Kc Rossi 0:02
Are you ready to scale your business in a way that's aligned with your soul, and profitable? I'm Kc Rossi, a business and leadership coach. I've been a full time entrepreneur for 30 years and love business. I help conscious leaders increase their impact and optimize their lives. Join me each week for tips and deep conversations on cultivating confidence, increasing your visibility, elevating your vibration, and leading with purpose without burning out. Let's go!
Kc Rossi 0:37
My guest today is Scott Aaron. I was first introduced to Scott when he was giving a training on how to optimize LinkedIn for a private paid mastermind. I was immediately struck by how much information he delivered and opted into his world. Recently after that, I received an email from him sharing that he interviewed Iva Paleckova, whom I had just had on my show such a small world. From there, I connected with him personally on LinkedIn, and we jumped on a connection call to get to know one another better. He interviewed me on his networking and marketing made simple podcast. And now it is my pleasure to introduce you to Scott and have him as a guest on my show.
Kc Rossi 1:20
Now I'm sharing the backstory with you because it is a real life example of Networking and Marketing Made Simple, show up, connect, serve, collaborate and ultimately convert, wash, rinse, repeat. Now, Scott puts his money where his mouth is he is an internationally acclaimed and award winning online marketer. Three Times bestselling author and speaker. He helps entrepreneurs with converting traffic establishing connections, generating leads, creating sales, and building personal brands all using LinkedIn, I know that you are going to enjoy this episode.
Kc Rossi 2:00
Hey, Scott, welcome to the show.
Scott Aaron 2:02
Thanks, Kc, really grateful and honored to be here today.
Kc Rossi 2:05
I can't wait to dive in with you. You are a wealth of resources. And I love your personality, because it is exactly off camera as it is on and how you present yourself. It's just like straight shooter. Let's get into it. And I love that about you.
Scott Aaron 2:20
Thank you. Yeah, I It's not that I don't believe in you know, fluffy kind of stuff. But I don't like to beat around the bush, I like to be very direct and very streamlined, and actionable. So you know, I want to kind of move people from point A to point B as streamlined and as quickly as possible.
Kc Rossi 2:38
Yeah, I love that. And I think that people want more and more of that. And I feel like they tune out when there is a lot of extra fluff. And we really are kind of looking for bottom line and connection. So it's a really beautiful dance and balance to have those two, I'd like to first start off by asking with all the different social media platforms, Why have you chosen LinkedIn to specialize in and help people with that particular platform?
Scott Aaron 3:03
Well, it was never really the intention to specialize in LinkedIn I, I started with an account back in 2009. And it basically collected dust for about four years. And then 2013, I started to kind of reopen it again and kind of just poke around and see what it was all about. I was in the midst of growing an online business. And I was trying to find additional ways to not only expand my network outside of just the the friends and family and people that I already knew on on Facebook and Instagram was kind of just this space, I still feel it that way. It's just there's a lot of fakeness to it. I don't I don't think it's as genuine and as authentic as people think it is. And even though there are plenty of authentic genuine people on there, I think it's, it's become this showy place and or an ostentatious way to show what you do. And what I was looking for was, you know, one of the foundational pieces of myself, which was, you know, creating human connection, and how can I connect with people on a social platform and immediately take it from online to offline. And I started to really dig into LinkedIn. And I started connecting with new people that I had similar backgrounds with and started messaging them and they were agreeing to calls and my calendar started to fill up. And you know, this is going back eight and a half years ago now. So after about six months, I my business was, you know, going through the roof, so to speak, and I reached out to a buddy of mine. And I said, Listen, you got to get on LinkedIn. I said, this is a treasure trove that no one is utilizing. And you know, I had really no system in place at this time because I wasn't teaching or coaching. I was just using it for my own application. And I told him a little bit of what I was doing as far Making adjustments to your profile and searching and connecting and messaging. And then I said, just do this and get back to me in a couple weeks and let me know what happens. Two weeks goes by, and he sends me a text message. And he said, Call me. So I called him and I said, What's up? And he goes, dude, listen, whatever you figured out, he goes, it works. He goes, I, I have 14 appointments booked this week. And and then kind of like that lightbulb moment for me was in an entrepreneurship no matter what business model, people are a part of, you know, there's two camps of people, there's, there's a camp of people that just want to kind of automate their processes and not get on the phone with people not create human connection with which, again, you want to be embedded in the the human relationship aspect of any business. Absolutely. But there's the other side of the coin, where people, they just weren't connecting with people, they weren't having conversations at all. And their calendar was not getting filled up with qualified people. And he said to me, you should be teaching this, this is a void that so many people have in their business. And, yes, I could have taught any social media platform, I'm on all of them. But I really found my home with LinkedIn, because it really spoke to me, not only as a business owner, but as a user of the platform, it really helped me leverage and scale my business. And just like anything else, I've done writing programs for nutrition or personal training in my, my old life, I just put that same kind of structure and routine to what I was doing on LinkedIn and created a course out of it and created a coaching program. And the rest they say is history.
