← Pitch Me Podcast
Pitch Me Podcast
Turning “Marketing Problems" into Million-dollar Exits
00:39:02
Estie Starr doesn't just fix marketing. She exposes the brutal truth: when small business owners think they have a marketing problem, they actually have a business problem. And she's got 16 years of proof, including clients who went from "maybe I can...
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to Pitch the podcast where real salespeople, entrepreneurs and business owners step into the spotlight to pitch their product or service and get unfiltered real time feedback from the 38 million dollar high ticket sales titan himself, Kayvon K. No fluff, no sugar coating, just brutal honesty, actionable insights and next level sales strategies to help you close bigger deals faster. If you want to pitch like a pro, dominate every sales conversation and and take your business to the next level, you're in the right place. This is Pitch Me. Let's get started. And here we are, another episode with Pitch Me. And today we have SD Star with us. SD how we doing?
- [00:41]
B
We are doing so good right now. So happy to be here.
- [00:45]
A
I'm happy to have you here. So tell us as we always start, just tell us a little bit about who you are, you know, what your business is, who you serve.
- [00:53]
B
Sure. I turn ideas into money. I serve small business owners and entrepreneurs who have an idea, talent, hobby, certification, skill and typically come to me earning less than $100,000. Reliable profit. And all of those words matter. Some of them might be earning more than a hundred, okay, maybe even a few million, but they're not taking it home. Some of them might even be doing a couple hundred thousand dollars profit, but they don't know how to do it on purpose and they are terrified that they're gonna lose it. And some of them are just starting out, they got big dreams or they got stuck in the multiple five figures and they just don't know how to get to that next level. But they are ready. That's my zone.
- [01:37]
A
I want to dive into that a little bit more if that's okay, and really understand how you turn ideas into money. So give me, give me an example of somebody that would come to you with a problem and how they find you. Like how would they find you? How do they know that you are the go to person who takes ideas and turn it into money? And I love again, people always have this vanity number of hey, this is how much, you know, the company brought in. It doesn't matter how much can be brought in, it's how much you keep.
- [02:06]
B
That's my opinion.
- [02:07]
A
Right, so, and I love that. So you're looking for people who want to keep $100,000 minimum. Is that a month, a year?
- [02:17]
B
So I always say my zone is building those 100k years, months and days. Okay, that's my zone. So I usually take people to their first million dollar profit years after that, you know, we might still hang out, but they can Move on to others.
- [02:33]
A
So you take six figure entrepreneurs and basically turn them as seven, seven figure entrepreneurs at the profit level.
- [02:40]
B
Sometimes.
- [02:41]
A
Okay, yeah.
- [02:42]
B
More I would say most often like this is just what I've seen. I've been doing this 16 years. Most often people come to me with. When they're not yet doing six figures profit and then I take them from there into the six multiple. Six and seven.
- [02:57]
A
Okay, yeah. And give me, let's get like just so an idea of an ideal prospect that comes towards you. What do they, what kind of pain are they in? What are they selling? Like, you know, when we say expert, all experts in all areas, is it more of a niche? What would it be?
- [03:14]
B
It's really all areas. Product, service. You know, thinking of a current client that I'm working with right now to blur the example, people. Let's say he sells construction equipment, right? He doesn't, but let's say he does. So he got into it as a salesperson, actually as a dealer, and then slowly started building the business up, but then started building it into an entire business, started hiring other salespeople, built out customer service department, has marketing department. And he was still doing it on a dealer's commission. And so he was getting really messed over. Was running what I call a cookie jar business where as long as there's money in the cookie jar, I'm good.
- [03:53]
A
Right.
- [03:53]
B
Money comes in, I put it in, I need money for something, I take it out. And he was rolling such high volume that it took him a couple years to realize like, oh shit, we're in deficit. Like we're not actually profitable right now. So, you know, he's one of my larger clients. Working with him to renegotiate contracts with the suppliers, to reset staffing and policies and to create a marketing strategy that's not just hustle.
- [04:17]
A
Well, this is different here because from my understanding, when I've done a little research on you, it sounded like for my. From what I can gather is it sounds like you were a more marketing strategy. But when you talk about looking at the financials and looking at like for instance, like you said, contracts and then giving him the ability to go back to the contracts and I'm sure you're coaching him through those conversations, that to me is like business coaching.
- [04:44]
B
So yes, my clients say they come for the marketing, they stay for everything else. He came to me because he needed help with marketing.
