MARKETING FUNNEL TIPS FROM THE 28-YEAR-OLD MILLIONAIRE
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Marketing funnel tips from the 28-year-old millionaire Tanner Chidester
- I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
- And I think it’s what has allowed me to grow so fast because I’m doing things most people aren’t doing and so when you do that usually it gives you an advantage over others.
- I’m pretty vocal about I don’t like the low ticket model for beginners. I think that that’s what actually kept me stuck for the first two years.
- I was like I’m going to be successful or I’m going to be homeless and when you have a mindset like that it’s hard to fail.
- At the end of the day it doesn’t freaking matter how it works, you’ve just got to get it to work. As long as the lead turns into a sale you’re good to go.
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SHARE THIS EPISODE: MARKETING FUNNEL TIPS FROM THE 28-YEAR-OLD MILLIONAIRE
MARKETING FUNNEL TIPS FROM THE 28-YEAR-OLD MILLIONAIRE
I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Doug: Well, welcome back listeners to another episode of Real Marketing Real Fast. In the studio today I’ve got Jamie Tanner-Chidester he is a 28-year old millionaire. He is the CEO of two companies, Elite CEOs and Fit Warrior and what I want you to listen to in this episode is I want you to listen and understand how he uses pay traffic, how he started, it didn’t work and how he managed to continually test and try until he got it to convert. And now he spends between $200 and $250,000 a month driving traffic to his sales funnel and operating an eight-figure business.
Doug: So Tanner has been an industry leader not only in the fitness industry but also in digital marketing and sales as well. He is a four-time winner of the 2 Comma Club in ClickFunnels and as you’ll hear in this episode he is now going to the 8 Figure Funnel award. He works with Fitness Warrior which is a fitness coaching program, he helps to shred fat and eat how they want and with his business Elite CEOs, he helps fitness trainers and online businesses generate more revenue.
Doug: So if you’re interested in generating more revenue, growing your business from six figures to seven or seven to eight sit back, tune-in and listen to Tanner [inaudible 00:01:20] I hope you enjoy this episode. So hey Tanner, super, super excited to have you on the Real Marketing Real Fast podcast today. So welcome to the show.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, thank you so much for having me I’m excited to talk about marketing and see what value I can provide, so thank you.
Doug: Well I mean there are two things that I found really interesting around your background and one is that you’ve developed a very successful business coaching people and helping them make money online and you also pay attention to your health. And you’ve helped people walk through the health journey and often lots of times as people build big businesses they spend all their time on the business end, they don’t spend any time on their health. So if you want to just share a little bit on how you combine your passion for eating and living well, as well as building a business?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, absolutely. So I mean ironically when I first started I didn’t know what to do and I had a mentor and he was like, “Well what are you good at?” And I was like, “Well not really anything. I work hard and I work out.” And he was like, “Well why don’t you do fitness?” I was like, “Okay.” So yeah I started off just helping people get in shape and I built that pretty big and before you knew it I had trainers and so forth they were asking, “Hey man how are you doing this?”
Tanner Chidester: Because most trainers don’t make a lot of money and ironically to your point it’s kind of funny, but as my business grew I kept working out but I don’t think I worked out as hard as I used to in the past because I was so busy trying to grow the business and now that it’s gotten to a pretty high level and I have a big team I’ve actually gotten my time back so I’m getting back in the kind of shape I had pre-business so to speak. But it was just logical for me because it’s all I knew and so when someone recommended it I was like yeah sure because I didn’t know what else I was going to do.
Doug: Well, that’s really cool. I mean I was sharing someone today, I said, “Yeah I was at the gym this morning.” He said, “What do you do?” I said, “Crossfit.” He says, “What is Crossfit.” I said, “Well there’s only two kinds of workouts in Crossfit. Those that you hate and those that you really, really hate.” So I don’t think he really got the humor. I said, “Join me you’ll figure it out.” So now in terms of building your business, so you said, “Hey I wasn’t really sure what to do, I’m going to something in fitness.”
