. If you want some information. Some it’s a little controversial. So if you want to follow me there at wealth with tests, that’s the best place to find me.
Jessica Miller 00:53
Yeah. So all of you listening are like, Oh, my goodness, I have been meaning to learn about this for like 100 years. Welcome to the club. And yes, Tess is on social media. And when you go there, you’re going to be like, I want to know everything about investing. And I want to know how test gets on social media and does all the amazing things every day, because she has so much information there. So Tess, I want you to share with everyone you know, I want to hear about your story where you started I thinking you didn’t come out of school or as a young adult and think I want to become an entrepreneur and be doing your business that you’re doing right now. There was a journey there. And I’d love to, for you to share what that is like, where did you start? What made you shift? Like what brought you to this business that you’re in now?
Tess 01:37
Yeah, so I’ll try to give you the Cliff Notes version, because it’s a pretty windy road as entrepreneurship journeys probably are. An important piece of this story starts when I graduated college and couldn’t find a job. And I ended up with my first job being as a literal circus performer on a cruise ship. And the reason why that’s important to the story is because I think that job which actually ended up being awesome, by the way, I got to like be an acrobat get paid to live on a cruise ship, I got all my food paid for it was really cool. And that was a really cool experience. But the reason why that’s important is because I think it opened my mind to different types of possibilities of ways to make money because I thought for sure I was gonna get my degree in business, and then go into marketing and do that forever. And that’s kind of what I thought. And then over the next once I left cruise ships and went back to land, I held a couple of different digital marketing jobs. I worked for a Color Run company. And then the last seven years, I’ve been working for a very cool marketing agency that focuses on affiliate marketing. And during that whole time, I kind of always knew that I wanted to do my own thing, but I did not know what it is. And it took me years to figure out my thing. In fact, I’ve probably I probably have started at least three or four businesses. Before I got to the one I’m doing now as a financial coach, I designed websites for a while as a as a side hustle. I started a hiking YouTube channel for a while that is defunct, now, a sustainability blog, there was like a period of time where I was like green everything, and everyone needs to recycle. And I was like that person probably pretty annoying. So I did that for a while. And then the trigger for me to get into the business I’m in now, which is teaching women how to invest and grow their money was really two things. One is I really needed a way to channel some grief, my stepdad passed away a couple years ago, and I just needed to keep busy. And around the same time. You know, people say like, what do people always come to you for people always came to me for business and money advice or career advice. And it’s something I’ve always been interested in, I actually lost a lot of money by working with the wrong financial advisor. So that’s why I learned about all this stuff. And so then I thought, you know, while I’m in this honestly, like, really dark place trying to occupy myself, I thought, you know, everyone keeps asking me this stuff I’m gonna put together like, kind of for fun, a four week five week, you know, course where people can learn the basics. And so I sent it out to 40 people I knew, having no idea was going to happen. And I said, Hey, like, a lot of you have asked me about the basics of investing in the stock market. I’m gonna put together a few classes on this, if you want to join, I charged $100. And much and all these people were colleagues, some of them were executives, and I thought for sure, like they’re not gonna be interested in this. I had 10 people sign up, which was shocking to me, because I thought a lot of these people already knew this stuff. And I even couched it when they signed up. I said look like if this is, you know, information, you know, don’t let me know and I’ll give you your money back. Like I’m just doing this for fun and whatever. And that accidental class was the best thing I ever did for my business. Just by like putting it out there, I had like a loose curriculum. I did not plan ahead. I just kind of scheduled for classes and 10 people showed up. And I shared with them what I knew. And they all found it really valuable. And that was really powerful mindset shift for me because it wasn’t perfect. It was a mess. I like I was making slides while I’m talking to people. But it was all a bunch of most people I knew were friends of friends. And so it was a great way to kind of test run, what would become my business, even before I knew it was my business. So that is the actual origin of how I got started. Okay,
Jessica Miller 05:33
I have to I have to ask you this question, because I’m sure half of the people, at least listening to this podcast right now are thinking, Oh, my gosh, this is my worst nightmare for like all of us type A personalities who have to have the slides perfect and know what we’re going to say. And would never, like dream of putting this thing out there not perfectly. I would love to know if you could recall, sort of like what was going through your head in that moment that allowed you to just take that leap. I mean, it’s such an important thing, right that we do as entrepreneurs, we’ve got this false sense that when we put something together, it’s perfect. And of course, it’s never perfect, because it’s iterative, right? But that holds so many of us back. So in that moment, when you’re like, I don’t care, I’m just going out with this thing. Like what was going on in your head to allow you to take that step?
