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In this episode, Barbara and Libby discuss:
-The mistakes in Selling Digital Products
-How to Utilize Tiktok to Create Content
-The Myth in Six And Seven Figure Businesses
Key Takeaways:
“We want to know what people are talking about in our space. If we’re aware, we can get a sense of narrowing down how we can focus our conversations when talking to people” – Libby Rothchild.
Connect with Libby Rothchild:
Website: https://www.dietitianboss.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/libbyrothschild?trk=org-employees
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/libbyrothschild/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIXPySZ-j09S9NZwE17d-iQ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/libbynrothschid
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/libby.rothschild
Connect with Barbara Hales:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBarbaraHales
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theMedicalStrategist
Website: www.TheMedicalStrategist.com
Email: Barbara@barbarahalesmd.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TheMedicalStrategist
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/barbarahales
Books:
Content Copy Made Easy
14 Tactics to Triple Sales
Power to the Patient: The Medical Strategist
TRANSCRIPTION (121)
Dr. Barbara Hales: Welcome to another episode of marketing tips for doctors.
I’m your host, Dr. Barbara Hales. Today, we have Libby Rothschild with us. She is a sales and marketing expert who shows Coaches and Consultants how to create and market digital products. Welcome to the show, Libby.
Mistakes in Selling Digital Products
Dr. Barbara Hales: Hi, Libby. Tell me about the mistakes people make when trying to sell digital products. I know that as a side hustle, people write down ebooks or guides that they either give away or sell online for some additional revenue. What mistakes are there that people make regarding that?
Libby Rothchild: Yeah, great question. The first mistake is not creating digital products because it’s a great market. And it’s a great opportunity to help reach more people by creating an offer online. And still, only 16% of businesses are fully remote. So there are a lot of opportunities for healthcare practitioners to create digital products. And if you think about the benefit, you have more accessibility, so you can help more people when you’re creating digital products. And to be clear, defining digital products that can be a free guide. To get more people to join your email list.
As you mentioned, it could be an ebook or online course; membership is considered a digital product, online coaching, and masterminds. Those are all called digital products. So there are a lot of different types of digital products. And if you’re starting from the beginning building your email list by creating a simple free guide is a good first step if you’re starting from the beginning.
People’s first mistake is not creating digital products. The second mistake people make, specifically, healthcare practitioners, is not doing market research and finding out what people want and need. So you can solve their problem through your digital product. And that’s an important process.
And it can be iterative because sometimes folks will tell us what they want. And we need to do more research to find out what they want and need that they’re not telling us. So there’s a lot of work with identifying our ideal client and understanding what their biggest pains and problems are, and then finding a way and testing how we can use digital products to solve problems by providing transformations through our work, whether it be a free guide, an online course, or a mastermind program.
Process of Finding What They Need
Dr. Barbara Hales: Could you describe a little bit about your process in trying to ferret out what it is that they need, even though they are a little reluctant to tell you?
Libby Rothchild: Absolutely. The process of finding out what they need is first identifying what your message is. And that’s an important process that a lot of practitioners like to skip would be very general. For example, I want to help people with wellness, or I want to help people with gut health. But both of those topics are not very specific. So starting broad is okay; let’s say we’re going gut health. And then keep in mind that the more specific you can be with gut health, the more you can talk to people and identify what problem they have with gut health. And more specifically, are they somebody with IBS who is newly diagnosed? Are they somebody with IBD? That’s been suffering with the diagnosis for a long time. And they have different paths. They already know their symptoms, and they’re looking to manage them. So really getting clear with what area are you helping in?
As I mentioned, gut health could be the space, but more specifically, what is the problem you’re solving within that area? And that process starts with you having an idea. And then clarifying that idea by talking to people and testing a little bit. Testing could be through putting out content. It could be through having conversations online, identifying who your ideal client is or somebody similar to them, and having regular conversations, both off and online. And I think that is where there’s a lot of friction with healthcare practitioners because they struggle to have those conversations with people about their problems.
Dr. Barbara Hales: So are you going into their social media platforms to see what they’re chatting about? or questions they’re asking?
Libby Rothchild: Yeah, so that’s one way that’s a great way there are so many options. So you can go on keywords with TikTok and look at what people are talking about. And you can search for keywords. If it’s gut health and find out what are the most common tech talks that have been created in the last week.
What’s popular, we’ll want to know what people are talking about in our space. So if we’re aware, we can get a sense of narrowing down how we can focus our conversations when we’re talking to people, so you can engage in conversations through searching with what’s important and relevant to focus your conversation and then and other platforms such as Instagram, whether it’s through a hashtag like gut Have or and again, I’m using that as an example. But of course, we replace that with an example. It could be through hashtags. It could be through conversations that are happening under a post. And it could be that you’re taking time to engage genuinely with people through stories or partners may be somebody in a similar space but they’re not a direct competitor. And learning more about where people who experience the problem that you solve or something similar. Where do they spend time? And how can you find them and talk to them genuinely about what support they’re looking for? Or if they already have support? What journey are they going on to find a solution to our problem?
