190: Marketing Automation (Academy Student Spotlight with Sharice Enis)
As a business owner, you want to help your clients have success and impact. The best way to do this is by identifying where you shine and then using your expertise to help others do the same. In this episode, Sharice Enis shares how she took her love for marketing automation and turned it into a business where she now helps her clients have the success they’ve always dreamed of.
If you loved this episode and it motivated you to work on more polished presentations, I’d love for you to leave a review on iTunes and tell me about your biggest takeaway. Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, post it to your Instagram Stories, and tag me @jessicarasdall.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
GET TO KNOW SHARICE ENIS
Sharice Enis is the owner of Sharice & Co., which is a small marketing studio. She works with coaches and course creators to help them figure out marketing automation. One of her goals is to help her clients create a consistent and predictable flow of income for their businesses.
THE SALES FUNNELS TOPIC
Sharice’s passion is in creating sales funnels. As a business owner herself, she realized that there is a gap in the marketplace and the information that is available. Throughout her time working in marketing, she started to notice that there are three things that business owners need to focus on in order to have success. From this, she developed a three-part marketing strategy for business owners and course creators. Her goal is to help her clients understand the big picture.
SUCCESS & IMPACT
Friend, you may be a jane of all trades and can do all of the things, but being intentional about what you can help your clients with will make a bigger impact. For Sharice, marketing and creating sales funnels is where she shines. When she focuses on this, she helps her clients have more success and a bigger impact.
A HIGHER-LEVEL VIEW
Sharice has found that most business owners struggle with attracting people to get fresh leads for their offering, or they lack an intentional mechanism or system for how traffic moves from the discovery process, to being in front of the offer or product, and then to buying. Most people who are struggling only have part of the puzzle, but are missing that one integral piece.
HELPING CLIENTS HAVE IMPACT
Working with the end in mind, and then working out the pieces to get there, is what Sharice does best. Oftentimes, there isn’t anything wrong with the product or offering, but it simply isn’t getting in front of enough people.
Sharice helps clients by digging into the metrics to determine why their current strategy isn’t working. Sometimes they just need to reflect on what they’re doing and determine what’s working and what isn’t. She works with her clients to reset expectations and make data-driven changes.
HOW THE ACADEMY HAS BENEFITED SHARICE
Sharice says that The Speaking Strategy Academy came just at the right time. She didn’t even realize that she was going through a transformation from freelancer to business owner. She joined with the intention of learning strategies, attracting more clients, and growing her email list. Instead, she got a lot more clarity on her business and got more out of it than she initially intended. Speaking has forced her to focus on impact and to be the face of her business.
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Transcript for Episode 190:
Today we're going behind the scenes with one of our academy students to learn what we need to market our business well and really sell out our programs, but also to learn about the personal and professional transformation that happens when we focus on our speaking strategy.
Welcome back to another episode of The speak to scale podcast, where we're helping small business owners just like you grow and scale their companies by speaking on stages, podcasts, webinars and more. I'm your host, Jessica Rasdall. And today is a very special episode because we are highlighting one of our students sharees. She is digital marketing strategist who helps service professionals course creators really build intentional sales funnels and email marketing campaigns. And she's a member of our speaking strategy Academy. And over the last year, I've had the honor of watching Sherry's really come alive as she poured into her message and her people and how she could best support them. Today, we're going behind the scenes to learn some tips and tricks for up leveling or digital marketing. And we're gonna go behind the scenes and hear all about what it's been like for Sharif inside of the academy, her personal approach, and how that's impacted other areas of her life in business. So if you're ready to learn some nitty gritty strategy to market your business, but maybe you're also a little curious and want a peek inside what it's like to be an Academy member, today's episode is for you. Right, so for our listeners who haven't met you yet, just give us a little bit of background on who you are and what you do.
So I'm Sharif and I'm the owner of Shree cinco, which I call it a small marketing studio. And we work with, you know, perfect, professional service providers like coaches. And we also work with course creators to help them build out marketing automation, also known as sales funnels, that delivers sales and clients on autopilot so that they can create a consistent and predictable flow of income for their business.
