Your freebie sucks 😳

IN THIS EMAIL:

➡️ MY FREEBIE FORMULA: I wanna share with you everything I think about when I’m creating non basic bitch freebies.

➡️ EXAMPLES OF KILLER FREEBIES: You know I always like to hook you up with lots of examples so you can go put your iPhone down and take some damn action.

🤫 A SECRET NEW WAY TO WORK WITH ME: Shhhh.

WHY IT’S A REALLY BIG PROBLEM THAT YOUR FREEBIE SUCKS

Look, I want to make sure for giving you your flowers for at least HAVING a damn freebie. Hell yeah, you deserve some extra credit for that.

But the main problem I see with all the lead magnets and freebies that regularly roll on through my inbox is this: everyone is just checking a damn box. ✅

I’m a biz owner who needs a freebie? Ok, cool! Here’s one!

Check baby, check baby, 1-2-3.

And because everyone is phoning it in, this means: no one is getting creative, no one is thinking strategically, no one is being innovative, and no one seems to care about making their freebies so damn valuable that people would pay cold hard cash for them.

Most biz owners simply think of freebies as an “easy” way to get btchz on their email list so that they could sell shit to them…and that’s it.

As a result, here’s exactly what’s happening with your low rent freebie:

🚨 At one of the most important and crucial times in your relationship with a new community member [and potential future client or customer], you’re VERY clearly telling them that your stuff is pretty mediocre.

🚨 You’re telling them that It’s not actually that valuable to be in your world.

🚨 You’re telling them that since you barely tried with this freebie that you swore was going to be better than a Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Ariana Grande triple threat tour, you’re kinda just like everyone else out there…and not super trustworthy.

🚨 And now that they’re in your 5-7 vanilla AF welcome sequence that seems to ONLY be about trying to get them to buy that next thing [lemme guess: is it a bigger, badder version of the shitty freebie? 🧐], you’re basically telling them that it would probs just be best if they ignore you, your emails and that lame-o freebie they downloaded from now until the end of time.

Oops.

🤦‍♀️

MY FREEBIE FRAMEWORK THAT YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY, POSITIVELY COPY

I don’t want you simply checking a box anymore with your freebie [speaking of checking boxes, I don’t care what industry you’re in…if you have a checklist as a freebie, trust me: it sucks].

And I DEF don’t want your potential clients feeling meh and unimpressed with you from day one.

When someone comes into your world, I want them to feel like they just grabbed a 50% off deal on a nugget ice maker on Amazon Prime Day [goddammit I want one of those].🧊 Or like Miss Peaches does every day when she wakes up and remembers she got adopted by a kajillionaire.

Unfortunately, dope ass freebie ideas aren’t just falling from the sky. In order to come up with one for you and your biz, it’s gonna require: creativity, innovation, strategy and all the non basic bitch energy you’ve got.

So lemme share with you the framework that I currently use for myself AND every single one of my clients when we are innovating and brainstorming about freebies. 

[Keep in mind as you read through: your freebie doesn’t necessarily need to have e-v-e-r-y single one of these things ⬇️ in order to pass the smell test, but the more the better].

Freebie Framework
1️⃣ YOUR FREEBIE NEEDS TO BE SO DAMN VALUABLE I WOULD PAY YOU $50 BUCKS FOR IT

This is the complete opposite of a checklist. 🤭

This is legit the first question I will ask myself when I am thinking through a freebie idea for either myself or for a client: will a bitch pay for this thing?

Is this idea either: so valuable…so juicy…so useful…so needed, that someone would be so damn into it, they’d want to print it out and put it in their pretty lil notebook?

PRO TIP:
I want you to think about this: if this freebie was the ONLY touchpoint or interaction I ever had with this person, how would they leave feeling about me and my biz?

🧐 Does this thing feel so valuable, I’m leaving this new community member of mine feeling like they were lucky to stumble upon it?

🧐 Are they deeply impressed by the quality, effort and care that went into this thing?

🧐 Does this thing represent the level of badass-ness and excellence I want to be associated with?

🧐 Do the vibes reflect my brand?

🧐 Am I showing up as my best self looking through the lens of what I do? [i.e. I’m a biz coach, educator and CMO…does this thing I’m sharing reflect that and allow me to show off all my skills within that realm?

