← The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
The Goal Digger Podcast | Top Business and Marketing Podcast for Creatives, Entrepreneurs, and Women in Business
846: Are You Missing These Hidden Income Streams in Your Business?
00:32:34
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- [00:02]
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Someone who needs way more support and has a budget can opt into the highest level offer. While most people who just want to test the waters or get started will start with that entry level product and then choose to move up the ladder slowly if they need or want to.
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I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a $300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks, all from my house in small town Minnesota. With my family here, we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical no fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guest for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired and empowered. This is the Goal Digger podcast. What if you're leaving money on the table without even realizing it? As entrepreneurs, especially when we're just starting out, it is so easy to focus on the obvious ways to bring in revenue. Like for the first few years of my photography business, I hadn't even considered things like online courses or affiliate income. I just booked my wedding clients and was happy trading time for money. But what if I told you that there are so many income opportunities sitting right under our noses, ready for us to take advantage of them? That's the exciting thing about entrepreneurship. Your business has more potential than you might realize. And today we're revisiting an episode that is all about helping you uncover those hidden opportunities. This is one of the most actionable and IDE episodes we've ever aired, and I'm bringing it back because I know it's been a game changer for so many of you. In today's episode, we explore creative, practical ways to expand your revenue streams. Even if you're just getting started, it is the perfect listen if you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or wondering how to take your business to the next level. So grab your notebook, get ready to reflect on your current business model, and let's uncover the income streams you might be missing. Growing a Business isn't for the faint of heart. It's a whole lot of everything. Building an audience, nurturing leads, managing channels, tracking metrics, and juggling all the moving pieces of your strategy. And let's not forget those late nights, long days, and working weekends. Sound familiar? Sometimes it feels like you're wishing for just one thing to make it all a little bit easier. Well, meet Breeze, HubSpot's brand new collection of AI tools built specifically for marketers just like you. With Breez. Attracting the right audience, increasing leads and turning those leads into loyal customers just got faster and dare I say, easier than ever before. Imagine less stress and more success, more wins, and fewer all nighters. With Breeze, you're not just keeping up, you're staying ahead. And pretty soon your business is going to have a lot to celebrate. Check out breeze@HubSpot.com marketers to learn more. That's HubSpot.com marketers so first let's start.
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With talking about the importance of a client's experience and this term called value ladders. Have you ever heard of value ladders before? Here's how an article from Medium describes them. A value ladder is where you gain a customer when they purchase an entry level, inexpensive product. Then as you build a relationship with that customer and gain their trust, you can introduce more valuable and more expensive products. So essentially you're basically just taking your customers on a journey and imagining their future needs. When I visualize a value ladder, I kind of picture a set of stairs and you're starting someone out at the lowest step and then consistently extending invitations for them to take that next step with you. Generally speaking, as they climb each step, the investment is greater, but so is their return. Now not every single client will be ready or willing to climb the steps, but knowing that they at least have an invitation or a possible next step is your job as you create a powerful value ladder. So I personally believe the best place to start is in getting someone results for free through what you create. Whether it's a freebie that they can opt in for or give you their email address for, or a podcast episode like this one, or a video or even just an informative post. But starting the value ladder out from a place of service is the best place to begin to build that trust. As a wedding photographer, this showed up in the packages available to my clients. So the bottom step was the introductory offer which was shorter shooting app hours, no add ons and then each step up upped the delivery on my end and the extras like they could get an engagement session or a