March 2023 Archives

The Case For FG Funnels…

…and why if you’re going to believe me about anything, trust me with this.

I’m going to be honest.

I’m hella annoyed at myself.

I have a problem, and that problem is called extreme introversion.

Even though I do a really good “fake extrovert” act, when left to my own devices, I hide. Or more accurately, I put my head down and work. I focus on my clients, customers, and people in my immediate sphere, and ignore everyone and everything else.

Sure it has its upside. But it means I am not as loud or visible or outspoken as I should be.

And now, after having my head down for the last 12-18 months, I’m realizing, that there is a consequence to this trait.

Lots of people who look to me for advice, aren’t getting it. Because I’m too busy in my hole to come out and say, “Hey! This is really important. Pay attention!”

But two random phone calls today snapped me out of it.

More people need to know about FG Funnels, why it’s positioned as the BEST solution for every course creator and service provider, and why you’re losing out if you’re not hanging with us.

It’s a bold promise, but I have some good arguments I’m about to put out there. So if you hang with me, hopefully I can make a bit of sense.

But first, let’s talk about you. Your business. Your dream. Your future.

Most online businesses have less overhead than a brick and mortar business, this is true. But where you decide to “set up shop” is as important as the physical location you choose.

There are a lot of options for marketing automation software these days.

  • Kartra
  • ClickFunnels
  • Kajabi
  • Infusionsoft
  • Ontraport
  • Groove Funnels
  • Drop Funnels
  • WordPress
  • Samcart
  • Some combination of tools (Teachable, ConvertKit, LeadPages, etc.)

Most of them have payment structures that increase as you grow.

They all offer landing pages, carts + checkouts, automations, messaging, etc. with varying features stacks, benefits, etc.

Chances are, you have one (or more) of these tools. And once you’re on a tool, it’s a pain in the ass to move. So most people will hang out in a “good enough” tool because they don’t want to go through the headache of a migration.

  1. Maybe you joined because of an affiliate deal from an influencer you follow.
  2. Maybe you locked in some ridiculous lifetime deal.
  3. Maybe a service provider only worked in one particular tool and you just went with it.

Whatever the reason, you are on one of the above softwares and wondering what I could possibly say that would change your mind.

Let’s begin…

#1 – Unlike a “starter” home, you do not want a starter home for your business

I remember when I bought my first starter home. The idea was you bought a small house you could afford, and then later when you had more $$, you would move to a better bigger house. This is NOT the way to do it online. And here’s why….

  1. The larger you are, the harder it is to move
  2. Longevity on domains matter (for Google)
  3. There is nothing more terrifying than running a multi million dollar empire on a software that is depreciated, has shitty support, or requires some expensive specialist to run

Every single (with 100% success) multi millionaire online business owner that has moved to FG Funnels has bemoaned that they wished they had moved when they were smaller and less was at stake.

The time to move is when you’re small…even when the price doesn’t appear to make sense at first (and FG Funnels is at an incredibly affordable $119/m regardless of how big you are so it’s a no brainer).

I remember talking to my client Michelle who was trying to decide when to move off ClickFunnels, and she was terrified since she has SO MANY funnels and sequences and runs a hefty five figures of traffic a month to her domains.

The Takeaway: Move to your forever digital home (meaning your software solution) while you’re small. Every day you get bigger, it gets harder.

#2 – If we know we need to be on our forever digital home ASAP, we want one that can grow with us

Alright, so if you believe me that picking a scalable permanent digital home is the best way to ensure you grow without stress, then the next step is to pick the home that will give you the best most solid foundation. This means the following:

  • A history of pushing out features and fixing bugs quickly
  • A thumbs up from the general market in terms of being a “market leader” (through things like raising money, etc.)
  • A commitment to excellence in the software, not just the marketing of it
  • A system that helps you with the five main things all businesses need (CRM, Funnel + Web Builders, Membership, Email/Text, + Automations)

The only company right now doing this – HEADS AND TAILS ABOVE THE REST – is High Level. This company pushes out features faster than any other system on the market, BY A MILE.

They have raised over $60m in funding.

They have decided not to market their software AT ALL, instead they let white label providers do it (like us) and focus exclusively on the software itself.

They have committed to making the best software in all five areas of marketing automation (plus many more I’m not even mentioning).

High Level has over 180 developers, with two owners that are boots on the ground with some of the best marketers around. They haven’t let their success go to their heads. They don’t create a cult. In fact, you will find them hanging out in hoodies and sneakers at their event, talking with everyday users.

