Episode 59: Allie Bjerk on How to Grow Your Business with Tiny Offers
Transcript Episode 59
Stephanie Skryzowski
Welcome to the 100 Degrees of Entrepreneurship podcast the show for purpose driven entrepreneurs who want to get inspired to step outside of your comfort zone. Expand it to your purpose and grow your business in a big way. I’m your host, Stephanie Skryzowski, a globe trotting CFO whose mission is to empower leaders to better understand their numbers to grow their impact and their income. Let’s dive in!
Hey, everybody, welcome back to 100 degrees of entrepreneurship. I am so happy you are here. We have a great episode for you today with Allie Bjerk. Allie is a visibility strategist, coach and consultant.
She has helped hundreds of business owners create the visibility strategies and marketing plans behind growing super profitable businesses for balanced and prosperous lives.
As a funnel expert, Allie has taken her marketing agency experience and used it to lead entrepreneurs towards their goals through her transformational programs, focusing on tiny offers strategies. In addition, her utilization of digital products results in entrepreneurs making money while simultaneously growing their business and following.
Allie spent years working for a corporate web development and internet marketing agencies before launching her business, she managed SEO and social media departments, teaching marketing and training new agency employees.
Allie left her corporate career after the birth of her first baby and a battle with debilitating postpartum anxiety that served as a catalyst for her to transform her life and never look back.
She now lives in adventure and travel filled life at peace in Northern Minnesota with her husband and three young children. So I have been watching Allie’s journey kind of on the sidelines for the last few years. And I’ve watched her skyrocket her business to seven figures and possibly even multiple seven figures over the last three years or so.
I’ve watched her also make some pivots. And so I asked her some questions today about those pivots and about changes she’s made in her business and how that’s felt and if it’s been hard, and what kind of got her through making those pivots and how she’s made decisions in her business.
So we had a great conversation. And if you’ve ever been following along with somebody on social media, and just like been dying to ask them the questions behind what you see on Instagram, this is your opportunity to listen to them because I did exactly that. I think you’re gonna love this episode with Allie, so please enjoy!
Stephanie Skryzowski
Hey, everybody, welcome back to 100 degrees of entrepreneurship. And I am so excited to have Allie Bjerk on the podcast today. Welcome, Allie.
Allie Bjerk
Hi Stephanie, thanks so much for having me.
Stephanie Skryzowski
We were just chatting like we’ve known each other for several years, haven’t talked in a while. But I’ve been following along your journey on Instagram and online. And I would love for you to share a little bit about that journey with our audience. Maybe about what you do now. But how you got there?
Allie Bjerk
Yeah, absolutely. I’m trying to think exactly how many years ago because we worked together on a project that was funnel related and strategy related. And that was in the part of my journey where I was really wishing I was doing my own marketing and I hadn’t.
I was marketing for other people but hadn’t done any of my own marketing. And I’m so grateful to have gotten that experience. But that’s a big part of my story is that for eight years, I did service based work. I did everything from social media marketing, to SEO, to building websites, to strategy, ads, funnels, like all the things. And then finally, two years ago, I ended up launching my own funnel.
After doing it for a lot of other clients for, you know, eight years and beyond. And it was, well not initially wildly successful, but after some tweaks and testing and finally doing the optimization that we all have to do on our funnels, it started working and I ended up making as much in one month of having that funnel running that I had made in probably two years prior of doing service based work.
So you know, runaway train, right away, I almost lost my mind because it was working so well, and it was like is this actually happening? Is this safe? What’s going on here? You know, like all the beliefs that happen when things change really quickly for you. And I ended up continuing to run what I have now named tiny offers.
The initial tiny offer was a calendar that I sold for $27, ran that for about six months and everyone was asking me like how are you doing this? How are you selling this? What does this funnel look like? So then as we do in our businesses, expanded to the next level of teaching other people to build that same type of funnel.
And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last couple years is helping people to build tiny offers of their own. So these self liquidating offers that help you run ads and grow your business on autopilot, that’s what I’ve been focused on.
Stephanie Skryzowski
That’s amazing.
Allie Bjerk
A lot more has happened in the span of the beginning to where I am now but that’s the short version.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, I feel like you rose very quickly to online celebrity, like, you know, marketing celebrity stardom person very quickly. I’m sure it felt amazing. Were there any points where you were like oh my gosh, this is so far out of my comfort zone, I just want to run away and hide? Are you like no, I’m here for it.
Allie Bjerk
No, like at all the points, I felt like that. You know, I mean, it’s a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B of like yes, this is awesome but also like, it can feel really weird and like you doubt yourself in a different way.
And there’s a fear of success thing like, am I gonna lose my friends? Is my family gonna think I’m doing something illegal? You know, when it all starts working so well, we’re just not conditioned to having success hit us that quickly, I guess.