Doug: And I think that’s where a lot of entrepreneurs whether they start full-time or side hustle start but the difference is that your story is different than most in that you grew it to the point where you became part of the 2 Comma Club with ClickFunnels. So how did you scale your business from “Hey I’ve got this idea.” To the point now where you’ve got your freedom and a team to help you build it?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, absolutely so when I started, and it was all me I would spend unhealthy hours working and I’ll just be honest. Some people they’re like, “How did you scale so fast?” And I said, “You know I pretty much just worked all day.” So I started off messaging people like crazy, just organically anyone who interacts on my Instagram, my Facebook.
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MARKETING FUNNEL TIPS FROM THE 28-YEAR-OLD MILLIONAIRE
I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Tanner Chidester: You know you can go into groups and stuff but what I found is that if you’ll pay a little money for shout outs on Instagram or you’ve built a following somewhat it’s always easier to connect with people who’ve at least had that first touchpoint and I did that until I was doing 30 to 50k a month consistently but I was killing myself and I started to realize well if I kill myself to make this money who cares?
Tanner Chidester: And that’s when I really started trying to figure out paid traffic. Paid a bunch of coaches to kind of help me with that and in the high ticket space pretty much everyone just teaches webinars and I never had any luck and I was convinced that I was doing everything right. When you go in a coaching program and it doesn’t work typically they’re like, “Oh you’re probably doing this wrong or that.” And I was like, “No I’m telling you, I’m doing everything.”
Tanner Chidester: And my breakthrough was finally when I started using something that I call in my marketing, I call it conversion conversations but essentially what I did is, I was like why am I trying to automate everything with my ads when that’s not what worked for me? How can I take what’s working for me organically and move it into my ads? And when I did that, it absolutely took off and I remember every moment where something clicked and I knew, it was like, “Oh my gosh this is going to change everything.”
Tanner Chidester: And so essentially all I did was I took everything that was working organically and I started running my paid traffic to Messenger and ManyChat and stuff like that and I have a very systematic process of moving people through my funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions and then we sign them up for a call.
Tanner Chidester: So I kind of put something in the middle of the ad in the webinar so if they go through and they watch the webinar and sign up great but I’ve realized that for most people unless they’re a very experienced marketer or they’re Russell Brunson or someone who’s just really, really good or has a lot of clout that it usually is not enough to get people to sign up because they’re so used to it. Especially in the general business consulting space. So hopefully that answered the question. I didn’t go too long.
Doug: No, I just want to dive a little bit deeper so I understand and our audience has a full understanding of what you’re talking about. So you said conversion conversations and years ago I was at a webinar or actually an event and John Lee Dumas was speaking there and he said, “Do things that are not scalable.” And so that’s what it sounded like you were doing with your social right?
Doug: And I still have people connect with me on Twitter and they go, “Is this really you or is this your VA?” I went, “No, I answer these, this is really me.” So you took that conversational style and what did that look like in your ads because so many people, they buy the book, they get the stuff, they want to automate everything and I think their dream is the hope that magically traffic will show up, people convert they’ll never have to talk to anybody.
Tanner Chidester: Yep. Yeah, 100% and that’s what I realized was at the end of the day people want that until it doesn’t work. At the end of the day, when something starts working it gets a lot of fun and all of a sudden you don’t mind so much. So yeah, essentially what I do is I run an ad and it goes to Messenger and then from Messenger, you can do all kinds of things. You can send audio files, voicemails, text messages, videos, images.
Tanner Chidester: You can send them obviously to URLs, you can do broadcasts and there’s a 90 plus percent open rate. So inside there you can also grab emails, phone numbers, I mean it allows you to do everything and I found it is the most effective yet minimally invasive method. So people don’t like being texted, you can but usually, they won’t respond as much. Voicemails don’t seem to work as well in my experience. Email’s a 20, 25% open rate at best.
Tanner Chidester: So looking at 90 plus percent open rates and still grab emails and text messages and you can get that type of interaction as well as doing manual follow-ups, all kinds of stuff it has totally transformed my business. The problem is and what I kind of like is its difficult or it’s time-consuming.
Tanner Chidester: So for most people, it’s hard to duplicate when you don’t have enough revenue or you don’t have a big enough team and so I’ve kind of enjoyed it a little bit because you can’t just come in and look at my funnel and then take over. It’s definitely a process that has to be systematic.
