Hey Reader,
This week OpenAI announced they're shutting down Sora, their AI video generation app. And honestly, I feel like that says a lot about what people actually want.
While it caused a bunch of viral content, I feel like if they're shutting it down they're seeing that people aren't actually using it (or willing to pay for it)... and I believe that people still want to see content made by real people that tells real stories, not just bunnies jumping on a trampoline.
This Week's Needle Mover
Idea 21: Send Fast, Templated Proposals: Send customized proposals as fast as possible by using pre-made templates instead of waiting on complex, buggy automations to trigger
If sending a proposal take you longer than 10 minutes, it's too complicated.
Our goal when helping our clients with their sales process is to simplify down to being able to send a proposal within 15 mins of getting off a discovery call. Because when a potential client is just getting off a call, they're still excited, but if they have to wait 24-72 hours to get a proposal they've already moved on to the next "fire" in their business.
Whether you use Honeybook, Dubsado, or another CRM they have the ability to have pre made templates/files. If possible have it all set up so you only have to fill in someone's name, select their offer/tier, and one or two project specific things before hitting send. Here's a couple tips that make it easier:
- Wrap up your discovery calls with a summary of their needs, so you basically already know the offer you'll be sending a proposal for (AI call summaries can help with this).
- Use 1-3 standard packages that fit 80% of your customers, and a couple add-ons for the few semi-custom clients - that way you can add two things to your invoice, and have them automatically linked/added to the contract they're signing
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Have the email you're sending with the proposal templated with
- a section to personalize with their specific bullets from the discovery call
- a description of what's needed for next steps
- an expectation of what the first step on the project will be once they start, d) end with one sentence repeat of exactly what you need them to do (eg: click this button to sign your contract & pay your first invoice to lock in your spot)
- Add a 15 min buffer to your discovery call scheduler after the call, so there's a time block on your calendar to close the loop before you move on to the next thing
The Messy Middle
You only have to add a 3% tweak to a pre-existing concept to generate a cultural contribution deemed innovative.
- Virgil Abloh, founder of Off-White and former artistic director for Louis Vuitton menswear
In a time period where getting your business in front of new eye balls feels harder than ever, how we differentiate ourselves, or stand out, feels more important than ever.
But that doesn't mean you have to completely re-invent the wheel.
- When apple launched the first iPhone, they weren't the first smart phone, they were just "3%" better by putting it all together and telling a good story about it
- While chatGPT took the world by storm originally, Claude was "3%" better at what they built for developers with Claude Code and has now become the defacto AI coding platform for most devs, not chatGPT
- Jimmy Donaldson was obsessive about studying YouTube to make his videos better by slightly tweaking what he saw working, and after multiple years & over 100 videos he hit 1000 subs. Fast forward to today, he (MrBeast) has over 472 million subs across his accounts.
An innovative offer just takes small tweaks, keeping 97% the same. If the reason that many other people are doing something similar it means there are people paying, and it is driving results - you just have to figure out a couple small things that will allow you to stand apart.
- In our wedding photography days this looked like Jo taking couples to breakfast to get to know them as humans before talking business.
- When we did branding photography this looked like adding b-roll to our packages (before we saw anyone else do it) because we saw clients using the BTS clips almost as much as the photos, and saw we could do more
- As coaches this looks like giving specific action steps at the end of every call because we saw clients struggled to prioritize what they should work on after a call
What's a 3% tweak you can make to your offers to help you stand out from everyone else?
This Week on the Podcast
What is SEO & how should you even get started? This week on the pod we chatted with Courtney of Little Creative Company. I love that she broke down the parts of SEO in a simple "house" analogy that makes it easy to understand how the different parts fit together, and more importantly how to get started.
Listen on Apple Podcasts / Listen on Spotify / Watch on YouTube
Prefer the blog version? Here's a peek:
Does the mere mention of SEO make you want to crawl under your desk and hide?
If you are a creative business owner, you likely didn't start your business to become a data scientist. For many of us, SEO feels like both an overwhelming buzzword and a completely foreign language. It often feels like something only a highly technical web developer would ever understand, leaving the rest of us entirely outside of our comfort zones.
But if your ideal clients are actively searching for your services and your website isn't showing up, you are leaving money on the table. You don't actually hate SEO, you just hate the confusion surrounding it.
To help clear the air, we brought a true expert onto The Sustainable Creator podcast. Today, we are breaking down the insights from our conversation with Courtney Jones. Courtney runs Little Creative Company, an SEO-focused web design studio, where she helps creatives and service providers increase their impact. As an Enneagram Type One and a natural problem-solver (her family literally calls her MacGyver), she is a master at taking the complicated, tech-heavy aspects of websites and breaking them down into simple, digestible pieces.
To understand how to master SEO without losing your mind, we first need to change how we view Google...
Overheard in The Breakroom
Do you ever wish you could just ask someone who's done it before what you should do?
This is by far one of our favorite parts of The Breakroom. This week we counted that we have over 12 industries represented "in the room" so for just about anything you're trying to do, either one of us has done it before or collectively we know a person we can connect you with. 👀
Resource of the Week
This week Hannah Montana's 20th Anniversary Special premiered on Disney+. Possibly the most interesting fact for me, it was produced by Unwell Productions, the company that Alex Cooper and Matt run.
I did the math, she was 11 when Hannah Montana first came out.
As business nerds, this interview with Alex Cooper about how her business actually works was a really interesting listen - and the Hannah Montana fact was just a one sentence passing comment of many interesting things.
Cheering you on always,
Lyndon
PS, we offer 7-day trials for our membership, The Breakroom! Click here to experience it for yourself (you'll be able to attend up to two Live calls and get immediate access to the online portal and replays of past masterclasses).