HOW DO YOU DO THIS?:
There are a million different ways you can achieve this with a freebie, but here are a few things I like to focus on:

👀 Do not, I repeat DO NOT give vague, recycled tips and tricks.
And I would also stay away from bigger picture advice like “Own your own power.”

👀 Give it ALL away. Alllllll of it.
If you’re saying in your head: “well, I’ll give them a little taste of of my skills at producing podcasts and just share my my pre-launch calendar so they’ll want to sign up for my program to get the rest”—nope. Give them the full 30 day launch plan for launching a podcast.

👀 Make it look dope [and a reflection of you and your brand].
All of our freebies were professionally designed by a designer [or from a paid template], use killer photos from our non-basic bitch photoshoots and truly reflect my overall brand, vibe and voice. Not to be vague 4 seconds after telling YOU not to be vague, but: ask yourself if this freebie really feels like you??

EXAMPLE:
➡️ A 17+ page Canva magazine offer template
I use magazines instead of sales pages for almost all of our offers, and this approach has worked like gangbusters for us [and now for our clients]. So I had our designer create a totally free, 17 page Canva template inspired by our offer magazines, but for YOU to use to sell your own offers and services.

People SELL templates like this every single day on sites like Creative Market.

This freebie was released when we were launching the Icon Agency [further showing off the level of skill, excellence and attention we wanted to convey with our new agency by showing you our level of work].

But then I had the most genius idea I may have ever popped out of my brain: Instead of lorem ipsum text [which is that standard “placeholder” text you will see in any template], I wrote copy on every single page that gave you all the details about our agency and the new offer we were selling.

😲

Even if you were not ready or interested enough to buy the new agency offer we were selling at the time, using this freebie ensured you were: learning all about it, feeling connected to it, cheering me on with our new endeavor annnnnd, most importantly, creating wins for yourself as you use the template that could then all be attributed to me.

Freebie Framework
2️⃣ YOUR FREEBIE SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY ACTIONABLE AND ALLOW ME TO CREATE A QUICK WIN

This is why I don’t want you sharing vague shit like “use storytelling more in your social media content! Remember to be authentic!” 🙄

Here’s the truth: I don’t care how next level dope your freebie is: 98% of people are still gonna download this thing and do absolutely nothing. Cause btchz just be like that. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But! I want you thinking about the 2% of people who download your freebie and are gonna be ready to rock. And I want you to create your ENTIRE freebie for them.

PRO TIP:
Include at least one small, very specific thing or task that you are teaching people about and walking them through from start to finish.

It needs to have these qualities:

🧐 It needs to be immediately actionable. In other words, can I close your freebie, and then in that moment, go execute the thing if I’m all fired up? For ex: if your freebie is all about “things to think about when you’re moving to Mexico" that’s a no for me, dawg. If it’s about “exactly how to research where you should move to in Mexico” with step-by-step instructions, then I’m all in.

🧐 The actionable steps need to at least have the possibility of producing an immediate win for me. So in the example above: if you’re giving me step-by-step instructions, links to secret Facebook groups I’ve never heard of to do my research, tips about how to search within those groups, a template to track all of my possibilities for Mexican cities I can move to, and a link to a little known law still in place that will allow me to get my 3 year visa with minimal effort [with the contact info for your Mexican lawyer who speaks perfect English and can handle the whole thing for you], YOU’RE GOING TO BE SO FUCKING EXCITED.

And from now until the end of time, I’m going to remember and associate this excitement and this win with you. So instead of teaching me that your shit is mid and that I probably should ignore it, you’re teaching me that ANY time your emails pop into my inbox I should open them so fast I’m in danger of getting carpal tunnel syndrome.

HOW DO YOU DO THIS?:

👀 Get laser focused, specific and niche AF.
Again, avoid all broad, airy fairy, pie in the sky advice [get more sleep! drink more water! No shit]. Teach people how to do one, quick thing from start to finish and give them the resources they need to do it.

👀 Remember the phrase “quick win.”
Quick is the key here. You want to get people from confused and stuck to doing the damn thing as fast as possible. If my freebie for the Icon Agency launch was something like “how to use canva magazine to launch your offers” then I’m leaving it up to you to find your own template…even if you are excited and rarin’ to go. By GIVING you the template, you can immediately start using it, take the rest of the day to fill it in, and by tomorrow you could be using the the damn thing. i.e. that’s a quick ass win.