So it was a lot of mindset adjustments and a lot of journaling and a lot of making sure that I felt safe in the I mean, not like an actual threatening way but like all the thoughts behind being successful and allowing that because it is really hard to receive when things are going well, at some point.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, I can imagine. Have you seen similar, maybe not to the level that you experience, but similar experiences in your clients as well? Where they’re like, you know, they have this newfound success and they’re like, oh my gosh, what do I do with this?
Allie Bjerk
Yeah, I’ve. I mean, off the top of my head, I’ve had four clients that have launched similar funnels and they went from, you know, like, six figures-ish in business to having million dollar businesses in less than a year timeframe.
And it’s a lot because now you’re leading a team, and you’re, you know, your face is on ads, and because you’re visible, people are saying mean things, and it’s just this whole level that you don’t really realize is going to come with it.
So it takes a lot of personal growth. I mean, any level of business takes growth, but just even having, like an armor around you, that you don’t let some of the trolls or people who see your ads when you are advertising, and they’re gonna say mean things, you just can’t let it affect you.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, yeah. So as your business grew so quickly, you know, sort of overnight, what did the back end of your business look like? And what moves did you have to make to be able to support where you were just, you know, in such a short period of time?
Allie Bjerk
Yeah. So for the first eight years, I would consider myself a solopreneur, where I was doing everything. Had a few contractors I would work with here and there, but never consistently. And it got to a point where just with customer service, I sold 20, 25,000 copies of this original tiny offer.
And I mean, you can imagine, even 10% of those people are asking for support, or they can’t find their login or because it have a 30 day money back guarantee. Some people want refunds. So it was all of the admin stuff got to be the thing that I realized was really sucking the joy out of my business, on helping people with finding logins and all these different steps.
So the first hire that I made was, my technical title is customer success specialist. She is so much more than that inside my business but her first role, her name is Michelle and she’s amazing.
And she helped me stop checking my email, essentially, because I was going down the rabbit hole every time I was opening my email, and even getting into avoidance of like, I don’t even want to log in.
So she helped me be able to just stay in that creative space. And, you know, continue being a content creator and communicating with people and engaging on social media and stuff like that. So that was the first hire.
I made the mistake of flipping the pendulum almost too far on the other side, and I thought I needed to hire every 10k a month consultant I could find.
So I definitely over-hired in the name of scaling, because what happened is it’s kind of a long story, but I created a course about tiny offers, and I was going to sell it for 997. And I had a friend who knew group programs inside and out, he knew webinars inside and out. And he was like, Allie, you have to do this as a webinar, you have to do it as a group program. It’s got to be 5k instead of 997.
And I was like, I don’t really want to do that, I don’t really want a group program. I don’t know if I want to do a live webinar, like those seem like very uncomfortable things to do. And he said, you know, I’ll help build it for you. You just have to show up and do it.
So I hired him first of all to build it for me. That was an amazing decision. But we ended up selling I think it was $130,000 cash in that first launch for the group program. I was like, well $27 sales are really fun and I like those. This group program thing was also very fun to be you know, getting paid larger chunks of money for the group program.
And the system that he designed was rolling enrollment. So I was doing a weekly live webinar and every week we were pushing in, you know, 25 people but you can imagine like at that scale so many people coming in so fast.
We then hired like an HR consultant, we hired an operations consultant, we, you know, I think at one point, I had $80,000 a month in payroll being paid. So to go from solopreneur to wow, almost six figures in payroll monthly, it was bananas.
And I think in hindsight, I would have gone slower, I probably wouldn’t have done the rolling enrollment, I would have gone a little bit, you know, just let my head catch up to what was going on. And make sure that we were providing awesome service, not that we didn’t, but make sure that everyone was getting a result.
It’s just a different business model and now I’m much more I mean, you know, numbers, like I’m much more profit focused, because when you get to that point, it’s like, cool, you have really high revenue numbers. But between ads and paying for a team, I could have been, had I sold the course and just done it with organic content and evergreen, you know, I might have actually been cashing out the same amount.
So just for anyone who’s wowed by launch numbers, like, there’s a lot more behind the scenes that people aren’t always talking about.
Stephanie Skryzowski
So true. Yeah, it’s so true. And it’s so easy to get carried away with that top line number because it just feels so fun and so big, especially if you’re continuing to achieve a bigger and bigger number. It just feels like why wouldn’t I just keep reaching beyond that?
And beyond that, and beyond that, but it’s like, wait a second, if I’m making the same amount of money, like what am I even doing here? I’ve thought about my own business, like, I’m ready to burn it all down and just keep a few clients and I’ll probably end up making the same amount of money.
Like, I think your focus on profit is, I think it’s really, really important. And I think that is something that just yeah, people just don’t talk about enough because the top line number is the biggest always. So it’s the most fun.