In fact, one of the owners of High Level, turned down a VIP dinner because I had invited him out to a meal and he didn’t want to cancel on me. I don’t think I can vouch harder for a more down to Earth founder than Robin Alex who is the co-founder of High Level.

The Takeaway: For your forever home, pick a software that has a good reputation, ample funding, a commitment to excellence, listens to its power users, and understands the needs of marketing software. 

#3 – Find a High Level provider that will take the big money powerful software and tuck it away into a concierge, “small town feel” solution

So you’re on board to pick a permanent digital home, you know what you need to focus on for a good scalable solution and know that it is in fact High Level, so the next step is to pick a High Level provider that will give YOU the shortcuts you need.

This is where FG Funnels comes in.

We were white labeling High Level as a SaaS before it was trendy to do so. We started in 2020, long before the big and mighty mass migration away from ClickFunnels in 2022. For two years, we’ve been quietly building a solid infrastructure around the software.

What do we mean?

  1. Amazing and easy to reach customer support. In fact, I had someone DM me privately to tell me about her amazing experience with someone from our team. You can just email us at support@fgfunnels.com.
  2. FREE premium design templates. We’ve spent over six figures designing funnel templates that are imagined by a professional graphic designer, complete with tutorials, assets, colorways, logos, and more. We have an entire preview page to show you.
  3. The best education around. People are constantly trying to steal our education about marketing software because it’s so good. We have free and low cost education products that help you take action fast.
  4. An eco-system of providers. We certify funnel builders and build communities that have each others back. You get the power of High Level, with the small town feel of a community that helps one another. Something many of the big players can’t offer.

The Takeaway: Use FG Funnels since it has a 2 year head start in building a solid infrastructure that helps you get the education, templates, and shortcuts you need.

#4 – Avoid the other ‘flash in the pan’ solutions that might not be ready for longterm growth

The big migration away from ClickFunnels is underway. 2.o hasn’t yet come to fruition on its promise and so lots of people are leaving ClickFunnels for a High Level white label provider. Many of the big affiliates in ClickFunnels (yes, like us too but 2.5 years ago) decided to white label High Level themselves and have a go at building our own solution on top of High Level.

What most people don’t realize? It’s not easy. And big names have tried and quit. Because frankly, they are better marketers than they are software peeps. And that’s fine! Everyone should play to their strengths.

But this is why many many people are now affiliating for us vs. running their own version of High Level, because they know we’ve done the work to build a strong infrastructure for our community. This is what we do well.

We started this game before it was “trendy”. In fact, we were running High Level as a SaaS before they even had SaaS mode enabled.

We have had smaller agencies and HL providers come to us and ask to partner with us instead of going out on their own because the infrastructure component of white labeling High Level is not for the faint of heart. So when you sign up for FG Funnels, you’re getting a rock solid stable team of marketers and customer support that will make sure you succeed.

And if you’re an agency or a Saaspreneur that prefers marketing and teaching to customer support and operations, you might be a great fit to partner or affiliate for us. Just reach out!

The takeaway: When choosing a white labeled High Level provider (like FG Funnels), choose one who has been around and has longterm viability.

#5 – Know what you’re getting!

So here’s what you get when you sign up for FG Funnels.

  1. A fully unlimited account. This means that you only pay extra for the things that incur hard costs (like phone and/or texting). You don’t pay more when you have more domains, courses, students, contacts, users, etc.
  2. Live chat, email support, and office hours. All three. Five days a week.
  3. Premium design templates. These are not quick and shoddy templates thrown together. These are original designs, built in Illustrator by Cathy Olson, and then replicated. You get ALL of them… for free as a user.
  4. FGF University. This isn’t just a basic knowledgebase. This is strategy infused training to help you leverage FG Funnels! Just click Learn FG Funnels from inside the app.
  5. Access To Our Automations Shop. Want to skip the headache of building workflows? Buy an automation (with copy built in) and get your automations up and running for a fraction of the cost of a provider to do it for you. Just click Automations on the sidebar inside the app.
  6. Affiliate Commission. Want to sign up and earn 40% lifetime recurring revenue for every person you bring to FG Funnels? Sign up with us!
  7. Education Products + Coaching. For those ready to spend some money learning, all our education products leverage 1 click installs of funnels and templates for FG Funnels.
  8. Community Support. Whether you’re asking in our FB group, attending an office hours, or submitting a job posting on Hire A Marketer, we have people who have your back.
  9. Weekly Release Notes. Keep up to date with what’s happening with the software through our weekly release notes that we send to all our users.
  10. Savings by the thousands! Get rid of all your other software (yes all of it!) and keep your overhead low on your tools so you can spend money on the things that matter most, like marketing and advertising. Our users are saving hundreds to thousands a month.