👀 Make sure your todos for me allow me to use the current resources I have access to.
You don’t want people to have to do a bunch of complicated shit or buy a bunch of crap in order to do the thing you’re teaching about or talking about in your freebie. So if you’re a health coach, and the new supplement formula you’re giving me can’t be put into practice until I do a full body scan and blood test with my doctor, no go.

EXAMPLE:
➡️ My CEO Millionaire Date mini magazine/guide
I created a pretty dope freebie to go along with the launch of our mini course: CEO Millionaire You [I know, this has been stalled forevs, but I promise this thing is coming]. 

CEO Millioanire You is a mindset course to help you wrangle your dick brain so that you can step into the CEO Millionaire biz owner version of yourself now, before your bank account may actually reflect that.

This freebie helps you get a little taste of what I cover in the course by teaching you how to plan and go on your own “CEO Millionaire Date.” It’s basically a solo outing you can plan for yourself that will help you get into the mood and embody the CEO vibes.

I teach you how to plan this thing from start to finish, give you LOADS of examples of potential CEO dates that you can copy, and because it’s so quick and easy to do this, you could literally take yourself out on a CEO Millionaire Date the day you download this mini magazine.

Even if you never buy the course or don’t wanna hire me, you are still going to get a shitload of value from this thing, can use what I share with you immediately, get yourself a quick win by going out on your own date and then forever associate this new fun thing you’re doing in your life and in your biz with me.

Freebie Framework
3️⃣ YOUR FREEBIE SHOULD HAVE A CURIOSITY FACTOR

While not an absolute requirement, this can be a killer element of a freebie that I’ve legit never heard ANYONE else ever talk about: choose something with a “curiosity factor.”

A freebie with a “curiosity factor” is gonna make you wanna download the thing JUST cause you’re curious about exactly what’s in it.

The cool thing about this type of freebie is that you then get people downloading you’re freebie who might not even think they need the lesson or the resource…but they can’t help themselves cause they’re so damn curious about it.

The curiosity around the thing is what will build the buzz/demand.

PRO TIP:
If you CAN figure out a freebie idea that makes sense for you and has a curiosity factor, dooooo ittt. By far, for both myself and all of my clients, freebies with a curiosity factor: always perform the best, get downloaded the most and get the most buzz. I also have seen the biggest conversions with these types of freebies too.

HOW DO YOU DO THIS?:

👀 Identify a super juicy topic/theme that you love talking about.
Look at your social media analytics on any platform you post on. What are the posts that get the most saves and shares? See if you can recognize any patterns cause that’s a great place to start.

👀 Choose something that ties in directly with who you are and what you sell.
We’re all curious about a lot of diff shit. But if you’re going to go this route, you need to make sure to only choose something that relates directly, specifically and strategically to you and the essence of your biz. I also think you should think deeply and strategically about how you can directly connect this to something you are selling right now.

EXAMPLE:
➡️ A curated Spotify Playlist
I helped a 1:1 client [who is in the intuitive eating/health space] create a freebie that's performed crazy well and took about 30 mins to put together: it’s a Spotify playlist with a curated collection of all of the most current, buzziest discussions and trends in the health and wellness space with links to all of her fave podcast eps on these topics.

This freebie was created for the woman who’s is all the hell in on listening to The Skinny Confidential on her daily hot girl walks and likely has an entire area of her closet dedicated to her Set Active, Lulu and Varley matching sets.

The curiosity factor is: which eps and which topics did this client choose to put on the list. Even if I think I’m an expert at all of this shit and listen to all the podcasts already, I’m immediately curious if there are shows, topics or convos that are happening that I am not a part of? 👀 

Best of all we mixed in a few of her own podcast eps so people can get a taste of her approach and what she’s like. AND this playlist can be updated [as long as someone has the link, it will auto populate and update]—so she can refer to it on social media with content like: I just added 5 killer new eps to our playlist that are going to blow your mind.

This freebie was: dead fucking easy to create, sets my client up as a authority/curator/someone to pay attention to, allows us to easily market her [with her own eps mixed in], can be updated and made more value with almost no effort, and appeals to the EXACT type of women that are going to be excited to hire her. Annnnnd: the curiosity factor is through the roof.

