Happy Career Formula with Jette Stubbs

18. My Top 7 Books for Managing Money & Building Systems to Attract Clients

June 23, 2021 Jette Stubbs Season 1 Episode 18
Happy Career Formula with Jette Stubbs
18. My Top 7 Books for Managing Money & Building Systems to Attract Clients
Show Notes Transcript

It's great to love what you do, but what if you don't know how to make money from it each month? We've talked about books to find what you love to do and books on how to sell yourself with confidence. In this episode, it's time to talk about how to create consistency to create stable regular income. You'll learn about managing money and building systems to attract new clients.

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18. My Top 7 Books - Managing Money & Build Systems to Attract Clients 

[00:00:00]Jette Stubbs: [00:00:00] it's super important to recognize that when you are selling something, you want to be honest, you want to feel transparent. 

[00:00:09] Don't want to make people feel like do  this now, or I will hate you. And none of us want to come across as pushy or sleazy. So how do we avoid that vibe? So this is the next book that I'm going to recommend. 

[00:00:22]You're listening to the happy career formula 

[00:00:24] with Jette Stubbs 

[00:00:26] where we talk about how to find what you love to do and turn it into ways to make money, whether that's a job, freelance service or a business, so you can live life on your own terms. 

[00:00:37] Let's talk about how to understand business systems and attracting clients. Once I understood how business works, how to write, copy, and sell yourself, These two books, I found very helpful  like understanding the system and how to just build out a system.

[00:00:58] And this is where Russell Brunson and  some of his lessons come in. With that being said, I'm not advocating the use of products. And as you become more familiar with marketing, you'll notice some of the tricks and what can often be referred to as like bro marketing tactics that people will use  that can become very exhausting very quickly because they don't come across as authentic.

[00:01:23]Don (Voice Over): [00:01:23] Books 1 & 2: Dotcom Secrets and Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson. Let's start with book one Dotcom Secrets

[00:01:30] Jette Stubbs: [00:01:30] Dot.com secrets though is about the system. I'm not saying go to Russell Brunson to learn how to write the best copy. I gave you my books on how to write that effective material to sell yourself. But when it comes to the systems for growth and the systems that you can use to say, okay, this is step one, that I want my client to take the step two that I want my client to take.

[00:01:55] This is step one that I want my employer to take, when they want to consider working with me, this is step two. I want them to call me for an interview. What are the tools that I use for that?  Russell Brunson can be really great for understanding those systems. So he has two books. Dotcom secrets, which walks through what is called a funnel.

[00:02:13] A funnel is basically conceptualize like a funnel that you would pour water in. And at the beginning you have everybody in the world potentially who has your problem that you were trying to solve with your business, then. The next level of the funnel where it starts to get  narrower is you can't reach everybody in the world who has a problem that you want to solve.

[00:02:33] So you only can get in front of a stage maybe to talk to a thousand people.  You went to this event  in your region, or maybe a virtual event now. You've gone in front of the stage and you spoke to a thousand people. So that's your reach. Then, how many of those a thousand people chose to like were interested in what you were doing and chose to interact with you?

[00:02:57] So the funnel will come smaller because not, you're not going to have a hundred percent engagement, not all of those, a thousand people will choose to work with you.  Then the funnel will become smaller again, because out of those people who will choose to take an in-depth look at your offer and what you're selling, that's going to be a smaller list.

[00:03:14] That funnel got smaller. So maybe we're down to    realistically, we could be down to  a hundred people.  And then, so all of those other people are being like filtered out. They're being lost along the way. Ideally, you don't want to lose so many of those people, you want to keep convert, which is where they talk about.

[00:03:29] So you want to convert as many people along that funnel as possible. So your funnel becomes wider instead of from super wide to super narrow in theory  you want a wider funnel at the bottom, a wider hole at the bottom, where more people end up being your paying clients at the bottom instead of a super tight hole at the bottom where  one person slips through out of that, a thousand to become your paying client.

[00:03:51] That's not a good conversion rate. so Dot.com secrets talks about what are like some of the systems that you can use.  Are you going to have people step one, sign up to  a freebie and then step two, watch a webinar. You've probably seen webinars available online.  Or is step two, going to be, you're going to give them some like email video sequence where you teach them something.

