Marc Guberti

E72: The 5-Figure Close Method That Lands $10K-$25K Clients With Michael Marcial

January 15, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

After several bumps in the road and a life changing event, Michael Marcial decided that enough was enough. He quickly turned things around and made $5,000 in one week. He now teaches others how to create their own training courses and monetize them. He encourages his students to view monetization as part of the journey as opposed to an end-goal

Quotes To Remember:

“When we create anything, it usually serves a purpose for our former self.”

“The learners are earners.”

“I get consumed by content.”

“If you want to lead people, you’ve got to impact first.”

“Stand up, share your message, and the world changes.”

“Inauthenticity is the quickest way to not have a business.”

“We are always growing, always creating.”

“What is your message, what is the value you are bringing?”

What You’ll Learn:

How to find high end/big ticket customers for your business
How to develop trust with your potential customers.
Learn how to use Facebook to grow a client base
Why building a business around your genuine self is so successful
Learn what “adding value” actually means, and how to implement it

Key Links From The Show:

Michael’s Site

Michael’s Facebook

5 Figure Work Week Facebook Group

Recommended Books:

Michael had no book recommendations for this episode. He has a different approach to consuming content while staying action oriented.

How To Be More Productive In Your Inbox

January 15, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

inbox productivity

The overriding inbox storyline is that the inbox is an unproductive platform that takes you away from your priorities. When you’re in your inbox, you can’t create new content or do most of the exciting things for your business.

Most people view the inbox as defense. You’re doing the necessary things (i.e. responding to queries, providing specific information, etc.), but that prevents you from addressing other areas of your brand.

Some experts have frequently shunned the inbox and even stay away from their inboxes by utilizing a gatekeeper. But the inbox isn’t the productivity sucker people have made it out to be.

Yes, it’s bad to spend too much time in your inbox. If you spend several hours in your inbox each day, you’re not creating any new value for your entire audience.

However, if you visit your inbox in short, effective bursts, you can become very productive in your inbox. If you can quickly get in and out, you’ll have plenty of time to address the other areas of your business.

Inreaching Your Way To Higher Productivity

When I type the word inreach on my computer, I get an autocorrect of in reach with the space. “Inreaching” is underlined in red.

We have no problem with outreach. Neither does my computer’s autocorrect. We reach out to influencers in the hopes of achieving an objective and building relationships.

Inreach doesn’t happen so much. We don’t reach into our own networks as often as we try to expand them.

Being more productive isn’t just about getting Task A done faster. It’s also about achieving a better result. Inreaching (autocorrect, I suggest learning this word quick) allows you to interact with the influencers who already know you.

You could spend so much time outreaching that a bunch of people know your name but very little about who you are. Inreaching turns recent relationships into rich relationships.

Flag The Important Emails

email flags

When you open an email, you should do one of the following:

Respond
Delete
Flag

Flagging is a last resort, but it’s useful when you get a lengthy email that involves a lengthy response. If you can reply to an email in two minutes or less, get that email out of the way. Flag the emails that require more thought and address all of the flagged emails later.

Implement The 5-Sentence Rule

One of the biggest reasons people are unproductive in their inboxes is because they spend a considerable amount of time contemplating every email they send. These people write several paragraphs for each email and meticulously look them over.

Instead of spending a considerable amount of time writing each email, write all of your emails in under five sentences. Enforcing this rule on yourself forces you to be more concise and get the point across.

And as our inboxes constantly get filled up with lengthy messages, a 1-5 sentence email is a nice change. Instead of spending several minutes writing emails, you should only spend a few seconds and rarely go over a minute.

99% of emails I send are less than five sentences. I only write lengthy emails when I want to lay out a proposal or tell someone how much they mean to me. Other than those types of emails, most of the emails I send are less than 5 sentences (and most of those emails are 1-3 sentences).