Tess 06:25
Sure. So there was a couple of things. One is that I’m very comfortable public speaking, a lot of my jobs require that. So I will say, the confidence in my speaking skills and my communication skills was very helpful, because I knew that off the cuff, I could provide something. So you know, I will say that skill. And this is, I think, an important lesson when you see people start their business, and they’re super successful. All of a sudden, if there are pieces of their business they’re good at they probably learned that doing something else. Sure. People say all the time, they’re like, Oh, you’re so good on a mic. Like I’ve been doing that in different arenas for a long time. So that was the first thing. But the other thing was all of these people and I would recommend this to anyone who’s trying to like pitch a new offer. I sent it out to 40 people via email privately, I wasn’t posting it on social media. I wasn’t posting it all over the place. And everyone that signed up, I was really honest. I said, Look, I’ve never done this before. I know this information is important. I have a loose idea of how to make it really valuable for you. But I’d love your feedback. And I was really, really transparent about what I was doing. I was like, I’m kind of testing this thing. I don’t know if it has legs. And that was cool, because everyone that signed up. One was a gave me feedback in real time and asked me questions in real time. So I could pivot and it helped me kind of make the next weeks, I think I did four or five classes. I can’t remember exactly how many. But being honest with them about wanting to make sure the curriculum was valuable. They gave me feedback. And then I was able to pivot for the next one. And then I knew I was answering the questions that they wanted and that I could provide value. So I honestly think this is that accident, most accidental smartest thing I did in my business was because it created a safe space for me to learn figure out what people needed. And they loved being part of that journey, especially because it was totally bucks. So that really made it very easy. And you know, I was fine with it not being perfect, because I knew it wouldn’t be and I set that expectation upfront.
Jessica Miller 08:21
Yeah, I love that. And you touched on so many important points that I think are so important for people to remember. Like number one, it’s almost like trust your crazy ideas and go for it in a safe space, right? You had people around you that supported you, you were very transparent. So you were in alignment, you weren’t trying to be something you weren’t, you were being clear, like, here’s where I’m at, this is what we’re doing. It’s beta, I’ve done these other things. But this is the first time I’m doing this thing. And I would love your feedback on it. And the other thing that you said, which I think is so huge, is that people love to be part of your journey, they love to give you their opinion and kind of go along that ride. And that’s one of the most valuable things about sort of a seed launch. That’s kind of what you were talking about in this where you have an idea, you put it out there you see how it’s going to be received. And then based on that feedback, you create the thing almost as you go along, or you create the thing from the feedback you’re getting. So it’s super customized, super focused to your target market and the problems and the things that they want to know about. And you just build off of it, while also leveraging your skill set, which is something that I think is also it’s like the killer combination, because it takes all the pressure off. You’re like okay, I’m on a microphone, and I’m comfortable here and I’ve done that. And I’m going to provide so much value and people are like rallying for you and it’s so good. It really is. So that’s awesome. I love it. Okay, continue with your story. I just had to ask that question.