Kc Rossi 6:45
Yeah, I love that. I want to underscore one of the things you said, which is you picked a platform that not only resonated with you, but got results. And I think that that's so very important, because many people are just trying to chase after the next best shiny object or follow some experts framework that's working for them, or try to push into an area that they're just not comfortable in. And so I think that that resonance and results, that's like the winning formula. So I love that you brought that up in your story. I'm curious, because you give a ton of value in your posts and your live streams in your podcast and your articles. So I would love to know your thoughts on giving your best stuff away for free?
Scott Aaron 7:30
Well, you know, the best businesses are built on the backs of those that build the know like and trust the best way. And if if a business owner lives in this fear state, that they're giving too much, where if I talk too deeply about what I do, people aren't ever going to invest, you're never going to succeed in business. For me, I want to under promise and over deliver, because I want to show people that not only am I a giver, but I do everything within my business each and every day to help people. And granted, there's a lot of people that can afford to work with me. And there's a lot of people that can, and I'm not going to shun those people that can't work with me and withhold certain information just because they're in a different financial spot that I'm in, I'm gonna give some basic tools and tips and knowledge to build that know like and trust. Because when that person's financial situation changes, and they do have the monetary resources to make an investment in something that could help their business. I want them to think of me. And they will. Yeah. And so as a business owner, you can't be afraid to give too much you have to give in order to get the only way that people will really know how great you are at what you do is to give people a sample of that think about, you know, in any sort of supermarket Whole Foods, for example, if you go into Whole Foods, and there's a new product that's potentially being put on the shelves, what do they do? They have that person standing at that portable cart that's giving out free samples, like when they're not making you pay, but that exact product is about to be sold on the shelves, but what what are they doing? They're giving you a free sample size of the exact product that if you like it, guess what? You're going to buy it. It's the same thing when you're producing content. You want to give those micro pieces of the exact thing of what you do. So when someone wants to full entree, they're going to purchase it.
Kc Rossi 9:55
Yeah, they're absolutely ready and you also calm the mind of having any fear - because you've already delivered, you've already met certain expectations, you're speaking my language because I had a chocolate manufacturing company for 17 years. And we traveled the globe going to trade shows, and we would have never written the business we wrote without doing literal samples. So yes, you're right on right on the money for that. And I think to that you are a perfect example, because you've had several successful launches launches that people dream about, right. And so I'm wondering what, what was maybe something that attributed to that kind of financial success and a successful launch.
