Episode 129 transcript:

Speaker 1: (00:03)
Hey everyone. And welcome back this week. We're talking about free things in your business. So freebies free offers, free consults. Where can you put free things in your business? When is a good time to offer free things in your business, should you offer free things in your business? So as you already know, I'm not in the business of shoulding you, I don't love using the word should. And if you've browsed my website or my social medias at all, you also know that I do free things in my business. This podcast that you're listening to is a free resource on my website homepage. If you scroll onto the bottom, there's a newish free guided meditation for business owners, for pregnancy people, my original free things are all in my free resource library on my pregnancy page of my website. There's entire collect of free things. And throughout my business, now this is my first fifth year of doing business.

Speaker 1: (01:13)
Throughout the last five years, I've offered various free workshops, free trainings. Uh, I used to go live in my Facebook groups weekly and offer free information. So it's no question and it's no surprise that I am a fan of free things. And I also do recognize that there are folks who just really aren't aligned with having a whole lot of free. And I also think that sometimes it's a matter of where you're at on your journey, where your business is at. So I go in and out of this as well with how much free is out there at any given time. So let's preface this, this episode with this statement that there's no generalizations when it comes to free. There's no absolute and hard yeses and no absolute hard. No, you're probably gonna fall somewhere along the spectrum and that's perfectly normal. So the point of this episode is to share with you a little bit of insight behind the curtain of my business and a free thing that I have coming up and share with you, the logistics, why I put it together, the way I did, what intention I'm bringing to that kind of free thing to give you some idea is as you're considering offering free things in your business, because it's not just create some free download so that you can grow your email list so that you can sell to people.

Speaker 1: (02:41)
It's not that it's a lot deeper than that. And there's a lot more meaning available behind offering free things in your business if you choose that. Right. Okay. So what we're really talking about here is the energy of free. I've started to introduce business energetics to you over the last few episodes. Since the podcast relaunched really we've been going deeper, I should say. And this episode really is about the energy of free. So you'll kind of pick it up as we move through and ideally pick up some tips or ideas on how you can structure free things in your business.

Speaker 1: (03:34)
Okay. Before we get started, let's talk about what freebies are not for around here in my spaces, freebies, in my opinion, you don't have to take this opinion, but mine is that freebies are not for gross salesy energy strategy. If it's a salesy energy strategy behind your freebie, it feels gross. It doesn't feel good. And you know the difference, right? There's a difference between aligned selling. That feels really good for both the business owner and the client and weird selling energy. You know, the difference you have felt it, right? You know that one clerk who works at the store that you like to shop at, that's a weird icky pushy salesperson. And when you go, you wanna buy things, but you don't necessarily love buying them from her because of her energy. But there's this other person who also works there. And you just hope that the days you go she's there because she does the same thing.

Speaker 1: (04:32)
She's a sales clerk. You know, her job is to show you items and show you ideas and sell you things and earn a commission. But it's just such a different vibe and it feels so much more fun to purchase from her, right? You know, that feeling. And I'm sure you can find examples in your life of knowing what that feels like. So that gross salesy energy strategy behind a freebie, not it freebees are also, in my opinion, not for hours and hours and hours of support, or if you're in the product business like loads and loads and loads of free products, unless it makes sense. Right? So for example, a lot of my community are birth professional else. And let's say you're a birth doula offering loads and loads of free births might not be that great. Right? If you think about it, if you have children at home, if you have to pay for childcare while you're at births, you could be at a birth for 30 hours.

Speaker 1: (05:28)
And it's not that you shouldn't do things for free. I'm not gonna go there in terms of births, but have some boundaries have some limitations. And let's talk about when it might make sense and how you can implement it. Okay. So a few indications that free things may be helpful for your business, where you're at right now. Number one, if you have a new newish or changing business, so maybe your business is going through a bit of a rebrand or a rebirth and has evolved, you're offering different services and you're changing things up a bit. That might be a good time to offer something fresh and new and maybe free a little free piece. Number two, if you have a focus on expanding your audience and you wanna help more people with your important work that having a free resource could be really helpful to get the word out. Number three, you wanna help a lot of people including those who can't pay you right now. This was a big thing for me when I got started. And one of the first reasons I started having so many freebies was I wanted to be able to, to help a lot of pregnant people, even though I knew that some of them wouldn't be able to pay me right now. And that's okay. So that's our number three. Number four.