Tess 09:48
No, it’s a great question. And one of the things that I was also transparent about and I think this is really valuable and you know, something that we’ve talked a lot about just is what what I want Add them to do by the end of it. So I said, my goal is, by the end of these four or five weeks, you feel comfortable opening the right retirement accounts and selecting investments that are going to help you grow your money over time. Or if you already have accounts, you’ll know what’s in there. If you want to make a change, etc. I didn’t promise the world I just said that’s the goal is to get you set up with a very simple investing portfolio. That feels good to you. And then I think after four weeks, some people were already there. And there were a few others that weren’t. And so I added another call. And I said, okay, cool. Let’s have another call. We’ll just do q&a, and answer all your questions. And that was invaluable data for me moving forward, because then I started to really understand where the roadblocks are. And I did not know how hard it was for people to take certain steps in this journey. Sure. And so now that I know that I’ve been able to incorporate that into my course. And then the other thing I did, that was accidentally smart. And I in retrospect, like this is what I realized I didn’t do this at the time. And I was like, Oh, I’ll do this. Because this, this makes sense. I recorded everything. And then I thought, oh, I’ll just put it on, like a course hosting site and sell that. And I sold it for a couple of 100 bucks, not a lot of money. And a few people that had taken the original one shared it with other people. And they were like, Oh, that’s great. That’s no money. So you know, now the offer is at a higher price point. And I’ve changed a lot of things. But the first offer was a live rough version of me teaching stuff. And I was honest about that, too. And I shared it on the the course platform or hosting platform, I said, these are recorded videos from a live course that I did, I’ll add like a one on one q&a If you need help, and I sold that. And those two things that I did, I feel like helped me shave probably months off of the creation process I didn’t focus on, I did get some advice from somebody that had done this before. And I’m very grateful to them, because they were like, look like you just got to get it out there. Like your logo doesn’t matter. Your Branding doesn’t matter. You just need to start selling something and see what happens. And you’re gonna get so much further and this person was totally right.
Jessica Miller 12:10
Yeah, I love that too. Because it’s in the beginning, when you’re creating these offers, and especially if you’re new, right? Cash flow is an issue at that time, you’ve got more time than you have money. And part of what we do as entrepreneurs is we like think we’re going to think our way to success with our offer. But the truth of the matter is right that the market, and the feedback sort of dictates what you do next, and getting out there and putting it in front of people and charging something for it. So you’re not making some money, then allows you to then take that thing and optimize it over time. And one of the things that I think that you’ve done really well, you know, you know, being in your role for a long time having worked together, I think that you’re really clear on that promise on what it is they’re going to walk away with, and making it very palatable. Because investing can be very overwhelming for people, it can feel overwhelming. But you’re like, No, we’re going to do this simply. And we’re going to do it step by step. And I’m going to take this feedback, and I’m going to put it into whatever it is I’m doing. And then the next iteration of that almost like heads off those objections at the pass before people even have them. Yeah, absolutely.
Tess 13:19
And there are a few things that helped me get there one shameless plug for you, because we talked about that a lot, right? Like I, for anyone that’s trying to figure this out, I’ve done many iterations of that messaging. And then when you finally figure it out, it’s just easy to share. So you know, that’s been a process that’s taken months, you know, probably over a year to really refine that. And it’s worth it because then it’s so much easier anytime you’re talking to someone to just get it out quick. The other thing that was really helpful to refine it was to find people in the space doing similar things to me. And the cool part about the finance coach creator community is we’re all on a very mission driven path here, all of us really want the average person to have enough money to take care of themselves, or to have safety, security be able to change jobs, if they want leave a toxic relationship. We all believe that money is a tool to give you a better life, regardless of who you are and where you are. And so the cool thing is that community is actually really supportive. And so I ended up connecting with some people in this space that some of which are now good friends that have a pretty similar offer. And so I learned how they were positioning stuff. And that was super helpful. I did you know something similar to them. And then ironically, the hard part of that was sort of like shifting away to do something that was right for me because they’re on their the version of my offer that was more similar to theirs that was working for them wasn’t quite right for me and then and then I pivoted again but it was a good way to continue to grow and learn and to adjust my offer to a place where now I’m it just feels locked in in a different way. But you have to go through that journey of iterating
Jessica Miller 14:58
Yeah, and I think you also personally went through that journey where, you know, one of the great things about your brand is you’re breaking the mold a little bit, we’ve talked about this a lot, this concept that you don’t need to have a finance degree, you don’t need to have be wearing a shirt and tie everything great if you do, but you could be a normal woman just like you. And you’re going out there with that unique perspective, you’re making it really easy for people to follow it. And it’s very relatable. And you’re also keeping it very tight. So it separates you out from the crowd. I also think that you made a good point, which is not all offers are like a one size fits all. And I hear this a lot working with people on offers. They’re like, but Susie has a course. I’m just gonna go do this thing. And I like, okay, Susie has a million followers, a totally different business model. And she’s been like MySpace for 10 years. It’s not the same. And so kind of finding that path for you and being able to play with it. You know, again, a lot of this is just testing you tweak and test tweak and test. And I think you said something really interesting, which I see with a lot of people, which is when it hits, you know, like it is this logistical thing. But it’s also very energetic. You kind of show up and you’re like, oh, yeah, what I just said, that’s exactly what I think. I put this thing together, and it’s getting these results. And that’s exactly what I want. And everything aligns, and then you show up differently. Would you agree? Like, how do you feel like that went for you?