Who doesn't want that? Yeah. And I love what you do. One I didn't even know at first until Okay, so, disclosure, you are a member of the Academy. And you recently delivered your presentation, which I'll have you share a little bit about what's inside of that presentation in a second. But I didn't know until you share that story. I didn't know the like, earlier days, Sharif. I didn't know that you like used to be a VA and be behind the scenes on some of these bigger launches. And you've got to see all the things that work and don't work. So first, tell us what your presentation is. And then I'd love to hear a little bit about like, why that topic and kind of how you got into it from behind the scenes.
Yeah, so my topic is sales funnels. And the title is the three part marketing strategy of successful course creators and online business owners. And this is sort of my way of kind of, like spilling the tea from from my time working as virtual assistant and being, uh, you know, freelancing. And I got started back in 2014. And, you know, I, at the time, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do or what area of marketing I wanted to do at that time, I actually was working like as an independent contractor and corporate. And I was in between contracts. And that's when I was like, why don't I just start freelancing and like, I started to get into this online business world. And so I spent some time working with a copywriter doing like junior level copywriting, I've spent time, you know, working for first for woman who's running a podcast. So I, I've had all these opportunities to work behind these different businesses. And there were some patterns that I've started to notice seven years laters the difference between some of my clients who were I think, always sort of hustling and always, not as financially successful or as stable as some of the of my other clients who were sort of full time in their business and you know, didn't have to have like part time jobs or other things like that. And it kind of just kind of clicked for me that there really are just three things that we need to focus on. And as someone who's also like in the trenches, who's also a business owner, I realized There's a gap in the I guess in the marketplace, but also just in terms of the information that's available, because everyone is trying to sell their strategy their system. And no one's really talking about, well, here's the big picture. And so I wanted to give a presentation that helps people understand like, this is the big picture, these are the three things you need to really market your business. And this is how you can figure out where were your puzzle, your missing puzzle pieces, and so that you can start to fill in those gaps. And maybe that looks like working with me at the end of the webinar. And maybe that means you've, you've solved it, and you're like, Oh, I just need to go get more traffic. You know, you're, you're well, on your way. So. So that's why I chose this topic. And that's why I'm actually feeling really like passionate and excited about it. Because I think when I first started the Academy, I was really focused on I think, course creation, and like just helping create the courses and like getting expertise out there. But after months and months of digging in some sort of like internal reflection, I realized what the real issue is, with the real challenge for a lot of people, it's actually getting people to buy the course it's getting people into the programs, which is something that I've been, you know, helping people do by helping them set up the tech, you know, the CRM, the landing pages, and sales pages, make sure all the tech talks to each other. And so I was like that, I think is where I really provide the most value to people.
That's so fascinating, because I wanted so neat, because this is our third episode now of an Academy student and getting one thank you for sharing the internal stuff, because I think most people just keep it private. But hearing the different breakthroughs that happen because I remember when you first joined the academy, and even as you were talking earlier, it's very easy to feel overwhelmed, and to struggle to make a decision or select a topic or go in a direction. When you've sat in so many seats. Right? When you're like, well, I could do all of it. Like I know how to set up the CRM, I know how to set up the sales, you know, when you can do so much. It's really, really hard to pick a direction and run in it. Yeah, but you said something to me in probably a year ago, at this point. But when we were talking about like, forget all the topics, forget all the things like what difference are you trying to make for your audience, and you are so clear of like, I want them to get this thing out into the world. And I want them you know, they've worked hard to create this thing to make a difference. And it's not serving anybody. And I think that's like where your magic came from. Because just helping them create it. Like that's a piece of the puzzle that would have like, check the box. But if nobody goes through the course, if nobody goes through their program, they're not making an impact in you. Like you feel success when they make the impact. I feel like
Yes, and I I can't believe you remember that? And I've never um, I yeah, I, I feel like, I mean, thank you for reflecting that back to me, because it feels like it's come all it's come full circle. It's like, yeah, I have goosebumps. This is exactly what I am meant to do. And I think sometimes I even lose sight because I am sort of like a gene of all trades. And I can do all the things that at the end of the day, what I really want to do, and what I've learned from being the gene of all trades for the better part of six or seven years is that, you know, I want them to have success and like doing all these random pieces doesn't help them have success. But if I can be very intentional about the pieces that I'm helping them with, that are going to get them out there. And I really distilled everything down to like what matters most. And also like, where am I most experienced? It's like, Yes, I can set up courses, but I went to school for marketing. And I, you know, I have an interest in marketing and have marketing certifications. So it's like, I probably should stick to sales funnels. But it's been quite a year because I think, you know, another mindset shift for me has been transitioning, I think from being sort of the freelancer, the virtual assistant, which is also you can call yourself a business owner, even if that's sort of the title you're taking, but really shifting from like, being sort of like having built a job for myself to like, I want to build a business. I want to build something that's solid and that I can rely on and be willing to make, you know really invest in in my own business and really has me rethinking my own funnel building out my own own funnel all over again. And so I feel like the speaking strategy Academy came to me really at the right time, I didn't realize that I was starting to go through this transformation from like being that virtual assistant or freelancer or even the mindset shift between, like, just thinking about my business from like, the long term, the long game and like creating something sustainable. But this program, I think, met me sort of at the right time.