Scott Aaron 10:36
So I think it's a couple of different things. And, you know, Nancy, and I have had multiple six figure launches now. And I would attribute that to really nurturing people in the right way. Meaning, when we do any sort of launch, whether it's a free three day workshop, or a five day workshop that we only charge $49, for people are going to be getting more than their their money's worth, even with a free workshop. Just because it's free doesn't mean we're going to withhold anything, we're going to give you the keys to the castle, we're going to teach you so in the mind's eye of the consumer, you have to and this is what I always tell business owners, whenever you're launching something, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the person that you want to attract to your business. And that is going to best be served by what you offer. So I'm always thinking about those people that are coming to our, our launches and our workshops, and how can we best serve them. And if you can move the needle of their business forward just by a millimeter, and you're doing that for either free, or a very low nominal cost to join that that certain workshop, in their mind, when you do let people know, listen, the doors are open to this XYZ program. You know, it's only going to be open till Sunday, they're thinking to themselves, okay, well, I've dedicated this time and this little bit of money to learning from them over these last X amount of days. And I've gotten more than I could have ever imagined. They start to think about, well, if I pull the trigger, and I really want to take things to the next level, imagine what it would be like to work with them in a more refined, but also intimate capacity of working with them in a group setting or one on one or in a virtual setting. So you're adding that value all during that launch where the right people will step forward. And I don't want to say the wrong people will move back the people that are just not ready to make that investment at that time. You've left them better, which A is so important, but be there thinking about what you've talked about that entire time. And it's all about timing. That's why you do want to launch consistently throughout the year because I know that the people that said yes to our group coaching program in January, when we relaunched that in April, there is going to be a carryover of people that weren't necessarily ready, that are saying, You know what, by q2, things are going to be a little bit slow down, I can focus on this and I'm ready to dive in. So that's what's really made our launches successful meeting people where they are, but really over delivering in every way that we can showing the value of just attending a free or a $49 workshop. And just imagine what it would be like to take that next step.
Kc Rossi 13:41
For sure. Going back to the food metaphor, one of my questions is, and I'm wondering if this is just a lack and limitation mindset. But if you fill up your audience, on the appetizers, are they going to be hungry for the main entree?
Scott Aaron 13:57
So it really depends on the person, there are people out there that will go to a cocktail hour and choose to eat as much as they can. And then they're not really prepared for dinner. Now, in the same respect. There are people that go to those cocktail hours, and they don't want to ruin their appetite. They don't want to ruin the main course. So they take a sample size of things throughout that week. So they're not overwhelmed. They're not in over their head. And you know, they say to themselves, if cocktail hour was that good. I can't even imagine what that main course is going to taste like so they're left wanting more. So you're going to have both kinds of people. You're going to have those people that you know, part of the reason why we ended up on our longer workshops we started charging for them is because in the free workshops that we did last year, we did nine of them. So many people were just eating all the appetizers and we had a few people Coming to dine with us during the main course. But we wanted to qualify people a little bit better. So we started charging for those cocktail hours, we started charging for those appetizers, a small nominal fee, but it still qualified those people that in our minds and in their minds, like if they made that investment into just having a couple appetizers, they're going to make that investment in a more qualified way to making that larger investment in the main entree.
Kc Rossi 15:26
I like that. I like that a lot. That's a really valuable tip, for sure. So you mentioned multiple, six figure launches. I'm wondering if you had next level problems? And if so how did you overcome one of them?
Scott Aaron 15:39
So in the the first launch that we ever did, we hit six figures, it was January of 2021. Yeah, we we we definitely had two problems that we saw. Number one, we actually let two people too many people in, which said to us that we weren't charging enough that the pain point for this stretch point of someone making the investment was too low. So it allow it allowed too many people to come into play. Now, we've elevated the price to not a substantial rate, but one that's going to bring on a different type of person into the group. But in the same sense, it's going to equate to the same monetary value that we would have had to close with 23 people like we did the first time that we launched, and we only have to close half of the people to make the same dollar amount in what we did. So what we realized is that we didn't want to work with a ton of people, we wanted a more intimate, tight knit community 10 to 12 people, which is what we have now. But the second thing is we didn't prequalify people enough, you know, when you're launching, and somebody wants to hand you X amount of dollars to invest in your program, it's it becomes a challenge for that business owner to turn down money. Absolutely. No one wants to turn down 1000s of dollars. I mean, if someone saying here's $6,000, you know, no, no good. So we had to make that mindset shift that we had to really interview people that wanted to come into our program, because in the first time that we launched with those 23 people, we ended up letting seven people out of their contract within the first four months, because they weren't a good fit. They weren't doing the necessary work. And we didn't want that to be a reflection upon us, we want people to, you know, take ownership of their actions or non actions. And I actually felt intuitively did not feel good about having them continue to pay each month to be a part of a program that a they weren't a good fit for me weren't doing any of the work. So we really learned from those two lessons a really made making it more intimate. And I don't want to say scarce, but really making it exclusive for a certain amount of people that you want to work with, because it is your time that you're giving to people. And the secondary thing is making sure that you prequalify those people that do have an interest in wanting to join, really asking them, you know, really, you're doing a deep dive and interviewing those people. And you know, are you committed to this and really feeling internally? Is this person the best fit for my program? Or are they not at the stage, they need to be in their business to make that type of investment.