[00:04:14] Or for example, when you go into a grocery store, step one, you go into the grocery store, you got your grocery cart. Often what will happen is right next to that grocery cart, you will see a pamphlet or like a flyer with all the discounts that they have. And those discounts will be scattered throughout the store.

[00:04:31] You know what that means? You've got to walk through the entire store. As you walk through the entire store, it's more likely you're going to pick up more stuff. Then once you check out all the discounts, so that, that was intentional, that flyer being left there, see that you can check it and see how you can save money.

[00:04:46] But also ended up spending more money is intentional. Then you start going through the grocery store  with your cart and  like certain things are at eye level. So let's say a new product was released. That new product is going to be at eye level because. It's possible that company even paid for it to be at eye level.

[00:05:07] So they paid that grocery store chain to put that new product at eye levels that you noticed that big sign right in front of your eyes where your old soap used to be. And now you're like, Oh, I want to try this new version of soap. And then it increases the sales. So there all these things are strategically done.

[00:05:25] It's  step one, step two. And it doesn't just happen online. It happens in person. It always happened in first and first, the internet is like new within the last, like 20, 30 years. So I guess 30 years now, but. The internet is newer. So these things happen though, because making money and all this stuff was happening before the internet.

[00:05:43] And so it's, how do you take those, that conversation, that process that clients would typically walk through and then how do you put that online? So it still feels organic and it still feels natural. And that can be really hard to figure out when you're just starting out and you can end up trying to build these super complicated systems.

[00:06:00] And I was totally, I did that too  but what you really want to end up doing is just build something that's easy to walk through and simple for people.   Those two books.com secrets walks through how to think about those systems. Like what is step one, step two, step three. And it talks about this idea of front end, which are the things, the steps that you walk people through before they bought from you, and then backend the steps that you've walked people through before they've bought from you after they bought from you or after they've connected with you.

[00:06:30] So let's say my front end is partly like people didn't peop people who had worked with me before we'd often refer other people to me. And they're like, Oh, you seem super interesting. This person valves for shoe. They said you were amazing to work with, but how do you know that you should work with me?

[00:06:46] How do you know you should trust me? One of the things that I can do and that I have done to increase people's trust is to put this podcast out there and say  listen to some free coaching sessions, listen to some free events, some free lessons, and then we can go from there. The next thing. So basically I can say, okay, you've connected with me.

[00:07:03] You found me, you want to learn more about me and if you want to work with me, go and listen to lesson two and three. And then if you like less than two or three, you've gotten a good taste of my coaching. That's basically some sample coaching sessions.  And then once you've done that, you can either keep on listening to that free content that will be dropped every Wednesday, or you can, if you want.

[00:07:24] Really concrete advice like step one, step two, step three. On what you should do next. Consider working with me, consider booking a consultation call. It's no pressure. It's a conversation to see if we fit with each other, because if we don't fit, I don't want to work with you. If and when I say fit  do I think I can help you achieve your goals?

[00:07:40] Do I feel like this? Isn't going to be a huge financial strain, but it's an investment for your growth. And I feel somewhat confident that I can help you achieve that growth and that the tools I'm giving you will be useful if you're willing to put the work in. That's when I'd want you to work with me, that's the conversation that we'd be having.

[00:07:56] So this is a funnel that you're walking through is you're constantly walking through funnels. They don't need to feel sleazy. They don't need to feel  salesy. They can feel like a conversation with somebody because it is a conversation. It's conversation about how you can help to improve their lives.

[00:08:13] And it's not about, it's not about you forcing it on them. It's   do you want this? Are you struggling with this?  This is an option for how I can help. This is the benefits that I would try and provide to you. This is maybe some of the obstacles that we may face working together, or these are some of the challenges that we may have just so you know, this is about the amount of effort.

[00:08:33] You'll have to put in this amount of money you need to put in the time that you need to put in so that I can help you achieve these results. I need some things from you as well. So just so you know, does this feel like something you'd be interested in doing so that you can get to where you want to go? Or that you have more tools to help you get to where you want to go?

[00:08:52] And it's just this authentic conversation. That's a two way street where you figure out if you fit and that's the conversation you need to have with your clients. So dotcom secrets, doesn't tell you how to have that authentic conversation. It talks to you about creating the steps. So figuring out  now that you've compiled all information you need to share.

[00:09:11] The top things people need to know about you before they worked with you, because you've done that groundwork. Now you're going to say, okay, these are, this is I'm going to give this to them in a webinar, or I'm going to give this to them in a book, or I'm going to give this to them in a podcast.

[00:09:27] Like what's the format that you're going to distribute this information so they can feel more confident choosing to work with you, or I'm going to offer a freebie and then offer them like this long email sequence.  What is the process that you're going to follow? Then Russell Brunson wrote the book, traffic secrets.

[00:09:43]Don (Voice Over): [00:09:43] Book 2: Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson

[00:09:46]Jette Stubbs: [00:09:46] So traffic secrets is all about how to increase the traffic.  Traffic secrets talks about platform, leveraging where you would go in and. Let's say you want to grow your audience instead of trying to grow your own audience, speak to somebody who has  a thousand people following them. And then who is related to your target audience, who talks about something similar, ask them, Hey, can I come in and talk to your audience about this useful free piece of information?

[00:10:20] And they're like, yeah. And then at the end of that 30 minute talk hour long, talk to give some useful information, then you say, okay  this is where you can find me. You can follow my podcast or you can check out my website or you can book a consultation call with me here. If you want to work with me, that's how that works.

[00:10:39] Like you just go into, so then once you have your thousand followers go to somebody who has  5,000 followers or 10,000 followers, and start to get in front of their audiences until you grow to a point where you've got enough people. And it just talks about different ways that you can grow that audience and create traffic to your website so you're expanding that reach.

[00:10:57] Remember that funnel that I talked about, where you, there are all these people who have their problem, but you can only get in front of a stage of a thousand people.  Traffic secrets is about expanding that stage beyond a thousand people so that you can reach more and more people. And how do you do that quickly?

[00:11:12] And over time, the last two, two books that I am going, actually, no, I have a few more books. So I have five more books to share with you. 

[00:11:20]Don (Voice Over): [00:11:20] Book 3: Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin 

[00:11:23] Jette Stubbs: [00:11:23] One is your money and your life. So old version. So not the updated version. I really like your money and your life. This is all about understanding finances. So we've moved into a new section, understanding finances, your money and your life  talks about how your finances are attached to your life and helps you to fund your life goals.

[00:11:42] But also talks about a lot of mindsets that we have around money and how making money works.  And just understanding how to manage your money more effectively. 

[00:11:51]Don (Voice Over): [00:11:51] Book 4: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

[00:11:53]Jette Stubbs: [00:11:53] Profit first by Mike Michalowicz is a great book to understand this concept of do you know back in the day.

[00:12:03] Actually, you may not know about this, but people used to keep different envelopes with different money. So this is my grocery money. I'm going to put an envelope with the word grocery on it. I've got $400 in there. I have to spend. If I run out of this envelope, I know I've spent too much money on groceries for the month.

[00:12:18] Another envelope is for gas money. Another envelope is for paying other bills.  And then another envelope is your savings or your piggy bank history or savings. And so you've got your money in the different pots so that  when you're overspending too much, but when people are first building out their business, they just have one personal banking account often.

[00:12:38] And then they'll start spending from the personal bank account and then they'll lose track.  Which one of these expenses are my personal expenses? Which 1:00 AM I? These expenses are my business expenses. How do I know which one is? Which how do I know if I'm making money or losing money? And then it's not until  the end of the year when it's time to do taxes that they'll actually realize, Oh, snap.

[00:12:58] I lost money. I lost a bunch of money because I wasn't tracking how much money I was making. I actually spent way more. So the benefit of using more of this envelope approach, which profit First dives into deeper and how to do it in a modern day sense with different bank accounts .  It helps you track if you're spending too much money  do you have enough money to cover your personal expenses?

[00:13:18] That should be a separate bank account from your business expenses account and your business revenue account. So have the money come into one account, pay yourself, and that is the money you spend on your personal expenses that goes into a different account and then have different accounts to pay your business expenses, a different count for business savings, a different account to make sure that you've put aside enough money to pay taxes at the end of the year, structure it correctly.

[00:13:42] And then  you'll have to do is look it up bank account. Glance at what the amount is in that bank account. And you'll know, is your business profitable right now or are you losing money? It's that simple. So just structure it. So it makes sense in that way. So those are the two books on understanding finances.

[00:13:59] Your money and your life, the old version

[00:14:01] profit first by Mike Michalowicz.

[00:14:04] I think I'm pronouncing that correctly.  The last three books I will recommend is one. This is a book that just came out recently called 

[00:14:12]Don (Voice Over): [00:14:12] Book 4: Love Your Business by Nicole Lewis-Keeber

[00:14:15] Jette Stubbs: [00:14:15] Love Your Business by Nicole Lewis-Keeber. Nicole will be coming on the podcast and talking, I'll be interviewing her soon. And I'm really looking forward to that.

[00:14:24] I've been following Nicole for like maybe a year or two years now, I think.  And.  She's a therapist that focus is on working with entrepreneurs.  And she talks about how trauma and things that we could have experienced in our lives, whether that is big trauma. So often when we think trauma is a clinical word.

[00:14:44] So when we think of trauma, we think, Oh, it has to be this huge thing. Like I've experienced some traumatic things in my life. I've shared them with you, but trauma doesn't have to be this huge thing. It can be smaller things that you've experienced. How do you start to pull those things together? So it makes sense.

[00:14:57]And that's what Nicole talks about. She wrote this book, love your business. She realized she got to this place where she was building a business that she wasn't enjoying. She felt it was demanding and demeaning, and it wasn't treating her well, but she had designed the business. So why wasn't it treating her well?

[00:15:16] And she realized she was recreating negative life experiences and negative relationships that she had with her business. She then realized that she basically, from what I read so far, I'm in the process of reading the book before I get to the interview and I'm almost done.  Honestly  I'm loving the book so far, but Nicole really has shared  how she grew a lot by understanding how her life experiences affect how she structures her business, how she interacts with clients, how she's doing all the work that she's doing and how she's restructured it so she loves her business by love, like loving her, not just loving herself, but actually designing it a goal. It always goes back to designing it, to help her achieve what she really wants and understanding how to have a healthier relationship with herself and her business on her clients.  And I always  hesitate because I don't want to come across as  I don't know, too woo woo or.

[00:16:11] Anything like that, but  I feel like it's really important to be intentional about what brings you happiness and what brings you joy. And to talk about that in a super practical science. So we're not talking about theory and fluff, we're talking about  what do you do? How do you make this happen?

[00:16:27] How do you think about what you're feeling? Where are you holding those emotions? Where you feeling that tension and realistically, how do you get rid of that tension?  The other last two books I'll recommend are basically talking about the same thing. So as you start to make small changes in your life, those changes have a compound effect and they add up.

[00:16:47]Don (Voice Over): [00:16:47] Book 5: Atomic Habits by James Clear or Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

[00:16:51]Jette Stubbs: [00:16:51] So there are two books that I want you to think about reading, about how to make these changes. There's atomic habits by James clear, which was super popular. And then there's a power of habit by Charles Duhigg. Both of these books are about how to change your habits because if you were to. Change one positive habit a day.

[00:17:12] Let's say you were. I think I read this in actual a third book called compound effect. Let's say you were going to eat an extra bag of chips a day for the next year. And that was going to be your new habit. Or you were going to start your morning off with a healthy smoothie. And then the third person is just going to eat a bowl of cereal,

[00:17:33]the person who eats like the I'm talking about those big bags of chips, the person who eats that big bag of chips every day, probably going to put on some weight, the person who eats the like smoothly, if it's a healthy, it depends on the content of the smoothie.

[00:17:47]  If you eat the smoothie, and it's a healthy smoothie, then you should be good. And. You should you maybe have experienced some weight loss.

[00:17:59] Then the third person, the person who just is having the cereal   they could just end up staying the same weight who knows, but these small habits. So let's say you take, maybe today, you can either do exactly what you're doing now, or you could adopt one positive habit and then maintain that habit for 20 to 30 days.

[00:18:15] And then see if it becomes a part of your routine for me, I had to shift  my diet. So I have gluten and dairy allergies. I was experiencing so much stress. My body was deteriorating. I had to change my entire diet and. A part of that for me, was making gradual shifts over time. I didn't know how to cook this whole new diet I had to.

[00:18:35] Okay. Find one new blog with great recipes at a time, find one delicious meal. That's super practical that I like tasty that I find tasty. And then    add over time to that list.  If I find one new meal I love even per month, over a year, that's 12 meals that I love eating that are totally compliant with my diet.

[00:18:56] Really. I needed to move faster than that, but let's say you do that over a year. I've got 12 meals  that's  two weeks of having different lunches, right? Over two weeks of having different lunches  or it's like a dinner, a different dinner and lunch and mixing that up. That's plenty to do for a two week timeframe that can be super practical and tasty.

[00:19:16] So what are some of the things that you can do that make small shifts in your habit? If it is it shifting, like I said, an hour of listening to television and listening to an audio book, or  what you're doing right now, listening to this podcast is amazing, like kudos to you for getting this far.  And I'm really excited to see where you go as you start to change these little habits in your life.

[00:19:39] So these are the books I'm going to write out the list. It'll be in the show notes, check it out.  But 

[00:19:45] I really think it can be super healthy and transformational for you get like a audio book subscription and just listen to one or two books per month, like workout in the morning and listen to half an hour or an hour of an audio book.

[00:20:02] Listen to a Ted talk. 

[00:20:04] Just do these little things to start to shift your understanding. And if you're thinking about growing out of business  this can be. Something that saves you like months or years of time and tons of money to go through a process that works. And if you don't want to spend.  Let's say each one of these books, I think I've listed like close to 20 books.

[00:20:24] Now let's say, if you don't want to spend four to eight hours reading 20 books that's 80 to 160 hours reading books.  

[00:20:34] And also it is expensive.  If each one of these books, if you spend like $15 on each one of these 20 books, 20 around, I have to count, but I think it's about 20 books. You'd be spending over a $300. So first, see if you can get some of the books from the library, local library by you, but also don't balk at investing $300 in your career growth or your business growth.

[00:20:59] If it's going to help you potentially  I hope you plan on making more than $300 a week. So you can recover this in a salary increase or in business growth or in one client sale. So $300 is super small number  when it comes to investing in yourself to consider buying 20 books.

[00:21:20] The other thing that I will say is maybe if you don't want to spend 80 to 160 hours reading all these books, or if you want to get the information in a more condensed timeframe, keep on listening to the podcast. I am going to put out my own book with time that will help you like understand conceptually.

[00:21:38] All the things I feel like I wish I knew when I first started out, which will be a concise package. And I'd love to get your feedback on it. When it comes out to see how I can improve it for future iterations. The final thing that I'll say is  if you don't want to go through the 40 to 80 hours and spend the $300 on the book, then consider going and getting coaching and mentorship.

[00:22:00] And it doesn't need to be from me. It could be from somebody else. It could be from another source. If you are interested in working with me, like book, a call, or don't feel afraid to  reach out and have a chat. It's just a conversation. And even if it's just to say, Hey, thanks for creating the podcast.

[00:22:15] And this is how it's helped,  shoot me an email and let me know. You can find out how to contact me on the website. It's JetteStubbs.com. 

[00:22:22] You're listening to the happy career formula 

[00:22:24] with Jette Stubbs 

[00:22:25] where we talk about how to find what you love to do and turn it into ways to make money, whether that's a job, freelance service or a business, so you can live life on your own terms. 

[00:22:37]this is a career and business podcast, but my two main goals for what I want to offer you are: one  the tools to build a career that aligns with who you are.

[00:22:48] So you can make money in a way that funds your life goals and the lifestyle that you want to build for yourself. Two, to have healthier relationships with yourself and others. 

[00:22:59] Because I think that if you have your financial resources together and you have good people around you, you can live a happier life.

[00:23:08] Subscribe and leave a review if you are enjoying the podcast.

[00:23:12] if you know somebody who you think may find this useful, please feel free to share it,

[00:23:16] with a friend.