What a whirlwind of a week it was with my Digital Insiders over the past five days.

We are a group of 75 entrepreneurs who usually get together two weeks a year in person – once in the spring, once in the fall, but due to coronavirus, we had to do our spring mastermind virtually.

Though it made it quite a different experience than we’re all used to, we managed to pack in about 40 hours of content in one solid week! We recorded it all, the presentations, the discussions, the funnel teardowns… and this blog post is going to give you a few quick nuggets from an unforgettable week. It’ll likely be the first of several pieces of content because it’s IMPOSSIBLE to capture in just one post.

It goes without saying, it’s going to take us the next six months as a group to implement it all! I’m right now working on the next six months of group implementation to see where and what we should all tackle to make this week not just about learning, but about doing.

A Few Copy Nuggets!

Ashlyn Carter kicked off the event with her witty copy techniques presentation. One of the best pieces of advice she gave for working to be funnier? Create a copy bank of phrases you hear that you love. Things like “Umm… you must be super fun at parties.” Whenever you hear a funny phrase, jot it down, and then find times to use it in your emails, ads, sales pages, etc.

Brittany Bayley is an email copywriter and during her presentation she encouraged business owners to create a style guide for “how they talk”. This style guide makes it easier for team members to use your phrasing, your common greetings and sign off, etc.

A Few Social Media Nuggets!

Katie Wight encouraged us to create three pillars for our branded content to not just sell more, but to create a larger market of demand THROUGH content that focuses on three core pillars…

1. Lifestyle focus – What is the aspiring lifestyle your customer wants to have?
2. Product focus – Show the products features, benefits, and meaning…
3. Mission focus – Help your customers join the mission of your business – what it stands for

Keyword banks. Hashtag banks. CTA banks. These are three different banks that Amber Housley suggested we build for our social media game – especially on Instagram. This way you have a never ending bucket of ideas that help your content stay branded, useful, and specifically targeted to your ideal customer.

A Few Webinar Nuggets!

Julia Taylor dove into her hack for increasing conversions on her webinar… aka personalized videos! She shared her top tips and data analysis after recording over 600 videos. Guess what? When you smile and wave right at the beginning, that encourages the most clicks. We dubbed the new way she waves… “The Julia”.

Adrienne did a presentation on webinar ads and reminded everyone that the three metrics that matter most at the top of the webinar funnel are:

1. CTR – This is the click through rate. The higher it is, the lower your cost per click will be to get people to the page
2. CPC – This is the cost per click. The lower this is, the more people you’ll get for your money!
3. Registration Rate – This is the % of people that convert on your registration page to watch the webinar.

These three things need to be dialed in at the top of any webinar funnel.

A Few Time Management Nuggets!

Eryn Morgan took us into CEO Schedule Secrets where she explained that for people who find themselves wasting time, one of the most common reasons for this is simply… lack of clarity.

Sean Delaney also gave us permission to ask the 20 questions he used to ask big corporate executives trying to solve complex problems…most wasted time and resources come back to not being willing to bust out of our box to ask the questions that will lead us to the most effective solution.

A Few Podcast Nuggets!

Kelsey Murphy encouraged us to create a high converting podcast show template. This template helped her create and monetize her podcast to 150k downloads in just 12 months by focusing on the kind of content that is meaningful, and turns listeners into buyers. The template starts with three simple questions…

1. What do you want people to know?
2. What do you want people to feel?
3. What do you want people to do?

A Solid Piece of Advice For Those Making Deals

Aryeh Sheinbein knows a LOT about negotiations and deal making, and spends much of his days (when not on Wall Street) offering entrepreneurs advice on how to structure acquisitions, mergers, JV’s, buy outs, profit shares and more. He laid out five simple steps before you do ANY deal. He went into each step in much more depth but for anyone who’s excited about a deal and thinking of forging ahead, even just the five headlines of Aryeh’s presentation will remind you no matter how good the deal appears…

1. Know where you want to go.
2. Do the boring stuff first.
3. Then do the hard stuff next.
4. Then layer on protection.
5. Then write the terms.

A Few Traffic Nuggets!

Matt Deseno took an interesting look at the idea of anti-fragile traffic. The kind of traffic that is robust and doesn’t break easily. The idea is that wind will snuff out a candle but explode a fire. The same element has two very different consequences on the element of fire. How can we create things that are anti-fragile? Think of this example…

• An ebook is fragile.
• A book is a bit less fragile.
• Oral tradition is robust.

When it comes to traffic, most of us rely on the most fragile traffic source of all, paid Facebook. And we should be wary of putting all our eggs in one basket.

Michelle Diaz reminded us ALL why using search based traffic is such a good idea, even if it is slightly more slow growing. The only types of traffic that grow over time are SEO, YouTube, and…. PINTEREST! She showed us how she drives Pinterest to her blog posts and her funnels, and why everyone should be on Pinterest, even if they think their market isn’t there (it probably is).

This is not even 1/3 of the presentations listed here. Every single person who showed up to give a presentation, cracked open their knowledge and expertise, and gave generously. Every single person who attended provided so much value in the comments, I had to download all the chat.txt files from Zoom just to capture the ideas flowing quickly in the chat.

I’m going to need several more blog posts to even go into the presentations I gave (more on that soon…) not to mention the Finishing Touches and Funnel Teardowns that I did with two of my Funnel pro Insiders – Dave Lindenbaum and Cathy Olson.

We also did some quarantine awards, had virtual game night, had a virtual dinner party where we shared favorite recipes, as well as a virtual DI Library book club that’s begun. We’re all exhausted, inspired, and a tad bit overwhelmed. But one thing’s for sure… DI for the next six months is going to be implementation city!

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Best Zoom Background: Elissa Ashwood
Best Nail Their Haircut: Chris Wyatt
Best Make A Meal Out Of The Pantry: Julie Chenell
Best Smoothy Jazz Vocals: Chris Wyatt (not fair. he won two)
Most Likely To Shave Their Head Bald: Chris Creed
Most Likely To Yell At Children While On Zoom: Julie Chenell & Yael Bendahan tied
Cutest Office Pet: Marianne Schwabb (she lobbied hard for this)
Most Resourceful Workspace: Ashley Gainer**
Most Likely To Fall Asleep at Desk: Yael Bendahan
Most Hydrated: Helen Henley by a landslide
Most Likely To Exercise Through Calls: Michelle Diaz
Most Likely To Drool? Sean (we’re not sure if it was Sean M. or Sean D. – they can duke it out for the title)
Best Julie Impersonator: Cathy Olson by a landslide

**Also gets an award for having a baby during the mastermind and showing up for lunch on zoom the next day. :O 

So here’s the final takeaway… if I were to do a free presentation on any of my five teachings this week.. which one would you like to have most? Please let me know in the comments!

1. Strategic Planning (the one spreadsheet Funnel Gorgeous used to drive a year’s worth of content, planning, and offers)
2. Postmortem Questions After a “Meh” Launch (how to diagnose, assess, and extrapolate the right info after your launch!)
3. Working In The Midst of Trauma (keeping it together when shit is hitting the fan)
4. The Systems That Help You Overcome the Most Common 7 Business Derailments (ideas for curing squirrel syndrome, decision fatigue, imposter syndrome and more)
5. Knowing Your Most Important Numbers (Determining the Lifetime Value of Your Customer)