Kc Rossi 18:39
That's amazing. Well, I really want to lift you up to your integrity on that, because I think very few people would allow, you know, participants to exit a contract. So that's amazing. And I think that that really says a lot about your dedication to true transformation and the reflection on your brand. So that's a that's amazing. Thank you. Second, I just want to thank you for sharing that. Because I think all too often we're just like you said, kind of stuck on that Instagram reel of, you know what it looks like in point B, but in every single stage of growth in our business. We're all learning lessons, we're iterating we're trying again. And so thank you for sharing that. I think it's really important. And I also think it helps people along the journey, not stumbling that because even if they take that one nugget that you just shared on those two valuable learning lessons amazing, like amazing, and it really helps prevent them from falling into a pitfall.
Scott Aaron 19:33
Agree. Yeah, you know, it doesn't take a lot to change something in your life in business. And that's why, you know, you don't need to add too many things onto your plate, you know, focus on on one thing at a time. So even if it's you getting structured in what you're doing and really getting clear on who you want to work with, you know, Nancy and I only want to work with people that are go getters like us that really are going to be willing to do the work and and again, we're not going to babysit people but You know, we actually have goal setting sessions with each one of our people every quarter. And after we have that goal setting session, we give them a checklist of the goals that they said they have. And here's what you got to do to go achieve them. So when we meet the next quarter had to do with your goals. And it's on that person now, to take our advice and suggestions of what they need to do to achieve those goals. And now, they need to take ownership of what they have or have not done to achieve those goals.
Kc Rossi 20:27
Yeah, perfect, perfect. I know you like me have invested 1000s and 1000s of dollars into personal development, mentorship, training, and all over the whole shebang. And I'm wondering, when do you think is the right time for listeners and entrepreneurs to invest? And when is it time to put a hold on that carousel of investments?
Scott Aaron 20:52
So great question. There's two specific points in time where I feel it's the right fit. Number one, when it feels like it's the wrong time. And what I mean by that is, you know, the pain has gotten great enough, you're you've thrown enough spaghetti at the wall, where nothing is sticking. And you're just kind of bouncing from workshop to workshop to workshop to workshop to workshop, and you're just never sticking with one thing. And that leads me into the the second part, because again, there is a financial commitment that needs to be made. Now, I for one, do not believe in making any investment that is going to put you and your family into some sort of financial hardship. That is the last thing, I don't want anyone making an investment, where it's going to be become a financial burden, it needs to be, as you said, a financial investment. So if in your mind, this is going to be a financial burden, it's not the right time. But if the money is there, you're just afraid to take that leap. That is the best time to take the leap. Because on the other side of fear is everything that you want to know and learn. Now second to that is and this is something that Nancy and I do at the end of every year. So moving into q4 of every year, we sit down, and we actually write down all the things that went right and well with what we did. And the things that we know we need to improve. And we write all the things down that we need to improve. And then we pick one, just one that we really want to focus on in the upcoming year. So to give you an example, at the end of 2021, we sat down and we really said listen, you know we have three different subscriptions, or memberships. And it's time for us to pour gasoline on them and really grow and scale. That residual side of what we do. We don't want to do more one on one coaching, we want to kind of take a step back from the active income side of things. We want to grow more of the passive side. So we started doing some research and said, you know, where can we go to learn from the person that's best at teaching how to grow memberships. And Nancy said, Stu McClaren, and I said, Great. So we reached out to Stu, we had a great conversation. And we joined his mastermind for this year. And I gratefully he got, I got interviewed by Stu actually, yesterday, on how to leverage LinkedIn to grow a membership or a subscription. So now, again, it's coming full