That's something I'm so glad you said that. Because that's something that's come up for me a lot, the last year of really watching our students and like watching these transformations, and speakings. Great, yes. And like, everything's there that you need to know to write your talk. But at the end of the day, I feel like the real transformation that's happening is that our students are able to step into that role as the face of a company. Right? Like, I feel like it forces you to do the work to focus on impact, not just like, what's the next thing I need to do this week? But and what seat Am I sitting in order to really make that impact. And I'm be honest, that's not the impact I set out to make. So it's very cool to see it happening all across the board, though. And again, just like you're saying, like in the academy met you at the right time that you didn't know, really how this was gonna unfold, I'm almost feeling like same on this side of the table of, I knew this was going to be impactful if I knew the skills we wanted to deliver, but I don't think I quite grasp what those skills would do. For a business owner.
Yeah, I joined with the intention. And I to be honest, I a few years ago, I did take a, I guess it was it was like a group kind of like a group coaching program. And there was some private coaching as well, where speaking was like, the main strategy was like to get in front of people, but to do that, like locally. And so like, I was when I heard your presentation, I was like, already sold on like, I know, this strategy works. But what I liked was the way you delivered your presentation and the techniques that you used as, like, I want to learn that. So when I joined, it was more so about, I just want to I want to learn these strategies, I want to deliver the signature talk. And it's going to help me attract more clients and grow my email list. What I got instead was a whole lot more clarity on my business and who I am. And it helped me it was really good, like these exercises and deliver and crafting my signature talk really worked hand in hand with another program, I was taking that where I was, you know, rethinking a lot of things in my business. So it was I got out of it more than I initially intended, or thought I was going to get to so
I'm not gonna have feelings for doing that. Okay, so I want to, I want to talk a little bit about what you're talking about is like, the, that I can't even get my words out. I'm too like emotionally tied up and just the world that we're changing right now. But that higher level view for our listeners who are like, Sharif, I'm right there. Like I know that I have this course this offer this service. And I want to make a difference with mine too. Like I want to get it out there. But it's I'm not getting enough people through the door. I've tried the strategies. I've bought the courses, like I'm trying to duplicate everybody's little pieces, but it's just little parts of the puzzle. What does that higher level view look like? If we're looking at our marketing and our business, whether it were speaker, coach, or course creator, what are those patterns that you saw?
