SFR 231: Finding My Performance Coaches...

Sales Funnel Radio

This is one of the first things I did to expand my team on the flight back home from Funnel Hacking Live...

Ray Higdon crossed the million dollar mark extremely quickly, and at Funnel Hacking Live he shared some of the tactics that he uses to grow his business at epic speed.

He had a great product, but that doesn't mean it's gonna sell, right?

...and that's something I focus on a lot.

Anyway, Ray dropped a tactic that I thought was brilliant…

So I want to share the genius way Ray discovered to boost his Facebook Community...and some of the surprising things that happened when I used the same tactic in mine…

(You are gonna be surprised) ;-)

SOCIAL AMBASSADORS

There's a lot of negativity on this planet, and sometimes we need safe havens to go where our dreams are still okay and we don't have to constantly be in defense.

So to keep engagement high and help people to know that their online community is a well run and safe place for them Ray created Social Ambassadors.

Here’s what he did...

He put out a post to his group which said:

Hey! I’d love you to be a social ambassador for my community. We expect around five hours a week from you... and just to be completely clear, it doesn't pay anything…

But you will get:

• MORE access to me.

• A chance to chat with me a bit more.

• Exclusive behind-the-scenes stuff.

• To be part of team huddles before we do events.

• Exclusive swag, etc.

...and that was kind of it.

I thought: “Hey, that's really interesting.”

So on the way back from Funnel Hacking Live, (on terrible Delta Wi-Fi), I decided to apply his strategy.

What happened next shocked me…

FINDING TALENT

I created a Wufoo form and posted it in the Science of Selling online and a few other groups along with a post that said: “Help Wanted!”

I asked everyone who was interested to answer a few questions:

• How long have you been in the group?

• What programs of mine are you a part of ?

I wanted to know how much they could help people if I made them a social ambassador for my community.

The last question said something to the effect of:

“Do you understand that this is NOT a paid position? This is NOT a position that comes with monetary pay, but you’ll get MORE access to. Are you okay with the fact that you will NOT be paid?”

It was very forward about the fact that there was NO MONEY involved, and the applicants had to tick “Yes” or “No,” to show that they agreed

About 72 hours later, I checked the stats. 116 applications had been started…

BUT…

...by the last question, ONLY 26 actually finished.

There were even some responses from people who were just a little bit mad about the no-pay thing.

So I wanna explain something to you guys about this…

MOTIVATION MATTERS

I learned this somewhere in my childhood...

• Sometimes you just do stuff to do good things...

• Sometimes you just do things in order to be more known and gain proximity around other people…

When I got the call to let me know that I’d been hired by Russell, I was like:

"I know this is terrible negotiation strategies, but I would do that for free. You're saying you're gonna pay me to come sit by Russell so that I can help him build funnels? Yeah, totally, 100% absolutely!"

When I'm looking to hire somebody or bring somebody into a team, I want them to be married, first and foremost, to the mission that I’m serving.

I’m The Capitalist Pig (#got the t-shirt)

• I'm trying to teach people to get rich.

• I'm trying to teach people who didn't have an upbringing with a silver spoon.

• I'm trying to show people who actively try to launch the formulas they can use to make money in easy ways on the internet.

However, if one of the first questions out someone’s mouth when I try to hire them is:

• “Well, how am I gonna get paid?”

• “How am I gonna get compensated again, Stephen?”

• “How are you going to be helping me?”

• “Okay, Stephen, this is what I need from you.”

… that SUCKS!

Instead, I’m looking for people who ask:

• “What is it that you want me to do?”

• “What does your audience need?”

• “How can I serve?”

• “How can we help more people?”

HEAR ME CLEARLY…

The “I need to be making money from you before I'll even think about serving you” mindset is a very different mentality.

Now, I understand that this is a 100% a give-and-a-take situation, (all business is), but when the first question out of someone’s mouth is:

“SHOW ME THE MONEY?”… #warning sign

I don’t want to say names here… but someone extremely famous (that you probably know) says that he wakes up each day, and asks himself:

"How can more people be saying my name every single day?" He's like, "All my focus is how can MORE people hear my name?"

...Russell and I were laughing about this because it’s 100% the opposite motivation that a lot of us have in this space.

It's not that it isn't nice to have a little limelight. It's not that it isn't nice to grow and have a big following. Those are all byproducts of what we all do, but it's NOT the core motivation.

Man, we're trying to like change the world.

We're trying to go help and bless... and cash is a byproduct of that.

So when I have somebody come to me and say something like: “Well, how much is it gonna pay?”

...and it's specifically, a monetarily-driven individual… I appreciate their focus on cash. I have a massive focus on revenue and you need to be focused on that.

BUT…

When I can tell that cash the ONLY thing that they care about, and that they will only go to the extent of the contract for which they are hired…

*I DO NOT HIRE THAT PERSON*

GO THE EXTRA MILE? So here's what happened when I posted for Social Ambassadors for my online community… (this is sooo interesting!)