- [04:53]
A
Yeah.
- [04:53]
B
And I find most often when people need help with marketing, their pain point is I don't know what the I'm doing Yeah, but if I get the marketing right, I'll have enough money to figure it out.
- [05:04]
A
So these people are. They already have a business. So this isn't for new people. These aren't just for people.
- [05:09]
B
That. That is not. So I'll give you another story. And so I will tell you the thing that I help people with is I need help with marketing. If you want to pinpoint it when someone's like, I can't figure out the marketing. Estee, I love what you say about this reliable marketing machine. I need that. And they come from all different walks of life and all different levels of business. So my guy with the construction equipment, it's a multimillion dollar company. He took home five figures.
- [05:32]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not fun. That's a lot of work for not a lot of profit.
- [05:36]
B
Should not do that.
- [05:38]
A
So he, He. So he thought he had a marketing problem, but he had a business problem.
- [05:42]
B
But that is what most people have, I would say about 100% of the time. When someone has a marketing problem, they have a business problem. We're not talking corporations, we're not talking established companies doing in the eight, nine figures and above. When they have a marketing problem, they probably have a marketing problem or a PR problem or something. We're talking about a small business owner up into the few millions.
- [06:05]
A
Yeah.
- [06:06]
B
When they have a marketing problem, they have a business problem. They don't just have a marketing problem.
- [06:12]
A
There's usually something underneath the marketing that they always, always.
- [06:17]
B
Okay, so if we define marketing can be defined one of two ways. We can either define marketing as just promotion, right? The act that gets attention, or we can define marketing as everything you do to create and communicate value of your offer, to bring in your audience. To close.
- [06:32]
A
Yes.
- [06:32]
B
I use the second definition, but most people use the first. So they think they just have a promotion problem. But guess what? If you've got everything else under control and your brand is in alignment and your sales are rolling and your staffing's right, and everything's working, and you just. Your ads aren't performing at the level they used to, you're not looking for someone like me. You're just looking for a new ad agency.
- [06:55]
A
Yeah.
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B
You find me when your marketing's broken.
- [06:57]
A
Yeah.
- [06:58]
B
And it doesn't matter who you hire or what they do, you're not getting results. You know why? Because it's not the marketing.
- [07:04]
A
Yes. Okay, so I want to just. I, you know, marketing to me, like, you know, is vague. Right. I, you know, there's so much in marketing so I'm going to go to the. Under the assumption and correct me if I'm wrong. When we talk about marketing, we, we strip a right back down to first and foremost the offer. Is that correct? Like what the.
- [07:25]
B
No. Most people would, if you strip marketing down, most people would strip it down to the ad or the promotion or the social media or the attention getting method. If you strip marketing, that's the stripped down version. It's the attention getting. Right. Every time you look up marketing icons on the web, it's a megaphone. Right. Just getting attention. But if you're not getting attention for the right thing in the right way from the right people with a method for closing.
- [07:48]
A
Yes.
- [07:48]
B
Not worth anything.
- [07:49]
A
Well, that's what I was going to say. So if that, if what's that then if you don't call that marketing, that's what I would call marketing is, you know, a, you know, product development you want to maybe call it, but really it's marketing which is creating the right voice, the right message with the right audience and speaking to them in a way that speaks to all of their, you know, pains, desires and all of that. But you're saying that's a different side of marketing.
- [08:12]
B
I call it everything. So here, here's the game. What I've discovered over the years is that the people that I have enjoyed working with the most and that I have had the most success with, right. Whose lives and businesses I've transformed, the strongest come to me saying, I see, I need help with marketing. I heard you're really good at marketing. So I need help with marketing. Why? Because I don't, I'm not good at it. I don't have the budget for it. I can't figure out social media. I paid this person to do ads and we didn't get anything. I did this kinds of digital ads and they didn't do anything. I went and they did marketing.
- [08:48]
A
Yes.
- [08:49]
B
And it didn't work. And so they come to me and I take them through the entire thing, which is branding, offer promotion and sales. It's all of it. It is the crafting the message for the right people, figuring out who those people are, figuring out if you're selling the right thing at the right price. And then how do you close and then how do you build it into a repeatable, reliable system? Now I have a business.
- [09:13]
A
Yes, okay.
- [09:15]
B
I call that marketing.
- [09:16]
A
So how do you, how do you market your, you know, your services, your offers? Like how do people find you?
- [09:23]
B
Number of different ways over the years, the last year or so I've leaned very heavily into JV and affiliate partners.