Yeah, so the patterns that I saw that you know, what, I think all you know, successful business owners are doing is that they're number one, they're attracting people so they're doing something every day or consistently to get fresh leads or traffic to their course. So whether that is Facebook ads, whether that's showing up on Instagram, you know, and that's and that's sort of the whole the whole thing, it's like everyone's selling a piece a piece of the three things that I'm going to go over so the first one is they're doing something to generate traffic and attract and you know, build awareness. The next thing is that they have an intentional sort of I guess like mechanism or system for like, how that traffic moves from like discovering them to then getting in front of the offer their product and and buying it. Most people who I find that are struggling they there they may have part of it they may have a lot of times it's not the traffic though. They'll have like the offer but they won't have like this the sale system they won't have like the customer pathway of like how someone goes and finds it. or maybe they do have the traffic, but they don't have sort of the sales system to take that traffic, sort of streamline it, and get in front of the offer. And so this is the reason why, you know, there are people who are like selling, like, create VIP days, or you need to be on YouTube or you need to sell with with webinars or sales calls. And they're like, Oh, my clients are having all this success. And it's like, yes, they are having success, because that was the missing puzzle piece for them. But if you don't need to attract people in your business, because you already doing that, you don't need to buy a course on Instagram or YouTube or whatever the next trend is tick tock reels or whatever you need to sell, you need a sales mechanism, maybe you need to learn how to, you know, host webinars, or maybe you need to, to learn, you know, how to have that sales conversation. And you know, and conversely, for those who feel like, you know, it's the offer, they're missing the offer piece, that's where like a course on like, tiny offers, or the VIP days sort of fit into fit into the puzzle. So it's really about and that's what, why like, looking at it as like these three categories, and making sure you're sort of checking the box of like, am I attracting people? Do I have a clear pathway to get them in front of the offer? And do I have an offer, because if you feel like you're lacking in one of those areas, and you can say, Great, I need to go, maybe I need to go take a course on Facebook ads, or hire Facebook Ads Manager, you know, maybe I need to, you know, take a course that's going to help me build an irresistible offer, you can then go and make, you know, confident decisions around like what you're investing in and, and start to see results and not feel so distracted and pulled in like 10 different directions because especially this time of year, around the holidays and advertising is high. You know, there's so many different ads for like, oh, anything you need this system, you need that you need to plan you need to, but allows you to really sort of shut out the noise. And really focus on on where, where the what's missing.
I love that so much. Because you're right. That's such a great point of like, like VIP days, for example, or tick tock for you know, like, the idea of Yes, that sounds great. But what if that's not my problem? I think it's so easy to fall for, not fall for, but to get sucked into great marketing. And like, well, that sounds great. But is that what I actually need right now? Sounds great for somebody else. Maybe like that's, yeah. So So, so, so good. Okay, so when you what does that look like when you are working with somebody? So if somebody comes to you, and maybe they don't have clarity around that yet, and they're, they're like, well, just not making the sales i i want to make, like, here's the big problem, but I have no idea what's going on? How do you work with someone to get them the impact that they want? What does that experience
look like? Yeah, so depending on on where they're at, you know, some people come to me and they don't have, like, they just know that they're going to build a course. And they're like I need I need to build an email list. And so it's about like creating that lead magnet and sort of thinking through actually working with the end in mind, you know, the offer that they're going to create, and then sort of building out the rest of those pieces, including, like how we're getting them to the front of the offer. And also like thinking about like, well, you know, what are some ways that you're going to attract or drive traffic, for those who already have a funnel or have sort of some of these systems in place, but like it's not working, they're not getting the results they need? That's more about some reflection, and like, looking back at what they're doing. So, you know, looking at that lead magnet, so I'll do like I'll, you know, give them some feedback and look at, you know, how are they I'll ask them, how are they attracting people and how much traffic are they're getting? A lot of times people come to me after they've had, I don't want to say a failed launch because I don't think like failed in their, in by their definition. It didn't meet their expectation. And, you know, be like, Well, how many people did this get in front of and like that? And that was usually that's number usually number one. It's like, oh, well, only 15 people saw it, or, you know, and it's like, okay, and that's when we have to start digging into like a little bit of the metrics. Because usually it's not the offer. A lot of times people want to like scrap the offer, like totally change it and revise it. And it's like, actually, you didn't get it in front of enough people to even know if it is the offer. And like us that's the other thing that I think often gets forgotten is like getting feedback, having a feedback loop, you know, sort of built into your business that you're that you're asking for feedback. So if you've launched something and people didn't buy, like, find out why they didn't buy it because I think one of the most important pieces of having an email list is that you have people who are potential leads that you can use for market research and get real information. From. And that's why there's no such thing as I think anything that's, quote unquote fail because you, you're gonna learn something from it. And there's always things to learn, it's one of the lessons that I've, you know, taken this year is that in order to succeed, you have to be willing to fail, meaning you have to be willing to take action, you have to be willing to put something out there and it not doing what you expect it to do. But that's really the first thing we have to do is look at the metrics and see if you're tracking the metrics. And sometimes the only metric people are tracking is like, sale, like, I didn't get a sale, you know, and you have to look at, well, how much traffic that you get, and items who want to know, like, well, how many people do I need on my email list? And that's like another metric we have to look at to be like, Okay, well, here's like some industry standards. You know, here's, you know, here's how many leads, we think you might need, or here's the email size, you might need to sort of make a sale at this at this price point. But a lot of times, it's you know, it's running through the running through the funnel to make sure actually, even all the pieces work, because that's a part that people sometimes forget is to test it, it's like you might have a broken link in an email and not even realize it. And that could be costing you some conversions. And so it's, you know, sort of making sure it's working from the the technical side, and then also looking at the analytics to see like, Okay, well, how is it performing? And, you know, if you made one sale, and you know, you show that to less than 1000 people or less than 100 people, you'd be like, that's actually really successful. You know, depending on on your industry and such. So, a lot of times, it's about helping people reset their expectations, and then using data to drive the decisions we make around what areas need to change.