Speaker 1: (06:50)
You want to build this excited momentum, this excited energy in your business, free things sometimes depending on how you structure of them and how you strategize with your freebie are such a fun, exciting, energetic experience. And I'm gonna walk you through one of mine in just a minute. So if you're still not sure how you feel, how you feel about offering freebies, here's the thing you probably already do. If you're a service provider and you're offering free consults or discovery calls, that's a free thing. That's a freebie. If you have a social media platform, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube is not really social media, but you get what I'm saying. If you're on any of these platform and you're creating content, most of that is free, right?

Speaker 1: (07:50)
If you have a website and you write blog posts for your website, that's free content caveat, unless you have one of those private paid membership platforms like mighty network and things like that, or Peton Patreon the rest of all of these things. You're already doing free things and you might stop there. And that's okay. Another thing I wanna introduce and discuss for a moment is if you're feeling like you're afraid of giving away your juice, if you're like, oh, I can't give away the goods. All of the good stuff were free because why would anybody pay me? If I give everything for free, who's gonna pay me. Who's gonna sign up for my thing. And the thing about that is it's not possible. It's not possible to give it all away for free. Particularly when you have boundaries, energetic boundaries, there are always deeper levels of understanding that your people meant to go on with you evidence.

Speaker 1: (08:54)
So if you need proof that what I'm saying is true. My private clients still listen to this podcast, this free podcast members of the online business school, listen to the podcast and talk about it in the membership group members in level two of the membership with, with higher support level of, from the, that we go deep in boxer all the time. They still listen to the free podcast. So even, and they, many of them started out with my free content on Instagram or on the podcast or on Facebook or somewhere. Somehow they met me and consumed some of my free stuff and wanted to take the next step and wanted to get to know me more and wanted to have more of my time and more of my energy and this isn't to say like, oh yeah, go teach all of your courses for free online.

Speaker 1: (09:50)
That's not, of course that's not what I'm saying. Right. But it truly isn't possible when you establish those like boundaries. It's not possible to give away your goods for free all of your goods. It does not mean that people who are meant to work with you won't hire you. That's that does it doesn't work that way. All right. So now that we've laid a little bit of groundwork, I wanna walk you through an example and I'm going to pull the curtain back on my business to share this with you, because I think it's really helpful to hear. I find that my community really likes when I explain these theories and theoretical concepts through the lens of my business and actual things that I'm doing behind the scenes and why I'm putting things together, the way that I am. So I'm gonna walk you through an upcoming free event that I hosting it's happening next week.

Speaker 1: (10:43)
Right? So as of today, today is Tuesday, May 3rd. The event starts Tuesday, May 10th. There's still time to join by the way, the links and the show notes. But I wanna explain to you from my side of it, why I'm putting it together, the way that I am. So first of all, what it is is, is a free three day live event. It's called energetic business foundation, and it's got a value of $555, however, it is free. And so what's behind making it for free is like we discussed earlier when, when might be a good time to know if it's, you know, good time to do something free in your business, it's evolved content and understanding of business energetics on my end. So my teachings have evolved the way I understand energetics and business has evolved and I'm ready to teach it at the next level.