circle. So So for me, it's always about, you know, recognizing where you need help in your business, and then finding someone or a mastermind that fills that hole or gap in your business that's going to teach you that specific thing. Now, the second question you had was, you know, when do you kind of, you know, put a halt. So many people right now, are jumping from program to program to program. I know so many people, they're like, Oh, I'm in three masterminds right now? Well, I mean, it's obvious that your business is not going to grow this year, because you're trying to spread your energy and time across three different things that you need to be allocating your time and your energy towards. So if you're that person that's listening to this, that you just find yourself buying this program, and then investing in this program and doing that and you're just collecting shelf help. That is a recipe for you to never get to where you want to be. So, Nancy and I also come up with a word of the year and our word of this year is intention. And we want everyone to have specific intention about what they want to achieve. So once just an exam as an example, if someone really wanted to learn LinkedIn, they know that that needs to be their focus. Just do that. You know, find someone that teaches As LinkedIn, or has a course, or one on one, and you learn that, once you've mastered it, once you learn the application, now you can go on to something else. So what people are doing is they're they're starting, and then they stop, put that on pause, do something else, stop, start that do something else. So if you're finding yourself repeating that pattern, you're probably repeating the same pattern of your business not being anywhere close to where you want it to be by the end of every single year.
Kc Rossi 25:29
Absolutely. You said so many amazing things in that last little bit, that we could have a whole full nother episode on it. But absolutely, I see that as a very common pitfall where people are in multiple masterminds or have more than one coach. And I think it sets them up for with this false sense of productivity, when they're really just spending all this time in the thought process, being on Zoom meetings, taking notes, but forgetting about the back half of implementation, and an action plan.
Scott Aaron 25:59
I almost also feel like it's for show, I remember seeing a post of someone on Instagram, and they're like, I have a money mindset coach, I have a business coach, I have a finance coach, I have a social media coach, and I'm like, Yeah, you're spending all this money, because you can, but is it really making a difference in your life? You know, go get a therapist instead. I mean, they might be more qualified. But yeah, I mean, if there's things that you need to work out from an emotional standpoint, you know, I believe in therapy, go see a therapist and, and I but again, it comes back to that ostentatious type of feel on Instagram, where it's almost like, cool. And the the it thing to do to, to hire 18 coaches at once. And, and you know, I hired the most amazing coach to the end. I mean, it's great if you hired a coach, but if you're working with multiple people at once, and all of your time and energy is being focused on just coaching with this person and coaching with that person, where are you at in spending that time to grow your own business and help the the the people that you want to help? Where have you allocated that time to? And probably nowhere near enough?
Kc Rossi 27:08
Yeah, absolutely. And so one of the things that I noticed every time we have an interaction is your focus. And I heard it again, and again, in this interview, as well, where you have one word of the year, and you have one priority that you're going to be doing for the year after your fourth quarter audit, you have one platform that you're mastering, you have one mastermind or mentor that you're really honing in on. So I really one want to underscore that. Because if we have multiple priorities, then we never truly have enough fire and energy for one priority. And the other thing that I'm really curious about is how do you activate focus. So for example, if we have listeners that are like, oh, man, that sounds great, but I'm all over the board. And there's so many distractions and, and all of those things. And the other thing I want to say to that is, I know that this is something that isn't just in your business world, but it's in your personal world, because we've had zooms before we're all of your gym equipments in the back and you're a fit, you're a fit guy, you've got a morning routine dialed in. So you know how we do one thing is how we do everything. So my main question to you is if we have a listener struggling on how to be focused, what can they do?