Tess 16:25
Yeah, 100%. And I think one key there’s two points I want to make related to that is, one other thing that I’m happy that I did is I didn’t blow up my offer, I kept iterating on it, because pieces of it were working. So I hear people try something once or twice, and then they’re like, and I don’t know, if it’s really working for me, if it’s what you want to do, that the pivots don’t have to be that big to make a huge Yes, it’s like my original core structure is pretty similar, or my current core structure is pretty similar to what I started with. But the messaging the package, packaging, I’ve taken a lot of time to make sure it’s this. Again, like you said, investing is really complicated. So I’ve taken a lot of time to make sure the step by step process is clear. And people understand what they’re getting and what their journey is going to be when they join the money confident program. But it’s not like a totally new thing. It might feel like that to other people, like people in my audience might feel like it’s a new offer. But the bones of it, what I’m teaching and the transformation, that piece hasn’t really changed since the beginning. So I think the power of small shifts that create clarity and clarity and messaging. And even just like your existing program may be delivered a different way. Like now I do more small group live coaching versus I started with more of a self service on demand video course, the contents is same, but the way I deliver it now is different. And now my clients get better results because of it. So I think that’s something that is important to share is like you don’t necessarily have to like blow it up if it’s not working. But you can make some small pivots that can make a meaningful difference without like redoing your business. Like I haven’t changed the original course platform. Yeah, I’m still on that blog. I still have relatively the same sales page, the content and the order has changed. But the offer itself is what’s different, like the the content in and the outcome is the same very similar, if that makes sense.
Jessica Miller 18:28
No, that totally makes sense. And it’s a really good reminder, because what I see with working with people on offers is they that happens, especially if you’re earlier on, you’re either doing something and then you think it’s not working or it’s not working the way you want and you scrap it. So you’re like oh, that one on one coaching, it’s just not working, I’m gonna go do a membership. Right, they kind of go off the rails in that way. And then a lot of people who are more established and they feel like it’s not working, they add a ton of things, they add a ton of other offers. And really, exactly like you said, you want to be in it until it works. If you’re all in on that concept, and you want to make sure that it gets the results that you want, either with your clients or in your business, then it becomes how do I essentially optimize this thing and massage it until it produces in the way that I want it to produce? And even if you’re hitting a plateau because you’re an established business owner, and it’s like, how do you optimize it for profits? Like I got this thing working? There’s proof of concept. Now, what’s the ecosystem around that offer? Or what are some of the things that we can do to get more people to buy that? Versus in the beginning? It’s like how do we tweak this thing so that people will buy it and I just want more people to kind of come into my world and get those things but doing that creates so much freedom and so much creativity? Because then it’s just one thing right? It’s like how do I get this one thing to work the way that I want it to? And that whole whole yes offer model that we talked about all the time. You know if We just look at your offer. You dialed in that like calling that compelling message of calling in your ideal person, packaging it as a compelling solution. And then when it started to hit you channeled all that hell yes, energy into it, and it just makes the thing go around. And now you’re like, oh my gosh, people are doing it. My programs are selling out. How do I do more of that? So good. Like, right, that’s what it gets so much fun.
