Scaling to Six Figures & Beyond with Ron Reich

Jaclyn Mellone

Welcome to Go-To Gal episode number 210. As always, I’m your host, Jaclyn Mellone. And not as always, we have a male guest today. We have a go-to guy joining us. So our guests today, Ron Reich is an expert when it comes to scaling. And I know that’s probably something on your mind. Whether you’re looking to scale to six figures, or from six figures to seven figures and beyond, the topic of scaling, comes up time and time again.

Now, Ron is someone with who I first connected many years ago. So we talked about this a little bit on the episode so I don’t want to go too far into it. But I always like to give you context when I know our guests personally. So Ron was the launch manager. I think that’s what he said. He was the launch manager for Todd Herman back for one of the launches or for a few of the launches, but when I first met him for one of the launches, when I was an affiliate for Todd Herman’s 90 Day Year Program, you may or may not know who Todd is. He’s certainly worth looking up. If you don’t know who Todd is, but I was an affiliate for his program was really life-changing for me. I don’t believe he sells it anymore. But I had met Ron while being an affiliate and I had worked as I had done this a few times before. And the person in those roles before, I just never really had much interaction with. And when we went through this launch where Ron was in that role, he was really interactive in the group and reached out to those of us personally, and encouraged us, and offered to get on Skype calls. I got on a Skype call with him. Just Todd, probably, I don’t know the logistics on the back end but I did not pay anything to get on that Skype call with Ron and brainstorm my bonus as an affiliate for this program. And it was really above and beyond. And it led to me having a much better launch than I had had before as an affiliate. But I also left that being really impressed with Ron and how he was able to really support and encourage the group in ways I hadn’t seen before. And that also left a better impression of Todd and the whole program of like, oh wow, they really take care of us as affiliates. And so when you have someone like that on your team, it makes a big difference. 

So I bring that up for a few reasons. One, depending on which side of that you’re on. If you are running an affiliate launch and so, having those people on your team having them go the extra mile makes a big difference. If your someone working on someone else’s team and interacting with their clients, that can lead to a lot of opportunities. And so, building those relationships as the person on the team can be really valuable for your ongoing business. And also to just let you know a little bit of the behind-the-scenes of how Ron and I first connected. And so we kept in touch from there. I have taken one of his courses, and we’ve just really become friends over the years.

And so I remember was having a coffee chat back in December of 2021. I’m like, what year is it? So if you’re listening to this when it goes live, it’s just last month. And we were talking about offers, and he and I think the same and have had similar strategies in terms of how we’ve achieved our own success. We’re very much in alignment. And I loved what he was adding to the conversation we were having. And it got me thinking about things and I was like, I need to get you on the podcast so I can share this with our Go-To Gals, so that is what we’re doing. 

So this conversation is all about scaling. We’re going to talk about offers, what those offers can look like, the simplest ways to scale. We’re going to talk about the breakdown of how it is different going to scaling to six figures versus scaling beyond six figures, different things to focus on.  And we’re also going to talk about how you can make this really simple- the simplest thing ever. And I’m actually sharing some behind-the-scenes of my own business. And this too as we get into these things, I’m like, oh, I can share how I actually just did this. So all the things. But before we get into the conversation, I want to formally introduce you to Ron. And then we’ll dive right in. 

Ron Reich is a sought-after Marketing Strategist and Consultant. A former lawyer, Ron has been selling online for over 13 years. After launching over 50 of his own products in a variety of niches, he later became the secret weapon behind many of the biggest names in the industry including Hay House Publishing, Todd Herman, Selena Soo, Denise Duffield-Thomas, and Ryan Levesque. His current focus is on helping emerging experts build seven-figure businesses through his proprietary marketing systems. All right, let’s get to it. Here is my conversation with Ron. 

Ron, I’m so excited to have you here today. 

 Ron Reich

Hello. I am so excited to be here. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Yes. All right. Before we dive in, take us back in time to when you were growing up, what were you the go-to guy for back then? 

Ron Reich

Yes. By the way, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I know I’m not typically the kind of dude you have on yours. So I’m very honored and flattered to be here. As far as answering the question, this would have actually surprised some people. When I was really young, I was like a total entertainer. I was really, really going to hand me it up. And the thing that was really interesting is that I always had a certain activity that I was focusing on, that I would use mostly to entertain my family and sometimes my friends and things like that. So to go down the list, I started as a magician. I had a couple of magic tricks I was good at. Then when I was about seven years old, I got into ventriloquism. I got like a little Charlie McCarthy ventriloquism doll which I would do little things like that.  Now, to be totally honest, I was not really great at either of those. But the thing that I was really good at was actually I got into yoyos. So when I was about eight or nine years old, I got obsessed with yoyos. And this was way back in the day. You’ll all appreciate this. Actually, back in those days, my mom bought me. The first one was called, it was this Duncan VHS video that showed as the top yoyo trick. So I was buying info products. My mom was buying me info products when I was eight years old. So I was like, every day after school, I would go home and watch Tom Parks, he was the guy in the video. And he would show you how to do all these tricks and then you practice them. And I really taught myself how to be good at yoyos when I was eight or nine years old. So for a while, when I was in school, I was the yoyo guy. That was the way I would entertain people. So that’s the answer. I was all sorts of entertainment when I was growing up. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Do you still yoyo? 