- [09:30]
A
Okay.
- [09:30]
B
And we're starting to go back onto social media now. I was heavy on social for a couple years, and that brought me a huge amount of leads. And then I disappeared from social for the last few years.
- [09:43]
A
Well, how come?
- [09:44]
B
How come? Well, I had a lot of personal life changes, and I just wasn't in the mood to be in the public.
- [09:53]
A
Yeah. Okay.
- [09:54]
B
That was really it. I was like, you know, I had been a very public social media person. Yeah. Now they call them influencers. We're going back, like, pre Covid, and there are still people who remember me from when I was so active then to the point that I was traveling. I was abroad. I was in Jerusalem in the old city a few weeks ago, visiting my daughter, who's there. It's a true story. My daughter can vouch. And we were in one of these little gift shops. Guy walks in, he's about to buy a camel. Cause you know, Middle east, buy a camel. And he says to the store owner, give him a name. And I see the poor store owner standing there going, name your camel. So I'm like, call him Gamali. Right. It means my camel in Hebrew. And he loved it. He said, thank you. You know, it's for my kid. Who should I tell? My kid named it Gamali. Son of who? I'm SD. He's like, SD, as in LinkedIn SD. I was like, yep, that would definitely be me.
- [10:53]
A
Wow, look at that. So it works.
- [10:57]
B
Oh, it definitely works. But recently I've been doing JV and affiliate partners. And so we do partners. We do a few times a year, webinar training that's extremely successful.
- [11:11]
A
In our train, like, you teach how to train, like, how to do webinars.
- [11:14]
B
I teach a webinar called the 100k website to train. I teach a webinar called the 100k website. This is our bestseller. Right now we have massive conversion rates because it really teaches you what a 100k website looks like.
- [11:28]
A
What does 100k website. If we were to break that down, break it down, be the. Is it a top five, top three? Like, what are the most important things a web website should have?
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B
Most important things, ABCs.
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A
Okay.
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B
ABC is a top of the fold. Get attention.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And make sure you're getting the attention of the right people in the right way. Yeah. No clickbait. You got to know who your people are. You got to know what they want to hear from you. And you want to state it in the Positive. But you want to get their attention before they would ever have to scroll. I want a level of clarity that piques their interest enough to go down. We've got a 65% average website bounce rate. That means over 65% of people that hit any website land and leave.
- [12:14]
A
Yeah.
- [12:15]
B
So the first thing for your 100k website is they gotta land and stay. No one's buying anything if they land and leave. So I gotta get the right kind of attention. That's number one. We call it above the fold. Whether it's the banner or the hero or whatever you want to call it. If I land on your website and you have any intention of ever selling me anything, pique my interest right away, that's one.
- [12:34]
A
Okay.
- [12:35]
B
Two. The B's is build trust. Everything else on your website, everything, your stories and your icons and the logos and the featured in and the mission statement and the words and the pictures and the testimonials, all of it is to build trust. None of it is required. But whatever we need to do to build trust, whether it's details on the offer, whether it is testimony, whether it's video or image or words, I don't care. It depends on what you're selling in the person and if it's high end or low end. There are. But you must build trust. Okay, so when I land on your website, get my attention. Next thing you need to do is.
- [13:10]
A
Build trust and then immediately start building trust with me.
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B
Immediately build trust and then the last thing most people forget is a CTA call to action. Right. How many websites have we both and everyone listening to this been on where you land? It's interesting, you kind of like it. And it doesn't give you any direct next step that is appealing. Or maybe somewhere at the bottom it's like join our weekly newsletter.
- [13:33]
A
Yeah.
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B
Buy now. Give me. I need a backend funnel. You want a website that's turning over 100k years, month days.
- [13:42]
A
Yeah.
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B
Then it's got to be processing people from attention to interest and trust into action.
- [13:49]
A
Into action.
- [13:49]
B
Give me a logical, easy peasy next step. Now maybe that's selling me something right away. Okay. Maybe that's taking me somewhere into another system of activities, of emails and phone calls or whatever it is. But start me slow, right? I'm coming to your website. I probably don't know you that well. Yeah, it depends what your website's built for. If it's just built for follow up from people you meet in person, that's a different thing. It's got to be Part of a process. 100k website is actually a piece of your sales process. It's part of your 100k marketing machine. It's just one piece of that puzzle. But it can be a very helpful piece and built. Right. It can run on its own.
- [14:27]
A
And you have one of these websites, I'm assuming for yourself?
- [14:31]
B
I have a number of them for myself and clients. Yeah.
- [14:33]
A
And so your prospects through JV partnerships, sometimes from your old social media, they'll come and find you. Are you one of those people where people find you or you find them?
- [14:43]
B
They find me.
- [14:44]
A
They find you. Okay. When they're ready.
- [14:48]
B
When they're ready. And so the thing that I've been working on the last year that the 100k website has been solving for is I, like I said historically, have most often gotten people and they're like, I wish I found you sooner. I spent all this money on marketing, all this money on coaches, all money on stuff and I've gotten nothing from it and now I have none left. And so I've been trying to figure out like, okay, where do people go first? I was like, website. And so this training has been getting people at an earlier stage now and bringing them in when they're not only at the end of their rope, but still starting to figure things out.
- [15:22]
A
Still.
- [15:22]
B
Most people have shiny object syndrome, right? Because Shopify and BigCommerce have gone going point click website business. Haha.
- [15:28]
A
And it's like, yeah, it's not as easy as.
- [15:32]
B
So sometimes they find me when they're not yet ready and then we get to hang out for months or years on my email list and I, I do share insights and wisdom to my email list every single week. So we get to hang out there, me and my community. We've got tens of thousands of people in there right now. So that's where a lot of my leads come from at the moment. And if they are ready, we take them straight into a crash course. We have the 100k marketing machine crash course.
- [16:01]
A
The sales process goes for like into a mini course.
- [16:05]
B
First we've got two parallel processes. So we have the high end consulting process which is almost exclusively referral, right. Someone sends someone, they hear about me some way, someone somewhere that's I would say 90% of private clients come through a referral. I've been in business 16 years, they come from someone else. And, and then we have the online business school. I've been doing online programs since 2018 successfully. And that is where I focus most of my energy and attention. That's where we do prospecting.
- [16:38]
A
So that's the one to many.
- [16:41]
B
Correct.
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A
And is there phone calls or any. Are you speaking with people over there or is it all conversion through website?
- [16:47]
B
So we're just launching the newest tier where we are doing an application processing call. So here's what it looks like. We've got 100k website as one of our main grabbers. We've got a new training called how to start a business with no money. That's also a big pull in and each one leads to a different low tier entry level training and course with a deliverable. Right. So the 100k marketing machine you actually build your marketing machine plan. Right. What it should look like. The how to start a business with no money leads to an idea income 90 day roadmap. You build out your one page business plan and your 90 day roadmap to turn any idea literally into profit in your pocket in 90 days or less. So that's another newer one. So those are the low end then at the high end we have marketing machine incubator where I actually build their marketing machine with them and hold their hand and we've just launched this. It has a full year money back guarantee. You will earn your money back or I will give it back to you. So it's a risk free. That is an application interview only. So that's the only place where we.
- [17:48]
A
Do calls and that's. And are you taking those calls or do you have a team or.
- [17:52]
B
So a couple years ago you might remember that I was working on something similar and I hired out a sales team and it did not work out well. So we are trying it again and on this new iteration I am doing the first round of sales and I.
- [18:08]
A
Think that's very important.
- [18:10]
B
So do I. I learned that the hard way.
- [18:12]
A
Yeah. So I want to take a minute talk about that with all the experience I've had. Especially because if we're talking to business owners right now, I see them, they want the sales team to save them.
- [18:24]
B
Yeah.
- [18:24]
A
And a sales team isn't going to save you if you can't sell it yourself. As a business owner, how could you ever expect a salesperson to sell it for you? So I always tell people, I mean when I was running my agency I said like you know, if we were talking to someone, they said they don't have a sales team. I say have you sold this? How many have you sold? And if they haven't sold in, in the hundreds and have done the hours and the dials, we just won't do it because we know that they're just expecting us to make become the miracle for them. So you now you've learned that the lesson the hard way. So you're going to tell them percent.
- [19:00]
B
But I'll tell you what I did to correct it. Right. Because when I did it the other time, I'd already had a lot of success selling myself and other similar things and I didn't have the bandwidth to deal with all the leads and then seeing how that didn't work. So it wasn't a you save me. It was I don't have time for this.
- [19:18]
A
Yeah.
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B
And this time what I did was I just put in place a very strong filter so that I wouldn't have anyone but really serious prospects to speak to. I put it out to my list. We got over 150 responses of interest and then sent those people to a 15 minute video.