Tess 20:26
Yeah, exactly. One person told me something early on, that I have not forgotten. And I’m so glad they dropped this. And they just said, The best piece of advice I can give you is before you change a thing, if you like your offer, and you know, it can help people like if you know, you can provide value to people. And I’m like, Yeah, I know that for sure. Make 100 grand. Yes, you’re one thing before you do anything else. Yep. And that at the time seemed like insane. I’m so glad that I really, I set that goal. And I said, Okay, I’m not going to change it. And because I haven’t, I’m going to make a lot more than that off of this one offer by continuing to optimize it over time. So I think that was a really powerful piece of advice that somebody gave me. And I really, really held on to that.
Jessica Miller 21:18
Yeah, I love it. I love it. And that gives you, it gives you data, it gives you a focus point where you’re not all over the place. And it gives you clarity around your goal. Like my goal is to make this thing work. How do I do that? And it’s very easy to then go out and get help. Because you’re like, hey, I have this thing. And I want to do it really well. Can you help me do that. So you go to the people who are doing it, or the people who have the things that you need, and then you can just, you know, make it better, which is so good. So okay, so now you’re here and you’re like, I’m going on this business, and I’m doing these offers. And then you started with the course and you layered on one on one coaching. And then you layer it on your group. And now like that you’re here, what are you seeing in the future for you, now that you’ve gotten all this under your belt, and you’re seeing so much success, you just had a launch? Let’s hear it.
Tess 22:12
So we are that we’re recording this a day after my best launch ever. So I’m like very hyper, right? Like a mile a minute. So one thing that helped this launch goes so well is that once your offer is dialed in, like you know you and I worked on my offer it was I knew it worked last time because we looked at the data. And then what I was able to do is make sure that the whole customer journey was aligned to my offer. So went back made sure the way that I sell my offers through workshops. So I didn’t an updated workshop for this launch, not again, not dramatically different, just organized in the right way that it matches my offer. And now my lead magnet matches my workshop. And so now that all of these things are matching, it’s truly a matter of going through the data and figuring out which activations are going to give me the most bang for my buck. Now, I will also say that I am at the time of this recording, my last day of full time work is tomorrow, which is super exciting. So I can’t wait more time. Yes, all of us celebrating, I cannot wait to spend more time on my on my business. But one of my goals and you know, something I’m honestly super grateful to you for is that I really don’t want to one try to be all things to all people and to I want to make sure that I focus on the right needle moving stuff, you know, I’m sure honestly, every landing page, I have probably could use some work. I don’t really have a logo right now, like there are some things, there are some things that I have not done in the traditional entrepreneurship journey. But unless they are something that’s going to make a meaningful impact in my funnel, and the customer journey and you know, improve conversion rates, that’s not going to be something that I’m going to worry about. So I’m going to try to strategically pick based on the data, which pieces of my offer, or my funnel need to be adjusted to improve it. But what’s exciting is that now that it’s optimized, and I feel good, and also I like it, like I saw group coaching, it’s fun for me, it’s easier to sell, because I know that what I’m providing is great. I know that people are gonna get more out of it than they used to with just sort of the video on demand and the one on one for me. So you talked about that a lot. Yes. And I think that’s something I didn’t really understand until I got to this place is when you love your offer. It’s so much easier. Yeah, so I can very emphatically say you need this. It’s awesome. Like if you don’t sign up, I still think you’re great. And you know, please follow me on Instagram and you’ll get a ton of free information. But like I know it’s good. And I know that people have get value from it. And it’s fun for me because I love to see people succeed. So I think that that’s the cool part about, you know, sticking with it. And it was hard, you know, it took like a while to get to this place. But now that I like it, it’s so much easier for me to talk about, which is when business starts to get fun, I think.