Periodically Change Your Signature

At the end of your emails, you can include a signature that automatically appears below all of your emails. While this is a common practice, few people change their signatures. Depending on what project I’m focusing on, I’ll utilize a postscript at the end of my emails asking for help.

Most people manually write this P.S. at the bottom of their signature, but it’s more efficient to include the postscript within the signature. Here’s one of the postscripts I put at the bottom of all of my emails:

“P.S. I would greatly appreciate if you left a quick review for my Breakthrough Success Podcast on iTunes. The long-term goal for the podcast is to provide daily episodes, but I need to grow my podcast even more before I reach that goal.”

By including this postscript within the signature that always shows up below my emails, I don’t have to copy and paste this into each email I send. I don’t even have to remember about this postscript because it automatically shows up below my emails.

The more you can automate, the more productive you will become.

Delegation

delegation

While automation helps us on the road to productivity, we can only automate so much. For the things that you can’t automate, you can delegate tasks to a team of freelancers. You can instruct freelancers on how to respond to specific messages and how to conduct inreach and outreach. While I prefer to conduct the inreach on my own, it’s another thing that you can consider outsourcing.

You can find freelancers on a site like UpWork, but as you grow your audience and tell people that you need freelancers, you’ll get more people in your audience to come to you and ask for work. You can find highly qualified freelancers within your audience, but don’t get suckered if they say nice things about you.

Darren Hardy’s first hire was an employee who admired him. This employees’ admiration for Darren was an important factor that resulted in the hire. This employee wasn’t Darren’s best pick and there was a disconnect between expectations and what actually happened. Look at every potential hire with the question, “How can this person help me achieve my objectives quicker and bring in a profit?”

With that said, delegating tasks is the most powerful thing you can do for your business and life. This one act will open up more of your time that you can prioritize towards the most important areas of your business.

In Conclusion

Whether you like your inbox or not, you know it’s a vital form of communication. Ignoring your inbox means ignoring many opportunities and cutting off relationships. However, too much time in the inbox prevents us from doing our work.

We need to balance the time we spend in our inbox and make every minute count so we build relationships and explore new opportunities.

What are your thoughts on the inbox? Do you have any hacks for more efficiency and effectiveness as we send and reply to emails? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

7 Tips To Train Your Freelancers For Higher Performance

January 14, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

training employees
Hiring freelancers to perform various tasks within your business is exciting. You are on the road to delegating more of the busywork tasks so you can focus more of your time on your top priorities. All that’s left with the delegation is to ensure that your freelancers are getting the job done.

Easier said than done.

Even the best freelancer can’t get the job done without your advice. You need systems in place to ensure freelancers can consistently perform their jobs at their highest level. To train your freelancers to perform at a higher level, follow these tips.

#1: Getting On The Same Page

The main reason freelancers don’t fulfill expectations is because the employer and the freelancer never seem to be on the same page. The employer has one expectation, and the freelancer believes the employer’s expectation is something else.

This results in frustration on both sides because the employer either says nothing or a “Why aren’t you doing the work you’re supposed to,” while the freelancer assumes that they’re already fulfilling the employer’s expectations.

To get on the same page, identify clear goals and create processes to get the work done. The more clear you make the workflow and objectives, the more likely you and your freelancer will be on the same page.

#2: Communication

communicating with team

When you delegate a task, you take that task off your shoulders. However, you now have a new task—communicating with your freelancers.

By assessing their work, you can spot strengths and weaknesses. This will help you give more valuable feedback the freelancers can use to achieve a higher performance. When giving this feedback, emphasize the weaknesses AND the strengths. Most feedback tends to be one-sided towards the weaknesses. Don’t let that be the feedback you give.

#3: Use Google Docs

I absolutely love using Google Docs to lay out instructions for my freelancers. I could go off a tangent on how helpful they have been for me and my freelancers. For podcast show notes, I created a rubric for the show notes. My freelancer then puts in the info for those show notes.