- [19:37]
A
Okay.
- [19:37]
B
That they have to watch in order to get to the application. And then on the application and in the video, I say, I am personally reading every application. I am personally interviewing you. Respect your time and mine and do not apply if you're not ready to pay and join.
- [19:53]
A
Yeah.
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B
And so I'm only going to even be speaking to applicants who are willing to watch that whole video who have now pledged that they have the funds and are ready to join those people I can make time for.
- [20:05]
A
I would tend to agree. The intent there is pretty high for that buyer. Han, have you done this successfully or is this all brand new?
- [20:12]
B
This is brand new. The first interviews are scheduled for this weekend. This is a new version of an old program.
- [20:19]
A
I look forward to hearing how those results go.
- [20:21]
B
Me too. By the way, I love the candidates. I went through the applications and I'm falling in love with each one of them. I'm like, perfect. Like, they're like 90% of the people who went through this process are perfect fit candidates.
- [20:37]
A
And that's just a testimony of your amazing marketing experience of how you can qualify them. Right. And get them to that perfect candidate. Because now we're talking higher close rate, for sure.
- [20:48]
B
Oh, I expect a 95 to 100% close rate on everybody.
- [20:53]
A
Yeah. It seems like they're cool. They know what you do, they know who they are. They know there's an investment. They've gone through a series of activities to get to this call. The intent is high and the commitment's there.
- [21:04]
B
Yeah.
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A
And then on the call, do you have a process that you follow? You're going to follow or I'm going.
- [21:10]
B
To follow my typical Close process. Right. I've been the primary closer in my business.
- [21:14]
A
Love it. What's this close process? Let's talk about it.
- [21:17]
B
I've closed multiple seven figures in business. I always say to people, you know, tell me more about what's going on. Let's see how I can help. Right. I first, always. I always say I listen first and third, because I listen second, too. Right. By the time you're getting on a call with me, you know who I am. You know what I do. I don't know you yet.
- [21:37]
A
Yes.
- [21:37]
B
So let me hear you out. And even if you somehow accidentally get on a call with me because someone sent you and you don't know exactly what's going on, I still want to know you first.
- [21:45]
A
Yes.
- [21:47]
B
And so I always start with that. Even with this whole application. I want to hear the. I want to hear them. Right. I want to hear their story. I want to hear what they're dealing with, what they really want, where they're stuck. And then I'm going to tell them if I believe I can unstick them and I believe I can get them where they want to go, I'm going to tell them that I can, how I can, how I know I can. People like them, that I've helped the results those people have gotten. You want in, let me know.
- [22:13]
A
Okay. So you go to discovery and you find out a little bit about them.
- [22:18]
B
Yeah.
- [22:19]
A
And then you go straight to just the results of what you do.
- [22:24]
B
I'm trying to think it through. We do Discovery, I want to hear about them. And then it's not the results of what I do. It's a. It's a. Like there's a piece where I. I explore what they want. So do you want this? Do you want that? What do you call it?
- [22:42]
A
Well, depend. You might still be called discovery there. Right. So the way that I've pitch me is all about. Right. Is it's a process. Right. And it's simple. But if done right, it works, you know, 100% of the time. And first and foremost, the first part of any sales call is discovery. So it's about learning about them, learning about their desires, learning about what's not working, what's been working, whatever the pain that they're in. No pain, no sale. Basically that. So you got to figure out what that pain is deeper. The deeper you go, the bigger the sale. And then once you actually find that pain, then what I talked about is drawing them or bringing them to the promised land.
- [23:21]
B
Right. So that's what I was going to Say the next piece is. Right.
- [23:24]
A
It's future pacing. Right. Which is.
- [23:26]
B
We're saying the same thing. What do you want?
- [23:28]
A
Yeah. As a result, what does it exactly want?
- [23:30]
B
Yeah.
- [23:32]
A
And then the one thing a lot of people miss is the second, third part of this is, Is the consequence, the inaction.
- [23:40]
B
I don't usually do that after they.
- [23:42]
A
Tell me everything that they want. Okay, so what's the cost of not getting there? Now, that's not the question. The question, you know, around that is, well, what happens if you don't get there? How long can you keep going before something breaks? If you do nothing, what changes? So now what's happening is you've got them thinking about what could be, but now you got them also anchored to, oh, I. I gotta make change.
- [24:12]
B
Yeah. I don't. I've never really done that. I'm gonna. I'm gonna see how I can fit that in.