Speaker 1: (11:40)
And this is the first time I'm introducing this kind of pivoted expanded version of business fundamentals, right? So I'm introducing a new concept. That's pretty nuanced to you and putting these teachings in your energetic field and planting some seeds for you. And because of that, I wanted to do it for free because I'm also, I've also opened up to a wider community. As you know, the podcast went through a rebirth, I've Rere it a little bit, and I've opened my business up to clients and people beyond the birth space. So this felt like a really good time to offer something for free. That's exciting energy. These are really fun for me. These deep dives intensives are really fun for me. And so let me explain how I structure it. If you've already heard me talk about it, you know, that there are applications. So even though it's free, it's not open to everybody. It is application base and this isn't to be weird and exclude people and be a jerk. That's not my thing. That's not it at all. But I do like to screen people that are coming in, I like to get to know them.

Speaker 1: (13:00)
I do check your Instagram handle. So if you share your Instagram handle in, um, in the application, I go search you on Instagram and just check you out a little bit. I wanna, I protect my spaces free or paid because a lot of people who are in these spaces are people that trust me. And so it's important to me to honor and then protect those spaces. And so you can't always know everything about somebody from looking at their Instagram, but sometimes there's just an energetic vibe that I'll get. And, or sometimes there are just really, what's the word I want to use, um, on a line energy people who I've come into contact with when you do business online, and now it's, you know, in my fifth year, I've come into contact with people online that just I'm going to use a really kind word.

Speaker 1: (13:52)
They're just not aligned. You know? And so I remember these people. So when I see them apply for things, I'm like, Ugh, you know, and not trying to be a jerk, but again, it's just not aligned. It's, it's just not aligned. And so the point of that again, is to protect the space. You know, people are trusting me in this container and I do my very best. The other reason that I like to do applications is because it allows us to connect outside of the multi, multi, mega billionaires platforms, right? So the Zuckerbergs and the Elon, whatever, eventually spaces, it allows us to connect outside of there. Meaning you input your email address. I can email you now and let you know if something changes or, Hey, here's the, here's the zoom link for this morning? Or here's the homework from day one or whatever it is we can connect outside of those spaces.

Speaker 1: (14:49)
That doesn't mean you have to stay on my email list forever and ever, and ever amen. And I'm gonna hound you for the rest of your life because I'm not the gap. I mean, goodness gracious. If you get the gap, your email address, forget it. They will email you. I know, you know, they'll email you like 3000 times a day. It's not that vibe, right? The other reason that I like to do the applications well, there's two more, the other reasons are you get graphics. So I send you an Instagram post or Instagram story graphic. If you wanna share to invite other business owners, other peers that are somewhere in your community, local, online, whatever. So you get graphics to share, and I need to send those to you via email. And I get to know more about your business. So there's an opportunity because there's a question.

Speaker 1: (15:40)
Tell me about your business, baby. I get to hear from your words, through your words, from your mouth about your business. And that's something that, as an honor, I don't take lightly because I know that we don't and always share some of those deep things with everybody and it's kind of vulnerable. And I really value that. And I love to be able to hear about your business, including what your challenges are. So there's a spot on the application where I ask you what your main business challenges are, because I just wanna see where you're at and what you're working through and where there are opportunities for to address that through the curriculum. If possible, I like to do that so that I can tailor it in a way to best help the people who are coming in. Okay. So more on the structure of this free thing.

Speaker 1: (16:29)
So when you're putting together a free thing, like we talked about earlier, it provides a resource are folks that literally just cannot pay money for support yet. Hello, gas, 20, 22. And yet they have this massive dream brewing inside of them, emanating from them. Right? And so am I going to look at folks like that and say, oh, well, good luck to you. Come back when you have some money, not necessarily because there are times where I create opportunities like this to really help everybody, including people who don't have the cash right now, that's okay. Because the purpose is not to sell to everybody coming into containers. The purpose is not to try to, to everyone on the internet. That's not the purpose. The purpose is to help who you're here to help in the best way that you can in a way that honors you and suits your life, remember boundaries, right? And when people are sitting there with this dream, that's just bubbling up and burning up in their body. this thing that you offer. It doesn't have to be a free live event. It could be anything, but for me, this free live event could be inspiring for them. It might help them take one step, no matter how small, because we all know the value of taking small steps, those small steps add up and everything happens like that. Everything in life happens with these little steps that add up.

