The Authentic Roadmap to Connection - Rachel Mohl

Website: https://rural-meanings.teachery.co/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rmbizcamp

00:00 Hi and welcome to the road map to authentic connection. I would like to thank Cat Griffin for hosting the June Jumpstart Summit. I started my email list and contributing to bundles last June, so I was very excited for this jumpstart. Again, this is a road map to authentic Connection. Escape the algorithm.  

00:23 Hi, I'm Rachel, the creator of Rural Meetings. Rural Meetings is created for the creative, outdoorsy small business owner to recharge and reconnect.  

00:36 A little bit about me. I enjoy road tripping, crafting and can often be found with a cup of tea nerding out to business strategies. I live in a small rural town in Alberta, Canada with my husband and playful pups, and after struggling with invisibility and the frustration of SEO and social media, I was finally able to understand how to become more visible and grow my email list. And now I am excited to show you how to do the same.  

01:10 Before we begin, this is my disclaimer. I assume no responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the content. This presentation is provided as is without warranty of any kind, whether expressed or implied. Any perceived slides of specific persons, peoples or organizations are unintentional. This presentation has been created based on my own experience.  

01:39 Is this you are you exhausted with the algorithm? Are you open to new and different strategies? Are you just getting started with your business or looking to grow your visibility? If so, you are in the right place. What do I mean by the algorithm? The algorithm refers to marketplaces, search engine optimization, SEO, social media and ads. Anytime you are searching for key terms, keywords or hashtags.  

02:11 So the algorithm didn't work for me and it might not be working for you either. So in this presentation we are saying no to the algorithm.  

02:23 In this presentation, you will learn about the road map to authentic Connection with emails, freebies, swaps, contributing to bundles, hosting bundles, summits, affiliates, and challenges. But the secret to saying goodbye to the algorithm is that authentic connection takes time, effort, and consistency. While I wish I could wave a magic wand and have it happen overnight, that's not reality. But if you are ready to put in the time, effort, and consistency, let's begin. The first landmark in the Authentic Connection road map is email marketing. Email marketing is sending nurturing and promotional newsletters to your audience by email.  

03:11 For email marketing you will need an email service provider or platform. I use an M affiliated with KIT and at the time of this recording there is a free newsletter plan for up to 10.000 thousand subscribers on KIT. You will also need a business email hello at yourbizname dot com and I highly recommend having a domain such as yourbiz.com And lastly a privacy policy.  

03:41 This should be linked on all of your landing pages.  

03:49 The benefits of email marketing are that you own your list. Unlike social media or an online marketplace where you could lose access to your followers at any time, you own your email list. It is permission based your audience is opting in to receive marketing messages from you and you can include buttons and links that are clickable. No notes of link in bio or setting up additional tech. Easily add links to your products, services and affiliate links throughout your email.  

04:23 The second landmark in the Authentic Connection road map is sharing freebies because we got to build that email list so you can share freebies in some groups with freebie posts. For sharing freebies, you will need an email provider landing, page your freebie, and a community that allows sharing freebies. Your landing page may be in the same platform as your email provider. As mentioned, I am affiliated with KIT and there's a free newsletter plan. The newsletter plan at the time of this recording allows unlimited landing pages or your landing page may be offered by your products and services platform.  

05:04 I'm also affiliated with Tea Tree now at the time of this recording, Tea Tree has landing pages. Anyways, the landing page is where subscribers can enter their email address and opt in for your freebie. Your freebie can be in a variety of different formats like APDF, mini course, video, audio template and so on. But it is important that your freebie delivers a quick win and leads to a paid offer. An example is I have a free challenge about creating your next printable in one hour. This is a quick win as it is only an hour and it leads to the next step, a mini course about making your printables printer friendly.  

05:47 And for my community, my Biz camp Facebook group has a dedicated post every Friday where you can share your freebies and there are other groups that have similar posts.  

06:01 The benefits of sharing freebies are that you can start with an email list size of 0, start building your email list and there is an existing audience that can help validate your ideas. When starting your email list from zero i really highly suggest using freebies just to get a few of your first subscribers and share to a few different groups that allow freebie post to increase the amount of people that see your freebie. If your freebie does really well, it validates your idea and you can create a new paid offer that provides a next step from the freebie.  

06:43 The third landmark in the Authentic Connection road map is freebie Swaps.  

06:50 Once you have built a small engaged audience, you can try freebie swaps. This is when you and someone with a similar non competing offer promote each other's freebies to your audiences. You promote their freebie and they promote yours. For freebie swaps you will need an email, provider, landing page freebie, and a partner.  