The takeaway: We’ve spent two years building our infrastructure so our users feel supported and able to leverage the power of FG Funnels to grow their businesses.

#6 – If you’re ready to make the jump and nervous about the migration…

We’re not going to lie. Migrations are tough and annoying. But they are the easiest they are going to be…today. It will only get harder from here. So we’re going to do our best to help!

  1. We have a free course called Move To Gorgeous that you can take for the DIY.
  2. Need some xtra strategy support? Email us at support@fgfunnels.com and we’ll give you some options.
  3. Access our 30 day trial when you sign up for our course, Easy Launch It!

The takeaway: Bite the bullet and do it. This will be one of the only times I say, “Just take my word for it”. It’s your best option, I promise! I wouldn’t be so sure if I wasn’t so convinced for myself and my highest VIP clients.

#7 – Understand just how much you’re getting…

Without rewriting our sales page, here’s what you unlock as an FG Funnels user….

  1. You get a full customer relationship manager to manage your contacts and all their information.
  2. You can also create unlimited calendars (for both teams and individual) for booking appts, taking sales calls, etc. You can add forms and take payments, fully customize the calendar look, etc.
  3. You can email, text, DM, phone, voicemail drop – basically message your leads ANYWAY you’d like.
  4. You can have unlimited courses, products, funnels, checkouts, domains, students, etc.
  5. We have built in rebilling for both texting and email.
    1. Only pay for what you use
    2. You decide how much to put in your “balance” and we charge you per text or email
  6. We have native hosting for video.
  7. Unlimited automations for your courses, funnels, appts, everything.
  8. Do surveys and quizzes.
  9. Yes, you can set up your website and blog.
  10. Yes, you can use the social post planner.
  11. Yes, we’re integrating with Chat GPT to help with AI and content creation.
  12. Yes, we have premium triggers (which removes the need for Zapier) to connect to virtually any third party (just pay as you need).
  13. Yes, we have sales pipelines.
  14. Yes, we have tasks and unlimited users and notes.
  15. Yes, you can hook up any of your custom solutions.
  16. Yes, you can sign up your clients and be added to their accounts as admin for effortless toggling back and forth.
  17. Yes, you can get your account paid for when you sign up 3 or 4 other people.
  18. Yes, you can use all of the premium designs.
  19. Yes, those that run traffic LOVE the more granular reporting.
  20. Yes, you can fully customize the funnels and website.
  21. Yes, it has a built in affiliate program.

The takeaway: When in doubt, the answer is yes.

Okay so this has gone on long enough. I’ve been around the block when it comes to marketing automation software.

I’ve been a power user of ClickFunnels, Ontraport, LeadPages, WordPress, FG Funnels, and too many other softwares to count. We’re running our business on FG Funnels, and we’re ready to help you run yours too.

xx

 

Julie Chenell smiling and reading books sitting on a bed

The Course Creator Formula

Week 3! You guys LOVED the coaches formula and the service provider formula and so now I’m back with another one.

For reference, I’m working on a new idea. It’s this thought of easy-to-explain formulas for different online business models. Now, just because it’s easy to explain doesn’t mean it’s easy to do – but at least it creates a roadmap.

So today I wanted to introduce The Course* Creator Formula.

If you’re starting from scratch in the online space with no audience, it will take longer than if you have a following. But I want to start from ZERO.

*By the way, over at Funnel Gorgeous – Course Chemist – is launching February 22nd. It’s the final course in the Offer Cure, Funnel Rx trilogy! Offer Cure teaches offer, Funnel Rx teaches funnels, and Course Chemist teaches the art of instructional design. Making great courses people finish!

Here’s your checklist.

✅ Step #1 – Setup your online presence on social media. Do it under your name.

Step #2 – Get a domain and professional email address. Use Google Workspace.

Step #3 – Go through Offer Cure Workshop #1 to identify what problem you solve and for who. If you need MORE help than just that workshop, honestly get your butt in FG Society Phase 1. It helps people understand where and how to start with any kind of online info based offer. In step 3, you need to know WHAT problem you’re going to solve and for who. Course Chemist will also address this. If I were starting all over again, I’d try to sell something between $50-$150 on my first shot.