second shooter, albums or prints or extra wedding coverage. And this is a great method in pricing your products and services. And it also gives you this opportunity to add on extras or upsell your clients to increase your income as you build up that relationship and understand their needs at a bigger level. So beyond the service industry, this idea is super prevalent with the digital space. The other day one of my guy friends messaged me to ask me to review his current offers and I realized that he either had lower ticket priced courses or super super expensive masterminds. So I drew him out this picture of the ladder or the stairs and I showed him the gap in his the people he was unintentionally leaving out or missing because his offers were worlds apart and people are probably not going to be ready to go from a $200 course, $20,000 mastermind. So my challenge for him was to create opportunities to guide people from the course to that high ticket mastermind with mid range offers that get them results and continue to build steps towards that premium offer. Now one final example was something I noticed the other day when I got a new cell phone after Coco's brand new water bottle spilled all over mine and ruined my screen. Long story, but I got this new phone and then they wanted to upgrade it and then they wanted to add on more storage and then they wanted to throw in a screen protect extra charger in a case and they had all of these products as a part of their sales pitch. And the woman continued to upsell me. And honestly it was really fascinating being a consumer because I'm thinking the entire time, I'm like dissecting their sales practices, I'm visualizing their value ladder in my brain. I'm thinking about her commission structure and the sales just continued like it was so smooth. It would have been really easy to like miss all of the extra add ons. But I was paying attention. And what's so interesting is you can see how there are different levels of investment for your target audience as well as different levels of products, support, education and insight based on each person's individual needs. Someone who needs way more support and has a budget can opt into the highest level offer. Well, most people who just want to test the waters or get started will start with that entry level product and then choose to move up the ladder slowly if they need or want to. So ideally the least expensive product or service will give them some sort of sampling of what it is that you have to offer. It's kind of like a bite sized taste Just enough to give them value and a quick result, but not the whole enchilada with the fixings that will take their business or their life to the next level. And then if they want all of that and then some, they'll need to invest in the next step, your mid level offer. And if they want even more after that, then they'll invest in your most premium high dollar offer. And it's really interesting too because one of the things that I've known for years is that I am missing out on income opportunities because I refuse to create those higher ticket offers. Years ago I did a high ticket mastermind. I loved it. I was actually just speaking with one of my mastermind girls and it was an amazing experience, but it took up a lot of time and energy from me. And so what's interesting is like right now I say that my value ladder isn't great. I have a lot of courses ranging from 197 to 497 in terms of price point. But I don't have any opportunities beyond that. Whether it be group coaching, one on one mentorship, or a mastermind. And right now in this season of my life, I'm just saying I understand that there's a gap there and that there's an opportunity there, but it's just not compelling enough for me to take it. And it doesn't necessarily fit with what my idea of success looks like in my life right now. So. So as I'm preaching this, I'm also recognizing like, hey, your value ladder could definitely use some work. But I think it's something to be thinking about as an entrepreneur no matter what industry you're in. Because value ladders don't just mean you have to have like three offers and then you're done. You can have several entry, mid level and premium offers that can meet different needs that your clientele are facing. But as you get started diversifying your income, a good place to start is figuring out three. So like what is your lowest tier, what is your middle tier and then what is that premium offer and how can you guide that journey and that experience? Because so much of the effectiveness of a value ladder is based on that relationship. And something to think about too is that when you focus on creating a really awesome value ladder, you're maintaining that customer relationship. Their lifetime value is going up. And we all know that it is way easier and more cost effective to keep a customer than to constantly being going out and getting new ones. So think about a value ladder and that client experience and imagine Ways that you can expand that as your first step to figuring out new ways to bring in more income.