Out of the 116 who started to fill in the application, ONLY 26 finished when they realized that it wasn’t a paid position.

I’d asked for a three-minute video explaining why they would be a great fit.

The hardest part was that those who actually took the time show up, we're ALL pretty much all incredible. They were all just amazing individuals.

(So I can use more than one social ambassador for the groups that I have, right?)

However, there were a few specific key individuals that I saw videos from where I was like, You know what…

• That person would be great as a Performance Coach in my OfferMind program.

• This person would be perfect in this specific role...

… it helped me see the people who shine... and who sent in applications with NO thought of pay.

And so I reached back out to those people and said:

"Hey, thank you so much. I actually don't want you for this social ambassador role. I actually wanna bring you in as a paid member of my team."

HERE’S THE TEST...

Now, I gotta be honest with you, I did something that might make you a little uncomfortable…

I purposely low-ball on how much I will pay.

I say:

“We still have to review a few more applications, so we’ll reach back to you if this works out. I was just wondering if you had any interest?”

If they're like, "You know what, that's fine. I would have done this for free."

I'm like, *JACKPOT*

… and, THEN, at that point, I pay a fair wage. Does that make sense?

So I start out by checking out:

• Who just loves the mission I'm doing?

• Who just wants more proximity?

• Who wants to be able to go in and just see more behind-the-scenes of what I'm doing?

...and it sifts out a lot of people.

I'm not trying to offend anybody, but this is why this tactic is soooo effective.

There are several filters I use:

1. Who would do it for free?
2. I low ball those who would be great for a paid position to find out whether they're still totally in and ready to rock.
3. If the low ball didn't bother 'em at all, I go back and announce the real wage.

I’m sure some people would get pissed off by my methods... and that's ok.

You have your methods, I have mine.

What's cool is that it helps me find those individuals who are all in and really excited to do what I'm doing.

SUCCESS LOVES COMPANY

I'm in the ClickFunnels Inner Circle, and I've never seen anyone stand up to accept their 2 Comma Club Award who was the only person in their company.

*IT DOESN’T HAPPEN*

I can't even think of one person who got a 2 Comma Club award by themselves.

It takes MORE than ONE individual because you’ve gotta divide and conquer. Someone’s gotta:

• Hand fulfillment

• Send in ads

• Help push out content

It's a full-time profession to be the offer and product creator, and that's my role.

The whole core of my business is content, coaching and creating products, but there are people in other roles... otherwise, I can't do what I do.

...and I massively try to find ways to scratch their backs.

DO NOT STEAL MY TEAM ;-)

My content team are amazing, brilliant individuals. I am so lucky to have them.

I'm always nervous to tell you who they are… I don’t want anyone to steal them from me.

But I constantly try to do things to help 'em realize how much I appreciate them... things that they’re NOT expecting. Things that I didn't lead with.

If you guys go to stevejlarsen.com, you can click on Team at the top, and it will show a lot of the members of my team.

I kind of cycle them; different members are featured at different times. Not everyone's on there ALL the time... But it's my way of saying, “Thank You.”

So they're featured on stevejlarsen.com with a link back to their personal profile page. Which is pretty awesome, right?

I didn't need to do that, but I'm trying to constantly to give extra little goodies and shout-outs.

I filmed testimonial videos that they weren’t asking for (or expecting) that they can use to keep getting clients, and I kick clients and referrals to them ALL the time.

In fact, there's a ton of people now on the ClickFunnels team who know about my team members by name. They ask how and what we're doing because we're killin' it!

So how cool would it be to just connect people? That's a HUGE value add which increases the beneficial relationships EVERYONE, my team as well.

BUT…

If it takes all those things in order for somebody to agree to work with me, I don't want them in the first place.

I'm a capitalist. Ya gotta be awesome to work on my team.

I'm extremely aggressive and very competitive.

I’ve got a smile on my face. I'm kinda jovial. I laugh and stuff, but I am extremely competitive and I am here to win. I do not lose.

I'm not saying that I don't EVER lose, but that's my mentality.

I'm ready to rock, take over the world and push my message out to the ends of the earth, so my teams gotta be awesome.

I create competitions and contests to find people and bring them into my team.

I didn't pay 'em a ton of money at the beginning. I've gradually increased their pay across the board... and added tiny nuggets that they weren’t expecting.

MY NEW SHOW

We're doing a huge project right now…

I'm gonna have a third podcast based around the One Funnel Away Challenge. I’ll interview the cool success stories from people who've taken the challenge.

There are some crazy stories that can't go to waste.

But very soon what I want to do is interview my team. Recently, I told them:

"Hey, let's get you guys on Sales Funnel Radio. Everyone deserves to know who you guys are and how awesome you are."

Just because I'm paying them... doesn’t mean I don’t have to sell them over and over on the vision and the role I have.