Utilizing Tiktok
Dr. Barbara Hales: Have you been creating any TikTok videos?
Libby Rothchild: Yeah, I do Tiktok. I’m more on Instagram. But right now, it’s a repurposing strategy. So taking some of the content from TikTok and Instagram and found a way to post them on both platforms. So yeah, we are on TikTok. We’ve been spending more and more time building out our YouTube, which is longer-form video. But yeah, we do a short-form video on Instagram. And we are working on optimizing our repurposing strategy with tick tock and Instagram. But we’ve been using Tiktok and my company for the last five years. We’ve been using Instagram as a primary platform and then podcasting. And then now, YouTube is a newer one.
Dr. Barbara Hales: Sorry, do you find, for TikTok, that you’re better off just having your message typed out? And then you’re using trending music? Or is it that you talk?
Libby Rothchild: Yeah, that’s a great question. So a combination of short-form videos, by the way, is the future. So I’m glad you’re talking about it. It’s great that your audience knows that a short-form video is anything under 30 seconds or 60 seconds. So any quick message, there are many different ways to do it. So right now, social media is favoring original sounds. So that doesn’t mean that you can’t take a trending sound and use it. But right now, there’s a huge push for you to create your own sound. So that could mean that you are doing something educational, or even more, and you might come up with a sound that others can use.
And the idea is that the platforms there want to make money. If you create a fun and original sound that catches on and becomes a trend, more people will use the sound. This user-generated ecosystem builds better with time because more people are creating better sounds that other creators can use. So that’s the logic for those of you listening, like, Why is that happening? It is this world we’re living in. The logic is that the original sound will cause more people to be excited about using that sound for themselves to then be inspired to create their own unique sound and then get other people to create more sounds because the idea that the social platforms want more users, they want more users creating more content.
How do you get more people to create more content and a more enticing, fun universe in the online space? So for content creators, you can use trending sounds for those listening. If you’re not doing anything, get on there and start doing something. Using a trending sound is a great idea. If you can create your own optimal sound, you will be favoured in the algorithm. But I always like to share advice and experiences from the lens of thinking about what stage of business you’re at. Suppose you’ve never posted a short-form, content piece of content. In that case, you probably want to start with whatever you can to put yourself out there and then optimize the process after you’ve been consistent instead of trying to be perfect and never actually putting out content. So the answer would be, well, what are you doing now? And if it’s nothing, get on there and start doing something. And then, you can start to come up with a more strategic approach to your content strategy.
Cyberspace Fun Sounds
Dr. Barbara Hales: What fun sounds have you created for cyberspace?
Libby Rothchild: Yeah, so far as me, I don’t make as many fun sounds that I create as educational. So I do a lot more original content with education than fun sounds. But what I do is I have my entire team and clients creating original content for us. So I’ve created an environment where our team and our clients are all content creators representing the brand, so if you go to a dietician or boss on our Instagram, you’ll see that we’ve got diversity we have a pregnant woman we’ve got a younger dietitian, we have different diverse people living in different parts of the world with experiences and life circumstances, creating content from something relatable for fellow dieticians since I served dieticians, and then something educational about how to link your, your scheduling app to your Instagram page.
And so it’s just this really fun universe that’s been created, ranging from some original sounds to some education, but more so through the lens of different content creators, all representing the method that I’ve created and talking about how they have adapted their lifestyle with where they’re at based on following the framework that I’ve created.
Dr. Barbara Hales: So, have you been doing that while doing an originally choreographed dance?
Libby Rothchild: You know what, I haven’t gotten too big on the dancing yet. And it’s not because I don’t love dance; my husband and I take Salsa dance lessons. It just hasn’t come super authentically to me. So I have We’ve gotten to down, you know, down with the dance moves, but knowing that that’s popular, my clients and our staff and so I’ve been able to showcase them on our feet. So we show dancing on the feed. It’s not always from the founder.
Though, I’ll tell you that. And then it’s intimidating for some folks, doctors and practitioners are like, Oh, my goodness, I don’t want to dance. And my advice on that would be, if you don’t feel like doing something, you don’t have to do it. It goes back to our previous conversation. If you’re not putting out any content, the first question, the first answer, will be put out content, and then you can optimize it later.
So if you’re not really in tune with dancing, what’s more important is that you’re talking about the problem and the pains people experience in your content. And then maybe you can revisit that in the future. And if you’re not comfortable with it, I don’t think there should be any pressure that you have to dance it. I do think, though, that you need to be on video like that. The number one trend for social media is short-form content. And that’s video content, short-form video under 30, 60 seconds, or 30 seconds.