I originally had to take the information he provided and put it in my own rubric. Now that is done for me. Even the episodes get scheduled for me. All I do for the Breakthrough Success Podcast is find guests, prep for the interviews, conduct the interviews, and send the files over. The rest of the post-interview process is handled by my freelancers.

Google Docs made that transition possible, and I now create a Google Doc for all of my freelancers. They can see your expectations laid out and make edits if appropriate (i.e. putting show notes content in their appropriate places).

#4: Use Images

We are visual learners who process images 60,000 times faster than text. That’s why I prefer to provide my freelancers with images showing them what to do than describing what to do.

This is especially useful when you need a freelancer to find an feature on an online tool. Instead of saying, “This is where you find the feature I want you to use,” I show them where to find that feature on their dashboard. This removes the guess work and replaces it with clarity on what I expect.

#5: Invite Them To Ask Questions

employee questions

You may not always view yourself as the boss of a company. However, the moment you hire a freelancer, you become the boss of your company. After getting over the initial ego boost, understand that your freelancers have a working relationship with you where you are the boss.

If you choose the right freelancers, they will have no problem with asking you questions or calling you out if you’re not doing a good job. Others will be more afraid and say nothing so they can keep receiving their paychecks without worry.

You need to encourage all of your freelancers to ask questions and call you out. Make your work environment open so people can give ideas and suggestions without fear. If your freelancers are afraid of you, overtime you will miss out on many ideas and suggestions that could have taken your business to the next level and beyond.

#6: Assess Their Work

Don’t assume that your new freelancer will immediately become a high performer. Some freelancers devote their time to the wrong areas. That doesn’t mean these freelancers were bad picks. In many cases, it means expectations weren’t clearly established or they don’t know the most effective and efficient process for getting the work done.

The best way to track progress is to assess the work of your freelancers. Weekly assessments will allow you to determine what actions your freelancers can take to boost efficiency and effectiveness.

As you get more freelancers, I recommend delegating this task to a highly trusted freelancer. Work with this freelancer for the first few weeks to make sure the weekly assessments help the freelancers achieve a higher performance.

#7: Check-Ins

In addition to weekly assessments, you should also check-in with your freelancers every week. Checking in will renew both your commitment and your freelancers’ commitment to your business goals.

I recommend conducting the check-ins through Skype so you can view the freelancer’s computer screen if necessary, but any check-in method works. In the weekly check-ins, you can go over the weekly assessment, talk about what’s ahead, and ask if your freelancer has suggestions or needs help.

In Conclusion

Delegating your tasks to others is a very exciting process. You’ll see what life as a boss is like and have more time to focus on your priorities.

With this newfound time comes the responsibility of treating your freelancers like gold. When a freelancer makes the commitment to work for you, you are that freelancer’s source of income. You are the person who helps them put food on the table.

And if you fire them, you cut off their income.

This is why you want to hire the right freelancers so you don’t have to fire anyone. However, you also have to properly train your freelancers because the best freelancer with the worst training won’t get the job done.

With that said, if you think about firing someone, just get it over with. Not only will it release the feelings of pain you’ve been holding, but you are robbing the freelancer with the false idea that he/she has a secure job. It’s better to never face that decision. That’s why you need to hire the best and train them to get the job done.

What are your thoughts about delegation? Do you train your freelancers? Are you a freelancer? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Utilize Facebook’s Most Underrated Feature

January 13, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Facebook is a sprawling social network with over 2 billion users. When most people talk about using Facebook for business, the conversation immediately heads towards Facebook advertising.

Their advertising is second to none in the social media space, but there’s a completely underutilized part of Facebook. Chances are you’ve seen it in action but haven’t taken them as seriously as you should.

This underrated feature is good old Facebook Groups. Some groups have hundreds or even thousands of targeted and engaged people within your niche. Find the right group, and you’ll find the exact place your target audience likes to hang out.

But Facebook Groups is an archaic approach to an innovative social network that is normally touted for its ads and live videos. Let’s take a deep dive into Facebook Groups and see how they can positively impact your brand.