Jessica Miller 25:15
Yeah, absolutely. And you said something that is so important. And that is, it is like that marriage of hell yes. And all of that goodness that you have around your offer, and your business married with the data. And this is so important. And I think people who are early on in their business don’t understand the power of the data. They’re not necessarily collecting it, they don’t know where to look for it unless they’ve been trained in that way. It’s not, numbers are hard for people, as you know, and it’s just not sexy in some way. It’s like it’s, it’s the data. And I think as established entrepreneurs, sometimes we just forget to look and lean on that. But the bottom line is when you do more of what’s working, and I have, like really, really harped on this so much in 2023, do more of what is working, go and figure out in your ecosystem, what is converting for you? Or what is driving the result that you want with that asset? And do more of that. So to your point test, now that you’ve got all of this information, you’ve iterated on it enough times, you’ve collected the data, you’re looking inward with like, Hey, this is feeling awesome. Am I crazy? Like what’s going on kind of thing, you know, you’re marrying all that. You can then go back to all those pieces like, oh, you know what, I ran the workshop in April, the conversion on that thing was like, 75%. What the heck was I doing in April, on that workshop? So you pull that piece? And then you go to your lead magnet? And you’re like, oh my gosh, in January, that lead magnet was on fire? Like, why was I driving more people to it? Okay, what was I doing to drive more people to it. And you just, it’s like, I always joke, I don’t know, if you guys had this in New York, they used to have these candy bins, where you could go and pick different pieces of candy. And they used to call it pick a mix, it was Brock’s pick a mix. And you would put these bags together. And we were always like, it was like penny candy. But it is it’s like pick the next shoe start like pulling different pieces of your customer journey and that ecosystem. And then you take all of the best things, and you put them all together. And it’s like a shiny happy party that has a good time at. Yeah.
Tess 27:22
And I think the other thing that’s fun about data is figuring out what’s great. And then not worrying about it, like my workshops have always converted well, even you know, I’ve changed them a little bit. But I haven’t changed it, it’s been one of the least, you know, least focused lower, whatever the word is, I have not focused on as much. There we go, I have not focused on my workshop as much, because every time I look at the data, it’s always converting well, that doesn’t mean I won’t tweak it at some point. But it’s not my biggest concern. So I know that my mission is to get people on that workshop, because one is awesome. And you’re gonna learn a ton. So you should definitely join my free workshop. But also because like, I know I can convert people from that, yeah. So it’s nice, it’s a nice way to to not just figure out where you need to be, but also where you don’t need to worry. And then that gives me so much confidence to when I do do workshops. I know they’re good, and then I feel better doing them.
Jessica Miller 28:20
Yes. And from a very practical perspective, this for everybody listening, when you start to track things like your conversion, it becomes predictable to the point that tests just made. So if, you know if you’re running a program or a workshop, and you notice that that thing is converting people into that paid offer, for example, you know, 50% of the time, then, you know, you could predict, hey, if I drive 100 people to this thing, and it converts a 50% I will get 50 people to buy this thing. And then it becomes Okay, well, if I want 100 people in that thing, I need to double the amount of people I drive to the workshop to get into the paid offer. So it starts to make your funnel very predictable, and it makes your cash flow very predictable. And then if you’re like, hey, I want to make another $3,000. You just do the math. How many more people do you need to get to that workshop to them buy this thing. And it sounds so like, easy. It’s not an easy thing, because it takes time to figure that out. But it is actually very simple. And if you’re not trying to do all the things and you’re focusing in on that ecosystem, and kind of keeping all the variables as small as you can. You then realize, hey, there’s really not that many levers. It’s like this offer this workshop, this lead magnet, they are all aligned. It’s a love fest and the people that come in are like getting these results and I love talking about it. Who else can I go shirtless? It’s like so good. Yeah. And so that’s what you did. And that’s what you’re continuing to do. And to your point, there’s always room for improvement. For every single one of us, right, even those of us that have the logo, we’re like, we hate the logo, we’ll change it, you know, or make it more tied to the, you know, whatever your offer is, but it’s a calculated decision now, you know, and that makes it more powerful.
Tess 30:15
So absolutely, and it’s also really important, I’ll add to to understand benchmarks. You know, one thing I’ve heard from some newer entrepreneurs that I’ve worked with that have a similar funnel to me is they’ll say, Oh, I did a workshop, I had 10 people on it, only one signed up. Like from a benchmark perspective, your conversion rate is 10%. Like, that’s awesome. Now, to your point, what you just said, you just need to increase the amount of people coming. So not just dragging your data, but also trying to get some benchmarks from other people in your industry, or even rough, like, rough range of benchmark is really helpful. Because I remember, the first time I had 100, people sign up for my workshop, and 30 people showed up. And I was like, devastated. Like, these 70. People don’t like me, they don’t want to hang out with me. And then I was talking to my friend, and this is why it’s important to know work. So you have friends, you can ask this question to you. And I was talking to her she’s far a lot farther along in her business does tons of workshops, she’s like, Yeah, like a 30% show up rate on a workshop. Like, that’s great. Like, that’s like pretty in line with all of mine. And she’s been in business for five years. I was like, oh, and then I immediately felt
Jessica Miller 31:22
like, yes, yeah, yeah, I love it. And like you said, you know, okay, that thing’s converting at 30%, you have two options, you drive more people to it. So it converts at 30%. Or you work on getting it to convert at a higher rate. So you can play with it, right, depending on your business model, how much that offer is. And it’s not one size fits. All right, so. So now you have this awesome group, tell us where people can find you. This has been such an amazing conversation. People are like, I want to go connect with Tesla on social media. And I want to know other things. So tell us where we can find you and how we can connect with you.
Tess 31:58
Sure, so the best place to understand more about what I do is to I have a free savvy investor starter pack that has a ton of information on getting getting started investing. So if you’re interested in that it includes a four step Toolkit and it includes free calculators, there’s actually a video on all the investing mistakes I made that you get access to, which is like a lot of mistakes. So make sure you tell all that. So that’s a savvy investor starter pack. That’s a great place if you want to learn more about the type of financial coaching and investing coaching that I do. So you can download that in the show notes. Can you put them?
Jessica Miller 32:34
Yes, we will. Yeah, sounds perfect.
Tess 32:36
So that’ll be perfect. So that link will be in the show notes. So snag that there? And then if you follow me on Instagram, I do answer all my DMs. So if you have a question, that’s a great place to get in touch with me, follow me on Instagram, shoot me a DM. And I will get back to you and just say I heard you on this podcast. Because if if not, I might not know who you are. But I will always respond to all my DMs. So follow me there, and I can’t wait to connect with you.
Jessica Miller 32:59
Yeah, and I’m gonna ask you one more thing before we let you go, Tess. So if you could give one piece of advice about people optimizing their offer, you’ve shared so many great things about your journey. But people are, you know, standing here now they’re either wanting to make their offer stronger, they’re wanting to get it off a plateau. What would be one thing you would tell them to go do right now before they do anything else?
Tess 33:26
That’s a great question, I would say, I would get really clear on exactly the problem you’re trying to solve and make sure everything in your offer support solving that problem. Because I think what I did, and what I’ve seen other people do, is you try to put everything you can into your offer and like blow it up and, you know, add like a free plant or whatever, when people sign up or whatever, like stuff that’s like not necessary. So if you’re clear on really clear on what problem you’re solving, and that the result that people are going to have by the end, then you can go through and call anything that isn’t valuable. And one thing I like about my program is it’s it’s short, it’s like efficient, it’s fast. It’s not every single piece of information about investing out there. It’s what you need to know, to get started quickly. So I think that’s my best piece of advice is like make sure that everything that’s part of your offer solves the problem you’re trying to solve. And not more than that, because people don’t want like everything they don’t want like the whole house and the kitchen sink and all that stuff. They want their problem solved. So I would say just making sure those two things are in alignment.
Jessica Miller 34:40
Yes, I love it. One of the many reasons Tess and I get along Short, sweet to the point, let’s get the result. So good. Tez thank you so much for being on the show. This is super valuable. I hope you got tons of DMS people are gonna want to connect and thank you again for being here.
Tess 34:57
Thank you Jess. I’m so grateful for you and I’m gonna I have to shameless plug you because you’ve been such a big part of my journey so thank you so much for all your help and I so glad I get to work with you
Jessica Miller 35:06
Oh my pleasure thanks everyone till next week see you then