Ron Reich

It’s funny. Earlier, sometime, maybe six or eight months ago, I was at my brother’s house and he has two young kids, my two young nephews. They are six and three years old, and they had a yoyo. And I just like, oh, that’s cool. And then I started playing with it, and I still kind of had it. And it was pretty fun. It wasn’t like the most high-quality yoyo but I was able to do a couple of things. But then afterward I was like, that was pretty fun. So about six months ago, I actually ended up ordering some better yoyos and I got back into it. For a while, I was actually getting back into practicing. So the answer’s yes. I still do it a little bit and I would like to do it a little bit more. As you might know, it’s really good to have hobbies that are not related to technology, and things like playing board games or just playing sports. I have a good friend who likes to surf. But yoyos scratch that statement. Playing music, so getting back into that. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Yes, I love this so much and it reminds me of, I recently got, well, probably a year or so ago now, a hula hoop. I got a custom hula hoop. But I used to hula hoop a lot when I was younger. I was actually really good. I have hula hooped for two hours straight before in the past. I can’t do that now. But it’s actually a really good workout and it’s fun. And yes, so I’ve been embracing my childhood. And it gives me, I don’t know if I’m like outside watching the kids play or in our basement, we have it set up with bounce house and workout trampolines and stuff. And I bring the hula hoop down there. So if the kids are bouncing around, I can hula hoop. We trade our own little obstacle course, they have hula hoops too and a trampoline. So that’s a little bit of exercise, but it brings out that playful kid, the inner child in us. And it’s so good. It’s so good for the soul. 

Ron Reich

Yes, that’s what I would call it, a very optimal activity because it’s exercise. You’re doing it outdoors and you could do it when you’re spending time with your families. So you’re like checking all sorts of boxes. 

Jaclyn Mellone 

And they say I can’t multitask. Oh, all right. So fast forward to today, tell us what do you do and who do you help? 

Ron Reich

Okay, great. So since I was a business coach and a marketing strategist, I used to really focus on helping, really mostly working with high-level people who were doing multiple seven figures. But now, I really found my sweet spot is really helping out coaches and experts, especially mission-driven coaches and experts who are typically lower six figures. And really my specialty is helping them go from six to seven figures. Typically, using a combination of launches, high-end offers as well as some evergreen marketing systems.

Jaclyn Mellone

There are so many directions we can dive in today. I can’t wait to dive into all of it. Oh, since you gave us a little glimpse into what your trajectory in this online business has been, you were working behind the scenes and that’s how we met is you were running. I don’t know your exact title, but tell me, what were you doing? What was your title or what’s your role with Todd Herman’s team for the 90 Day Year launches? Because I was one of the affiliates and you were the launch manager or something along those lines. 

Ron Reich

I think my technical title with Todd was Marketing Manager. And during that time, I filled the role of launch manager as well as affiliate manager, essentially. So that was the conference where we met.

Jaclyn Mellone

Yes, which I had been with Todd for a bunch of launches. So I had seen other people in a similar or the same role that you were in and you stood out to me so much from the back. And you really went the extra mile with us as affiliates and offered to get on. Sounds like we’re dating ourselves here on Skype. Offered to get on Skype and help out. And you checked in with me multiple times throughout the launch. And you were encouraging and all of that. And that going the extra mile really made you stand out to me. And I could see how you were just a value to the whole team and everything. And that’s what kicked off us getting to know each other better. So when you were working behind the scenes in those businesses, when did you start? Because a lot of our listeners here at Go-To Gal are working behind the scenes. So when you were doing that, did you have your own products and services? What did that look like, or when did the transition take place?

Ron Reich

Yes, let me paint the trajectory a little bit. And I think your listeners would actually appreciate this. Actually, I always talk about how I got my first motivational speech. Actually, around that time when I was doing yoyos. When I was in the second grade, I came home from school one day and my mom told me that I was going to have to repeat the second grade. And this was really traumatic for me. I just really felt like for the next 20 years or so, probably more actually, I felt like something was wrong with me. Like I wasn’t smart enough, I wasn’t good enough. And so I ended up overcompensating. I ended up going to law school, getting good grades in school, becoming a lawyer. I think it might work out, but I ended up falling into the online marketing stuff. But always as that behind-the-scenes person like you mentioned. So my first business, I actually sold my own info products. Primarily, and that was actually in the relationship space. I was working behind-the-scenes with an expert and I was again, the behind-the-scenes dude. And then I ended up starting a business in the dog training space. Maybe I have talked about this with you before. I used to have a site where I would sell dog training information products. I’m a dog lover amongst other things. But I always felt like I had more to give. I wanted to get my own voice out there. And so that always just desired that I had, but I never really had the courage to do it. I think that’s because of what happened when I was younger. Then after my dog training business, I ended up working with this guy, Ryan Levesque, who I believe you know. I worked as his marketing director for a couple of years. He was actually my coach. And then I ended up working in his business. That’s actually how I met Todd, was initially through and around that event. And then that’s how I got more into helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses and things along those lines. And what ended up happening was I worked with Ryan for two years. And then I got to that point where I just, you just know that you want to get your own message out there. It’s hard to pin the words, but sometimes you’re just like, I knew it and I want to do it but I made the decision towards the tail end of when I was working with Ryan. I ended up my engagement with Ryan, it was right at the beginning of 2017. And then that’s right when I started my consulting business. And this is when I was essentially my own brand, but really I was still pretty behind-the-scenes. So I ended up working with Todd. That first one with Todd, I worked with them about May of 2017. So at that point, I was technically my own brand. But the way I was getting clients was really by networking and then going to events, and things like that. I wasn’t really putting out content and doing videos and things like that. So this is something that many people might appreciate. I was so freaked out. So I started my consulting business in February of 2017. And then I didn’t do my first Facebook Live until September of 2017 because I was so freaked out about doing a Facebook Live. And check this out. I didn’t really start regularly posting content on social media, mainly Facebook, until about a year later. And I was actually so freaked out about posting business articles. Many people can relate on my personal page because one of my non-business friends thinks about this. And in retrospect, I think it’s like, why did you wait so long? 

So what I’m getting at is, it took me so much. I was so freaked out about putting myself out there. And then at some point, I work with people like, how do you do this? And you can do mindset things and things along those lines and all that stuff is great. But really, at some point, you just have to rip the bandaid off and you just got to do it. And the thing I tell people to just do it and just realize it gets easier because it really does. It’s all these things like doing a Facebook Live it’s like, I don’t want to go back and strangle myself. Everything happens the way it’s supposed to. But when I think about, man, if I was just being nice to myself, if I could have been less lame and just been willing to put myself out there, I would have progressed that much faster in my career. 

Jaclyn Mellone

I think we can all look back and just cringe at those things of like, why are we not doing that? Or why were we doing this thing that way? But I really appreciate your journey with this because you were able to, I feel like we’re the definition of a best-kept secret. You were this secret weapon behind the scenes. And that’s something where a lot of experts have successful businesses doing that. You start with one client, you get referrals and you don’t need to have a big following to have a successful business like that. But then making that transition, even though you already have that expertise and you have that like, I’ve been doing this stuff for all these successful people. But there’s something about that switch and just getting out there and getting on Facebook Live or being that content creator yourself that feels so different. So that’s something that I think is really relatable for a lot of us. And it’s cool to see your trajectory. And I think there’s a lot of gems in just hearing how you grew that side of your business in terms of how someone who’s just getting started or who is in that place now could be leveraging that type of role more even before making the transition. 

Ron Reich

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. That’s the thing. The thing I would say that hopefully will be helpful for you listening to this is that there is somebody out there. So here’s what I would say. When building your brand, I will probably talk about this as I really recommend starting at the higher end of the market, it’s going to be easier for you to hit your revenue goals if you do this. So one thing that I would be thinking about if I were starting out, really this is true in any context, is given your expertise, given your unique mix of expertise and what you have, you already are a unicorn. Just by definition of you being you and by having your unique mix of experiences, expertise, and things you’ve done at your education, all these types of things make you a unicorn. So it’s really about finding out. And so the trick really at the beginning, especially, it’s very not who you are a unicorn for. This would be step one to building a six-figure business. And then it’s the same step really, or once you know what it is getting to half a million dollars plus isn’t that difficult. So let me give you myself as an example. So for example, when I first started doing consulting, this is right when I stopped working with Ryan Levesque, as I mentioned earlier, I ended up, I didn’t really know. I just generally started back. I’m going to be a consultant. I’ll be a marketing consultant. I know all sorts of stuff about marketing. I will help you when it comes to your marketing. And so the first few people I talked to, I would give them all sorts of different pitches depending on what they were interested in. Oh yes, I could totally help you with that. Or I would give them different frameworks or et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then what ended up happening was, I worked on some big launches in the past. That was real expertise that I had. So it turned out that the thing that people were most interested in for me was my launch expertise. So for that first year, I positioned myself as a high-end launch strategist. And I was specifically positioned as that and I was really focusing on these multiple seven-figure players that wanted to have seven-figure plus launches. This was a very, very unique, a very, very targeted niche I was looking at. And the thing is, I realized as I was going up even more so in hindsight that certain person that wanted to have a seven-figure launch, I was a super unicorn. The main reason why I was a unicorn is because I was really good at messaging. I was really good with the messaging of a launch. I had a lot of experiences like writing copy and things along those lines. I was really good with email sequences. Really the same stuff as a copywriter would do. But I also had actually managed big launches before from the project management side as well as like, as you mentioned it in our experience like the affiliate management side.

So most of these people, the people who want to do a seven-figure launch, and this is still actually true, oftentimes they could either hire a really expensive copywriter messaging type person, and they would still need to hire a marketing man like a manager or a JV manager. So my unique expertise and I actually, for my high-end clients, I was actually just consulting. I wasn’t really doing a ton of hands-on stuff. But still, I was really a unicorn because they could hire me to consult with them on the launch strategy, the messaging, the email sequences. And then as well as I could give them all my frameworks when it comes to affiliates, as well as project managing and entire launch. If they had never done that before, I could coach them through that. So, these are unique unicorn stripes which made me really unique because instead of hiring and spending $30,000 on a copywriter and then another $30,000 on a launch manager, I was charging basically $25,000 for my consulting package. They could just hire me and they were getting a super deal. So this is what I would encourage everybody to think about. So what are your unicorn stripes? What’s your unique combination of expertise and specialties that some person, who’s that person and who is that person out there that’s going to be like, oh, wow, you’re the unicorn I’ve been looking for? 