Ask Questions

Many groups provide members the ability to interact and ask as many questions as they desire. Using that to your advantage will help you get the answers you seek and connect you with more people in the group.

I like to ask at least one question per day in one of the groups I’m in. This allows me to receive answers instead of conducting additional research to come across the same answers.

Asking questions always saves me time, and depending on the question, some answers also save me money that I would have spent. The questions you ask will be dependent on the group you’re in, but don’t be a lurker. As you join more Facebook Groups, you should set the goal to post at least 3 times per day into different groups.

Join 3 Groups Every Week

No matter how many groups you are currently in, you are missing out on a big segment of your market. Joining three groups every week will help remedy this problem.

While it’s great to be very active in one group, it’s not always easy to maintain that level of activity for two reasons:

You need to consistently think of a question every day that you have about a single topic?
The other members of the group need to consistently ask questions that you can answer, and you need to provide your answer before someone else in the group provides the same answer.

It’s difficult to dominate a single group, so it’s better to diversify your efforts across various groups and being active in all of them.

Post At Least 3 Times Per Day Into Different Groups

As you join more groups, a problem emerges. How do you actively post in all of those group boards?

This daily habit is the answer.

By committing to posting in at least 3 different groups each day, you publish 21 posts in various groups each week. If you spread those posts across various groups while honing in on 1-2 groups, you can continue joining 3 groups every week and meaningfully contributing to them.

This strategy allows you to combine the quantity of groups with quality interaction. At first, it may seem difficult to post at least 3 times in different groups, but the more you apply this habit, and the more groups you’re in, the easier this will become.

Using Facebook Groups To Expand Your Business

So far, I’ve positioned Facebook Groups as a place where you can ask and answer questions similar to Quora. However, the dynamic of these two sites is different.

On Quora, people move from question to question either to answer these questions or look at the responses. On Facebook, the community is more closely knit which makes it easy to build connections.

In one group I’m in, a member went above and beyond in answering one of my questions. I did some research on her and decided she would be a great fit for my Breakthrough Success Podcast. She ended up becoming a guest on the Breakthrough Success Podcast.

But Facebook Groups are more than just Q&A hubs with connection potential. Remember, if you choose the right group, the members represent the core of your targeted, engaged audience. To be more specific, potential customers.

With this in mind, pay more attention to the questions they ask. What types of questions come up the most?

By answering this question, you’ll access a treasure trove of content and product ideas. Wondering what your next blog post should be about? See what questions people are asking. Want to create a product with high demand? See what questions people are asking.

The best way to come up with the best ideas is discover what the best people in your niche want to know more about.

In Conclusion

When you read most articles about growing your business with Facebook, the conversation leans towards Facebook advertising and doing live videos.

Facebook Groups often get cast to the side, and yet they are one of the best functionalities Facebook provides.

By the end of the day, join at least one Facebook Group you weren’t in before. Post in a Facebook Group you’re already in. Get this habit down, and then incorporate three daily posts and three new groups every week. With these habits in play, it will be easier for you utilize one of the greatest opportunities Facebook has to offer for business owners.

What are your thoughts about Facebook Groups? Are you active in any of the groups you’re in? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

E71: Optimizing Your Pay-Per-Click Ads For Epic Results With Chris Dayley

January 12, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Chris Dayley is a digital marketing expert with a passion for helping businesses succeed online. After spending years driving traffic through SEO and digital marketing efforts, Chris turned his attention to the user experience of websites to see if he could influence traffic to convert better. He merged his Conversion Optimization company with Disruptive Advertising, where he currently works as VP of site testing and optimization.

Quotes To Remember:

“Anyone that’s done SEO in the past, knows that it takes a really long time.”

“How are you building value so that someone wants to take action today?”

“What could be distracting people from the call to action?”

“80% of ads that are shown, don’t receive a conversion.”

“Traffic is meaningless if it doesn’t convert.”

What You’ll Learn: