[00:00:00] Speaker A: I want you to remember that also being chosen also means being rejectable, meaning you can also lose your audience anytime.
So this is very important because I don't want you to feel bad if someone unfollows you or stops buying from you or stops interacting with you. So polarizing on purpose. Yes, it's a good strategy, but you can't do it all the time and it still has to be genuine.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: You weren't born to sit in traffic, work for approval, or wait. Wait for Fridays. You were built to be free.
Welcome to Rich and Remote, the show for the ones who dare to do life differently. Here we talk about building businesses that give you choices where you work, how you live and what you create.
This is for the entrepreneurs who crave freedom, financial freedom, location freedom, and freedom from everyone else's expectations. If you're ready to design a life on your own terms, you're in the right place.
Rich and Remote Hosted by Alex and Carla Booth.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: Hey, quick one for anyone still doing $15 an hour work when you should be doing $10,000 an hour thinking if you've ever tried hiring a virtual assistant and ended up with someone you had to train from scratch, I want you to check out the Hire an AI VA playbook which you can
[email protected] It's a $17 toolkit that shows you exactly how to find, vet and hire an AI savvy virtual assistant. Someone who already knows how to use ChatGPT and Claude properly so they can actually take work off your plate in as early as three hours and not in three months. It has betting checklists, masterclasses, job post templates, prompts and even done for you. AI Skills Test will even guide you through the interview process so you'll truly have everything you need to land a proper AI enabled virtual assistant who can finally take these tedious everyday tasks off your plate.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Link is in the show notes or
[00:02:29] Speaker C: so go grab it and do yourself a favor. Once again, it's Hireanaiva.com you deserve high quality support and you deserve an AI savvy virtual assistant.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: Go check out Hireanaiva.com good morning and welcome to another episode of Rich and Remote. Today is a solo episode by me. I will be teaching something that a lot of you will be super excited to know and it is about how to connect with your audience so they actually buy more. For me, as someone who has started businesses Since I was 19, I started a business right out of college. I never actually had a real job, an actual office job and I've always Used my personal brand. I've always used having an audience. I've always used communicating with the public as some sort of way to get people to buy whatever I was selling, right?
So I've had two very successful physical brick and mortar businesses. My flower shop has been around for 17 years now, and my events company has been around for about 14 years now. I'm very proud of everything that I've built, and one of the things that really helped me grow these businesses was connection and connecting with my audience. So I realized over so many years, you know, even when I was starting my online stuff, when I went all in with my outsourcing company in 2020, I realized that you can have the best product in your category and you will still lose to a worse one just because they told a better story. Now, you're lucky if their audience is not a direct competition with your audience, but if it is, then now they will be taking huge part of the market share simply because they know how to build that connection. And so, in a way, when I experienced this in the past, I always thought, well, that's not fair.
You know, my product is better, my service is better. But it's also not entirely true. And today I'm telling you why. Nobody buys from the most qualified person per se, but they usually buy from the most memorable one. And I want you to listen to this episode and realize that there are so many ways that you can be that person without faking a single thing. So get your pen and paper out, listen in, lean in. If you're listening to this, maybe on drive or at the gym, which are my two favorite ways to listen to a podcast. I will definitely teach you the easiest ways on how to connect with your audience and how you can turn that connection into actual sales, into actual clients, into people saying not just, oh, that was great content. Oh, that's funny, you know, because that's the trap, honestly, that I see with people posting content online. They post just to post, or they post just to say hi, you know, just to, hey, I'm here. You know, it's not really thing that gets them connected enough to buy. So I would say, number one, the myth that's killing your brand is a lot of personal brand gurus just say, be authentic. Just be yourself. Just post consistently. Right? The rule is actually not that simple. Personal brand isn't about being like. It's about being chosen. And honestly, you can't be chosen if you've never risked being rejected. If in the sea of options, you're just a basic Bee, if all of your graphics just look like the same Canva templates, if all of your inspirational posts just look like the same view, the same horizon, the same photo of a beach, of a sunset of you and your matcha, then there is nothing setting you apart from the crowd, right? So I want you to think of something that makes you special.
And I'll even take it further and say, I want you to think about something that feels socially risky. Maybe it's an opinion that you are currently softening to avoid offending anyone, or it is something special, something unique to you that people can easily remember. So you have to find something that makes you stand out from the rest. Yes, I want you to be authentic. I want you to be yourself. And this is the best way that you can do that. So these are things that you can repeat over and over again in your story or something that really sets you apart as an opinion.
So here's a prompt that I want you to take. Think of a time when you played it safe online, when you soften an opinion. Or maybe you deleted a post, or maybe you watered down a caption because you're too scared to offend certain types of people, right? So what did that cost you? Or did you feel that there was still something in you that really needed to say it out loud? Say this belief out loud, right? Or maybe you can recall a moment when someone told you, oh, you can't say that about your business. And did you say it anyway? What happened? Right? So this has happened to me so many times when I would have seemingly strong opinions about certain things. One of the opinions that went viral for me was there was a time, I think in 2018, when there was very, very huge inflation in my country, in the Philippines. And I said, well, you know, just make more money. Just find ways to make more money. There's so much opportunity out there. And I got attacked because people were saying, oh, it's so easy for you to say, just make more money. It's not that easy for everyone else. You know, there are people that are working very, very hard. What about the janitors, the construction workers? But then I tried to explain myself and I said, well, they're not my audience, you know, And I likened it to buying a magazine. So you know how certain magazines have certain audiences, right? Cosmopolitan has a different audience as Men's Health has a different audience, as Candy has a different audience as Mary Claire, Architectural Digest. You are not making it Men's Health's responsibility to talk about architecture just because they are published. And they're out there. They have certain audiences that they have to serve. You cannot be for anyone and everyone. And so I said, when I said that you can just make more money, I'm obviously talking to people that are more in the position to actually make more money. Maybe people are starting businesses online. Maybe people have access to the Internet who speak English. So obviously I was just saying, obviously, you know, this is more my audience. This is who I've been talking to for years. You can't force me now to suddenly talk to janitors or people who are in the poverty line. I cannot help them. I am not the perfect person to help them. It would be a disservice of me to push myself to help them because I cannot fully relate to their reality. I understand and I see it and I acknowledge that part of society. It's just that I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm the perfect person to help them. But for these types of people who might need my words, who I can relate to, who I've lived their reality also, I can help them. I know how to get out of this rut and how to make more money. And I got a lot of hate. And honestly, I stopped defending my opinion. I knew in my heart I was absolutely right. I never apologized and I just stood my ground. So. And a lot of people that have followed me then are still following me now. And they have bought multiple things from me throughout the years.
So obviously there are things that are truly, truly offensive. Right? I think there's definitely a limit. Nothing is absolute. But in that moment, I knew that I was speaking my truth. And even though a lot of people might think that my opinion was a little bit radical, I genuinely believe that it can help a certain type of person. And for that type of person, I will not be explaining myself.
So, yeah, don't be scared to talk about a different opinion or something that other people might disagree with. Because let me tell you, you don't need to have millions of fans to be rich online. You just need, as what they famously say, 1000 true fans or maybe even just your dream, 100 clients. Right? And especially with a really good offer, like for example, in my outsourcing company, we are a high ticket sales subscription. The subscriptions vary from $695 to $3,000. Even if I had 100 clients paying me $695 a month, that's already a $69,000 business a month, right? So if I have 100 clients, just 100 clients, obviously have more than that. Paying me $695, my lowest subscription. That is already a very good business. And I don't need to sell to new people every day. I can just retain that. So once again, if you have even like a really good offer to go with whatever you are presenting to your audience, then you can be properly positioned to have a very sustainable business to live that hashtag rich and remote life. Right? Okay. So that's lesson number one. Lesson number two, your hard work story doesn't work anymore. So the story of, oh my gosh, I work so hard. I built this from nothing. I had no help. Everyone says it, it's pretty much forgettable, it differentiates no one. So I want you to replace it with a real ingredient, which is specificity. Not just saying I struggled, but what is the one exact moment or the one exact number or the one exact decision?
What is the turning point in your life? Right? So that really made all of this click in my life. I always share about my parents passing away and me being forced to be the breadwinner in 2022. I had to part ways with my mentor and my former business partner. And that was very hurtful for me.
And I left the business, I left the clientele, I left the team, I left everyone.
And unfortunately, that business did not survive when they were on their own. They never really grew. And my business grew and I was able to build to a million dollar business again, all over again in less than two years. Because I worked very, very hard and I believed in myself. I took a bet on myself and to be honest, I had a chip on my shoulder. I wanted to, I wanted to show everyone that I can do it on my own. So. So that was a great turning point for me as well. Moving to Mexico and on a one way ticket, right? Being feeling really pissed during the pandemic about everything that was happening, about all of this circus happening with the medical system, the countries and their borders and taxation, inflation, all of these crazy stupid rules. And you know, me being this little rebel at me like I am, I don't agree with any of this. I'm going to go to a place that respects my dignity and my sovereignty. And Mexico was that for me. So I have segments of my story that makes my story unique. Right? It's not just I struggled. Oh, the pandemic, I struggled. I lost the business. Oh, I grew up poor, I struggled. I grew up in a developing country, I struggled. My parents died, I struggled. There are different kinds of struggles and I'm not saying that you need to share a struggle or you need to make up a struggle. But people do get bonded with you more if you share certain struggles. But then be specific. So I have a prompt for you. What's one exact number or one exact date or decision from your story of building your company that is way more specific and more memorable than just saying I worked hard. And try to practice telling that story, make it super rich, give it detail, relive it and make sure that you mention that over and over again as you're telling your story, whether you're writing your story on an email to your email list or you're introducing yourself on a podcast or adding it in your speaker bio before you go on stage. So these things make your audience feel. Feel more bonded to you and trust you more. Alright, so next tip, I want you to remember that also being chosen also means being rejectable, meaning you can also lose your audience anytime.
So this is very important because I don't want you to feel bad if someone unfollows you or stops buying from you or stops interacting with you. So polarizing on purpose, yes, it's a good strategy, but you can't do it all the time and it still has to be genuine. I see a lot of people just be polarizing for no reason, just to rage, bait certain people. And yes, you know, for 24 to 48 hours they might get a lot of engagement, but then eventually people will move on, you know, and so you have to get ready for this. So who has unsubscribed or unfollowed or walked away from, from working with you? And maybe you know why, maybe you did not know why, but was it worth it to maybe chase after them or change your story? Typically, the answer is no. You will realize that the answer is no. So I want you to just keep telling your truth and focusing on the people that really connect with you and go deeper with them. Go deeper with them. In fact, sometimes even when I'm traveling and I have people that I see, oh, they live there, they live in this city, sometimes I connect with them through like an actual, you know, tea or dinner or maybe a walk in the park or we would explore a museum together. If there's a big event, I would look at who's attending and maybe I organize a little dinner. I'm very social. So what I'm trying to say is accept the people who reject you in your journey. Don't overthink them. And the people who keep choosing you over and over, make an effort to go deeper with them. Okay, so in the other side of, of saying being chosen also means being rejectable. Being chosen also means an invitation. Being chosen. When I say being chosen, meaning someone is following you, someone is following your stories, someone is engaging with you. Maybe they're buying from you already, maybe they're not. But this is your chance. It's an invitation to go deeper with them. Because once you go deeper with them, that's when deeper business relationships can also happen. Of them referring people to you, of them inviting you to speak at their stages, of them maybe doing a collab with you. Right? So the deeper that your relationship goes, the more opportunities you also open up for yourself, right? So at the end of the day, you are smartly striking the balance of creating connections, creating friendships, and also making money with your friends, which is honestly one of the most fun things to do. If you make money with strangers, why not make money with friends? And so don't think that I'm only teaching connection just to make money. It is hella fun. It is super fun to make money with friends, to see your friends succeed, succeed to be part of that success, and vice versa, right?
So always think about that. Don't be scared to be unfollowed, to be rejected, or to honestly have people even like outgrow you and your brand, you know, and the people who did not go deeper with them. I've had people who have become my friends and affiliates and people who ended up attending my wedding even though my wedding was pretty intimate. But I've had people who actually started out as like followers and then they bought from me and then we connected. They become my friends. I now also buy from them or became their client. I refer people to them, they refer people to me. But we've had like a decade's worth of friendship and business together. And honestly, it's amazing. It's amazing. It's one of the things that I treasure a lot in my life. Next up is customer success.
Trust happens after the sale and not before. So I want you to think about brand building in this reframe. A lot of founders think it's marketing, but it's actually what happens after someone buys. So yes, you have memorable moments when you're pitching something, when you're selling something. But also the follow through should feel just as intimate. So let me give you a super quick, practical action.
Think of one thing right now that you can change post sale that becomes the story that other people repeat. So add some touch points in you delivering whatever you're selling to your audience. Add Some touch points that make the post sale feel more personal, that make them feel more cared for, that make them feel like they're truly, truly still connected with you. And they don't feel, feel like you were just connecting with them to sell them something because that is where a lot of people do this thing wrong. A lot of people love bomb their audience before they buy and then after they buy, they just kind of ignore them. So some of the touch points that I do in my company is we do a best practices video after we onboard them and then after the client watches a best practices video, we give them a gift. Just a small tiny gift, under 100 bucks. Sometimes it's customized and, and sometimes it is something that they like, like a hobby or something like that. We also do work anniversaries. So I, I did tell you that we have a high ticket subscription. It's 6.95 to $3,000 a month. So every time they hit one year with us work anniversary, of course they would have spent 7,000 to 36,000 with us already. 8,000 to 3, 36,000. Then we give them a gift as well just to celebrate that anniversary. And we also make that a touch point of like, how can we do better? Is there anything else on your wish list? We also, obviously we get a lot of feedback. My client success managers are always talking to our clients, getting their feedback and getting ideas on how we can improve our services.
But for this one year, we try to just think a little bit more of what else we can give our clients and how we can serve them better. We just add like a little bit more thinking to it. And of course we send them, we send them a gift so it always makes them smile. Okay? So that once again deepens your connection more. They might buy more, they might refer to you, but ultimately it just all works.
Don't overthink this. It just all works. The deeper your connection is to your audience and to your customers.
And number five, a big question. Can you outsource your voice or your connection to your audience without losing it? A lot of people say, oh, I hate writing all the time. I hate posting all the time, but I know I need to do it. I need a personal brand. It's honestly, it's not really about whether you hire a ghostwriter or not or whether you hire a social media manager. Like in my team, we place social media managers for really, really big brands, really big brands. And we make sure that they don't dilute their voice. Right? I've had teams that handle my Clients YouTube that reply to them in behalf of them on Facebook groups, manage their substack, manage their email marketing. And yes, there's a lot of onboarding that comes comes with it. There's a lot of sops and feedback giving that happens during the first 90 days. But what's really important is you have to have a really good workflow and you have to keep the stories coming as well. I'm not gonna lie, you have to do your share. So make it easy, make it easy for you. Maybe have a story bank on your phone, maybe have a GPT, have a context base, maybe even just as simple as like a co Claude project with your story, with certain angles with prompts to give you question prompts as well. There's many ways that you can develop certain workflows to outsource your voice or your connection without it feeling icky when you're, when it lands in your audience and with the people that are following you. And honestly it depends on how much effort you use. You are wanting to put in content marketing too. And all of this connection points because of course if you're doing a lot of content marketing and organic marketing, then you have to put more time in in these kind of personal interactions. If you're running ads, then you can automate a lot of things with many chat and, and you know all of these workflows, all of these sequences in your email and your newsletter and retargeting. So yes, you, you can be more hands off if you run ads, but it's definitely not impossible. Just develop really, really good workflows. And of course if you don't want to do this all by yourself, you can get our
[email protected] and you can just book a call with us with our team. I'd be happy to help you develop a workflow that doesn't let you lose your voice and lose that authentic connection. And of course when I say workflow, it just doesn't mean to get your story out there, but to also get all of the business stuff automated, right? Sending referrals or nudging a client for an upsell or bringing people in more people to your newsletter or to your podcast or to your channel, all of these things are all connected. The more eyeballs you get, the more money you make. That is just a super basic thing in business.
And honestly that is why even the biggest companies like Coca Cola, Amazon, they still invest in ads, right? Even the biggest companies that advertise, I guess in super bowl, which is one of the biggest Advertising playgrounds out there. They spend millions and millions of dollars because more eyeballs means more money. But these eyeballs are not going to be profitable if you don't have the. That connection. Okay? So I want you to think about everything that I shared today as a way to really think about your audience and to be able to actually connect connection with your audience and with your customers to money that your business makes. And let me tell you, in my almost two decades of business, it has always been true that the more connections I make, the. The more people I get in my world, the more money I make because more people will just buy from me. And the more. More of the things that I do get, also more and more scalable, and I tend to put the least amount of effort, and I tend to also pick and choose which channels I want to work in. I love having this podcast. I don't love doing my YouTube as much as I love this podcast podcast, to be honest, but they perform different functions for my company. I now have a newsletter. I have multiple social media accounts that my team helps me with, and I always make sure that I'm not deluding my voice. I did put a lot of time in training my team, developing workflows, giving feedback, but it was totally, totally worth it. And we just continue growing, right? And now that we're preparing to actually run ads again, I'm very excited to see all of my work just multiply its results and super excited for that. So I know that a lot of you guys want to build a business that gives you a very comfortable life, and that's why you're here, right? Hashtag Richard Remote. So, actually, I want to leave this podcast episode with a gift. It's something that we are starting here in this podcast and at our newsletter. So make sure you sign up for our newsletter. Richardremote.com Just drop your email address there so you can get the first dibs, discounts, new launches, exclusive stuff. And you get to hear from us first before the public hears about everything else we're launching. And we also have tons of giveaways. We have promos that our clients are running. So it's really kind of like our insider newsletter. And it's 100% free. And promise we won't spoil spam. You just one email every week, that's all you get from us. And everything that we will be sharing is completely free. It's our way to help the community also enjoy the life that. That we are currently enjoying that we have worked so hard to build for the past two decades, me and my husband, him spending probably 10 years in corporate and then starting his business, and then me almost two decades in business. And so we are launching qqrr, which is quick question for rich and remote community. So I will be sharing a form here in this podcast episode where you can just ask us a quick question and I will discuss it with with Alex, with my co host and my husband on our next episode, on our next recording. And so I had a little experiment on this last week and I asked some of my followers, hey, do you have any quick questions for me? And I picked two questions that I will answer here and they are actually pretty much connected to what we discussed today, which is how to make more money or how to connect more so that you can make more money from your audience. And number one question that was asked was, is it really true that you can build a business to a million dollars without spending money on ads?