Jaclyn Mellone

I love how you’ve put that all together. And I just keep thinking of taking like, I have a very particular set of skills. But you do, right? And when you’re able to take all these different skills or experiences that you’ve had and find those people that really value that the most, need that the most, that you’re that unicorn for them. I like how you put those puzzle pieces together in terms of figuring out what that niche should be. 

Ron Reich

Absolutely. For sure. 

Jaclyn Mellone

And I can’t help but reflect back and be like, could you have figured that out without just throwing spaghetti at the wall first. 

Ron Reich

I would say, no.

Jaclyn Mellone

Get to try stuff to figure out. And have people reflect back to you because sometimes what I have found is that we don’t usually have that taken set of some confidence of, I have a very particular set of skills. Most people don’t really realize how or where their skills or combinations of skills are unique. And so I think it is in that, okay, for a period of time putting it out there. And this could be at the beginning of a business, it can also be after you’ve been in business for a while that we still don’t really know what that real magic is or where the sweet spot is. 

Ron Reich

Yes, absolutely. And this is something I’m really glad that you brought this up. The truth of the matter is that the market always has all the answers. The market only has the answers. You get paid by the market. They vote with their dollars. And so the way you find out your unicorn stripes really why this is your offer going to be, you have to go out there. You have to put it out there. And so, how do you find that? How do you do this? So the way you find that if you have a good offer is by having a good offer. And how do you do that? So, of course, you can basically talk to people. You can do market research. That’s cool. Ask people what their problems are, what their goals are. Tell them, oh, I’m thinking about doing this. Would you find this interesting? Would you pay for that? That’s cool. Do that. And then even better, once you have like, you can hypothesize a couple of offers or some options then go out and start selling it. So this is what I tell my clients is that when you’re just launching a new venture, launching a new project and you’re not exactly sure what your messaging should be, what I would say is map out. Maybe this is what I unconsciously did when I was starting out. Map out maybe three to five different offers, different things you could help people with. And then depending on who you’re talking to, make the offer that is the most relevant. So for example, when I was starting out, to give you some more specifics, depending on what I was talking to, I would say, oh yes, I can help with your watch. I’m a high-end launch strategist. At that time I was also, I worked with Ryan Levesque so I was very familiar with if you’re familiar with his process, the Ask Method. I was such an expert on that. So some people, I knew that they were interested in building an Ask Method funnel. I was like, oh yes, totally. I can totally help you build an Ask Method Funnel. And there were some people who just weren’t doing a launch or they weren’t really into the Ask Method. That was when my messaging was more about like, I’ll help you get to seven figures, or I’ll help you get to multiple seven figures or whatnot. As more of a general marketing strategist.

So those are the three arrows in my quiver, so to speak. And then depending on who I was talking to, that’s what I would pitch. And then it just so happened that the stuff that most people were interested in was the launch stuff. And then eventually, once I had that clarity as I mentioned before then it was like,  I’m on, like, launch strategist. And that’s what I really focused on.

Jaclyn Mellone

So good. Yes, many people are preaching like, just do the one thing. But it’s so hard to pick that one thing and allow yourself that period and whether it’s when you’re starting out or when you’re in that messy middle and trying to figure out what’s the scalable thing of having those offers in your pocket and testing things out. And then really letting the market reflect back to you where the most interest is. 

Ron Reich 

And I would say that, yes, the people were talking about the one thing. They’re more right than not right. Once you find the thing that works, then you want to focus on that and double down on that. Because whenever I ask people who got the seven figures like the people who get there and who get there the fastest, when I asked them, what was the biggest mistake you made that if you didn’t make this mistake, you would’ve got there faster? Number one on the list, they always say, I got distracted. I wish I would’ve just stayed focused. I had something that worked, but then I decided to launch this course. So then I started, I decided to pivot this way. If I just focused on what worked, I would’ve been so much better off. So that’s the idea that when you have something that works, you don’t have to do anything. I would encourage you, if you want to grow your business the fastest, I would encourage you to stay focused on that thing. And the real challenge here is for most entrepreneurs, I think you’re like a ten on Quickstart. They’re highly creative people. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Thank you for underscoring that. No, it’s so true. And I think what we captured there was like, okay, so yes, the one thing in staying focused, for the one thing there’s this part where it’s figuring out what the one thing be and getting enough traction to have the confidence and the data to then say, okay, this is the thing. But it gives you that opportunity to be making money from a few different ways. Even though it’s not the most, maybe, optimized way to be bringing in revenue to mitigate the risk of going all-in on one thing that may be a total flop. 

Ron Reich

Yes, this is the whole thing is yes. Exactly. Step one to building a successful business is to have a successful offer, or have an offer that works, have a converting offer. And that can be a higher-end offer, which is what I would recommend for most people. If not, if you don’t want to go down that route, if you want to have a course or a program or anything like that, great. But you have to have something that people want that people sell. And so this is step one. And again, once you have a converting offer, getting to your first hundred thousand dollars is not exactly easy but it’s a relatively simple path. And then once you’re at a hundred thousand dollars, getting from a hundred thousand to half a million dollars a year, again, now it’s not really easy. But it’s a really straightforward, simple path. And it’s pretty much the same thing going to a million dollars. But you got to check that first box. You have to have that first domino go over, whatever the metaphor is. And oftentimes, as you mentioned, it might take, we might have to test up 10 different offers or 20 different offers. However, it may take is how many it’s going to take. But again, we just need that one thing that works. And then again, doubling down on it. Again, I’m going to repeat myself. This is what I’m repeating. If you have something that works, focused on that thing. Do not start getting distracted. Do not overcomplicate things. Just keep focusing on that one thing and you’re going to hit your goals faster. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Okay. I want to come back to the different stages of what these paths might look like. But one thing that’s come up a few times already that I want you to elaborate on is this concept of focusing on the higher end of the market or a higher ticket product-service package offer, whatever we’re calling it. What does that look like? Why is that something you feel strongly about? 

Ron Reich

Okay. Yes. I feel very, very strongly about this for a variety of reasons. But let’s go down the list. Now, imagine a majority of the people listening to this are probably coaches, experts, service providers of some point, of some type. So if you are a coach expert service provider and regardless if you’re at earlier stages or even if you’re a little farther down the line, it’s just a scientific fact that it’s going to be easier for you to hit your revenue goals if you have a higher-end offer. So there’s a couple of reasons for that. One of them is because it’s easier to sell in the sense that it’s hard-wired into our DNA that people think more expensive equals better. So this is one of the reasons, and this goes into the second point which is that, because people have this belief that more expensive equals better, it’s not proportionally difficult to sell a high-end offer versus a lower-end offer. It’s actually oftentimes easier to sell a higher-end offer than a lower-end offer. And I’m going to give you an example of that in a second. But just generally, for example, if you’re selling a $1000 course, let’s say, or a $500 course, let’s use tens. If you’re sending a $1000 course versus a $10,000 coaching program, I promise you, it is not 10 times harder to sell a $10,000 coaching program as it is to sell a $1000 course. And I’ll even say it’s actually probably going to be easier for you to sell a more expensive offer than a course for something low. And here’s why. Because something lower-end, it requires more complication actually. As typically if you’re going to sell anything that’s a thousand dollars or less, you’re going to need a sales page, for example. So you’re going to have to learn how to write copy and things along those lines, you might have to do things like set up landing pages, set up automations, and things along those lines. There are a lot of complications into doing this. And oh, by the way, especially if you’re selling stuff that’s really low-end if you’re selling stuff under a hundred dollars. If you want to make $10,000 a month with a hundred-dollar product, but you’re not in your head. This is not easy. You need a big audience to be able to prove it.

Jaclyn Mellone

I love that you’re preaching on this. I totally agree with you. Yes, but I think for a lot of people, this feels counterintuitive. Maybe they’re trying to sell the thousand dollar thing and it’s hard. And it’s like, how could selling the $10,000 thing be easier than this, or even the same level of difficulty as this? Sometimes it can feel hard to wrap your brain around. 

Ron Reich
 
Yes. Well, the reason is, many reasons but one reason is, typically, I would recommend someone to start out by selling one-on-one coaching. So one-on-one coaching, it’s the highest value thing that you can offer. Everybody’s going to value your one-on-one time more than your course, for example. So that’s one reason why it’s easier because it’s just the value of it is higher. And then, again, I mentioned people have this ingrained belief that more expensive equals better. The third reason and this is pretty close to what you would call almost a hack, is that the way we sell higher-end stuff is we sell them with the sales calls or with one-on-one conversations. And so a couple of things is that just being willing to, and again, this is a learnable skill. I appreciate it’s not easy for everyone. But it is a learnable skill. You can learn how to do it. Is that learning to get a conversation on a call with someone and make them an offer, A- it’s a skill that you can learn. It’s not really that difficult. And B, most people are not willing to do this. It freaks people out. So just the fact that you’re willing to do the thing that most people are not willing to do, that’s you. You get the rewards of that if that makes sense. And so along these same lines, I know I’m talking about a lot of things, I’m just so excited about this topic, is that, again, selling a $10,000 offer in this example versus let’s say a hundred dollar ebook. The $10,000, it’s easier because again, you don’t need any complications. All you need to do, you listened to this, you could sell a $10,000 offer tomorrow. Here’s what I would do. Here’s what I would say is step one, thinking about something like a problem that you can solve that would be worth at least $10,000 if you work solid for them.  So that’s step one. Step two, now go think about people who are in your network like your social media or who are in your contacts on your iPhone and who might be good fits for that program. Okay, then, of course, step three is then go out and reach out to these people. Get them on calls and then ask them what their problems are, ask them what their goals are. And if it makes sense, make them your offer. I promise you. I know many people who listen to this podcast, if you actually go out and do this, there’s a good chance that you can make $10,000 in the next seven days. It is not a joke. I had clients do this. 

Jaclyn Mellone

I’ve done this very recently. I can back you up on this. I literally had the idea. I’ve had this idea for a while and I’ve had a couple of clients be planting seeds that it’s something that they wanted. And in November, I Voxed two of these clients and said, this is what I’m thinking. Would you want in on this $10,000 for this yearlong mastermind and included one-on-one with it? And they were both like, no brainer. You read my mind. I feel like I’m winning the lottery with this. We’re so excited and have no additional sales call. I started working with them in a different capacity but done. Two in with no sales page. I had this idea. Let me send you a HoneyBook invoice basically was the thing. Then from there, I did exactly what you’re talking about and did private outreach. Our next two that came in, one, I did hop on a very informal call with. And the other one, we just DM-ed on Instagram. 

So when you have a relationship, and with those people I had not worked with them previously, I had a personal relationship with them. But they’ve never been a student or client of mine before. And so there was a level of trust but still, it wasn’t, you know. And they brought two more people into the program. And so this is still no sales page. So I want to back you up on this because, yes, with something that is higher level, higher touch, you don’t need to have… I’ve joined programs that were 10,000 or 15,000 with a Google doc. I don’t even have a Google doc right now. But you don’t need to have anything fancy to be offering which, again, feels counterintuitive because it’s like, wait, I have to go through all of this to do my low-end product. But to sell something for $10,000, I can just have an email or a Google doc?

Ron Reich

Yes, absolutely. I’ll give you my own extreme example. I had my dog training business so I spent about two years really selling $27 dog training e-books. And let me tell you, to sell one $27 dog jar treat, but I haven’t moved earth. I had elaborate funnels with all sorts of automation. I was doing regular promotions to my list. I was doing Facebook ads. I was doing Google ads. There was a lot of stuff going on for me to sell one $27 ebook. So it was very difficult just to make my first sale. Probably took me, from when I started that business to when I made my first $27, it’s probably like 4 or 5 months. And then I was still a little bit of the grind after that. In contrast, that’s when I started doing consulting where my main offer was a $25,000 offer. So it’s literally almost a thousand times more expensive. And again, selling my $25,000 offer was again exponentially less complicated. I would get on calls with people and I would make them my offer. The same thing with you, didn’t have a sales page, didn’t have fancy automation or anything along those lines. So this point is that, again, it really is easier just to sell a high-end offer versus something less expensive. There’s mindset stuff, obviously, that we can help you with. But yes, again, you want to start out at the high-end offer because again, it’s just going to be easier. Cash is key, cash flow is key. It’s going to be easier for you to be in a good situation financially. And then, you’re going to have that cash flow that you could then use to scale your business by hiring team members and possibly investing in advertising and things along those lines. So really, I would recommend for most people, you want to get to at least a hundred thousand dollars. Really closer to half a million dollar a year level. Really with one to two high-end offers before you’re thinking about selling courses, is what I recommend for my clients. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Oh, wow. Okay, you mentioned this before. So let’s break this down a little bit because sometimes I think people see people who are at seven figures doing certain things in their business. And they’re like, oh, I should do those things to get to seven figures. But what it took to get to seven figures may be very different than what their strategies are to scale from maybe 7 to 8, 9, 10. So what are some of those paths look like, I guess, up to, let’s say, a 100K or 150K and then that leap to half a million? And then what are some of the transitions maybe to get to seven figures from there? 

Ron Reich

Okay. Great question. So I gained from zero to a hundred thousand, and then a hundred thousand to a million. It’s pretty much the same stat. I call it the same stage. I call it the jumpstart stage. So step one is figuring out, getting an offer that works. And I would recommend a high-end offer for reasons that we just belabored over the last few minutes. Okay, so once we have an offer that works which could take some time, it probably would take you more than six months. But it could take three to six months to really get some initial traction with an offer. So once you have an offer that works, then it’s really about, again, the focus. This is the jumpstart on stage. It’s really about leveraging our existing assets and becoming an expert at selling this offer. This is really what you want to focus on. So this is where you really want to spend all of your time just focusing on really being the best salesperson you can be for your offer.

So here’s what I would ask you if you were my client. Imagine that your company is called You Inc. Imagine that You Inc hired a doppelganger of you to be a salesperson for your company. And this versus only job was to sell your $10,000 offer. That’s all they had to do. They spent all their day like a salesperson was selling your $10,000 offer. What would that be person doing all day? Surprise, surprise. So answer that question, map that out a little bit, and surprise, surprise, that person is you. So you want to be doing the things that that person would be doing all day to sell your offer. So really what that means is, two main things you’re going to be doing, or I would encourage you to be doing. It’s putting out content, but creating content on social media, writing emails, doing things like speaking, and things like that. And then it’s about connecting with that potential clients. Connecting includes, again, speaking, being on podcasts, things like this. And it also includes, of course, I didn’t need to do presentations, doing webinars for your people, ended off course includes doing the actual sales cost that we’re talking about. You want to be at least be spending all of your time creating and connecting. And of course, you have to do some coaching in there as well. But really, this is what we want to be focusing on, really like a laser beyond. I’m just focusing on a few things that are going to move the needle in our business. And really, and I would also recommend not focusing on too many different social media platforms. Maybe 1, 2, or 3 tops. Probably about one to two is actually a good amount. One of my mentors, a guy named Richard Cousins, says that making money’s boring. Making a lot of money is really boring. So we want to be just focused on these things that we know work. Now, it navigates you to a hundred thousand. And that’ll get you probably close to that half a million dollar a year level. So that’s the first general stage. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Do you see any transitions happening once that six-figure threshold is reached? I guess in my experience, I see people maybe going from more one-on-one to maybe a group offer. Or at that level, just raise your prices or maybe even do the group before. I don’t think there’s a set of what I do and what I don’t have to do. It has to happen at this stage, but you find it it’s just the same all the way up to half a million, or is there a little nuance there? 

Ron Reich

What I would say is that, really, I would say you want to and some people are, unless you’re totally allergic to doing a one-on-one, really, you should be able to give them a hundred thousand dollars just by doing one-on-one. Getting to $10,000 a month doing one-on-one, that’s something that I think most people could do. But yes, so I would say to your point, that transition would probably be adding that second offer. We start out by just having a one-on-one. Then once we’re at capacity, so treat this problem. I would encourage you to treat the problem of having too many whiles on clients. So once you’re at the point where you can’t take any more one-on-one clients, that’s when you want to launch your group. Then that’s when you would have split your focus where maybe if your one-on-one is maxed out, your energetic focus is going to be on filling your group as your main offer. But you’ll still be taking one-on-one classes. This is that hundred thousand dollars to half a million-dollar level. I would say, most people should be able to get to that half a million-dollar level with probably just one-on-one plus a group, or it might eventually be just a group with a few one-on-one clients, for example. Or you can have a mixed in there. And then the other transition or the thing that we just mentioned is that then, when you’re running groups and you’re doing over a hundred thousand dollars a year, that’s when you’d want to add a little bit of, not a ton, a little bit of support from other people like some team members helping no more than maybe one to two VA-type of people. Just mainly to help you with some administrative support, maybe to help you with putting out content on social media and things like that. That will be, I think, probably the two biggest transitions are basically adding that second offer and then adding a little bit of team members. 

 Jaclyn Mellone

I had team members from even way sooner than that in my business. But that’s, I have ADHD. I have children. There’s no way I could have had a business without having some support. So I was less profitable early on, but I needed that. But yes, I think growing the team, makes a lot of sense. You, talking about this though, I want to tie back to this whole having a higher ticket offer because I think one of the biggest things that people are doing wrong right now is they get to that point where their time is booked out. They feel booked out. They feel overwhelmed. They feel like they’re working too much. And they’re like, I can’t take on another client. And so they start trying to sell something low ticket just to make up more money. Because they’re like, I can’t do any more of this. But they were just charging more. And that’s where I think if you’re undercharging, that’s the trap that you’re going to get yourself into is that you’re going to be under-earning with being booked out on hours and by charging more by having a higher ticket offer. Even if you feel like you are charging a higher ticket, it might be time to bump that up, whether it’s one-on-one or group, that allows you to hit those goals and keep your focus. I think that’s one of the traps that get people distracted. Because it’s like, I need to make more money. I want to make more money. And so they start trying to do a bunch of different things. 

Ron Reich

Yes. This is the big mistake that we talked about. Doing things in the right order. So yes, keep raising your prices a hundred percent. And then, that’ll trend up. The thing I would encourage people to do is you want to go from typically one-on-one is going from one-on-one and then for your second offer, don’t launch a lower-end program like a cheap course. Just launch a higher-end group program. A great place to start is, whatever your one-on-one program is, ideally, you have a one-on-one offer like a six-month package or a three-month package. Your next offer should be the three-month high-end group version of that or the six-month high-end group version of that.

Jaclyn Mellone

That makes a lot of sense. Okay, so that gets us to, let’s say, the half a million mark. What changes do you start to see as someone is now going to say, okay, let’s scale the seven figures?

Ron Reich

Yes. When it comes to scaling to seven figures, I would recommend no more than three offers. You might add another offer. And the big thing is really, I call this the acceleration stage. So if we’re doing half a million dollars, even that $300,000 to $500,000, we have something that works. We have an established brand. We have an audience. So now, it’s just about accelerating to the next level. It’s about putting fuel to the fire, so to speak, or gasoline on the fire, as they say. So how do we do that? You don’t have to do all of them, but there are a few ways we can really accelerate to seven figures. One of them is by leveraging more partnerships. Really by doing a big affiliate launch, or starting to have that be a bigger part of your business like how we met. Todd Herman affiliates was a big part of how he got to seven and multiple seven figures. So one thing is accelerating with partnerships. Another possibility is accelerating with advertising. Obviously, these days advertising has its own game. But once you have seen that works, you haven’t been doing a lot of advertising getting to that million-dollar mark without the advertising could make a big difference. Another thing you can do is, of course, this is when it could be the time to add more excellent that adding more traffic channels. This might be the time to add a YouTube channel or start actually doing some more stuff on social media. Then the last thing, of course, is accelerating with adding of some team members. We mentioned team members, in the last few days, but here we’re looking to add some team members that can actually do things to help us bring in business. This might be actually adding a salesperson or investing in a copywriter. 