- [24:17]
A
Yeah. And then what I do after that is commitment. Now, people get this wrong. I'm not talking about commitment to you or your product. I talk about get the commitment to actually the change that they need. So how committed are you to making this happen before they even know what the product is?
- [24:37]
B
So I do that in the video and in the application. So in the application they actually have to pitch me.
- [24:42]
A
Yeah.
- [24:42]
B
Because I'm taking 10 people and I have 150 people interested. You tell me why you should be one of the 10.
- [24:49]
A
And I think they should be able to. I think you should get them to do that verbally as well.
- [24:52]
B
I like that.
- [24:53]
A
Read that. I know you put in the application, but I let you know again, you know, how committed are you to making this happen and why you.
- [25:00]
B
Yeah.
- [25:01]
A
And once they do that, then you go into presentation. And I'll tell you why I do that and why. Why we've proven it works. Do the commitment there.
- [25:11]
B
Yeah.
- [25:12]
A
And you do the presentation. Then you have all the objections in the world, and you don't know what the objection is. But when you get the commitment first to just a commitment to AI, something needs to change. And then you do the presentation, and then there. There only will ever be really a money objection. Right. Then you could tie it back and say you could tie it back because you're like, hey, what just happened? Like, just a couple minutes ago you said you're committed, but now all of a sudden you're not. Like, what's going on? And then they have to tell you. So my whole thing is through any pitch, any process, people always like, how do you handle objections? I Don't stop trying to handle objections. Eliminate the objections. Eliminate the resistance throughout from the beginning of the call, middle of the call, all the way to the end. So when you get to the end, there's no other possible way but forward or not forward, which is also great. But you're making that decision. They're not making it because you're choosing. It's not the right thing for them and. Or you're not the right fit for you.
- [26:15]
B
I love it. Yeah. I feel like in this new process. Right. This one I'm playing with. I love that we're talking this week feels very synchronistic. I feel like in the video and then in the application, I'm already asking for a commitment. I'm not saying not to do it on the phone also, but I feel like I kind of did that in there at a very high level. Right. Do not watch this video to the end or don't apply.
- [26:41]
A
Yeah.
- [26:41]
B
And in the application, do not apply unless you check the box. You're ready to pay, you're ready to do this, and you have a good reason why I should pick you.
- [26:49]
A
Yeah, yeah. No, I love that. But keep in mind, when you're doing that, back then in the marketing, they're in a state of mind because you got state of mind. But then they booked a call and there's a lot of stuff that happens.
- [27:01]
B
In between there and the call there in the call.
- [27:06]
A
So you can't just assume that they remember about the commitment that like as much as we would like to.
- [27:11]
B
Yeah.
- [27:12]
A
Sometimes you got to bring that back. And now I'm not saying that it's a big piece. So again, it's, it's, it's simple. One question is how committed. I mean, ask how committed are you to doing all. Making this happen?
- [27:22]
B
Right. To me, it's also, it's a reverse funnel because it's, it's not even a reverse rate. It's a non risk. Like, you tell me why I'm risking my money on you.
- [27:32]
A
Yeah.
- [27:33]
B
My why I'm risking my time on you. There is no other marketing program out there. I know, I've seen them. That. Yeah. Guarantees you financial profit return. None.
- [27:45]
A
Yeah.
- [27:46]
B
No one else can do this. And so you tell me why you get this opportunity. Because I'm the crazy person.
- [27:53]
A
So is this again, I want to just bring it back. So anybody listening is very clear. Is this for me, like, is this something that I can ask Estee for help? Is it like, is this. These are small business owners. Are they. Are these like Coaches, consultants, experts.
- [28:13]
B
So I'll give you a range of the applicants who look like. Yeah. So range of applicants who look like great applicants. There is a dressmaker, there is a nutritionist, there is a personal fitness trainer, there is a health and wellness coach, there is a career coach. There is a. Another different kind of career coach. There's two of them actually.
- [28:38]
A
Yeah.
- [28:38]
B
See if I remember all the people, there's a few people who work in marketing themselves. So like SEO, social media, graphic design, copywriting. There's a couple of people in that bucket. I always have a bunch of marketers who come in.
- [28:54]
A
Everyone you just mentioned though, there, there, there's a commonality to it which is basically like coaches, experts, expertise based, trainers, expertise, businesses.
- [29:04]
B
Most of the people I work with, not all, but good, like 80% are probably expertise based.