That’s interesting. So what does your business look like today? Like, what offers do you have out there today? Do you still have that group program?
Allie Bjerk
I do and it looks different when in the first iteration and some of this again, back to mindset stuff for like ideas that I had, I kept adding coaches to my program, too. So the first time I launched, it was just me coaching, then I added a copywriting coach and an ad coach.
And then I added one on one support for people joining the program. So everybody got their own business coach inside of the program. And it was, I mean, that’s personally where the payroll came from. But realizing that they were happy the first round, and they got great results, the first round, and it was just me coaching.
And I think in my fear of not being I mean, full transparency, probably feeling like I wasn’t enough to get people results or worrying about their experience or like, look at all these people coming in, I need to make sure everyone is touched and supported. Even if I can’t personally do it. I could have avoided that if I just stayed smaller.
So now that’s kind of what I’ve gotten back into is, there aren’t one on one coaches inside of the program anymore. There’s not accountability, there used to be like accountability sessions and mindset coaching sessions. And now we’re just focused on building out the system, the tiny offer system.
And we have a copywriting coach, and then I coach on advertising and strategy. So we’ve really leaned out the team. I think I have three coaches still on my team, who also act as customer success, helping people inside of the programs and answering questions and stuff.
And then my admin who does customer service as well, and then a director of operations. So we’ve gotten a lot leaner, payroll wise than we used to. And we’re also doing a lot more organic content than we used to, because everything, I just listened to this podcast with Dan Kennedy.
I don’t know if you know Dan Kennedy. But he’s like this, he’s a marketer and he’s like, a little sexist and a little hard to listen to sometimes. But he does say really, really smart things occasionally. So I just want to preface it with that, like, don’t listen to podcasts and be like Allie likes this guy? He has some diamonds in the rough.
But he says in marketing, the worst number is three in business or not three in business, the worst number is one. Like if you have one traffic source, one offer, you’re just leaving yourself open for vulnerability. And for the longest time I only had Facebook ads like that was the only traffic source.
I loved it because I didn’t have to be on social media. You know, I’ve got three little kids. So if I could just let my ads run. But you know, the second something changes where there’s an operating system update, like there was last April.
With iOS 14 and 15 updates, things can change really quick. So if you have all of your baskets, all of your eggs in one basket, you’re just leaving yourself in a vulnerable position. So we’re a lot more focused on organic content this year, in addition to still using ads.
But you know, using YouTube ads and Facebook ads, Pinterest ads, all sorts of other types of ads. So it’s not all just in one place, but then creating content that’s gonna live forever on YouTube and podcasts and you know, making sure that we’re a well rounded marketing machine as well.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, I love that. It sounds like you’ve really had to do a lot of pivoting in your business. And I feel like sometimes that can feel like at least to me, it can feel like a failure if something doesn’t work the way we wanted it to. And like, oh, I guess we have to try a different thing now.
But you know, but I think if we sort of flip the script on that it really it’s not. It’s just like okay, this didn’t work this way. So I’m going to pivot and try something else. But how have you sort of managed through? Yeah, manage through all of those pivots? Has it been hard? Or is it like, okay, cool. Let’s just try something new.
Allie Bjerk
A little bit of both. I think I have the roller coaster of you know, being dramatic in my brain of like, that’s it, it’s done. Like it was great and now it’s over. And I have to go start from scratch doing something else. But I’ve supported myself by hiring.
Instead of hiring consultants full time on my team, I’ve shifted into more of like, doing a VIP session or an intensive with a consultant and just getting their eyes on my business for two hours, and then taking what I’ve learned and implementing it myself.
So I’ve hired a few consultants of like, what’s next, like, this is what I’ve been doing. And they helped me see my blind spots. So I think that’s a really smart way to move. Like, if you have to pivot, just open it up to somebody who has a different impression and lots of different, I guess, a different view that they’re projecting through than you are.
Because I talked to someone and I was like, I don’t know what to do next. I feel like I’ve only had, I’ve only had one traffic source to one product. And if I’m pivoting, I don’t want to look like a flake, and I don’t want to look like this isn’t working anymore. So we have to do something else. Because it is still working, it just looks different.
And what she said to me was, you’re not pivoting, you’re expanding, like people expect you to be able to grow into the next iteration of yourself that you just have to keep talking about different topics and keep testing and keep growing.
And nobody’s going to judge you for that, and that’s like, oh, well that makes me feel better. Because I can think of people that when we were coming on to there. At least when I was coming on the scene five-ish years ago in this info learning space, there were people who had one topic, and then it’s like, if that topic goes out of style, and they never expanded into the next version of themselves, I mean, you don’t really hear much from them anymore.
And they’re not, they’re not relevant, and they’re not still talking. And you can just see people who, rather than pivoting and expanding into that next level, they just disappeared. So like, I didn’t want that either.
So it was definitely a lot of like soul searching, and how do we keep doing what we’ve been doing, but in a way that’s going to serve everybody for the longest version of it and talking more about organic content instead of just ads or different types of ads, even though I only used to teach Facebook being open and nimble to things changing? Because they do. They’ll continue to.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, that’s a good point. I like that sort of mindset shift from pivoting as like, you know, failing and needing to do something else just to survive to like, no, we’re just like, we just want to be more relevant. And it’s just really a way to expand our expertise, rather than we’re not bouncing all over.
It’s not like you’re going to talk about something completely unrelated to, you know, online marketing, it’s just, you know, kind of expansion, I like that. I also really liked the strategy of engaging really high level experts, but at like VIP day.
You know, a VIP day type engagement, because it’s like, you can get some amazing people’s eyes on your business without having to commit to, you know, a six figure salary or something. I think that’s a really good idea. I’m like, okay, how can I?
Who do I need in my business? How can I use that? That’s really really smart.
Allie Bjerk
Yeah, not that I mean, there’s so much value in group programs or masterminds like depending on what you’re going into it for, but you can often get as much input from the leader of whatever that group coaching program or mastermind might be. If you buy an hour or two of their time, even if it’s an equal investment, at least you’re like, really getting their focused attention.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Exactly. Oh, yeah. I really like that. That’s a good idea. Have you ever engaged somebody who did not necessarily have a VIP day offer? Like, if you ever just ask them? Hey, can I buy a couple hours of your time?
Allie Bjerk
Yeah, I have and they’ve told me no, and I was totally okay with that. Like, there’s this guy that had a similar-ish business model to mine. And he’s in the Clickfunnels space, and he’s doing a lot of affiliate marketing and stuff like that.
I was curious how he was making it all work, because he had, he has like, hundreds of tiny offers. And I’m, like, just curious how it all fits together. So I asked him on Instagram, I followed him. And he made it creepy and he’s like, wow, you know a lot about me.
I’m like, oh my gosh, I looked at your Instagram for 10 minutes max. Just scrolling through trying to figure out the different pieces. And I was like, maybe I don’t really want to hire him anyway. It got weird, but then he ended up telling me as much as I wanted to know just on messages on Instagram.
Like I got enough nuggets from what he was mentioning that I could run with it and figure out where my blind spots were particularly like my customer journey. Just to give you guys the background of what I got from it was they buy a product and I didn’t really have a good nurture sequence to bring them from one tiny offer into other tiny offers that I have available was like one entry point.
And then the next thing they see is a group program. But the way he has it set up is like more of a buying ecosystem where they can keep picking and choosing kind of like ala carte. But I don’t really present that to anybody in that way, even though I have all these digital products.
So that’s what I got from my sort of creepy Instagram guy. So I mean, it never hurts to just ask somebody. And some people might have really strong boundaries, like, I’m not going to talk to you unless you’re paying me but other people might be able to answer a few questions.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, I love that. Actually, recently, somebody on my team needed some technical accounting consulting on a topic that we’re not super familiar with. And so I just asked somebody who I know is in that space.
Like, I don’t think you offer this, but would you be willing to like, give us a couple hours of your time and like, we’ll pay you whatever your hourly rate is? And they said yes. So yeah, I love that. And never, it never hurts to ask.
Allie Bjerk
Yeah, I think everybody’s time is for sale for the right dollar amount. I think I saw somebody post that they paid Grant Cardone, like $100,000 for a few hours of his time. So I guess, for most people, you should be able to get something from them. If you’re willing to pay it, I suppose.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, love it.
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Stephanie Skryzowski
So I know you’ve got three, you have three little ones. And so I’ve got two. And I feel like I’m always talking about balance and sometimes battling this concept of balance of you know, family and kids and my business because obviously, I love my children.
I love my family. But like, I really like my business, and I enjoy working. And so it just constantly feels like this puzzle that I’m always trying to fit together. So what does your balance look like? What is your family versus work time? How do you manage all the things?
Allie Bjerk
I feel like it looks different all the time. But right now, my older two are, I have a fourth grader and a first grader who are in school five days a week. Thankfully, everyone’s healthy and in school presently. That wasn’t the story last year with them being home for the year, in a different way.
But now they’re back in school. And then I have a five year old who’s starting kindergarten next year. So she’s doing preschool two days a week. And I will load all of my call based on the days that she’s in preschool.
And then I can sneak work in on other days when she’s either, she’s occupied playing, or I get up really early if I have something that I want to get done. But I’m trying to hold on to that schedule, because I know she’s gonna be in kindergarten next year.
And it’s like, I want to really have gratitude for the time that I have with her. So I think it’s just like, constantly revisiting what my values are and reminding myself like, this is such a short period of time, and it’s gonna look different next year.
But it can be really hard, especially when things change last minute, you know, like kids get sick all the time you get a call from the nurse or whatever happens, and your whole schedule can just be shifted. So I think giving ourselves grace for that to-do list and knowing that it can pivot very quickly or your whole day can get thrown off quickly.
But not judging yourself for that happening. That’s something that I’ve had to really work on. Like staying in that gratitude of like, yes, I get to be flexible, and I get to be here for my kids. And even helping my kids reframe it a little bit.
If they’re like oh, mom has to go to work and like no mom gets to go to work. I love what I do. And I love that I get to serve, you know, other entrepreneurs and I love that I get to have this cute and they’re like oh, okay, so it kind of changes that in their mind of like, mommy’s gets to go to work, even though I’m sad.
She’s gone. I’m happy for her because she’s happy. So I think that’s helped me keep the balance a little bit more. Because I used to go into this mom guilt of like oh, I have to go to work again. And they’re sad that I have to go to work and I’m missing out on all this stuff. But I know that it’s good for all of us to have some time apart and have our own things that we’re working on. That’s what’s worked best for us.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, I love that reframe that no, mommy gets to go to work. I want to go to work, I love you but I also want to go to work. I mean, my office is about four feet off my kitchen and I have my door so like nobody’s here right now.
But most of the time there’s like kids walking by the door and so, but they still say the same thing to me like oh mommy has to go to work. I was like, child, I’m like five feet away, literally in the same house, you can see if you walked over my door.
But I love that, I like that reframe a lot. Because then they do, they realize that it’s important to you and it’s not, you know, it’s not something that you have to do, it’s something you want to do. And that’s, it’s important that we all have that. I like that a lot.
Allie Bjerk
It’s cool for them to see their moms having success too. You know, it’s like when I won the two comma Club Award, my family, I didn’t know I was gonna win it. It was that I crossed the million dollar mark while I was at Funnel Hacking live.
So I was calling my husband like, I hate to walk on the stage and get a two comma Club Award while I’m here and it’s crazy. And my husband’s like, well, we’re going to be there, can we come? And I was like of course, you can come.
So we packed the kids up and drove from Minnesota to Nashville, so that my kids could walk on the stage with me. And it was like for them to get to see that., and even this morning, I was speaking at the inner circle mastermind in Mexico in two weeks.
And my daughter, I volunteered in her class this morning before coming to work and she was telling her teacher like oh, we get to go to Mexico, because my mom is speaking and our teacher was like, what? Like, your real world, like people don’t really know what I do.
And so just to see her pride in seeing me go after my dreams. It’s like giving them permission. And even for my son who’s 10. Like, he’s very analytical, and I’m sure going to be an entrepreneur too. And he’s like, thinking about the value of money and like, well, why would I go to a job where I can only make X amount per hour?
Like why wouldn’t I make whatever I wanted in my own business? I’m like, exactly. So it’s really cool to see as we get older. I mean, it’s different when they’re toddlers. And they’re like slamming your computer post, because we definitely went through that stage too.
But as they get older, and they’ve grown up with it, and it’s just normal to them that we can create businesses and these dream lives, like it’s been really cool to see that reflected on them.
Stephanie Skryzowski
I love that your son has a realization that I feel like so many adults will never have. Like, yeah, why do I have to be stuck at this job that pays me like 50 grand a year when I can make 500,000 or 5 million. I love that. And he’s 10.
Allie Bjerk
I’m making some ego adjustment for him now because, you know, 10 year old. We’ve started buying investment properties, and he’s like, you know, these are all going to be mine someday, mom. And I’m like let’s slow down a little bit.
I’m still here, I’m still alive, but it’s like, I hope it doesn’t just shift into entitlements. So we’re making sure to keep him grounded and working as well. Like in, you know, the properties we’re buying, he’s painting the walls, and he’s doing the work.
But yeah, it’s been funny. So it’s still a balance of making sure they have good values and a good head on their shoulders.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Oh my gosh, that’s so funny. So do you feel like I’ve definitely seen you post about your investment properties on Instagram. And that’s something that I’m very interested in as well.
So do you consider that like a whole separate business? And how much time are you spending on that? Or does your husband handle that like versus, you know, versus your business? Or what does that look like?
Allie Bjerk
Yeah, so my husband is very risk averse. And he’s seen, you know, like giant launches in my business, and then low profit months from hiring. So he’s still working full time, he’s not willing to not work full time until he has replaced his income with real estate, was kind of like the agreement that we came to.
So what we’re currently buying, because he’s still working full time, is more like turnkey properties where we don’t have to flip them or fix them. We don’t have to do anything. They’re just people that, you know, maybe bought it themselves to flip it and now need to get rid of it for cash flow reasons or something.
So we’re finding properties that are under market value, and are fixed up well enough for someone to move in. So we were only doing it in our local area. And we only found two properties in three years. And we’re like, okay, this is not really going to help us to hit our goals.
So we joined a mastermind called cashflow tactics, that’s about investing in turnkey properties all over the United States. So we just bought one. That was in St. Louis, even though we’re in Minnesota, and that was like a whole different experience buying a piece of real estate that you’ve never seen before, even though my husband clearly loves to drive, drove to St. Louis to see it.
Anyway, so that’s like, what we’re doing next is our goal is to have 20 different houses around the United States. And that’s going to essentially replace his income. And then who knows what we’ll do after that, but that’s our starting point.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Wow, that’s so cool.
Allie Bjerk
We think of it as investors like we hire a property manager in the location, we buy it with cash and then do deferred financing. So we get the money back out of it after we own it. So we’ve done a few different strategies figured out.
I can’t take credit for any of this because I’m not the expert in it, but I’m excited to see you know, as we like, rinse and repeat the strategy. I think our game plan is like within three years, we should own the 20 properties so that he can have his exit strategy from this new job.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Oh my gosh, that’s amazing. And I love that like you’re sort of taking that you know, not wanting to have just one revenue stream, you’re sort of applying that principle to your family as well like not having just your business as your family’s primary revenue stream having investment properties, your husband’s salary as well.
Yeah, I like that. That’s really cool. Have you, are there any reason this is totally like, I don’t know, maybe somebody listening is interested in real estate investment as well.
But this is for my own personal question. Are there any resources that you have, like really tapped into to learn more about real estate investment and things like that?
Allie Bjerk
The one there’s a podcast called bigger pockets, that’s a really good place to start listening. And they teach this strategy that’s the B, I think it’s the BRRRR for strategy. So if you Google like BRRRR, I forget how many R’s there are, I think there’s three.
But I think it’s like rehab, refinance, and then a rehab, rent, and then refinance, maybe those are the three. We just skip the rehab part, because we don’t have time to do that right now. We let someone else rehab it. And then when they go to sell it.
The secret that we’ve learned with this last purchase is like if you’re buying with cash, you have a lot different buying power. So if you can, like launch a product in your business, and then take that launch money and go put it into a house, then that becomes like your seed money to keep having extra buying power.
Because if somebody needs to get rid of a property quickly, for whatever reason, you know. If they’re in financial struggle, they don’t necessarily want to wait 60 to 90 days for a typical mortgage. So that gives you a lot more buying power to be able to get a lower price on the property. So if you can swing it, it’s an interesting way to be able to do it.
Stephanie Skryzowski
I’m definitely going to check that out. And again, that was my own, like, selfish question. I wanted to know, so thank you.
Allie Bjerk
Yeah. And I mean, even on Instagram, like I follow a guy, I think he’s invest for more is one. But there’s like a ton if you start looking at, like real estate investing, there’s a lot of different options. I think the average investor all is like four or five houses.
So it’s not even like these giant companies. It’s just people like us who want to have a little bit extra income coming in. And I remember our first property, we went through all the work of getting it in a cash flowed like $250 a month was what we ended up walking away with, and like 250 bucks a month.
Like I could blow that at the grocery store in one afternoon, like, it was worth all the work with, like the, you know, the financing, and the inspection and like all the different pieces that go into buying a house for 250 bucks a month.
But like anything else, it starts stacking when you have now that we have three properties, I think we’re at $1,000 a month coming in. So you can see how it adds up. But it was definitely like oh it’s gonna take a lot longer.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Like oh I bought one property. And it’s not like an instant gold mine.
Allie Bjerk
I know, like everything else. Like I’m the most impatient person in the world sometimes. So when we, when we join this mastermind that I mentioned, that’s about investing, he set us up with what they call the game plan. And it was like Allie, as long as you, every quarter hit this goal, you’re gonna be there in three years.
And I was like oh, I don’t have to make infinity money like I can just slowly get there and not put all this pressure on myself to make it happen tomorrow. He’s like oh, that feels a lot easier and a lot less stressful to just consistency.
You know, like, of course, like everything else, we work out and we eat healthy, and eventually it pays off. But man, patience is not my strong suit.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Me either. How do you, what about tying that back to like the work that you’re doing now with tiny offers? I’m sure you have people that join your programs that are like okay, I joined your program, why am I not a millionaire now? How do you kind of help them through that?
Allie Bjerk
Okay, good question. I actually changed all of my copy, because I used to literally say I have the easy button for you. And then I’m like, why do people think this is gonna be so easy. And then I looked at my copy, and I was like duh Allie, telling them it’s gonna be easy, stop misleading how much work it is.