People that can help us with marketing and things along those lines. We have seen that work, so it’s really about accelerating what’s already working. And one last thing about this, and I’ve seen this all the time, is that getting from half a million to a million dollars, it is kind of irrational because it’s very irrational. Because if you’re doing half a million dollars of revenue and your expenses are under control, then you’re close to the top 1% of earners in the United States. You’re probably in good shape financially, ideally. So getting from six to seven figures this point, it’s just an irrational thing. And I think it’s a great goal. It does require that extra bit of ambition. And because of that, there’s this idea of the, I just call it the acceleration principle, is that in order to get to that seven figures, you’re going to have to do some things that are really, really outside your comfort zone.

Just people that get us out of the figures are willing to do that not everybody’s willing to do. It could be spending way more money on advertising. Then you weren’t planning or that’s comfortable for you. Or it might be really putting yourself out there by doing that big affiliate launch, or it could be Axia investing in those team members. Whatever it is, everybody has something that’s really going to stretch them to get to that seven figures. So just be aware of that. So last thing on this topic is if you’re doing half a million dollars and you’ve been stuck there for quite a while, it might be because you haven’t been willing to really take that risk, to really step outside of your comfort zone to get to the next level.

Jaclyn Mellone

Ooh, so good. Okay. I have one more question about this. And then you may not have, I don’t know, a standard. Everyone should do this answer, but it’s a trend that I’ve noticed. So I’m curious where you think this plays in. So Todd Herman, and we’ve talked about Selena Soo who I know has been a client of yours, their business model from my perspective, and we don’t have to make it specifically about them. But I see this trend of a course that’s maybe $2,000-$3,000 within a higher-end mastermind on the backend of it. Knowing going in this trajectory that we’re talking about, it’s almost like that higher-end mastermind group program. We’re doing that first. So with that transition to seven, do you think that that’s something that people should be doing because it seems like what a lot of people are doing is doing that course first now. So we’re talking about flipping that around and doing the higher ticket. Do you think in where the market is now, putting together that front-end course makes sense? Is it a case-by-case basis? May it probably always a case-by-case, but where do you feel the market is? 

Ron Reich

Yes, I would say it can make sense. And this, for example, so this would really jive with one of the accelerators that I mentioned. I’m an advertising, and I met her through them. And then I mentioned launches. If you’re at half a million dollars per year with one or two higher-end offers, doing that they launched that $2,000 course could be the thing that gets you to set up a vigorous, for example. Or maybe having that course that you can sell vis-a-vis advertising to liquidate your ad spend, that could be a thing to get you there. So to answer your question, yes, I think that after you’re doing half a million dollars a year in revenue, that could be a time to have courses be part of your business. But it doesn’t have to be there. There were a lot of people that they do a million dollars and all they have is a $25,000 mastermind, or all they have is a $5,000 or a 90-Day Program, and then their $25,000 mastermind, for example. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Do you have time for one more question? I know we’re over. Because I think there’s a belief held where it’s like, someone has to spend a hundred dollars, has to spend $5,000 and maybe someone needs to spend $3,000, to spend $10,000. And I think we’ve been saying you don’t have to do that. But can you just speak to that of, because I think there’s some insecurity out there of no one’s going to invest in me at this level if they haven’t had this other experience with me first. 

Ron Reich

Yes. I would just say that that’s not true. There’s this idea of a wealth-income pyramid. It’s like a hundred people, a hundred potential customers, this is the 80:20 rule. This is going to be the top 20% that’s going to spend more than the bottom 80%. Then you take the 20% of the 20%, which would be the top 4%. Essentially, they’re going to spend even more. And then there’s going to be that one person out of a hundred that’s going to spend 10 times more than everybody else. So what I’m getting at is that in any list of customers or any list of people you’re connected to, there’s always going to be that 1% that by Math is willing to spend 10 times more than anybody else. There’s always going to be that person that wants the best thing, for example. So my answer there is that no. No matter what full-stop, if you have a hundred people on your email list, one person will spend 10 times more than everybody else. If you have a thousand people on your email list, 10 people will spend 10 times more than anybody else, et cetera, et cetera. They’re always there, and really, it is your job, of course, to find them literally and figuratively. 

Jaclyn Mellone

So good. All right, Ron, this has been amazing. Thank you so so much. How can we stay in touch with you? 

Ron Reich

I think the best place to get a testimony really would just be to connect with me on Facebook. Hopefully, you can put the way through my Facebook profile here. And then if you’re listening to this podcast, as a special gift to the people listening to this, if you find me on Facebook, send me a personal message and I will actually give you a free copy of my course, which is my Anatomy of An A+ Player course, which goes deeper into a lot of the things on the mindset stuff that we talked about today, especially. So if you’d like that course, free access, just send me messages on Facebook. That’s my special gift for making it this far in the podcast. 

Jaclyn Mellone

Ooh, what a generous gift. All right. Thank you so, so much. This has been amazing. 

Ron Reich

Awesome stuff. Thank you.