- [09:59]
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I'm pretty sure that living in Minnesota means you kind of have to love winter. And honestly, winter is one of my favorite seasons. Cozy nights, fluffy socks, all the sweaters. But I could do without the dryness that it brings. My daughter has the driest hands of all time. I'm talking like painful, dry skin. And so every night after she's asleep, I sneak into a room with Osea's Underia algae body butter and I lather her up. It has become a sweet little evening ritual, even if she doesn't remember it in the morning. And I love knowing that I'm using something that works so well for her skin. This body butter has been a game changer for our family. It is rich and creamy, but it absorbs instantly, no greasy residue, just soft, smooth, deeply hydrated skin. And the scent, Oh, I wish you could smell it. It is this fresh, natural blend of grapefruit, lime, cypress, and a hint of mango mandarin. It's like this little burst of sunshine in the winter. Now what makes it even better is knowing that osea's products are clean, vegan, cruelty free, and made of organic ingredients. It feels so good to support a family owned company that truly represents the natural world while giving us skin care that actually works. If you are ready to give your skin or someone you loves a new year, glow up. Now is the perfect time. O is offering Gold Digger listeners 10% off of your first order site wide. Just use the code Gold Digger at ocamalibu. Com. That's O S E A Malibu com with the code Gold Digger for 10% off. I promise you, your skin is about to thank you. You know, I love finding tools that make running a business even easier. And so I'm so excited to share with you a tool that I swear by, which is Gusto. It's an all in one payroll, benefits and HR platform and I love it so much. I recently made my entire team switch to With Gusto. Payroll is fast and super simple, whether you're handling W2s or 1099s. But that's just the beginning. You can offer health benefits, 401k plans and so much more, all tailored to nearly any budget. Their software is super simple. It's all online. You can access it from anywhere and you can run unlimited payroll for one monthly price with no hidden fees and taxes. Gusto takes care of those two, automatically filing and paying them across all 50 states. Businesses save on average $2,600 and 48 hours a year by switching. No wonder four out of five businesses say Gusto is worth it. Here's the best part. Gusto is giving you gold diggers three months for free when you run your first payroll. Head to Gusto.com Golddigger to snag this offer. That's Gusto.com Golddigger. Don't miss out.
- [12:42]
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So next, you might want to consider offering some sort of product or merchandise to accompany your offer. So whether you have a loyal and engaged Instagram following, or a super active email list, or die hard podcast or YouTube subscribers, there are several different opportunities to create merchandise or products for brand loyalists. My first taste at doing something like this was when I launched that print shop back on Society 6. This was years ago and basically what I did is I uploaded the art and then they do all of the printing and payment processing and fulfillment. So I could see prints and mugs and shirts and blankets and pillows and shower curtains like you name it, name it. They can probably print whatever you upload onto a surface. And the funny thing about my print shop is that I actually started painting as a means to step away from business. So it was in this season where I was very stressed out as a wedding photographer. I was nearing burnout. I was like, I need to do something just creative to feel creative again. And then it turned into a business. And it was never my intention or plan, but that transition and that transformation and turning it into a business totally transformed the way that I look at past income opportunities. And so while my print shop was this deviation from my job as a photographer, I marketed it and shared about it on my channels, which at the time were pretty small and people purchased my work. I remember the first time I woke up and I saw someone had ordered something while I was sleeping and having that feeling of like understanding, oh my gosh, you actually can make money while you sleep. And I also remember when my monthly checks got large enough to cover our mortgage and seeing just how powerful extending my brand into a new space could be. You know, not everyone that bought a $15 mug would become a multiple thousand dollar wedding client. And if I was only having a business that was serving brides and grooms in the Midwest, looking to plan a wedding and the next year needing a wedding photographer, the amount of people that I could reach was really small. But when I started sharing about funny prints and cute sayings and beautiful floral mugs or phone cases, it really expanded who I could reach with my audience. And it kind of open Open the doors in the sense of a value ladder where someone could invest in something that was a low ticket item. And so I kind of loved that. And the funny thing is, is a lot of times people don't think about products. If you're in a service based business, you kind of forget about products. But whether you create related merchandise to extend a brand that you already have, or you start a new division of your brand, creating a product or some sort of merchandise where the fulfillment piece is covered for you could be a super great option. Now because they did all of the payment processing and fulfillment and printing, the margins were very small. But at the same point, I didn't really have to invest anything other than the time that it took to create that print. There wasn't a lot of risk. I just uploaded it and then maybe it would sell, maybe it didn't. But at the time I didn't want to have to carry an inventory and go to the post office every day. So you got to weigh out where your time and energy fits into what you're thinking of expanding into. Now. Another thing that I did is I created our gold bar necklaces. So I have two necklaces for sale. One is I am enough and then the other one is I am worthy. And they sold out time and time again like I couldn't keep inventory in. And while those necklaces didn't necessarily correlate with any specific part of my brand, it was something that my audience wanted. They loved. They wear it. It's something that I personally wear, my family wears. And these gold necklaces are available right now if you want to just check them out to see what I'm talking about@shopjennacutcher.com that's shopjennacutcher.com you can see them. And while we manage ordering, inventory and shipping, it's not as passive as my print shop was. But it's a super fun way to introduce a physical product into my brand and also to just kind of expand my offers. Now if you do do merchandise or things like that, it doesn't always have to be clothes or accessories. Look at what your audience is into and what they'd actually find fun or useful. It could be all kinds of things, from stickers to pens, notebooks or journals to water bottles, magnets, koozies, sunglasses. The options are literally endless. So try surveying your audience on social media or in an email to see what they would be most interested in purchasing. And another fun way to test it is to get a sample created of something that you might be creating and just see what the response is. I wore my necklace for months before we sol sold them and people would ask me about it all the time and that was just a good indication that hey, you might be moving in the right direction. So the next income opportunity to create our upsells and downsells for your products or services. When someone is buying from you, do you have any extra add ons that they can easily purchase at the same time? So let's start with the topic of upsells. This is where you add on an additional offer at the time of purchase. So this could come in the form of an extra product, a suggested offer they might enjoy, a list of other recommended products to complement their purchase, like the opportunities here are endless and this is merely just you suggesting an additional thing that they might enjoy. Now this doesn't just apply to digital or product offers. This tactic is just as important for service based businesses as it is for product based businesses. It could be as simple as when someone is checking out. You could have a pop up that says do you also need this product like right now? This week we were doing a launch and we were selling my program, the Pinterest Lab and we have an upsell where people can add on an additional program called the Content Lab and it's at 50% off so it's literally being sold at half price and they can make that decision at time of purchase. We've generated an extra $10,000 in upsell revenue because not only are we connecting people with an additional product that will complement the product that they're buy, but we're also giving it at a steep discount that makes them want to take action right away. So let's say maybe you sell handmade candles. An easy upsell opportunity at checkout could be offering a box of branded matches or an amazingly scented room spray for someone to add to their cart for just an extra few bucks. Or maybe your service provider. Let's say you're a social media manager. When someone inquires about working with you, a part of your booking process could be saying hey my services cost $500 a month and I can throw in my my super helpful social media Content Planner PDF for just $20. If you join in this first month you can also tack on additional services. So let's just say you're a copywriter and someone is wanting to hire you to write their website copy as you're discussing the details of the job. You could also throw in that you could help with their ongoing blog content for X amount of Dollars per month. You're basically just exposing them to extra invitations that are aligned with what they're already saying or showing you that they want. And it's a really easy yes or no. It doesn' like this pressure tactic. It's more of just a suggestion and an invitation. And upsells can be a super easy way to increase your revenue per customer while also extending that customer's experience with you, your products or your services. So then let's talk about what a downsell is. So you typically do a downsell after someone has not made a purchasing decision, that is they didn't buy something. So for example, after a cart closes on a course launch, if someone was interested but ultimately didn't end up purchasing the program, can you ask yourself, is there another offer that's maybe more reasonable but still aligned and getting them results in an area that they've expressed they're interested in? So this is where you could extend a downsell for non purchasers. This allows someone to become a paying customer even if they're not ready for the main offer that you have. And it gives you time to build up that