MY NEW FREEBIE IDEA

I love giving you a BTS look at what we’re doing in our business, so I’m giving you the inside scoop on a freebie idea I just came up with that I think is pretty genius [and I haven’t talked about it publicly at allllll yet].

So I’ve shared before that I subscribe to a lot of Substack newsletters and online publications [here’s a list of every single one I pay for, in case you’re curious].

One of my fave Substacks is a newsletter called Feed Me, which is a daily biz, social media, culture newsletter written by a writer named Emily Sundberg.

She occasionally does Q&A’s in her comments and I’ve heard her on a bunch of podcasts being interviewed recently, and she’s shared that by far the most common question she gets is: what are the sources you use every day to stay on top of the trends, figure out what’s happening and use to get inspired to write your newsletter?

And she NEVER answers this question because she wants to keep her process secret. Ok, gatekeep away Emily…I still love you.

However, this is a question I actually get asked a ton too. I love talking about and identifying trends that I see [in fact I do an exclusive trend report every month for our [One] Membership crew and also create a Spotify playlist of all the most relevant podcasts I think they should listen to] and so I’m reading all the substacks, other online pubs, articles and listening to all the podcasts…mostly all day every day.

I happen to have this weird skill of being really good at curating this sort of shit, finding the creators and sources worth paying attention to, and then pulling out the trends that I’m seeing.

So the other day, I came up with this idea that I wanted to create a Freebie that was basically: all the creators, podcasts, substacks and news sources I pay attention to in order to stay on top of trends and become a category of one.

HERE’S WHY I THINK THIS FREEBIE IDEA IS A GENIUS ONE FOR US: 

➡️ The curiosity factor is HIGH for this baby. Again, even if [arguably ESPECIALLY IF] you think you’re good at this curation/trend thing too, you wanna see exactly what my picks are to make sure you’re not missing something.

➡️ There are immediate actionable steps and quickie, as well as, a long term payoff for you. If I have a biz and an approach to social media that you dig, you can download my list, immediately subscribe to all the shit I subscribe to, and then feel the “win” of being in the know just like I am. You can then have further wins by sharing all of these same trends you notice with YOUR own audience and look like a superstar. BONUS POINTS: for providing an opportunity for you to then feel more connected to me [oh, you’re now terrified of going to NYC and getting punched in the face?? Same. Send me a DM and lets talk about how you read about this trend too and saw it all over TikTok too].

➡️ This perfectly sets me up as an authority and someone to listen to in this whole “category of one” space I’ve carved out for myself. Oh you’re impressed with all the resources I’ve gathered for you to use in your own biz? Good, cause that is the higher level of excellence you’re gonna be dealing with when you work with me or join our membership.

➡️ It’s going to be in the form of one of my signature magazines, so it’s going to look gorge and branded and be dripping with my vibes. AND it’s going to show off this tool that I kind of invented as a new way to sell your shit [the canva magazine approach].

➡️ This is not a use it once, set it and forget it kind of a tool. This resource is going to be SO damn valuable to you as a biz owner who’s looking to stay in the know and really become your own “category of one.” You’re going to save it and reference it and go back to it again and again. You might even print this bitch out. This keeps you connected to me and relying on me as your goto source for this stuff, and provides opportunities for me to remind you why you need to be in my world and learning from me.

➡️ Since I plan to share this as a Canva link, I can update it and, just as I shared above with the Canva playlist example, market it on an ongoing basis on my social media whenever I make updates, add a new section, etc.

➡️ This teaches you from minute one that: The level of attention and excellence you’re going to get from me any time we interact is HIGH; it’s worth it to open my emails and read my posts on social media; I’m someone who knows WTF I’m talking about; I’m an expert at identifying trends and helping you to understand them.

➡️ Because this freebie is going to be so over the top valuable and unique, you can see that I “practice what I preach” when I talk about the critical importance of standing out from the crowd, not copying everyone else and being a “category of one.”

➡️ It’s PERFECTLY aligned with my desire to connect with more biz owners who also love the idea of becoming a “category of one” and may then join our membership.

➡️ It gives you a taste of me as a coach, consultant and CMO and could potentially help you better understand the sort of high level thinking you get when you our my 1:1 client, hire our agency or bring me on as a fractional CMO.

➡️ It sets you up for being on this very email list right here, which after this insanely valuable freebie, will [hopefully!] continue to blow you away each week with ongoing, valuable AF mini “written masterclasses” that come into your inbox…for free. Which further supports all of the points I outlined above.