My team knows why I'm doing what I’m doing, and they know how much I appreciate them. I can't do it without 'em.

I'm trying to help you understand how I find my team, what I look for, and how I support them and make them feel appreciated.

By using Ray Higdon’s method mixed with my own...

• I have Social Ambassadors in The Science of Selling Online and my other groups.

• In OfferLab, I’ve got Performance and Accountability Coaches.

I’ve built another layer of support for my community... and the products I sell.

I’ve literally created another arm to provide an extension of what I do. It's been a ton of fun, but the way that I do it is very methodical. So I thought I'd share a bit about my methodology for how I bring a new team member on.

I hope you're expanding your teams, or at least you have it top of mind.

First and foremost, I want to find people who are married to the vision…

And then, I will make sure that they are paid well... and overpaid in terms of the little bonuses I give them.

BOOST PERFORMANCE

• I have two content teams

• I have an Internal Funnel Team

• I'm starting to put together a Coaching Team

• We're gonna grab an assistant soon, (l’m sooo looking forward to that!)

In The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss talks about giving your team a crazy amount of room to just mess up…

NO! I require my people to be absolutely amazing...

But that doesn't mean that I need to be a crazy jerk.

I don't have to be all Mr. Negative and constantly down everyone's throat, and reminding them:

“You're replaceable. I could fire you. At any moment I could get rid of you!”

That's NOT an environment anyone wants to work in.

I am NOT here to make somebody scared to come to work or do a task for me. I'm here to enable them to do the thing I hired them for.

One of the practices I have is to continually ask:

"Hey, what is it that you're needing from me that you don't have that you need to even do what I hired you for?"

If someone's amazing at Facebook ads, I need to facilitate that individual's zone of genius.

I'm NOT good at Facebook ads, so they shouldn't come to me asking how I want my ads run…

I don't know! They’re the expert. That's why I hired them.

...but it is my role to get them everything they need to do what I hired them for in the first place.

On my team, I’ve got an:

• Amazing YouTube expert. You guys'll get a chance to meet her in a little bit.
• Awesome blog writer, (two of 'em).
• Incredible, incredible blog creator.
• Audio guy who balances and patches my podcasts together in a genius way.
• Absolutely incredible social media expert who spreads all my content around.
• Absolutely fantastic Pinterest expert, she's amazing at what she does.

They're ALL incredible, and they’re as geeky in their thing as I am in mine... and that's the way it's supposed to be.

My entire role in my business has begun to shift as I take on to do lists that facilitate a zone of genius that they already have.

It shouldn't always be done in my way because I'm not an expert in what they do. I'm here to facilitate their zone of genius.

Back in the day, I could just look at a funnel and tell that if I just got two or three things from my client, then I could make their funnel do things that they didn't even know existed.

BUT…

Because they dragged their feet, I couldn’t do the epic crap that I wished I could.

I would tell some clients, and they'd be like, "Well, I just don't know if I want that."

I'd be like, “Gah, just give it to me, and I'll do it! “

I don't wanna be that person for those that I hire or who work for me... so I’m constantly trying to figure out ways to give them the things that they need to facilitate their zone of genius.

Remember, I’m the orchestrator, NOT every instrument in the orchestra.

I absolutely love my team.

Hopefully, you realize the importance of the team too.

I don't look for a rock star to hire anymore… I look for someone who’s excellent in a single discipline. They don't need to know how to do everything.

I don't know how to do EVERYTHING.

However, they do need to be really, really, really freakin' good at the one thing I'm hiring for. I don't care if they suck at everything else.

Gone are the days where the renaissance man is paid above everyone else.

Get really, really insanely good at one skillset and hire out the rest.

...that's exactly what I've done, and the same is true for my team.

I try to be the dream client for them, and they do all these extra things I never even knew existed... or didn’t even know to ask them to do.

BOOM!

As you likely have heard in my podcast, I left my job in January 2018 to build my million dollar business completely from scratch without any funding or any help... AND I HIT IT, right on February 1, 2019...

Just 13 months later, we actually grossed a million dollars, which is pretty awesome.

Better yet, I got to keep a lot of the cash, just 'cause my costs are honestly NOT very high.

That said, there are several tools, though, I use to automate vital pieces of my business and ClickFunnels is one of them.

ClickFunnels lets me build automated sales machines all over the internet that are non-stop pitching people for me. It's ONLY $97 a month.

Better yet, I don't need to be a coder.

If you're asking yourself, “Stephen, are you giving me a blatant pitch for ClickFunnels right now?” YES, 100%!

I think it's dumb when people don't use ClickFunnels. It makes you MORE and saves you MORE.

Basically, I have the power of an entire tech team in my hand and I want you to have it.

Go grab a free trial of ClickFunnels by going to freecftrial.com.

I want EVERYONE to experience the power of ClickFunnels in their business, so they're letting me hook you up at freecftrial.com.