Scott Aaron 28:21
Well, I think, you know, you said it, you know, you need what you focus on is what you become, but in the same sense, if it doesn't get written down, it's not going to get done. And for me, you know, I have a digital planner, and I have a paper planner, I am very, you know, and I always was not like this I was a an extremely disorganized person, I was all over the place, I had structure to my life, but I was never as organized as I am now. And if that's a known kink in my hose, I can attribute to certain things that are, you know, faltering in my business to the disorganization in my business. So I'm not, I'm not going to turn a blind eye to it, I'm going to look at it straight on. So to help with focus is really sitting down and putting pen to paper. You know, most entrepreneurs kind of stay up in their head, they think about all the things they want to do. They think about all the goals they have, but you're not actually taking those thoughts and putting them down on a piece of paper where you can see them. So something that Nancy and I always believe in, is dumping what's in our head and putting it on a piece of paper. So if you want to get more focused in what you want to do, right, those specific things that you need to focus on down on a piece of paper, create non negotiables in your life. So for like we have, we have business non negotiables and we have personal non negotiables. And on the personal side, as you mentioned, you know, my office is also our home gym so Nancy and I work out every single morning it's a non negotiable we work out every single day, but another nondegree trouble is we don't do any business before 10am. So we get up between 5:45 and six o'clock every morning, the first four hours of our day is dedicated to us as a couple, you know, we have breakfast together, you know, we take the dogs out, we have coffee, we have breakfast, we kind of brainstorm. And then once 10 o'clock hits, we start our workday. And then it ends at six, we have eight hours to get as much as we can in and we're done. Now, I don't always work eight hours a day, I take three days off a week. But the big thing that I always try to stress to people is you have to create those boundaries in your life and in your business. And focusing on specific things. Nothing feels better than accomplishing the small things in your life. Everyone focuses on the big, big goals they have. But what people fail to recognize is that those larger goals stem from all of the minute goals that you have leading up to it. So when you can clearly write down on a piece of paper, those non negotiable things that have to get done that day, and you don't move on to anything else before that's done, you will be amazed at how much you can accomplish. So my suggestion is every day, writing down two or three goals that you have to get done it, it might just be one thing you have to get done. And then you can do whatever else you want. It might be five things. But when it gets written down, it's going to get done. And it's always going to move the needle of your business forward.
Kc Rossi 31:25
Yes, absolutely. Totally agree with you, Scott, always a pleasure. How can people learn more about you, your marketing strategies, your content, creation expertise, and all the goodness that you share?
Scott Aaron 31:38
Yeah, you know, we have a couple different websites. My own personal website is just Scott aaron.net. Our company website is the time to grow.com all one word so you can learn about some of our marketing services and workshops that we have. And then you can just google me, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, I have a podcast called networking and marketing made simple. And I've written a few Amazon bestsellers, you can kind of find my books and stuff on Amazon. So that's the best way to find me.
Kc Rossi 32:08
Amazing. I'll make sure to drop the links in the show notes. And thank you so so much for being here.
Scott Aaron 32:13
Thanks, Kc. Really appreciate it. And grateful again to be here today.
Kc Rossi 32:16
Yes, take good care, Scott. You too. Bye.
Kc Rossi 32:19
I hope you enjoyed today's episode with Scott. If so you can head on over to love the podcast.com/brilliance to rate and review the show. Lk Jensen from the US shares five stars! "A must listen podcast. Kc does a great job of communicating with our guests, and is always asking the right questions. Plus, she brings on some incredible relevant guests. That's what makes this podcast enjoyable."
Kc Rossi 32:48
Lk thank you so much for taking the time to leave your feedback. I agree with you. I have some incredible guests there are on the cutting edge. They're doing the work. They're motivating. They're inspiring, and they're getting their clients results. So I'm in love with my guests as well. It's awesome that you are too and if you would like to leave any feedback or rate the show, it really does help spread positive vibes and bring more people in so they can shorten their learning curve, get a dose of inspiration and continue to spread that positive ripple effect. You can head on over to www.lovethepodcast.com/brilliance. Thank you!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
