135. Kevin Whelan Shares a 5 Step Framework to Creating a Strategic Marketing Plan for your Coworking Business

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135. Kevin Whelan Shares a 5 Step Framework to Creating a Strategic Marketing Plan for your Coworking Business

00:00:01 Welcome to the everything Coworking podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host, co working space owner and trend expert Jamie Russo. Welcome to the everything Coworking Podcast. I have a great returning guest in store for you today. If you have not yet opened your co working space. Definitely give a listen. This is a little bit early for you, but it will help you think strategically about putting the right things in place to create your strategic marketing program.

00:00:38 And for those of you that already have a space, you're gonna want to listen to this again. Take some notes. Although Kevin has a great, easy, simple worksheet download that you congrats at the end of the episode. So if you're in the car, no worries. But this is gonna help you think more strategically about your marketing plan in 2020 before we dive in. This episode is brought to you by the co Working startup school. For those of you working on starting of space, this program is for you.

00:01:06 If you are investing in your co working space and want to avoid costly mistakes and stress By getting expert and peer support in a highly facilitated environment, we want to make sure you create the right space for you and your target market right from the beginning. We want to make sure you get the business model right so that you're set up for financial sustainability that matches your goals. Will review your pro forma help you their product mix design, sourcing furniture, working with vendors, getting your marketing systems down, hiring the right team.

00:01:38 We're learning to run this pace yourself, getting set up with the right tech and Maur. You can absolutely piece a lot of support together from the podcast and the everything Coworking Facebook group. This program is really for people that wanna invest in access to a package that provides the information resource is and support that you need when you need it, and in the order that you need it accompanied by access to me and other industry experts in a curated, pure group. So if this sounds like it's a fit for you,

00:02:08 doors are opening first week in March. Get on the Notify me list at www dot co working startup school dot com and you want to get your name on that list? Because if you're not on it, I don't know you're interested and won't I don't liketo over. Send email, so definitely pop on that list at www dot co working start up school dot com. And now let's dive into today's guest. I am thrilled to be here with the Kevin Wheel in marketing consultant who helps Coworking spaces get full.

00:02:40 Isn't that what we are all after? And once we get once baseball, then we can talk about doing our next face and we're well positioned for success, but that getting full can be really challenging. So Kevin offered to come on the podcast again and walk us through a framework for creating a marketing plan for your co working space. And I was just chatting with Kevin. I feel like he was just on, but it's been over a year. He was on Episode 97. You're gonna go want to go back and listen to that after we talked today,

00:03:10 I think because he's super practical, which I love an action oriented. So we did an episode in November of 2018 Number 97 demystifying Google ads I will put that link up to that in the show. Notes. Kevin, thank you for joining me today. And let's not let a year go by again before we have you on. I get so much out of every conversation we have. And you are one of the unique folks who specialize in helping working spaces work on their marketing. And as you say,

00:03:42 you know, get full. That's the goal. So we love to have you on, and we gonna do this again soon. I already know this is gonna be a great episode. How are you today? I'm great, Jamie. Thanks for so much for having me on here again. Yeah. So big change since November of 2019. You are now a dad. Yes. Yeah, baby, It's so crazy. How's the sleep going? We didn't know. My gosh. Did you see the bags under my eyes?

00:04:08 Were good lighting coming back to sleep, which is nice. Yeah, he's doing great. Good, awesome. Well, congrats on that. And you're back into the swing of things and make things happen. So Kevin and we'll talk about this a little bit at the end because Kevin works really closely does both one on one work, and he does. Can a group coaching has got a membership to really help folks who want to commit and want that accountability and monthly check ins and education and Q and A for their marketing.

00:04:37 So I think. But first we're gonna kind of back up and sort of go at this strategically. So this is like ideal case scenario is how you would approach your marketing plan and Kevin's gonna walk us through this. And when we were chatting, I said, I think I am guilty of sometimes doing the fire ready aim approach of You know what? I want ads. We need more people. Let's, you know, tactic, tactic. Like, you know, just taking action without being patient and being thoughtful and intentional and creating a plan and kind of,

00:05:10 you know, optimizing. And I think a lot of folks do that because they sort of get into that fear based, you know, mode of just, you know, wanting results quickly. So, Kevin, I'm gonna stop talking here and turn it over to you and have you gonna frame up the framework? Okay. Well, just on that No, Jamie, you're not alone in the ready, fire aim kind of mentality. And I think that's good. Some people need to just act and then make it better.

00:05:35 I'm also kind of that person, right? I have to, like, get let it be messy and that back it up and make it better. Yeah. Yeah. So for someone like you, I'd say, OK, as long as you go back and formalize what you're doing, you're gonna be successful. But apparently that's forever. Yeah, but for other people, they're more perfections minded, and then they don't have that fire mentality. So I think, you know, good hybrid of getting stuff out there and then going back in refining it.

00:05:58 Taking things in order is a really great way to do it, So we'll go through my process. And just so you know, this process is a result of over a decade of digital marketing and marketing kind of process, working with clients directly over five or six years so far, working just in the coworking industry. And I found that by not following this method by not following this approach, we went up like that. There were times right, short cut, my own process and then results would falter.