And I said, absolutely, absolutely, yes. I have done it not just once, but twice in my company, proximity outsourcing. It got to $1 million in a year without spending anything on ads. And the way that I did it is I focused on one one channel and that was Facebook, Facebook Organic. And I just went hard on it. I spent a shameful amount of time, probably 8 to 10 hours a day on Facebook, spent a lot of time there and just connecting to groups, posting, replying, engaging, getting tagged everywhere, answering questions about outsourcing. And it really helped cement my voice as a leader in outsourcing. People started referring me, tagging me. I started talking to people on messenger. I started getting introduced. So it's absolutely true and you can absolutely do it. But a little bit of caveat is you, once again, you have to have a good offer. So I tend to have a good offer at my outsourcing company. The offer makes sense. The offer is reasonable. The offer is good. My clients love it. I've had happy clients since 2018, and people have been referring me for a very, very long time as well. So it just all came together. Next question. If I posted something online that was embarrassing and that I regret, aside from doing a public apology, what else should I do so that it doesn't affect my business so much? Okay, so this was a really, really good question because something similar happened to me in 2019. I had a post that went super viral.
5 million, 5 million organic impressions. I got a lot of haters, but I also got a lot of people that agreed with me and bought my stuff. In fact, I actually sold out a five city roadshow after posting that. So even though I had a lot of haters, I also had people that followed me and felt deeply connected with me. And it was kind of a shortcut, actually. So, once again, this is what happens when you have really strong opinions. But if you really also believe in the things that you're saying online and you know how to speak your truth. So if you feel like you have to issue an apology, just issue the apology.
And I would say take a break, take a little bit of break. Maybe two weeks would be good from social media. And then after that, if you really hurt people and if you feel like your apology should be public, if that makes you feel better, just issue the apology. If not, if it's just a matter of people disagreeing with your opinion and you're not actually sorry, then don't just take a break and then post again after two weeks like nothing happened. Just continue shifting your attention to the audience that you want to serve, the people that you want to serve, the people that you want to help, the people that you can help with the products and services and solutions that you have, and keep going. You know, it's actually not that deep.
The news cycle is really fast. There's going to be a new conspiracy theory, a new thing happening, celebrity, a Netflix star, you know, doing something crazy, something on TikTok that gets talked about and people actually care less than you think. So don't worry about it. Focus on the people that you serve, how you can help them and your employees, how you can also lead them and how you can grow your company. That's it. All right, so if you have a quick question for me and Alex, just drop it in the form below. It's for qqrr. Quick question for Rich and Remote. Make it something about growing your online business or living a lifestyle. A remote lifestyle or being location independent. Those are the topics that we love discussing here and it's how we want to help you the most. All right, thank you so much. This has been Carla Singh, Son Booth, and I'll see you again next week for another episode of Rich and Remote. If you love this episode, please drop us. Five star review. We would be so, so grateful. Our team works very hard in producing these episodes and if you feel like this has helped you, make sure to share this with someone who's also growing their online business. You could be a blessing to that person as well. All right, thank you so much.
[00:33:23] Speaker C: Thanks for listening to Rich and Remote. Where freedom isn't a dream, it's a decision.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: This is Karla this is Alex Booth
[00:33:32] Speaker C: and this is our journey to our dream rich and remote life.
[00:33:36] Speaker D: If this episode inspired you, share with a friend who's ready to live life differently too. This is perfect for entrepreneurs who crave financial freedom, location freedom and freedom from the opinions of others.
[00:33:49] Speaker C: And don't forget to leave a quick review. It helps more freedom seekers find this show. Big thanks to our sponsors, Huckleberry Consulting, getcsm and Proximity Outsourcing.
[00:34:02] Speaker D: See you in the next episode and check out our online hangout spot, richandremote.com.