Content Marketing Errors
Dr. Barbara Hales: Yeah, that’s haven’t made they just had, they’re talking dogs, and everybody finds them cute. What mistakes do people make when marketing when putting out their content? There’s very little point or visibility if nobody knows it’s there. So obviously, people need to market it, meaning people tell others that it exists and where to find it. So what mistakes do you find?
Libby Rothchild: The biggest mistake with marketing is that people give up too soon. And that’s true in business. So it’s content marketing can take longer, and then some other modalities to try to get clients. But it’s really important for brand building. And I think the mistake that many practitioners make, including our clients, is thinking it’s enough to show up and show up and show your face. As I mentioned, a short-form video is the first step. Now it’s an important step.
But we can’t just expect to show up and then we’ll get many sales or inquiries. It’s not quite how it works. There are a lot of steps after showing up that matter. So it’s improving your strategy. It’s making sure you’re talking to people in your market. It’s taking the idea I mentioned earlier, gut health, and then narrowing it down. What does that mean? What exactly are you serving you’re solving with the realm of gut health? And who is your ideal client? And what are their pains and dreams? So I think that should content marketing and creating content is one small part of the equation. And it’s an important part. But I see a lot of entrepreneurs and practitioners get frustrated when things don’t automatically click.
And the answer is usually, well, there are three more things you need to do if we’re looking at a visual circle and content is on the top part of the circle. And then we also have, okay, we need to be talking to people consistently. We need to identify our content, look at our metrics and insights, and improve what we can with what we have until it becomes more of what people want. And that’s that process frustrates a lot of people. And I think if you go into the Content Market, it’ll take a while. It’s a process, and it will happen faster for some people. But focusing on this as a brand-building activity will help set us apart from our competition. That will be an iterative process; that mindset shift, hopefully, can educate practitioners to know that this is a good place for them to be.
And there are a lot of opportunities to learn and grow. And remember that your potential customers are searching online like they’re looking, hanging out there on social media. So it’s a good opportunity for us as practitioners to post content so we can get seen in front of them. And even if we don’t right now, the more we create and do something, the more ideally, the more strategic we will become if you look at your insights and if you’re looking to improve your messaging and strategy.
The Little Dog Hamilton
Dr. Barbara Hales: What’s the name of your little guy?
Libby Rothchild: Oh, I brought my dog, and his name is Hamilton. And as we were chatting, he started eating my plant, and I got a little nervous. We don’t usually hang out together in my office. He’s usually in the living room. He’s a puppy and very rambunctious, so he needs a lot of attention.
Dr. Barbara Hales: Yeah, I guess he’s a puppy. What type of dog is he?
Libby Rothchild: He’s a Pomeranian, just his hair hasn’t quite grown in yet so he’s in what’s called the puppy ugly space. My husband doesn’t like me saying that because he thinks that sounds negative. And he’s not. I don’t think people will understand if you see a puppy. I believe still think you’re saying your puppy is ugly. And that’s not true. So we googled it because we were like, Why is his hair coming in weird? And this for a year and a half? The Pomeranians look like Chihuahuas. And so this is normal, but we didn’t know that. We got him, so he’s been a fun little addition to our family we got a couple of months ago.
Dr. Barbara Hales: Are you going to have him get the A teddy bear cut?
Libby Rothchild: Absolutely. I cannot wait for him. I’m so glad you know what that is. But they said he’s a little too young and needs to be three pounds before getting a haircut. So he’s 2.7 right now. I cannot wait for him to get a teddy cut when He’s big enough.
Dr. Barbara Hales: Is he going to five pounds or six pounds?
Libby Rothchild: So we don’t know both of his parents were nine pounds, but he’s almost four months. And he’s starting up. He sees five months. He’ll be five months in a couple of days. And he’s still pretty small for his age.
Dr. Barbara Hales: I’ve never heard of that breed getting to nine pounds.
Libby Rothchild: Yeah, yeah, well, yeah. So they can range anywhere from, I think, three to nine of the elbow. I’ve seen dogs Pomeranians up to 20 pounds. So really well. Yeah, they can be on the larger, or the smaller side. So we don’t know what will happen here with Hamilton.
Dr. Barbara Hales: A little too much snacking involved there.
Libby Rothchild: yeah. Yes, definitely.
Dr. Barbara Hales: Okay, I mean, sometimes I say to my dog, you know, like, you’ve been snacking too much. And I think, yeah, so who’s giving it to him?