00:06:20 And since I've been very sticking to this with my clients and moving methodically through it, we've seen seemed significant and sustained booking system results. Which is the reason I just now if I follow it like it's a checklist and that's it's worked well for me so far. Yeah, I love the checklist approach because you and I were talking about how you know it can feel like you're walking through mud for a while. Like when you're anxious and you just want things to happen and you want results. It can feel like I'm working on my blogged and I was walking the dogs this morning is having that conversation with myself.

00:06:51 I was like, Look, this does not happen overnight. Cannot post a blonde post, and all of a sudden it's ranking like you need to write more of them. It be patient and, you know, make sure your to your point. You have to go through and do the homework and make sure you get the key words. And but if you do the right things, you should get the right outcome. So that's what we're gonna talk about today and we're gonna kind of stay a little bit high level here.

00:07:14 Kevin's doing some more work with this material so well, kind of talk at the end if you want to dive deep, how you can do that? But, Kevin, you did promise that you're gonna post this as, like a worksheet that folks can access when they're done, if they're interested in taking themselves through the content. Yeah, so you'll be able to download it at will give you the link at the end, but you'll be able to download from the Web site and then work right within it,

00:07:35 so that will make your life a lot easier. Hopefully, you take any notes? Exactly. I just for the folks who are like in their car. And they're like, Wait, pen. This will all be available to you in writing in worksheet format. So Well, Kevin, walk us through kind of dive into the framework and I'll, you know, interrupt you and poke and ask questions as we go along here. Okay? So with all things marketing, we wanna work backwards from men and results so far.

00:08:01 End result. If our goal is to reach target occupancy, let's call it 85 90% which is kind of what I classifies full, although there are spaces out there that are 100% or 96 or 98 so that is a realistic goal. But, you know, getting to target occupancy is the end goal. So there's really three parts of that one is there is traffic like is their attention eyeballs? Are people aware of your space? Number two is conversion. So are they converting to lead? And are they converting to a member of paying member or client?

00:08:27 If it's a one off service and then the third parties retention? So you know, those kind of the wheel that we're constantly refining working on and there's so much involved with all of them. So for this kind of abortion, we're gonna be mostly focused on the point of traffic awareness, you know, eyeballs right attention and then kind of converting to the point of a lead. And then that's sort of where I think it's sales sort of taking over. All the marketing has a relationship there, so we'll really be focused on that half of the triangle.

00:08:51 And then, you know, I'm sure you talk about this at like I know you talked about this. I like the other retention pieces and everything else, so we won't be covering that right now. And that's a whole other podcast. Exactly. Yeah, we'll talk about the top end of the funnel and sounds get Yeah, So the way I approach it is sort of it is formulated, is methodical. It's kind of like building a house. So really, there's five kind, of course, sort of pieces that I think I reported.

00:09:13 You know, I think in the ready fire aim mentality, which is valuable. Sometimes people go ahead and just start building the roof without building the walls in the foundation. And you know what? Sometimes that works and, you know, to a degree, you have to You have to be kind of building all parts of the house at the same time, you know, But as you have time to go back and be more methodical, and if you wanna build your house correctly, if you want to withstand the test of time,

00:09:32 if you want to have sustainable results, do you have to go back to basics so the face kind of zero or phase one would be sort of the pre marketing fundamentals, and that's just things like, Are we writing down our system? Do we know what KP eyes? What numbers were tracking? Do we have a place to track those so that they're easily visible in one place? I use a spreadsheet, and I have That is a resource, but, like, can we see these things trending over time?

00:09:54 Like you know, what's our close ratio? How many leads are we getting? What's our occupancy rate? What's our marketing spend? What's our costume acquisition? The whole thing. There's really only a few of those. Most of them, you know, having goals, you know, said all this stuff is sort of the pre marketing things that are kind of going on before you even really start marketing. You know, how are we gonna track stuff? How do we know what success looks like? And I think spending the time up front to know what your target occupancy rate is going to be and to know how you're gonna track numbers when they command and what tools are going to use to to do your sales.

00:10:24 When people do start coming in, that's really the first part of it all. And I think a lot of times people will skip over that start marketing, not tracking. I've worked to several Korean spaces that are several years in the business and still don't know historically how many leads they've been getting or how much they've been spending to get those where they're coming from. Yeah, I mean, I think this part is super important because it takes so much discipline, toe like slow down and do this right, because I'm not a lot of time.

00:10:48 You'd be surprised. What templates, Right? That was you to say even the KP eyes like to your point. I have a k p I doctor when it's really it's up to much. But you can keep it just, you know, commit to three or four things, even to start with your list is probably not many more than that, but right, we're not asking for, like, you know, you don't need to get a data analyst and you down and write, and I talk about this all the time.