I love that. So when somebody comes to you, you're not just jumping in and executing anything, you're taking the time to dig deep look at the data, get a clearer picture of what they want, what's working, what's not before you guys ever say, Okay, here's where we're going to put in our attention, correct?
Yeah, yeah, I'd much rather take a look at what someone's already has set up unless like we're doing something totally new like, and make a more informed decision than to just be like prescribing like this is you have to have a webinar funnel or what have you. It's like I rather like have context. And also know understand like, what do you what comes natural to you what feels right to you? Because oftentimes, I think we try to do what seems like this is the best practice, or this is what's recommended or so insist that I should be using YouTube or etc. Instead of being like, well, is that realistic for you? Like, does that meet the capacity you have right now, in your business and in your season of life? Because it all starts to men meld together?
Oh, my goodness, yes. I think that that part, too, it's so easy to want to look at what everybody else is doing and assume well, that will work for me, or that's what I should be doing. And it just so good to hear that and have the reminder of, you know, our numbers, our audience, our personal life is going to help guide us to make the decisions that are best for our business, not so and so that we follow on Instagram. So if you could say one thing to our listeners, who are maybe just feeling a little bit deflated by their own marketing, or lack there of what would you really want them to know?
Ooh, that's a good question. I would want them to know that, oh, my gosh, I feel like I'm gonna go on another tangent. But
getting that hurt is
so much baggage. And like, yeah, brings so much to it. And I think like we all sort of, we just sort of that sounds
like, you guys can't see it. But it was like, sure you just physically just, like shook off the market.
I don't know when I hear that word, it just feels like it, like unnatural and I think it is unnatural for a lot of people but what it really comes down to it's communication and like getting out there and talking about what you do and like building awareness for what you do. So if there's one thing I want people to take from that is that it you know, it's definitely not a science. It's it's sort of a mix of art and science, and there's going to be some trial and error to it. But at the end of the day, it's really just about putting yourself out there so that people know that you're here your course exists your program exists your services and so that people can buy from you it's not not all the other things that I think we oftentimes make it Yeah.
I think it's easy to chalk it up. Well, I'm not a good marketer. Oh, I'm not a marketer. But yeah, if you created that course you made that offer you're doing In this thing, because you want to make a difference, and having people like you in their corner is going to help them make that impact. So yeah, for our listeners who want to know how to get in touch with, you know, like sharees SOS help, what is the best way for them to connect with you? Oh, the
best way to connect with me would be Instagram. That's where I'm the most active. And you say you can find me Teres and CO on Instagram, and or my website, recent co.com, which new website is coming. So that'll be exciting. Yeah, it's really exciting. Also a lot of work, but really exciting. That'd be the other place to find me and connect with me.
And I'll make sure we link all of that in our show notes. So you can easily just head on over there and click. I can't say thank you enough for joining us today and sharing your behind the scenes but also giving us some great tips and strategies, and most importantly, just helping us kind of reframe what it can look and feel like to show up in market for our business. I appreciate it so much. And I know this is going to be such a blessing to our listeners.
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
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