trust and get them results at a lower price point. Point. So can you see how both products and services can utilize things like add ons, upsells and downsells? Most upsells happen at the point of purchase when a buyer is most likely to add on products. Like does anyone else add on products just to get free shipping? It's like I don't, I don't know why my brain can't compute. Like adding a thirty dollar shirt is still going to cost you $30 even if you're saving $10 on shipping. I get it, but I do it all the time. But here's the thing, you can also offer upsells after the customer has been given time to enjoy their purchase. So you've got to kind of look at like what is a customer's experience? When will they have gotten results? When would be the adequate time to reach out with that next step or invitation so you can share an upsell through an email sequence, a time promotion or an extra recommendation? My best advice for upsells is to make the offer enticing, make it complimentary of their purchase and make it discounted so it feels special and more time sensitive. If there is an expiring discount on it, people are way more likely to take advantage than if it's just an extra product being suggested that they could buy at any time. So regardless, the point here is to make sure that you Have a good follow up for your clients and customers because at the heart of all of this is giving them a memorable experience. Cool thing about all of these tactics and ideas and ways to boost your income is that it's rooted in the customer's experience. It's thinking through their journey, their path, anticipating their needs before they can even express them. And it's super important to consider this because it's way easier to retain and sell to past customers again than it is to go out and recruit new ones. So listen to this. According to Forbes, increasing your customer retention rates by just 5% can increase your profits by 25 to 95%. Let me say that again because it's just insane. Increasing your customer retention rates by just 5% can increase your profits by 25 to 95%. So when you're considering ways to boost your income as an entrepreneur, do not discount the value of simply working to retain past purchasers and people that you've worked with. Do not let a new client go underserved. Send follow up emails to see how they enjoyed their product and if they need anything else else. Reach out to see how else you can serve them or if they need anything else from you, or if they have any questions. Put a reminder in your calendar to touch base a few times a year with past clients to see what else they might need. Or set up an automation so that two weeks and two months after someone purchases a product, emails deploy with more opportunities to purchase certain related items and you're checking in and really honoring that relationship.
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Goal diggers it's 2025 and I have a quick reality check. If your B2B marketing strategy isn't improving your ad targeting, your message just might be getting lost in the noise. But don't worry, I've got a fix for you. LinkedIn Ads lets you get specific and I'm talking really specific if you want to connect with the decision makers, CEOs or professionals in your dream industry. LinkedIn makes it so easy to do that that with over 130 million decision makers and 10 million C level execs on the platform, you can get your ad in front of the exact people who can say yes. And it's not just about who you reach, it's about the results. In the tech industry, LinkedIn ads generated two to five times higher return on ad spend than other social media platforms. Plus, 79% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn gives them the best results for paid media. It's where serious marketers go to win. Are you ready to give it a try, start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. We'll even give you a hundred dollar credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com goal to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com G O A L terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn the place to Be to be. You know that feeling when a new year starts and you are absolutely ready to get organized and crush your goals. Financial wellness is at the top of my list this year and basically every other year, and Rocket Money has been a total game changer for making that happen. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you take control of your money by finding and canceling unwanted subscriptions, monitoring your spending, and even negotiating lower bills for you. They showed me all of my subscriptions in one place, including the ones I didn't even realize I was paying for and definitely not using, and it instantly saved me hundreds of dollars a month. And when they renegotiated my phone bill, that was even more money in my pocket. With zero hassle, Rocket Money doesn't just stop there. It tracks all of your spending across every account so you can see exactly where your money is going and it even keeps an eye on your bills for price increases or unusual charges. With over 5 million users and a total of $500 million saved in canceled subscriptions, Rocket Money members save up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. I am already noticing a difference in my budget just for this year. If you're ready to cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster, head to RocketMoney.com Gold Digger to get started. That's RocketMoney.com Gold Digger RocketMoney.com Gold Digger.
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Okay, finally, consider utilizing affiliate partnerships or links in your digital content. So at the beginning of the show I talked about how many entrepreneurs start out with one main offer and this goal to master it. One aspect of mastery is painting yourself as an expert, and you can do that by sharing a little bit about your process or your behind the scenes or the things that you can't live without. Not only does it help your clients see, understand and respect your process, but it also gives you another opportunity. If your business or brand has a blog or social media presence, which I highly recommend it does, then you can create content that shares your process, your gear, or favorite things, and you can link up a few of those pieces as affiliate content that brings in extra dollars anytime someone purchases using your specific link or code. An affiliate link is basically Like a refer a friend type code that gives you a kickback anytime someone takes your suggestion. So fun fact, my first rendezvous with affiliate marketing actually had nothing to do with photography. It was hellofresh, which by the way we still use to this day. I was recently on chat with them because we had something happen with one of our boxes and they were like thank you for being a loyal customer for six years. I was like, wait, what? But my first affiliate marketing experience was with hellofresh and basically I just shared how outsourcing our dinner prep and shopping was giving me back time and my audience took advantage of that ticket. So while I didn't necessarily get cash back and earn extra income, I got a lot of free hellofresh. Like basically we had free dinners for almost an entire year. So if you want to just see how I did this, or if you want to get a hundred dollars off when you join, go to jennacutcher.com hellofresh and you can see how I just made a quick little link that has my refer a friend. It's an affiliate link, so I get a kickback, but you also save money and so it can be this really mutually beneficial exchange. So if affiliate marketing is something that you want to get into, I have tons and tons of content available on my blog and in the podcast archives about how to become an affiliate for brands you love. And a great one to start with is my blog post titled how to become an affiliate for your favorite brands. So if you go onto my blog, go to jennicajourblog.com and go into the search bar and just type in the word affiliate. You're going to find so much content. But that post breaks down what to do and in what order to start promoting brands that you love and bringing in a little extra side income. The basic gist is to begin by promoting brands that you love for free as a service to your community at first before reaching out to see if they have a referral or affiliate program. The blog post also has this email template that you can customize and use to reach out to companies that don't have affiliate programs. Yet again, just go to my blog, type in how to become an affiliate for your favorite brand. You'll see that blog post. It is gold. Now, beyond just traditional affiliate programs, you can also sign up for programs like Reward Style or Amazon Affiliates and link to products you love from an assortment of retailers. These probably won't bring in giant dividends, but with consistency they can begin to trickle in passive income that can absolutely make a difference over time. So if you're strategic about what you offer and how you promote your goods, you can quickly diversify your income as an entrepreneur and even build up these passive streams of income that work for you for years to come. I should also mention that simply sharing about your offers and doing so often in public spaces like social media or with your email list is an equally important way to boost your income. I think so many entrepreneurs unwittingly assume that their audience just knows what they have to offer because they shared about it once or twice or it's in their title or under their bio in Instagram, and it's just not true. It is your job to be your own publicist, to shout your offers from the rooftops and to do it often. While people may have a general idea of what you do, they might not know how to get in touch with you or to work with you. Or maybe they're not sure which specific services you provide or ways that you can help or serve them. Plus, even if you've shared it before, there are always new eyes on your content or people who didn't see your posts in the past. It may feel repetitive to you, but to everyone else, it's great knowledge to have in case they ever need your services or know someone who might be the right fit. Continue finding ways to share your offers openly and enthusiastically because simply creating a habit of spreading your word about your own offers can work wonders for your bottom line, whether it sparks immediate interest in a potential client or customer or plants a seed for the need that they might have later down the line. It will never, ever be a bad thing to toot your own horn and get your information out there for others to keep in their back pocket or share with people they know who might need it. Seriously. Celebrate everything. Post as often as you can and share the different ways that you are bringing your gifts into the world again. We feel like everyone sees it, but remember, only 3 to 5% of your audience even sees what you're posting and so you've got to share and reshare and share again and stay committed to that that. Put on your publicist hat. Get out there and market your gifts to the world. So I want to hear from you now. Did I miss anything? Come to my latest Instagram post at Gold Digger podcast. Let me know your favorite way to diversify your income so that we can all continue learning from each other and getting creative as we aim to increase our revenue. I am cheering you on from over here and hoping you have a few new ideas to boost your income today. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Gold Digger podcast. Best until next time, keep on digging your biggest goals.
- [32:10]
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Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger podcast. I hope today's episode fueled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action, and realigned you with your true north in life and business. If you've enjoyed today's episode, head on over to gold diggerpodcast.com for today's show. Notes, discount codes for our sponsors, free video to fuel your results, and so much more. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show.
- [32:38]
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We'll see you next time. Gold Diggers.