00:11:14 It's like put time on your calendar to go to review these things, which is like the simplest thing you could do. And yet we don't because it's we just It's hard to commit toe like, you know, we're reacting to things and go, go, go. And like that weekly meeting to review the KP eyes is so simple and yet so easy to just avoid. And that's what that first thing I mentioned about having system. So if anything is important enough to you, it should go in a place that goes under a daily weekly,

00:11:40 a monster quarterly or annual like I literally have one document that has what it needs to be done every day when he's blown every week when he's a bit every month,

00:11:47 quarter and year. And so if something important, if you have this bright idea that hey, we should recheck,

00:11:52 how are automation they're doing in our email tool, whatever that was in twice a year, once 1/4 then it's done.

00:11:59 Then you just check it out if you or your community manager your marketing manager, as you say, the value of the systems and I advocate you know that meeting go through it with your team like,

00:12:09 you know, I advocate really hard, you know, I just launched the community Manager University in December,

00:12:15 and I continued to add content to that program. And sort of the the course is the weekly meeting,

00:12:22 and I bring. You know, I'd go back to that all the time. And any time there's something you need to track or go through with your team and like,

00:12:28 just do it in your weekly meeting because then it's you know you're accountable for it. It's on an agenda.

00:12:33 There's a link to a document. You could skip it, but you know it just when you're doing it with someone else and there's time on the calendar.

00:12:41 If you just commit to that weekly meeting and then add in, you know some of these pieces and eventually you might have a separate marketing weekly meeting,

00:12:48 you know, which might be ideal. But just commit to the one and, you know, put links to these you know,

00:12:54 K P I trackers and what not in here. And then your team can help you because your team is probably capable of tracking many of these things.

00:13:01 And they may be the ones entering the leads into the you know C. R. M. And responsible for that and helping them see that bigger picture is also helpful.

00:13:09 And if the's air task that they can do it's also helping them to grow skills that are transferrable and help them feel like they're developing as well.

00:13:18 So you don't even have to do all of it yourself. But you have to get the systems into place so that everybody you know so that you can delegate and share some of these and then add ones marching to the beat of the same drama.

00:13:28 You know, if you know that because you $200 to acquire a shin lead based on dividing number of leads by your marketing cock vice versa,

00:13:34 then you could say everyone our leads are costing us $200. You know, that's when they do come in.

00:13:38 Or, you know, come on the phone, let's treat like gold. I don't want any one of $100 in their pocket cause yeah,

00:13:45 you know, that's a meaningful amount of money. So having those numbers and then having everyone marching to the beat of the same drum is a really great way to say,

00:13:50 like, How's the health of our business? Cause you're right, your stuff can really help. Yeah,

00:13:54 that's the first phase. That's kind of the pre things jumping in the next one. Yeah, totally.

00:13:59 Systems all day. But yes, I know that. Yeah, it was worth doing. It's worth system.

00:14:04 I think that happens more than once of having a document systemized. To create a system is gonna make your business more valuable and also get better results,

00:14:12 which is actually a great point is it's if you have aspirations of expanding or getting investment or management agreements like any of those sort of more aspirational things that you might be thinking about these You have to have these things in place because you'll be asked for them during any of those processes.

00:14:30 And if you don't have them, people will think you don't really have your act together and you're not right happens if your employees get it by the lottery,

00:14:36 right? And then you know the only ones who know how to update the website, then you're starting from scratch,

00:14:40 right? Yeah, totally, whole everything. So, yeah, but that's all. You're kind of fun.

00:14:45 That's the stuff that is so in warring that no one wants to do it, and we end up doing it five years in the business,

00:14:49 and it's more painful then. So just knowing that that's there, and then I've got a whole, like worksheet you can work on to kind of get that going.

00:14:56 So the next part is the strategy phase, which is also this, like we're still walking through mud.

00:15:00 So when I work with clients on a one on one basis, or even in a group setting, it feels like nothing is happening for the first couple months cover.

00:15:05 Focus on the foundations and the strategy. Yeah, it's like me and my Black Post making yet. Yeah,

00:15:12 yeah, you can. You can drink more. Yeah, exactly. Like you could jump ahead and start working furiously,

00:15:16 but it pees. You work. You go in a straight line when you start with this stuff. So what is the strategy?

00:15:21 Really, strategy is just about capitalizing on your advantages. So it's really about like the thought process. The why behind everything that you do.

00:15:28 And the way to find that out is to ask yourself some questions, Mr. Would this work sheets all about.

00:15:32 It's mostly a series of questions you can answer, and then the idea is the answers become apparent. But the first thing in any marketing situation is to start with your ideal market,

00:15:40 your ideal customer. Remember and then work backwards from there. So, like, what is the context in which your workspace serves them?

00:15:47 So what is a day in their life? Are they waking up the kids, driving them to school and then coming into the office and where they parking?

00:15:52 And how much is that parking costs? And then when they get there, what kind of how are they using the space?

00:15:56 And you know, are they using meeting rooms? And if so, why? And if not, why not?

00:16:00 And really understanding your best members and the entire day, including when they leave, what time they leave,

00:16:05 how the traffic is, what they do when they get home. Try to understand where your place fits into it.

00:16:09 So you know what goal you're actually helping them move towards and why others, you know, like, yeah,

00:16:14 so just understanding you're really empathizing with your best members is a really great way that make everything else easy.