07:15 The benefits of freebie swaps are that they build connection, you reach each others audiences and you deliver additional value to your audience while cross promoting, you build connection with the person you are swapping with, which may lead to other opportunities in the future. And when you share the other person's freebie, your audience gets access to a different offer with a different perspective and different strategies to possibly a different problem they are having without having to hunt for it.  

07:48 A few variations you can try with freebie swaps are swapping with a small group instead of just one person. Maybe you have a group of three to five people and you all send an email with the other freebies to each of your audiences. Or you could do an exclusive offer swap, like rather than exchanging freebies, you mark down one of your paid offers to only a few dollars and exchange that. And when you swap freebies or exclusive offers, you can share affiliate links.  

08:22 The fourth landmark in the Authentic Connection road map is contributing to email bundles. So in a very quick summary, bundles are a collection of free or paid gifts from different contributors that are usually given away for free or at a very low price within the bundle. Participants opt in for the bundle and then they opt in for the offers they want to contribute to a bundle you need an email, platform landing page offer and a bundle to contribute to. Are you noticing a theme? It is crucial to have an email platform landing page and something to deliver like a freebie or a paid offer.  

09:02 When considering your offer for the bundle, pay attention to the bundle theme. Is it business to business bundle? Business to consumer bundle is an artsy, travel or Wellness bundle. What kind of offers is a bundle host asking for? And if you're not sure where to look for bundles at the time, in this recording I host bundles and Kat griffin host many bundles.  

09:27 The benefits of bundles? There's a bigger audience because in most cases, all bundle contributors are promoting the bundle to their audiences. The host will be promoting and there may even be affiliates promoting the bundle. Not to mention, participants may be telling their friends and family about the bundle too. And like the freebie swaps, you can deliver value to your audience by telling them about the bundle. And there may be an opportunity for affiliate Commission so if someone purchases the host paid offer, which could be a paid tier of the bundle or an upsell, you may make a Commission.  

10:08 So a few quick tips I have for bundles is to review the requirements, experiment, track and prioritize the bundles that you have the best success in with requirements make sure it is free to contribute. Your gift and audience are payment enough. After all, without contributors, bundles wouldn't be bundles. I'm going to repeat this. We are not going to be paying to be in a bundle. It should be free to contribute your gift and audience or payment enough.  

10:42 But there are bundles that have paid opportunities to sponsor. This is increased visibility and may include other perks. And be aware of exclusivity terms, bundle dates, product requirements, and promotion requirements. If you would like to learn more about contributing to bundles, I have a mini course called Grow Your email list bundles for beginners.  

11:08 Ok, Are you ready to be the host and leader of a bundle? The fifth landmark in the Authentic Connection road map is hosting email bundles.  

11:19 So again, bundles are a collection of free or paid offers from different contributors that are usually given away for free or at a very low price within the bundle. Participants opt in for the bundle and then opt in for the offers that they want. And I do highly recommend before hosting a bundle, contribute to a few bundles first so that you can see how they work and are familiar with the processes. For bundles you will need an email, platform landing page, and if you are doing a paid bundle, a payment page.  

11:51 You will need a website or platform to host the bundle in a form for contributors to apply and graphics and swipe for contributors. If you are having affiliates, you will also need a method to track affiliate links and pay affiliates. The benefits of hosting bundles are that your results are unimplified as all participants opt in for the bundle first. By signing up for your email, list you can establish yourself as a leader and increase your brand recognition. You also get to decide the theme, audience, dates, tech you will use and requirements and their income opportunities that you can decide to offer such as a paid tier and upsell to a paid offer after participants sign up and sponsors.  

12:41 If you would like to learn more about hosting and bundle, I have a course called From Ghost to Host Bundle Hosting for Beginners.  

12:50 The sixth landmark in the Authentic Connection Road map is Speaking in Virtual Summits. A virtual summit is an online event where multiple speakers or experts share knowledge on a specific topic through prerecorded or live sessions. Participants can join from anywhere in the world for free or for a price to learn, network and access exclusive resources. To be a speaker in a virtual summit, you will need an email, platform landing page, a way of recording the presentation, and a slide deck at the time of this recording i am not affiliated with these, but I believe that they are worth noting.  

13:32 I use Canva for my slide deck and for recording when I'm speaking over a slide deck like right now. And then I use Screen Pal if I am recording a tutorial or as somewhere to store my presentation.  

13:46 The benefits of speaking at a virtual summit is participants can hear your voice and energy, which can build a deeper connection. You can grow your email list often by sharing a freebie with your presentation and there may be speaker gifts collections where you can share a paid offer for free. You may also be able to make affiliate Commission if there is a paid tier and a participant buys with your link.  

14:13 And depending on the host terms, you may be able to repurpose your summit presentations into courses and other offerings. So now I have mentioned affiliate Commission a few times. Let's talk about having your own affiliate program. And that's in the seventh landmark in Authentic Connection Road map is having your own affiliate marketing program. Affiliate marketing is where sharing links to one business offers the other business a chance to earn a Commission when someone purchases through the link or with tracking cookies.  

14:50 You can share affiliate links to offers you love and you can have your own affiliate program and allow others to make Commission for sharing your links. In this presentation, we are talking about having your own affiliate program. To have your own affiliate program you will need an email platform, a platform that hosts your paid offers, a platform for tracking affiliate links, and a way to pay your affiliates. Some affiliate programs pay your affiliates for you, and others will track and tell you how much you owe your affiliates, but you are responsible for paying them.  

15:27 The benefits of affiliate marketing are that it encourages your audience to share your offers because it is a chance for them to make money, it is promotion by others, and it builds community. Rather than paying for ads or doing all of your marketing yourself, your affiliates are sharing and you are paying them a Commission. And if your offers are digital products that can be sold an unlimited number of times, usually the more traffic and sales the better, even if you are sharing the income.  

15:59 The eighth and last landmark in the Authentic Connection Road map is hosting Theme Challenges. Theme challenges may have many different names, but basically they are time for your audience to work on a specific task and be rewarded when they complete the task within a specific time frame. I would suggest incorporating one of your paid offers into the challenge. For example, if you have a travel planner, give your audience a challenge of planning their next weekend getaway by the end of the week with the principal travel game for completing the challenge.  

16:32 For theme challenges, you will need an email platform to send your audience emails about the challenge, assets like a planner, workbook or course to help them through the challenge, and a reward for completing the challenge like a bonus product or a discount to your shop. And optionally, you may have a platform for your audience to interact and motivate each other.  

16:56 The benefits of theme challenges are gamification, urgency, and engagement. There is urgency because there is limited time to complete the challenge. It's gamified as they are working towards a reward and it can increase engagement, especially if your audience can interact and motivate each other. And you get to decide if the challenge is free with a paid helpful resource or if it is paid at the time of this recording i have just started themed monthly challenges in the Biz Camp Facebook group.  

17:31 Now I have a connection challenge for you.  

17:35 Your challenge is to take action and start planning your authentic connection road map by identifying your level, choosing one of the landmarks, and starting to plan.  

17:47 The first level is if you have under 100 email subscribers. Maybe you are just starting out and have 0 subscribers, or you have recently started, or you are growing your list and that has been a struggle. So if you're starting at zero, I highly recommend gifting and sharing your freebies. There are many groups that have weekly or monthly freebie posts that you can share to. In My Biz Camp Facebook group, you can share your freebies on Fridays. Then after your game, some subscribers start contributing to bundles and doing freebie swaps with others.  

18:23 The second level is if you have under a thousand subscribers. I suggest that you continue with sharing freebies, freebie swaps and contributing to bundles. You can also add in speaking in summits and having your own affiliate program.  

18:39 And then the third and last level is if you have over a thousand subscribers, I suggest you continue sharing freebies, freebie swaps, contributing to bundles, speaking in summits and having your own affiliate program. But now I also suggest hosting a bundle and challenges. You may start these before a, thousand subscribers however depending, on your audience 's engagement.  

19:03 In conclusion, the 8 landmarks in our road map to Authentic Connection are email, freebies freebie swaps or swaps contributing to bundles, hosting bundles, summits, affiliates, and challenges. But your first and most crucial landmark is your email list. This is like the gas or the charging station on your journey. Without it, you cannot reach your other landmarks or destination. Any questions i would love to connect with you. Please allow 24 to 48 hours. You can reach me my email hello at rollmeanings dot com and this is the best way to connect with me. Make sure to grab my free Authentic Connection Workbook. It will help you take action and implement the landmarks of the Authentic Connection road map that we have discussed so you can map your visibility with connection momentum building and audience growing strategies and spur if you've ever felt burned out by the algorithm or overwhelmed by all the ways that you should be showing up online.  

20:11 And it includes a quiz so you know exactly where to get started. So stop second guessing and start showing up with confidence and intention.  

20:23 And if you grab the swag bag, I included my email newsletters a beginner 's guide. It covers what email newsletters, are benefits considerations, and a brief breakdown of each section. It also has tips to make your emails more scannable and monetize your list with three ways to flash though and email numbers to consider. This has been road map to authentic connection escape the algorithm for Kat griffin june jumpstart summit. Thank you so much for listening and thank you again, Kat, for hosting the summit.