Speaker 1: (18:03)
Okay. So another thing about the energetic business foundation three day live event, I like doing things like this when possible, because it allows people to have an experience working with me. It gives you an opportunity to feel my energy at a deeper, more intimate, private level and space, right? So there are folks who do come in that may end up wanting to purchase something and work at a deeper level. Right? We talked a second ago about people who don't have the cash right now doesn't mean they'll never have cash, right? That's not how that works. Now we're saying people who might end up having some cash, they want to make an investment. They know they want support in their business. So the point of this isn't for me to be like, Hey, let me try to sell you this because this is why you need it.

Speaker 1: (18:50)
It's not that it's to say, okay, here's a way here's is a way for me to show you what it's like to work with me. You get to know me, you can ask me questions. I get to teach you something. You walk away with something, whatever that is. And then you have had kind of imprinted in your system, this experience with me, and you kind of know what that feels like. And you can decide if you'd like to go on the next step with me. And if not, that's okay too. You're gonna still learn something.

Speaker 1: (19:20)
Ultimately what we're talking about is providing something that your community needs in a way that suits you and your life. It has to suit your life. And it has to be fun for you. We can feel it. The energy of a live event is invigorating. For me, it is so fun. And if you came to my last one, I had one last September. So it's been eight months. If you came, that was so fun. We spent a week in a private popup group. We were connecting. Everybody got to know other, I got to see your bases. I got to see your kids. I met you. We met each other. Everybody made connections. We, it was, it was a blast. We spent three days on zoom. I was teaching. We were laughing. Like it was so fun. I love that. I absolutely love that. And strategically I scheduled it during the week of my new year.

Speaker 1: (20:20)
So if you listen to an episode a couple weeks ago, I talked about introducing different dates for your new year. This year, my new year starts on my birthday. My birthday is tomorrow, May 4th. If you're listening to this on the third. So my birthday is May 4th. That's my new year. And I scheduled this basically a weekend at the beginning of my new year, because I'm, I'm feeling the new year vibes. And it also worked out really well with my cycle whenever I can. I like to tune into when my cycle, you know, when I think I'm gonna be at different phases of my cycle. And when I know I'm gonna be the highest energy, I try to put things in those pockets wherever I can, because it kind of allows me to, Hmm. Yeah. It's like, I'm collapsing time. When I work with my cycle, I work with so much more flow, right?

Speaker 1: (21:13)
And the way that I've structured, things like this in the past is sometimes they're free forever. Like evergreen free. Sometimes it ends up being just a free thing forever and ever, and ever other times they're free for just the timeframe that they're live. And then it costs money to purchase the forever re so for example, if this is a free three day live event and you wanna host a free three day live event, let's say you could make it free just for the three days that it's up. Or you could give people a few extra days, grace to watch replays, and then you take everything down. And the only way people can watch replay after that is so they wanna purchase the bundle three days at price point, I've done both really. I've done both in my business and I like both. It just depends on what I'm doing at the time.

Speaker 1: (22:00)
Speaking of replays, if you're wondering, if you wanna come to the energetic business foundation, it's May 10th, 11th, and 12th. And you're like, oh, I have time. I've been scheduled that day. Or I have, um, a business all allegation, or I have a family that's due on that day. I am the queen of replay. I'm a mother of three young children. So making it to live events, even if it's virtual is a little tricky for me. And because I am like hardcore on replay, I always make replays available. Even if it's only for a limited time, replays are available. And I always allow sufficient time for people to get in and catch up and watch the replay within whatever time we've allotted. So that's giving you a little bit of a look behind the energetic business foundation, how I structured it, why I structured it the way that I did very intentionally with the, and with the application process and with the things that I send you through your email.