Libby Rothchild: Yeah, I’m learning all sorts. I’m learning everything about dogs. My first puppies were our first dogs, so we’re learning about the dog. Yeah, well, that’s fun. Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun. A lot of fetches. So does he? Yeah, he’s hyperactive. So he loves to fetch attention. And I can’t leave him for too long. So it’s fun.
Myth in Six And Seven Figure Businesses
Dr. Barbara Hales: That’s good. What myth Do you speak about in six- and seven-figure businesses?
Libby Rothchild: Yeah, well, I think I’m going to come from the lens of the lifestyle business, which means that you’re creating a business for your lifestyle and not necessarily to sell your business. And I don’t want to have any judgment for those that create more of a growth business or create to sell versus those that are built a business because they want to have a flexible lifestyle and have time with their families. And both are great options. I subscribe to and teach the lifestyle method because our clients, as practitioners, want to build a business around their lifestyle.
So with the lifestyle business, I’m going to speak about six and seven-figure mistakes from a lifestyle business standpoint, not from a growth standpoint, because I see those as two different tracks. I think a big mistake, and it’s tough in the online world, is that there’s this idea that you can wake up if you if your listeners are familiar with Tim Ferriss, there’s this idea that you can just be this laptop, lifestyle, entrepreneur and work an hour a week and make six and seven figures with high-profit margins. And where that can be true, I don’t want to not speak of the work that goes into building this and the level of leadership needed to work less and make more. And I noticed a lot of practitioners that want to build a lifestyle business, including our clients, think that they can work less and make more at the same time.
And there’s a lot of this disconnect between how long of a journey it takes to build the infrastructure to create the lifestyle you want. However you want, that outcome look is different for every person. So I think the biggest myth is that you can have this lifestyle, or you can do whatever you want, take time off any second one and make, you know, these huge margins, but that there’s a ton of work that goes into that. And especially when it comes to reoccurring revenues.
Dr. Barbara Hales: They think I just heard a collective Oh, shoot.
Libby Rothchild: And especially because you must consider recurring revenues when building a sustainable business. And you also have to think about some metrics that are different when looking for lasting business sustainability than for a growth business, like when you’re at the beginning stage when you’re just trying to grow. So if you’re trying to build a business that can guarantee you not guaranteed, nothing’s guaranteed, but that can probably help you get six figures continually or seven figures if you’re looking for sustainability, and the amount of money and whether that be revenues or profits, you’re going to have to look at your business a little differently. And the key metrics are no longer sales and marketing. But there now will be done I have my processes in place. Even if you don’t have employees or you have a small staff, you want to be able to retain the folks you do have?
And you’re also going to want to look at reoccurring revenue. So how can I do business? And how I can create offers that will support people long-term. And that’s something many business owners I see are not factoring in. So it’s this myth that you can work more, so I work less and make faster. And then there’s another myth that you’re designing a business for a snapshot of time and not looking at the big picture. So we always have to design long-term and think about reverse engineering.
`What do I want, and if it is reoccurring revenues, then there are a lot of metrics besides sales and marketing that will go into play, no matter if it’s six or seven figures. I don’t care how big you want to make this. You still going to need to get you’re going to have to work on your management, your leadership, and that’s the part that a lot of people are like, Oh, it’s hard delegation is Hard and working on staff, especially in this economy is it’s tough, making sure you’ve got the right people who are excited, that means that your business has to be attractive, you have to have a lot of hiring processes, you have to start thinking more about your staff than you do about your clients because your staff will help take care care of your clients.
So there’s just a lot that goes into building a business that I think a lot of folks, it’s harder to hear. And it’s also not as sexy to market as it is to say you can work less, and I’m all about working less and making more. But I also want to be clear, there’s a lot that goes into that, and doesn’t want to do the work. And you know, it goes back to content marketing. You have to keep at it and be patient, and it will work. But it takes some time. And it’s the same thing with building a business. It’s having the mindset of learning and growth and the mindset that the key metrics will be varied. They’re not just going to be sales and marketing. They’re going to include a lot more than you think. And just having a growth mindset can help with that process.
A Gift For Listeners
Dr. Barbara Hales: Absolutely. I understand you have a little guide or a gift for our listeners today. Could you tell us about that?
Libby Rothchild: Absolutely. So, I have a free caption guide for those interested in learning more about content marketing. If you head on over to Libby rothschild.com. You can get my free download, a social media caption guide. So you can think less about creating great copy and plugging and playing it, whether for Tik Tok, Instagram, or even Facebook. So if you want to go and grab that, Olivia rothschild.com And feel free to reach out to me with any questions or comments you have. So my goal is to help you create content and not give up so you can reach more people in your business.
Dr. Barbara Hales: Thank you so much for being with us today. Libby. You’ve been listening to Libby Rothschild at marketing tips for doctors with your host, Dr. Barbara Hales. Till next time.