- [29:11]
A
Yeah.
- [29:12]
B
So they're not necessarily coaches, consultants, authors. Sometimes they're people who are on the ground. Right. They're doing the work, they're the trainers and they do the thing. They're not just there to teach or guide others through it.
- [29:22]
A
Yeah.
- [29:23]
B
But yes, very many experts. They have always like a number of manufacturers or designers or artists and creatives or people who make products or you know, deal makers, buyers and sellers, agents. But those are usually the minority. Most of my people have an expertise and they don't have the business marketing sense to build a real reliable business around it.
- [29:47]
A
Okay. And so I'm assuming these are these people, like typically would have smaller teams. Like they're not going to be 20, 30 plus teams.
- [29:54]
B
No, no, they have zero to five on their team.
- [29:58]
A
Okay. So if you're someone who's coached with an expert, like yeah, they're a coach, you know, call it expert. You have a skill and that's how you're. And you're either teaching that skill or utilizing that skill in the business marketplace. You might have a team between zero to five, you're doing five figures profit and you know that you want to go into the six figures, potentially seven figures and there could be a marketing issue. You think there's a marketing issue, but chances are there's a business issue coming to sd. We're not just going to fix the marketing issue. We're actually going to fix the foundation that supports the marketing issue. And from there that's how we get to six, seven figure profits.
- [30:39]
B
And we also fix the marketing issue. And we, it's not that we only, we also do the marketing. Yes, we do that too.
- [30:46]
A
We fix the foundation so we can fix the marketing. Yeah, we just fixed the marketing, from what I'm hearing, is you're just putting a band aid over the bigger problem.
- [30:55]
B
It also doesn't fix. Right. So what happens if you throw money at it? You will still never earn a reliable, stable level of profit. That works. Okay, so if you throw a ton of money at it, you might be able to get enough people in, but then you're typically on an either break even or on a minus because you've had to do so much to try to sell this thing because it doesn't really sell itself. Right. Marketing that works is when something sells itself and all the marketing has to do is bring it to someone's attention. All you got to do is send out an email and say, hey, guys, I'd like to take 10 people to 10k months this summer for free. It is risk free and net free. I back it up with a money back contractual guarantee you'll earn back your investment or I will hand it back to you. You want to play, let me know. I just have to let you know that that existed. I didn't have to convince you. And Kjolu will make pretty pictures and slide decks and ads and swag. I just had to let you know. That's marketing.
- [31:50]
A
Yeah. The messaging.
- [31:53]
B
Messaging is how you say it, but you still have to have the thing. There is a how to say things for sure. Right. But it's all included. So to me, it's. It's synergistic. It's all woven together. It all matters.
- [32:05]
A
And how long are the. When someone comes to you, how long is the process? Or, you know, is it two month, three month turnaround, six months, turn around.
- [32:14]
B
Typical client engagements are between two and six months.
- [32:17]
A
Two to six months. Okay.
- [32:18]
B
Yeah. That's typical client engagement. To get them to that next level, to untangle wherever they are, get them on step, get them moving again. I have people I work with for more than a decade. They come back every time they're ready for something else or sometimes they'll get stuck on something. But I have people I'm working with for a long time. One of my longtime clients. I bumped into her recently in person somewhere and she's like, oh, I've been meaning to call you. You. I have to tell you this. I sold my business for five a few months ago. She's like, estee, do you remember when I started with you? And I was like, maybe I can earn a thousand dollars a week. I'm like, I remember. So we built her from less than a thousand dollars a week doing like a Few thousand a month. First into stable six and then into stable seven. They did one and a half million profit the year before. She sold it for five million. And now she's sitting on a few hundred thousand dollars passive income from the investments on the sale. Yeah, that was my people.
- [33:18]
A
There we go. I love it.
- [33:20]
B
But that was years. That wasn't like we put it in chat GPT and six months later we sold it for five million. That's bullshit. Okay. This was like a five. How long did I work with her? Five, seven years. Like this was years. Yeah, but she built something incredible and now she's just reaping the reward. She's like, I have to call you. I have some new ideas. I'm like, I'll be here.
- [33:39]
A
I love it. So again, yeah, once, once they turn clients, they come back. If you're producing that type of output.
- [33:46]
B
Yeah.
- [33:46]
A
So if someone wanted to come and find you, they're sitting here going, okay, I need to speak to sd. She sold me. Sold. Closed.
- [33:55]
B
Closed.
- [33:56]
A
Where would they find you?
- [33:57]
B
So you would go to sdstar.com freegift because what better place to start than a free gift? I think that's always fun.
- [34:05]
A
St R.com FreeGift yeah, you have to.
- [34:09]
B
Spell my name right. E-S-T-I-E-S-T-A-R-R.com FreeGift which hopefully you know how to spel. And at the moment there's a three day marketing success challenge there. You might catch it before we put it behind a paywall. And if not, there'll be something else cool there. But that is how you get onto my email list. That's the best way to find me, to learn more, to start learning from me and about me. And there'll also be spots on the website if you want to schedule to book a call. But I would start there. Enjoy your quick presentation.
- [34:38]
A
One question, last question, if that's okay. If someone was listening and they had the idea, they wanted to turn that idea into money, but they were sitting on the fence and or thinking like, I don't know if the idea is. I just don't know if this will work for me as we have those thoughts, especially when we're starting new. What would you say to someone like that?
- [34:59]
B
Hmm, you gotta do my how to start a business with no money training. There's no one answer. So I developed a training for this exact reason. And I developed, I did an income roadmap for this reason. So I did an income roadmap, has three parts It's a three part series, has business idea bootcamp. We put your idea through bootcamp to see if it has what it takes and if not, we get it into shape so that it does. Then we have the one page business plan. Because you don't need an over complicated multi page anything. You need a one page. What is in this business and what is my next steps? And then we have the 90 day roadmap. Step by step for 90 days. What do you need to do to turn this into money? So one, we validate your idea or we fidget with it so that it's valid. Give you a plan, give you a math. So I would say if you're not sure, come check out the course. There isn't really less than that.
- [35:48]
A
Yeah.
- [35:48]
B
Because anything less than that is not going to give you enough to validate and test. And if you want to do it on your own, what you need to do is that you need to validate and test. You need by yourself, put it through boot camp, make yourself a plan and get out there and see if you can turn it into money. Do it with me, do it on your own. It's the same thing.
- [36:09]
A
You need to do just a K A take the first step, take some action.
- [36:14]
B
Yeah, but take, take proper action. So my problem with that is some people be like, all right, I'm going to build a website. Don't do that. That's a stupid first step. That's not going to help. Not all action is good action.
- [36:27]
A
Yeah, take the right action.
- [36:29]
B
But take the next step is validate your idea. Does it have what it takes? So I'll add a baseline. Right. So what we do when we validate, there's three things. One, does this bring something unique to the market? Is there any reason why someone should buy this over something else? I don't need the biggest reason, I don't need patents, I don't need. I just need enough of a reason that if you were speaking to a prospect and telling about this amazingness that they wouldn't say, but it's the same as X and it costs more. Like you just gotta have a reason why this is someone should buy it right over anything else. What is special about this thing? Two, it's gotta make more money than it costs. That's very simple. It's not a valid business idea. It's just an expensive hobby. If it costs you more than you can earn, you got to play numbers for a minute. Yeah, play numbers. And number three, is there a secret sauce? Is there something you bring to this that you should do this because we've got one life, right? You're going to run a business. This is my opinion, because I don't like businesses that aren't fulfilling. If you just want money, I'm also not your person. Yeah. It's got to be about more than money. If you have a business idea, why do you care? And if the only reason you care is because I think it could earn money, why not? You're probably not going to have what it takes to follow it through.
- [37:47]
A
Yeah.
- [37:48]
B
There are so many ways to earn money. So many businesses. I love business. I've been running businesses profitably since I am 10 years old. I never stopped. But number one, does this bring anything unique to the marketplace? Is there a reason someone should buy it over every other competing offer? Two, can it earn more than it costs? And three, why you? Why do you care? Why would you do this? Why would you dedicate? If you check those three boxes, you have now validated your idea. Move on to step two. Let's make a plan.
- [38:15]
A
I love it. Full of piss and fire there. I like it. Again, we're going to make sure that we put all your information on the show notes and make sure anybody that's listening, they can get to you. Again, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate you. And that's it. Another episode with Pitch Me. And you've just listened to Pitch Me with Kayvon K, the podcast where sales are redefined, objections are destroyed, and high ticket closers are born. Want to take your pitch to the next level? Subscribe now, leave a review and join the Pitch Me community. And if you're brave enough to pitch live on this show, head over to www.pitchmepodcast.com and apply today. Until next time, keep pitching, keep closing and keep connecting.