Speaker 1: (22:56)
So by the way, if you've already applied, check your email because I am approving applications every day as of today, today is I don't even know what today is. April 27th, 28th. I don't know. There have been something like 40 something. People applied. You should check your email and you should have graphics soon. You'll be getting an invitation to the free prop, the popup group so that we can get started, get to know each other and connect. Before we dive in, I would love to have you there. If you haven't yet applied head to the link in the show notes and apply. Even if you're somebody that we've worked together a year or two years, three years ago, this is a different level of speaking about business. What we're doing in the energetic business foundation is teaching energy first, building a business energy. First historically, I've, I've explained this a little bit last episode too, but historically I learned that to build a business.

Speaker 1: (23:50)
You get in a new strategize, you start strategy. You look at the numbers, you look at the money, you look at the local location and this and that and all the market data that is all helpful stuff. I am a sucker for a really great strategy. However, building energy first, that's some expansive ish. That is how you collapse time. That's how you expand beyond what's logical. That's how you move so quickly that the graphics you made a couple months ago, you've already outgrown in your business because you're moving and snapping because you're moving so quickly.

Speaker 1: (24:31)
That's how you stay in the game is building energy first because you don't lose sight of why you're here to do what you're doing. That is how your strategy basically lands on you. You don't have to go around digging and searching and hunting for the correct strategy. There's thousands and thousands and thousands of people on the internet selling their strategies, right? It's not that your strategy lands on you when you build energy first. And if you don't know how to do that, it's okay. I, it was just a few years ago. I had no idea what people were talking about, and I have been learning and practicing and doing this in my business now for several years. And it's something that I'm excited to teach you. I'm excited to guide you through and I'm excited for what it's gonna do for your business. It is going to change the way that you run your business.

Speaker 1: (25:25)
It's gonna change the way that you move forward as an entrepreneur and how you think about, so if you can't tell I'm stoked and I can't wait to have you. So a couple things I wanna leave you with first, your unschool thought of the week. So on the topic of freebies, I invite you to question any shoulds or any generalizations that you've picked up along the way, you know, the people in your trainings and in your classes that say, you should always do a free thing. Then a 16 email sequence, wait a minute, should no. So red flag, red flag, the should red flag, the generalizations. If people say you should always have a free PDF, a free download, a email marketing system, I call BS red flag generalizations are not very helpful, and they do not apply to everybody.

Speaker 1: (26:31)
The second thing I want you to consider as you're unschooling this week is the purpose behind free things, the energy of your free things, the energy of the free things isn't to hook people and to sell them. If that's your energy, it probably doesn't feel very good to your community. How can you unschool that belief about the energy of your free offer and then some homework? Of course. So I have a few questions you can ask yourself today or throughout the week, whenever you have time, if you're considering free things. So number one, how can you offer something free in a way that serves you too? So we talked about helping people, getting, creating something that your community needs, but in a way that it serves you. So the way that I do them really serves me. It wouldn't serve me. For example, if I was doing free business advice and the DMS all day, every day, that doesn't serve me, that doesn't honor boundaries for myself and it doesn't honor my client's investments.

Speaker 1: (27:35)
So I set that, I set up free things in a way that serves me, honors my clients and honors the boundaries. Number two, how can you set it up? This kind of speaks to that. How can you set it it up in a way that puts boundaries around your energetic output? Particularly if you're a projector, I'm raising my hand, I'm a human design projector and my battery, so to speak depletes pretty quickly. So, and then I need to recharge. So if I'm creating a free thing in such a way that has me pumping, pumping, pumping all day, every day, that's not a healthy boundary around my energetic output. I really need to pay attention to my energetic output. And I strategically do my free bees in a way to honor that. Number three, how would a free offering feel for you get into the feeling of it? Get into the energy of a free thing in your business. Not just, oh, I can make a PDF cuz everybody's making PDFs. Oh, I can make a checklist cuz that's what, that's what they say to do. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're not gonna do the shoulds. How would a free offering feel in your business? What's the energy of free for you? All right. I hope you love the episode. I'll talk to you next week.