➡️ Because I’m linking to, shouting out, and singing the praises of a bunch of other creators and publications, I’m setting myself up for a slew of potential shares from these other creators and sources. [NOTE: this is absolutely not the only reason I’m doing this, however, I would be an idiot to not be thinking about this an trying to maximize these opportunities whenever I can].

➡️ It provides loads of add’l opportunities for me to get you deeper into my content by sharing links to things I’ve already created that tie back to that particular source [i.e. Maybe I share with you that I created my “How I would market Gilmore Girls today” post after listening to a Dear Felicity podcast episode].

I could keep going here, but you’ve probably got better shit to do RN like catch up with this week’s ep of Shogun or Vanderpump Rules [it’s all about balance, amirite?].

However, I wanted to share all of these points with you because I really want to lay out for you how coming up with a freebie idea for myself and my clients involves way the hell more strategy, innovation and deep thinking than simply “eenie meeny miny moe” spin around and choose a checklist, guide or starter kit.🤷🏻‍♀️

YOU NEED A 90 MIN INNOVATION SESSION W/ME… 

I’ve realized recently the thing I’m truly gifted at [and love THE most] is brainstorming and innovating with other biz owners to help them come up with next level, completely fucking unique ideas for their biz.

Freebies, offers, launch content, emails…my super power is ideating ideas that set you up to disrupt industries, turn heads and always get people talking.

So I’m evolving my intensives and spinning them into straight up innovation sessions. This means you-n-me, for 90 mins, get to brainstorm, dream up and invent all of the ideas we can to ensure your “category of one status” is on lock.

Here’s how this will work:

💫 You’re gonna fill out a quickie questionnaire to give me some basics about you and your biz before we meet so that we can hit the ground running.

💫 Then you choose a day on my cal and set up your innovation sesh.

💫 Before we meet you write down a list of allllll the things you currently: have questions about in your biz, feel stuck around, have a kernel of an idea about but can’t seem to get to the next step, need a second opinion on, or have a few options for but you CAN’T make a fucking decision about….and we get through as many of them as we can in 90 minutes.

💫 I will share with you ALL of my real deal, unedited thoughts; give you all of my unique next level ideas and help you make some motherfucking decisions so that you can finally start moving forward in the way you know you want to in your biz.

💫 You can record our sesh together and go back and watch it as much as you need to.

💫 My goal is by the end of the zoom chat to get you: as clear as we can on your next moves, excited about all the decisions you’ve made, and ready to tackle and implement some totally unique, next level, “category of one” ideas.

➡️ My 60 minute intensives are currently priced at $997. But I’m so darn excited about helping as many biz owners like you that I can to get innovative AF, I’m doing a super secret, special offer for my email list ONLY and pricing these 90 minute Innovation Sessions at $797.

ANNNNND, best of all, these babies will also come with 2 months free in our [One] Membership. So you’ll have plenty of time to implement, ask me questions and stay inspired with 2 months of free content that will keep you in “category of one” mode.

Our [One] Membership is currently priced at $197 per month, so when you add up $197 × 2 and subtract it from $797, your 1:1 innovation sesh with me nets out at price SO low, I kinda don’t even wanna type it out here in black and white. But fuck it…here you go: $403 dollars.

Trust me when I say there is legit nooooo other opportunity to get me 1:1 brainstorming with you about your specific biz for a lower price point.

💥 This offer is so new, I don’t even have an official offer page set up yet. But if you wanna grab one of the 10 slots I have available, just hit reply and we will get you set up. 💥

How long will this offer be avail? I genuinely don’t know.

Will I ever do this again? No earthly clue.

How quickly will the 10 spots sell out? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Let’s fuck around and find out together….

Here’s the link to apply for our new membership [One] —a community of the coolest, smartest, industry disrupting entrepreneurs that are all working to become a “category of one” in their businesses [check out the cutie magazine here that has ALL the details of what this totally unique membership is all about—think Masterclass meets Soho House]. In April our theme is all around how to master content creation in a way that feels good for you and your biz AND makes you lots of money. We dropped our schedule last week for our existing members [and we’re doing a special group project together we’re giving you specific assignments and todos each week so that you can FINALLY, once and for all, get all of your social media foundations on lock]. It’s only $197/mo and we def still have room for you.