So now I’ll say like, this is gonna be a lot of work. And it’s not for everyone. And, you know, this is how you know if you’re ready, and I try to qualify a lot more. Because otherwise, it’s like, they might ask for a refund, they might not have a good experience, they, I don’t want people to have a bad experience if they’re just not ready to be there.
So I’ve tried to do more, like my lower end or my small ticket prices are more like beginner focus, just because it’s a lot easier to go through a course than spend $5,000 on a group coaching program, if you’re not ready for it like that just would hurt to not get your money back out of it.
So I try to make sure that I have different compartments for each person and I speak to like where they’re at mentally and that if they are ready to put in the work and they are ready to grow and scale then, you know, this program might be a good fit or this one might be not. Because it is a lot.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, yeah. And I feel like it must be it. At least I know that it would for me, it would feel like a bit of a weight on your shoulders like oh my gosh, I have to get all of these people who have now paid me money to a certain level of success, like that’s a lot. A lot of pressure.
Allie Bjerk
Yeah. And I think that was I mean, in addition to making sure I was qualifying people more so on the other end of the spectrum, it was like, I had to let go of some of that pressure for myself, because I was thinking about it.
And I’m like, well, gyms don’t feel guilty when people don’t use their gym membership. It’s a mindset thing of like not everyone is going to come in and workout even if they’re paying to be there. And I used to take it personally, like oh my gosh, people bought it, and they never used it.
And like, I’m a horrible person for selling it to them. But, you know, we can only do the best that we can, as creators and experts and service providers to prequalify and make sure we’re telling people the whole story, not misleading them or being unethical.
But we can only do so much to help people. They still have to, you know, put in the rest of the work.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. I think about that. I was actually just talking to somebody on my team yesterday, like if one of our clients businesses is not doing well, financially for a month or a quarter or whatever, like, it’s very hard not to feel like, oh my gosh, I should have been a better CFO, I should have like predicted the future for them, I should have like, done something so that they’re not in this position.
And I’m like, wait a second, it’s their business, I’m a fractional CFO. Like there’s only so much I can do, only so much I can say at the end. It’s their decision, it’s their business. So it is I think it’s like when you care, it’s hard to separate, you know, it’s hard to separate that. So I think that’s a good thing.
Okay, my last question before I go on to like, my final two questions is, what tips do you have for somebody who maybe has been following along with you on Instagram, they have sort of, they’ve seen your business grow, and they want some of this tiny offer stuff for themselves? Where do they where do they begin? What do they need to think about?
Allie Bjerk
So something I’ve just been thinking about and exploring this morning, actually, because, you know, our brains never shut off when we’re entrepreneurs. It’s like, how do I make it even easier for people that launch this type of system or have success with this type of system.
So really, starting with a paid workshop that you put on live, even if it’s in that tiny offer price range of like $27, versus building this whole funnel with sales pages, and emails and copywriting and like a whole product suite available.
If you just start with a paid workshop, you can always chop that up and turn it into an evergreen product later. But that’s like, I think a really good place for people to start is by promoting it organically to their Instagram or their email list or you know, even somebody else’s audience, if you can partner with someone and talk about this workshop, because then you’re not out the ad spend.
You’re not creating a whole product. If you don’t have validation, people want the thing yet, because there’s that juggle that a lot of people run into is like, I don’t know that people want this, but I won’t know if they want it until I create it.
And I’ve seen, I always talk about minimal viable product of like, create the version 1.0 of it. And then if people buy it, but even getting to that 1.0 step can feel like a lot of work.
So to simplify it, is like what if you just talk about it on social media, or you do you know, on Instagram, you take a poll and see what people are interested in learning and then invite those people who responded to a live workshop with you.
Even if it’s like 60 to 90 minutes, you’re still validating the offer. So I think that’s really safe and good place to start, before building out an entire system around it.
Stephanie Skryzowski
I love that. And for somebody that feels very overwhelmed by all things, marketing, Facebook ads, funnels, all the things I’m like, okay, I could do that. Like, yes, I present a 90 Minute Webinar on my expertise, and just talk about it to the people that I know like my existing, you know, audience network, whatever. I could do that. I think that’s a brilliant idea then validated.
Allie Bjerk
Yes. Perfect. It’s a perfect salvation and people want what we’re creating. Otherwise, it’s like all this time and you can get very demotivational if you do it, and it doesn’t work. And then to even try a new topic is like well didn’t work last time. Like this whole spiral downwards.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yes. I’ve lived that spiral many times before. I totally get it. Yes. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Well, my official final two questions. I like to ask just a couple quick questions at the end. And I like just hearing people’s responses because then I get to implement a lot of what all of my guests tell me so my first question is what helps you disconnect from work?
Allie Bjerk
Wow, that’s a really good question. I think like physically removing myself I have an office that’s out of my house, which helps. Not, it doesn’t help advice for you, when you’re in your house, I’m sorry. My kids kept tearing my lighting down or like ourselves and then I’d be like, late for a meeting and I’d have to put everything back together.
So it was nice to be able to remove myself. But still like, you know, we have phones and laptops that can follow us everywhere. So I think when I am feeling overwhelmed by work, physically putting my phone in a different room and going outside or going for a walk with the kids or like, getting really intentional of doing something with them.
Even if it’s a puzzle or coloring or, you know, getting on their level and making sure that I’m spending intentional time. Like that quality, not quantity and sometimes, and that is what’s helped me. So nature and then very, very focused on making sure I’m making eye contact with my kids and playing with them.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, I like that. That physical disconnection from technology, I think, is so good. And even something simple as leaving your phone in the other room. I think that’s yeah, that’s great.
Allie Bjerk
Or if you have an Apple Watch, I had to get rid of my Apple watch, because it was like the notifications on it. It was stressing me out. Like, versus turning all of them off.
I just don’t wear a watch anymore. And that I don’t feel tempted to like oh, I just I just have to answer this really quick current. Oh, something just came in. So yeah.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah. I’ve been thinking about getting an Apple Watch. But then I was like well, what that just made me even more connected to my technology when I’m trying to lower my amount of, you know, time picking up my phone every day.
Okay, my last question is, I think you’re a reader, right? Are you a big reader?
Allie Bjerk
Yes.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Okay. What is the best book that you have read recently in fiction, nonfiction? Doesn’t matter. Favorite book you’ve read recently.
Allie Bjerk
Such a hard question because I read so much. One that always comes out I think is called The Millionaire Fastlane. And it was the first book that I read that really helped me see that I could take my how much money I made out of the time that I spent. I never really thought about it that way before.
But it turned my thinking on to investing and selling my knowledge instead of my time. So that one is really good. Nonfiction, I know I just read a nonfiction book and now I can’t remember what it was. It’s such a tough question. I’m gonna have to Instagram message you after this.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, exactly.
Allie Bjerk
It’ll be like Allie’s 20 books, favorite.
Stephanie Skryzowski
I know I’ve been on like a major reading kick lately. And I never used to track the books I read. But of course, because I’m type A competitive with myself. Now I’ve started keeping track of everything on good read.
So I can go back and see like, okay, what have I read? And how many books have I read this month or this year? So I’m getting a little bit type A about it. But Millionaire Fastlane I will definitely check that one out.
Allie Bjerk
And then another one I’ve just thought of, I think it’s called peak. It’s about people. Let me look up the actual title, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson. But it’s about how people get good at things like how do you become the peak in your industry? Or in your you know, if you’re like a grandmaster chess player or violinist or ballerina.
And listening to it really made me think differently. Even about my kids of like, how I’m encouraging them to do things with passion and not just like, go practice piano because you have to. Like thinking about the consistency of a lifetime of showing up to practice and giving it your best.
And it was really interesting to see all the way from you know, an 80 year old who wanted to win a title and Bill to like, you know. Mozart wasn’t actually gifted, his dad had been training him to hear music and like the sound since birth.
So by the time he was four, he was already a master of it. But it felt weird to people because they hadn’t seen a child with that expertise. But you realize as a parent, how much influence you have on your kids skill sets. And I listened to it like mid Corona when we were having far too much screen time and we were just vibing.
And I was like okay, this is the time like, this is the influence time I have to make sure that they’re doing math or their daily reading and get more intentional with repeating things. Even if it’s 20 minutes a day because that stuff is really compound so I thought that was a really cool book too.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Yeah, that’s so interesting. I just watched, not just a couple months ago, that movie. I forgot even where it was HBO, I don’t remember. On Venus and Serena Williams and their dad and like basically how I mean, yeah, they started playing tennis.
Their dad just decided, you know, my girls are gonna play tennis. So they play tennis every single day. And it was, like you said, it’s just that consistency that leads to the expertise. And I’m like man, I really missed the boat on starting something as a child.
I do have to do a little that I can. Yeah. So awesome. I will definitely check that out. Well, thank you so much, Allie. It was so great to learn a little bit more about you and get some behind the scenes into your business and your amazing growth over the last couple of years. And I really appreciate you and your time. So thank you.
Allie Bjerk
Thank you, Stephanie. It’s been awesome being here.
Stephanie Skryzowski
Thanks for listening to the 100 degrees of entrepreneurship podcast. To access our show notes and bonus content, visit 100degreesconsulting.com/podcast. Make sure to snap a screenshot on your phone of this episode and tag me on Instagram @stephanie.skry and I’ll be sure to share thanks for being here friends and I’ll see you next time.
Transcript for Episode 59