00:16:19 Part of that is your psychographic Sindhu demographics and psychographic star like what do they care about what they value.

00:16:24 What do they believe in? You know, things like, what are their goals? Maybe they're high growth minded.

00:16:28 Maybe they just want to have a great life style business. One of their fears, their aspirations. You know,

00:16:33 maybe they care about quality. Or maybe they care about the more frugal right. Like in what part of the market are you serving?

00:16:39 It's usually not both of those to knowing what values your best members have and then serving those relentlessly. And then the demographics are,

00:16:46 you know, two degree important, depending how you look at it. But that's things like Where do they live?

00:16:50 How far they commuting? How are they commuting? What industry are the end? What level of maturity other business in what's their financial situation like?

00:16:58 And that'll tell you, like whether you should be raising your prices and adding more value the same time,

00:17:02 or scaling back and making it you know something else, or even where to put your business. You haven't started yet or you're going to expand.

00:17:10 But that's the big party. Yeah, I think this phase it's struggle this with my working startup school students who Sometimes they're like,

00:17:17 Well, I'm in a small market. Everybody is my target. I understand what you're saying, but it's not everybody or right,

00:17:29 you know, the way you phrased it, your best members like numbers. You might have a whole range of people come use your space.

00:17:35 But right, Who are your best members? That, like you could sell them all day long because you're just a great fit and doing that homework.

00:17:42 And people I just feel like resistant to getting into the details because they've just like bullets, everybody who needs a place to work.

00:17:50 And, you know, I could pick a co working space and getting into those details of really visualize ing right,

00:17:55 like, where do you fit into their day? And even like the goals and fears and aspirations like that place such a big role in how you run your space and the types of events you have and the community that you build,

00:18:07 but also how you verbalize that when you get them into the space. And again, why don't we go into too many details?

00:18:13 But like those things matter and understanding those things matter because they play into, you know your messaging on your website.

00:18:18 And anyway, it's like 80 20 I would say for each service had no, you're single best members.

00:18:24 One only write their story done. Don't write a vague, made up person named Jo who is between 40 and like.

00:18:31 Don't do that. Think of that you're one best member and then market to them. Speak to their fears,

00:18:35 their aspirations, their needs. Do they need this out of the other? How do you offer How do you overdeliver for them?

00:18:39 And the rest of your market gets really, really powerful, and you'll still hit people that are outside of that range.

00:18:44 But you'll create a very resonant marketing strategy by doing that that, yeah, so the first part is always,

00:18:49 you know, work backwards. There's a lot of people that they have an audience, have a have a group of people first and then figure out where you're going to sell to them.

00:18:55 It's the same in business. So the more you know your target audience, whether their corporate their independence,

00:19:00 you know, whatever I know them work backwards. It'll make all your decisions easy. That's part of the strategy.

00:19:05 The other part, like just going back to the point of capitalizing on your advantages, which I think is the main portion of a strategy.

00:19:10 You know, if you think of war, any other scenario they're always trying to look at, how do we created an advantage and what is our invented?

00:19:17 Naturally. And then what are we going to do? Is a result of that. So things like what makes us unique relative to the competition.

00:19:22 What unique features do we have our Maybe we have free parking. Maybe we're located in the central business district.

00:19:27 Maybe we're of the best looking building, you know, and then taking that a step further. What makes this remarkable,

00:19:33 like, what's the x factor of your business? What do people have to communicate if they were gonna communicate one thing,

00:19:38 What is so interesting or different that they have to communicate it? And if you don't have that no pause for dramatic effect here.

00:19:43 If you don't have that, you need to step back and find a way to have one remarkable X factor.

00:19:48 My old business coach emailed me today yesterday about covering space of the podcast boot that he was considering that someone recommended him because he's a podcaster.

00:19:55 And he was saying, You know, this is a cool future. I mean, that's not a huge,

00:19:58 remarkable expected, but it is an X factor. So having something other than four walls, you're selling everything about the four walls in the desk.

00:20:04 So what is that X factor that's gonna make you really stand out? If you don't have it, everything else is gonna be harder,

00:20:09 you know? What do we do that a competition dozen? You know what defensible advantages do we have?

00:20:13 Like, what can we do that no one could possibly do Because they just don't have the in house skills or experience that you d'oh.

00:20:19 And all kinds of other kind of like, you know what else are committed and not doing that we could do to kind of be uniquely Maybe it's starting a podcast or having a YouTube channel or doing events,

00:20:27 right? Like, you know, what are those gaps in the market that you can do? And I think I would just jump in here and see if you agree with these don't have to be complicated.

00:20:37 Yes, like they can be simple things that you just really focus on and deliver on. It continues to shock me.

00:20:45 I get really just used personal example. Our space. You know, our market has become more crowded,

00:20:50 but we have a couple of like, interesting location differentiations. We get a lot of parents who take their kids to private schools nearby,

00:20:57 and they were just like, well located. But you know, we're almost seven years in, and I get very sensitive about the comparison against the fancy new spaces that have a fancy new build out that come to town.

00:21:09 And I think it's easy to think about like, Oh, that's a major thing That's sort of a business model thing I need to fix,

00:21:15 like a whole new build out. But the thing that we've been delivering on really well that people will tell us like just other people are not is just like true,

00:21:24 authentic attention in relationships with our members. Then you know, that's I don't know if you would consider that to be,

00:21:32 like, sort of the defensible competitive advantage, but it feels like in our market there are not a lot of people who are delivering really well on that,

00:21:40 and we know our member and we host the right events and we, you know, have the right sort of Thank you.

00:21:47 Dei is member appreciation days. We, you know, great community, and we just are really consistent.

00:21:52 And we have not always been and so we can see kind of ebbs and flows around our membership in those seasons.

00:21:59 But we have people literally come up and like, thank not me. It's my community, totally my community manager,

00:22:05 you know, thanking them for that experience and telling them they've been to other places. It's not like that.

00:22:10 And so sometimes it's even just something basic that you just go hard at and do it better than other people.

00:22:16 D'oh! Yeah, I mean, that's the whole thing. The service is the name of the game.

00:22:20 And if service is your thing for your marketing, I would pull out stories of the exact little things you're doing.

00:22:24 Like whether it's replacing pizza with a healthy snack, which I think you mentioned before healthy type of food at your events or something like that.

00:22:31 And you talk about these things like they're micro details. But they add up to one mission, which is to be the most service oriented Corrigan space in the Valley or wherever.

00:22:39 You know, that could be it. But then you optimize this. Everything in your businesses is geared towards that.

00:22:43 And then you just all you do is talk about that from 15 different angles. Tell stories about it.

00:22:48 You know, if that's your thing, right? Yeah. And it just so your point is, well,

00:22:51 it doesn't need to be super complex. You don't have to build a whole podcast studio and everything else like somebody is the highest.

00:22:56 And spaces are the most devoid of personality, character, human connection. They're just They plop them down a community manager,

00:23:01 and then there's no ownership, and as a result, the experience, you know, falls apart when people bring their guests etcetera.

00:23:07 So your difference might be, Hey, we are the biggest like I know for a fact that that small entrepreneurs,

00:23:11 small businesses they love to connect with other businesses and create serendipitous relationships, referrals, hiring one another, that kind of stuff.

00:23:19 So if you're if you went out of your way to create events where it's forced networking for almost like a bee,

00:23:23 and I you know, for example, and you said you help people hauling that cross pollinate if that's your thing in.

00:23:29 But if you're in c. R a. The corporate side, maybe that's not your thing, which means we have a whole different suite of things that you d'oh but like it's focusing on the needs of your individual.

00:23:37 And the way you do that is just by looking at talking to them and then over delivering, finding ways to give them that.

00:23:42 Yep, and you might have to test it a little bit, but once you find it, just be super consistent.

00:23:46 You don't see your point right? This is hard to get our respective. Yeah, people love those little details.

00:23:52 Even if they're small, it's like that resonates and those who appreciate it will come. And those who wont psycho graphically,

00:23:57 we'll do something else, you know. So but you have to have that X factor. And that's the thing,

00:24:02 knowing that. So that's all about what you're different. You're unique. You know what that thing is that people need to talk about kind of next ages now taking that to market,

00:24:09 and part of that is, you know, having messaging around that First of all, how are you gonna communicate that?

00:24:14 And there's all kinds of ways. The clarity is the key there over cleverness. But once you have that,

00:24:18 you go into your platform and that's kind of setting up your home base and your periphery kind of space is so.

00:24:24 I mean, we could talk about that. So, you know, we've figured out what we've got it.

00:24:27 We know how we're organizing things. We've got a good strategy. We know where the gaps are in the market.

00:24:30 We know what we do differently. We know why people join us, forces anyone else. You know what we're doing?

00:24:35 We know who our customers are when we build our website, making sure that it communicates all of those things.

00:24:40 All those advantages, all those unique features that you have speaks directly to your target market and uses use focus,

00:24:47 language. Hey, we know you are a burgeoning small business. We know you are a corporate team looking for a professional work environment with absolute privacy and,

00:24:56 you know, high end features to match or something right. Using their language. You're getting your website up.

00:25:01 I have a 10 Commandments, which we partnered with the G W and It's a product that I sell as well as the D W H offers.

00:25:06 But the 10 Commandments see, How does your website meet all of those things? And you know, is the website designed to convert people into taking that next step?

00:25:13 So that's kind of the main piece to it. And then, you know, setting yourself up on the social media Are we set up on all the social media channels?

00:25:18 Is our messaging consistent? Are we in all those coworking directories and is all that stuff completed to the fullest and up to date and accurate and consistent?

00:25:28 And then are we tracking things properly on these places? Would be That's kind of your plastic. That's your solid home base from which you start to actually do do real marketing with.

00:25:36 So tell me if you would agree with this. I think folks can get sort of analysis paralysis on the website when they launch for the first time.

00:25:44 And so you launch with sort of, Let's call it like a beta website and you have the messaging that you think is going to be for your perfect member.

00:25:53 But some of that will be learning you know who is your perfect member? Who you thought it wa ce Are there other things about your space that you're doing that draw in?

00:26:01 Like I wouldn't have guessed. Theme I mentioned we happen to be next to private schools. And so our parents who work from home just come to our space,

00:26:07 drop their kids off. It's super. It works for their routine, you know? And they love our community and all those things that I wouldn't have guessed that right context?

00:26:15 Yeah, So I don't know if I would market that on the website, But now that I know this may be their some messaging that I would update so you don't have to get it right from the beginning,

00:26:24 but part of having these systems in places you might want to go back to that messaging, you know,

00:26:29 annually your whatever it is to make sure that it really reflects, you know, to your point number two,

00:26:34 like all the things I know about my members and the things that were really saying are different and unique about us presented on the website.

00:26:40 And it's okay if that gets updated and optimized over time. That's exactly it. So every piece of marketing he gets filtered through the lens of your want your single best member,

00:26:49 you know. And then if there's various service is on those individual pages, everything else gets killed. That there would this convince this person?

00:26:54 Does this align with what they already like and value from our space? Does it say the things it's close to approximately the school's drop off your kids work for,

00:27:03 you know, until three picked them up on the way home. Our members love to do this and constantly refining it.

00:27:08 And chances are you're gonna miss the mark completely under first website. Yeah, it's a big guess. Everyone gets it wrong,

00:27:14 and that's fine. But then, as soon as members start trickling in, you'll notice trends there all within a two mile radius or 10 kilometer radius or whatever the number is.

00:27:22 They're all contractors, or they're all you know, corporate satellite teams or they're all splendid startups. And then you start thinking there's a need for this who is naturally attracted to us.

00:27:31 Let's make sure we communicate that well everywhere. God, it makes sense. So that's something. And then,

00:27:36 yeah, and making sure that It's easy for people to take the next step, and then you're tracking stuff,

00:27:40 so you're tracking the goals. You know, the thing about a platform is you know, that filters all roads lead to Rome and you need to track.

00:27:47 You know, when those people are reaching out when they're calling you in there committing a contact for more scheduling a tour.

00:27:52 And that's easily done in Google Analytics but is often forgotten. And that's the big part of the platform.

00:27:57 And, yeah, there's other stuff to this, and you can download the thing here, but tracking,

00:28:01 tracking, tracking. When it comes to these platforms, I have a question about your membership. What level of detail do you get into in terms of support for sort of the steps in each of these phases?

00:28:11 Well, so when you down with this, they'll be like a recorded webinar that I'm giving later today that will supplement this so we'll go through each board in full detail more than what I'm covering here.

00:28:20 As a member, though, there's really two members of years of this three. The basic one gets you into our community or gets you on our private mailing lists and then the private mailing list.

00:28:27 I create, you know, little videos and all kinds of stuff from that. So that's nine bucks in that price would probably go up.

00:28:32 And then the middle tier is I gotta have this. Plus, like all training on all of this,

00:28:36 all your sample documents, checklist resources like a whole suite of trained for all of you in the social media E mail the whole bit.

00:28:42 And then once a month, we have a Q and A call. So that's where we that's where I answer questions live.

00:28:46 We also select Channel where I'm kind of in there, asking people what they're trying to accomplish, their showing me what they're working on,

00:28:52 and I'm kind of responding to it. And then during the webinars and whatnot, there's always questions is,

00:28:56 well, they come up with the end, so it's pretty hands on for what you're getting. Most kinds of work with me one on one are spending several thousands of dollars either per month or per quarter or whatever,

00:29:04 and you're getting quite a lot of detail so that a little two year if I'm stuck on figuring out how to track my Google analytics and there some support for that.

00:29:12 There's a video. Someone was stuck on it. I offered help them. I recorded myself doing it.

00:29:16 And then now that's a resource for the future members as well. So Okay, perfect. Yeah, I could see some people being like this is a lot,

00:29:23 you know? But you're feeling like they need that accountability and even that slack group to, you know,

00:29:28 see, like, oh, other people are moving forward on this and you get in here and do these things and like you,

00:29:33 Jamie, I'm sure you're willing to help people who are taking action. So I'm counting way to help people who are actually implementing and those that aren't They come back and ask me what to do but aren't having implemented anything.

00:29:44 I don't have as much. You know, I can't offer them as much because we have to go back and walk through the mud before we can start running.

00:29:49 Right? It really? Yeah, but it's late. Oh, yeah. So yes. But now we're getting to the part where we have to promote this thing.

00:29:56 So this is really where the rubber meets the road, and that's where most of fire fire. Yeah,

00:30:01 Yeah, And it's okay if we start ahead. And sometimes is the case to be made to run ads early before your website is fully optimized.

00:30:08 But just know that you're not getting the same results. Know that you're not gonna have the same level of everything that is not gonna work quite as well as if you were to start from beginning.

00:30:15 Cover all your bases. The biggest part of promotion things is kind of wondering, you know, first of all,

00:30:19 you need to have a set of resources that should be aligned with your goals and should be aligned with your revenues.

00:30:23 So in the beginning, what you spend is gonna be high compared to your revenue. But if your goal is to grow by $1,000,000 this year,

00:30:29 but you're spending, you know, $1000 or $2000 a month, then there's a misalignment. Unless you're extremely capable of marketing and don't have any of it work to Dio and you're gonna do it all yourself.

00:30:39 There's a misalignment. So making sure that your investment is aligned with your goals and that you're tracking things and then doubling down on what's working.

00:30:45 So, looking at things like, you know what kind of content we're gonna create on our block? That's sort of a free or inexpensive thing.

00:30:51 You can do same with social media. How often should repose, Tony category. You know what categories of content are we gonna talk about?

00:30:57 If we're very service oriented, that should shine through and everything that you talk about. What's our tone of voice?

00:31:02 Going to be that kind of thing? Should we advertise? And if you've done your website homework and you've done your strategy work and you've done your tracking your fundamental stuff,

00:31:09 then advertising is gonna work really well, for you are very well could work very well for you because you'll have all the mechanisms to know whether it's working into nowhere to spend your money.

00:31:17 You know, what should we be doing at their e mails? Is there you know, automation is we should be doing our newsletter.

00:31:21 These all come with time, and they as you download this list, you'll layer on each of these things so you don't start with X like advertising until you figured out social media because it's a waste,

00:31:31 you know, you're not gonna get results. The advertising's a great point. You know, you can do it without doing the other homework first,

00:31:38 but think you're gonna run into is you need copy. You need images. Well, whatever. No resonate.

00:31:44 What's the best trade exactly? Like, if that's not resonating and hitting, you know, you're perfect member than right.

00:31:52 It's going to go sort of unheard. And see if you don't cr em, right Thio struggling pieces of paper and Yep.

00:31:59 Yeah, So I mean, if you go through something like this, you can answer all these questions.

00:32:03 The answers will become more apparent. But assuming you've done the other stuff, you know, you just layer on things.

00:32:07 You start with the newsletter, for example, in the email category, then maybe you do a little bit of lead.

00:32:12 Nurturing automation is if you're feeling so inclined, then maybe you work on, you know, like reengagement campaigns for dead leads or something.

00:32:19 You know, all that good stuff, then you kind of layer on referral partners and brokers and you know,

00:32:25 all that good stuff, but all in order, that's the promotions. That's really where the meat potatoes are,

00:32:29 but it works far better when you figured out all this other stuff. You don't know what kind of content writing this familiar your target market.

00:32:34 What they care about because you continued sad value, not just seller promote. So how do you create content that is readable?

00:32:40 Interesting to them? That's all that good stuff, and you just done. We can go to the last the last phase of you.

00:32:45 Like Jamie. Yeah, so that's the optimization phase that's face five. So, really, it's all about how do we make this better?

00:32:51 So really, it's about looking, analyzing, like, he said, reflecting every week, every month,

00:32:55 every quarter on your data and saying like, You know, what is their data telling? This is working what's not working,

00:33:00 you know, and then doing in 80 20 literally 20% of your efforts, producing 80% your work, your value,

00:33:04 your results and it's in there. It's almost guaranteed. And there's a book called 80 20 Sales and Marketing.

00:33:09 They're coming. Oh, I love that, but you guys, that you and I have talked about that,

00:33:13 but that I mean right when you bring that up, it's like, yeah, if you're not doing any of this.

00:33:18 You have no idea what that 20% is. No idea. Yeah, I'll trackable It's so much trackable.

00:33:24 Yeah, and the fallback method of tracking this stuff is asking people. Hey, where did you hear about his first or you know?

00:33:29 Yeah. What brings you in today and try to understand what the root what was. You know what created that 01 in the head of either Working with you are finding you.

00:33:37 So yeah, What's working? What's not? What could we double down on? What should we stop doing?

00:33:41 What data might be missing? You know, Howard leads. Are we getting the right quality of leads of?

00:33:45 So why aren't we getting more leads like the type of member that we really want And that goes back toe,

00:33:50 making sure your marketing is lying with them and their needs. Yeah, And where's the highest are why coming from what are the trends say So I like putting things in a spreadsheet that looks like a profit loss statement.

00:33:58 And I've got a template like this as well, but it basically shows you over time. Here's our leads.

00:34:02 Here's our cost for lead. Here's our cost per for new member. Here's our close ratio. Here's our occupancy rate.

00:34:08 Seeing those numbers over time tells you, Oh, this is on fire or this isn't and or this is going down to this,

00:34:12 you know, our cost for lead. They're going up. Why? It allows you to really track all that stuff.

00:34:16 So it's all about optimization, Really. It's just so people don't feel bad. What percentage of people have sort of our have gotten this far when they show up to your group or your one on one,

00:34:27 some of them will have a spreadsheet. If they're multi location and I work out of, like, larger,

00:34:31 they tend to be a bit more sophisticate, But they don't have it like this. And they don't see the numbers in just those KPs that I mentioned clearly month over month.

00:34:38 Because that tells you everything most don't. So if you're feeling bad, yeah, right. Yeah, but if you point the multi location right,

00:34:47 you've probably raised money. You've done some things that require you to have the base fix in place. Yeah,

00:34:52 exactly. But even if you don't, it's the smaller. You start with this, the better off you're gonna be.