Step #4 – Now we’re going to build a lead magnet that gives incredible value and attracts that WHO that we identified in Step 3. Once that lead magnet and funnel are built, you’re going to put that link EVERYWHERE and as a CTA for whenever you’re creating content. This is the foundation of building your audience. Use the FG Funnels free lead magnet funnel and you can buy a lead magnet template from our store.

Step #5 – Time to publish. This is the most grueling step. It can be fast tracked with ads. You need to start showing the F up. Pick your platform, deliver content. The longer and better you are at this step, the bigger your audience will be. You need a minimum of 500 people on your email list. More is better. Here’s where people mess up. They have no idea how to publish content that is valuable and shareable. They just either talk TOO much about themselves, or some sliver of the niche their in, or they don’t publish enough. Both paid and organic efforts work well here. You can do this in 1 week or 1 year depending on how much time, effort, money. If you want to be a course creator, this is the step you have to dial in.*

**This is the HARDEST and MOST IMPORTANT step of them all. It’s the one people resist most. Do not skip this step.

Step #6 – Next, it’s time to actually build the SALES assets for the course. It all starts with the copy. Write the copy using either Offer Cure workshop #2 and/or FG Society Phase 2. Get a logo done for your offer as well so by the end of this step you have copy/logo and the assets you need. Turn your intangible idea into a tangible one through copy + logo/graphics.

Step #7 – Set a date for your launch and plan out your main ideas, hooks, angles that you will share with your audience leading up to the launch. We call it a pressure launch because it’s important to build buzz and anticipation prior to showing it to the world!

Step #8 – Build the funnel. Take your copy/design and get it all set up with your members area. Yes, use FG Funnels :). In the members area, set up a welcome letter/video with information on the calendar dates of when the course material will be available. Yes, you will presell so we fill the members area with something for them since the content won’t all be there.

Step #9 – Do the launch. Keep the cart open for 5 days and then close it. Use bonuses, early bird, and plot twist. Don’t lose your lunch. Make sure your expectations are set from the beginning. Don’t underestimate how hard it is to sell. Congratulate all the wins, even that you accomplished it! Once the launch is over, you will teach and build your content, aiming to get as much success for your students as possible since it will be the bedrock for your testimonials. Lots of help in Launch Gorgeous (when we run it) as well as FG Society Phase 1 for all this.

Step #10 – Plan to either re-launch it, or turn it into an evergreen offer (one that’s open all the time). If it’s higher priced, a webinar funnel. If it’s lower priced, turn it into an SLO that can be driven with ads or sold cold without a launch or any pressure.

This can be done in 12 weeks. It’s hard. In fact that’s why we do Launch Gorgeous for our students since it’s really difficult. Most people will take longer than 12 weeks because of step 5. You could be stuck at step 5 for quite some time if you’re trying to build a big audience. Like Larry for example. He’s in DI and he was at Step 5 for a few years. By the time he got to me, we did steps 3, 6-10 and when he launched he made $1M dollars 🤣. That’s the power of Step 5. Your launch success is determined by how well you step 5. He spent so much time on Step 5, the money was there and waiting for when he launched.

What to Expect: With 500 qualified followers from an excellent lead magnet and a really solid $150 offer, assuming you show up and publish well, you can expect between 20 – 50 students in your first launch. $3000 – $7500. If I were your mentor, I’d be high-fiving you on this!


I struggled a bit with this formula because this is ONE type of course creator formula, and unlike the previous two I did which were more straightforward, I actually have SEVERAL course creator formulas that I could have written.

One modification would be if you want to do a low ticket offer with ads and no list. You could conveniently skip step 5 and just build an SLO (which is actually 9 products in one funnel). The downside is that you HAVE to build everything ahead of time (Course Chemist a must!) and so you’re risking that it’ll work and doing all that front end work.

A second modification would be if you wanted to do a live set-in-time deep dive paid workshop. You could technically skip step 5 and just do ads as well to a workshop page and then teach it live. You’re going to get very very small numbers to start, but some people like this.

A third modification would be to do a FREE live weekly webinar where you run ads each week and micro sell to a tiny audience and see how many people you get each week to say yes to your program. The program has to be built in this case. So while you can skip step 5, you have to prepare a webinar, build the content, and do a live event once a week.

As you can see, there are a lot of nuances here that trip people up, which is why support on this formula is so critical.

This formula gets you through ONE offer and one launch. The reality is that in order to build an infoproduct company you need more than just one offer. You need a minimum of three (in my opinion). Again, building out a value ladder is incredibly important but it does start with these first steps.


Also? Step 5 never stops. It’s the never ending step you keep doing until you decide to retire. You’re welcome.