00:34:56 I've got one for my consulting, and I have it all mapped out. You know, it's a huge to do it start small and then use the numbers Make everything so obvious.

00:35:04 So this framework, how long should people think about it? Taking them to go through these phases like is this days,

00:35:12 months, weeks, years, realistically, plan of your year. But, you know, you could do this in six months.

00:35:18 You know, if you have some help, right? If you've got a good quality agency or someone to help you like when I work with clients and minimum engagements four months,

00:35:25 one on one or typically more likely it's six months. And quite often I stay on because, you know,

00:35:30 things are working and there's more to do. But I would say no lesson. About six months, you've got to get your website house in order,

00:35:36 which means you may need professional photography, you know, in which case he hires, you know, I recommend residential real estate photographers who have that wide angle lens and can really make vivid shots,

00:35:45 and they're very inexpensive relative to commercial stuff. So you may need a video like there's all these little layers and you may need testimonials.

00:35:52 That takes time. You'll want to run surveys to find out. Why do people like your space if you don't know?

00:35:56 And so it's the layers, its refining you're gonna refining. You're gonna go down through this list over and over again,

00:36:01 I think, over the years, and it's worth reviewing annually for sure. Yeah, perfect. It's so Yeah,

00:36:06 I have the advantage of being able to sit here and scroll through it. It's super clear. You know,

00:36:10 I think going through the framework today, it's been really helpful. And if you grab the download, you'll get to see it and all laid out and bullet points,

00:36:17 and you can fill it in yourself. And that said, ever spaces dot coms left Plan for anyone who wants toe download it,

00:36:24 and they'll be some supplementary kind of resources with that as well, if you like. Perfect. Yeah,

00:36:28 well link to that in the show notes also, and that's kept into website, and you can Well,

00:36:32 I seem that'll pop them on your newsletter, he creates. I love reading your news, or I don't know if I'd call them newsletters when you call them e mails.

00:36:41 I try to make them short, single idea, like digestible contents. Get an idea. It's consumable within 30 seconds.

00:36:49 Totally. I think that's why I love them. And I read all of them. It's because I'm not like,

00:36:53 Oh, get to that later because it's way too long, which is probably my newsletter, my weekly No meaty and don't provoking.

00:37:02 You know, you always have something, you know, super relevant and thought provoking. So make sure you're getting Kevin's emails a swell Thank you,

00:37:09 Kevin. What else should we chat about today in the folks Wanna? So this is some people may be able to commit to this on their own.

00:37:15 If somebody's interested in getting support and being part of your group, how can they learn more about that?

00:37:20 Yeah, so you can just head over to ever space dot com. There's a service is link, and that kind of breaks down all the things that I offer if they want to do it one on one.

00:37:26 But if they're looking for the membership, it's sever spaces dot com slash nation, and they'll find all the information in there.

00:37:32 There's a few different pricing tiers, so it really depends. That's for D. I Y mostly free launch a single location.

00:37:37 You know something's multiplication. You can invite your community manager and if they're responsible for the marketing, But it depends on what you want to do it on your own or have some hold your hand to get you there a little quicker.

00:37:45 But all that stuff, all my pricing, I'm very transparent about pricing and how everything works. That's all laid out there,

00:37:50 nothing hidden behind a veil. So perfect. Well, I love the content that you shared today, and I love that you have additional resources available.

00:37:58 This stuff is so important. And sometimes you just need to be a part of something Thio Group or the one on one Thio force yourself to get it done.

00:38:06 I have a couple of accountability groups and memberships that part of to do exactly that. You have to Honestly,

00:38:12 this is s l switch from you. But I have a coach almost at all times. And every time I'm learning something new,

00:38:17 re implementing something, and if you're not investing heavily in your marketing or your education personally is the business owner,

00:38:22 then you're falling behind because things are always changing. What's worked last year is already changing. So it doesn't matter who you're investing with,

00:38:28 but like you got to be learning as a business owner, totally be of learning. This has been jam packed,

00:38:35 full of helpful perspective, and I always love a good framework because that's how you make things repeatable and approachable.

00:38:43 So thank you so much for joining us today. And like I said, if anybody, by the way,

00:38:47 has specific topics that you want Kevin to cover, I'm gonna do a crowd source call. I would love to leverage Kevin's expertise more.

00:38:53 We're gonna have him on a little bit more frequently. He's a great resource. Like I said, I loved chatting with him,

00:38:58 and he's just one of the, you know, unique folks. You know, what we're doing is fundamentally small business.

00:39:02 You can get help from a lot of different sources, but I think it's super helpful to work with people who focus on the space and also just see a bunch of different businesses in your niche.

00:39:13 You know, there's a lot of value in that, and so you've got that perspective. So I was I love to hear it.

00:39:17 So thank you again for taking the time today and we'll link up to all the resource is in the show notes and hope to have you get on against you.

00:39:24 Thanks so much, Jimmy. Thanks for joining us on this episode of everything co working. Be sure to click the subscribe button so you can stay up to date on the latest trends and how two's until next time.

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Jamie Russo