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MARKETING FUNNEL TIPS FROM THE 28-YEAR-OLD MILLIONAIRE
I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Doug: No funnel hacking.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah I mean and you can try but I always laugh because I’m like, dude good luck, you’re not going to be able to especially when they don’t understand the back end of my business because a lot of it they go “Oh this is automated. This is amazing.”
Tanner Chidester: And they don’t understand that some parts of my business are but there’s a huge part of my business that actually isn’t. And I think it’s what has allowed me to grow so fast because I’m doing things most people aren’t doing and so when you do that usually it gives you an advantage over others.
Doug: And you know this comment isn’t to take away from what you’ve done. But you said you’re doing things that other people aren’t doing. There are lots of people who are running paid traffic and there are lots of people that are running ClickFunnels and lots of people who are running Messenger.
Doug: The part that you’re doing that most people aren’t is your seeing huge success in revenue from it. So there are lots of people using the tools they’re just not putting them together in the right way so they get the revenue they want.
Tanner Chidester: Well yeah and I totally agree with you. I guess just more at the scale I’m doing and the amount of volume it’s just very… I haven’t seen anyone doing it at that type of volume because you know spending five grand or 10 grand on ads is one thing.
Tanner Chidester: Spending $200,000, $250 and continuing to kind of push people through at the same pace and effectiveness is kind of more what I’m talking about and especially when you’re doing a manual follow-up.
Tanner Chidester: You’re getting thousands and thousands and thousands of leads. So it’s not just to toot my own horn I just know that at the scale I’m doing it, it would be very hard to replicate for someone if they didn’t see the back end.
Doug: Well, and I find that really an exciting conversation because I enjoy spending money on media because it gets results.
Tanner Chidester: Absolutely.
Doug: Yeah, I do it for two reasons, first of all, because it works but there’s some sort of satisfaction in listening to people go, “Oh you know, Facebook’s charging for ads and they’re just trying to make money off me. Google’s charging me for ads.” It’s like yes and so what? If you put a dollar in and four dollars comes out or two dollars comes out or three dollars comes out what’s wrong with that model?
Tanner Chidester: Exactly I love it. I’m the same way, I 100% agree with you.
Doug: So in terms of where the word’s going with Messenger and you’re the first guest I’ve had on my podcast that’s built a successful business using Messenger which is a nice surprise. So where do you think it’s going? I mean there’s been some changes in Facebook with Messenger and what you’re allowed to send, what you’re allowed to send for free and what you have to pay for.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, so I don’t think it’s going to affect me and my business what so ever just for the simple fact that again it hurts people who are trying to automate everything. We do have some automation but there’s definitely a human aspect to my business and the new rule essentially is if they don’t respond within 24 hours you can no longer send anything.
Tanner Chidester: Every time they respond it restarts that clock and so with the number of touches and follow-ups we have if someone doesn’t respond within 24 hours they’re not going to get pushed through usually anyway unless we reengage them at a later date.
Tanner Chidester: So we’ve looked at that like I was very aware of the changes coming and I wanted to make sure my business was going to be safe with what we were doing in case we needed to make changes and based off what I saw I don’t think it’s going to affect me what so ever. I think the people who will get hurt from it are the marketers who want 100% automation because if they do not respond or engage after 14 hours it’s over with and they’re going to have to pay more money to engage.
Tanner Chidester: With us when you add any human element people respond better. They just can tell, it’s just kind of human nature too I think when they think it’s a bot they’re less likely to respond and it’s very difficult I believe to fully automate and have someone actually think it’s a person. I think it’s almost impossible because depending on what they say or how they say it if they get the same response no matter what after a while they can kind of tell.
Doug: Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of the automated webinars. The evergreen that looks like they’re alive it’s like just do the world a favor and be honest. If you’re going to lie about the webinar why would I trust you with my credit card?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, it’s funny because even when I do run webinars I kind of being like, “Hey look it’s pre-recorded whatever.” And usually the only reason I run it VSL is just to see if it converts better.
Doug: Sure.
Tanner Chidester: At the end of the day, I think a VSL is much easier. There’s much resistance so it’s funny you said that because I feel the same way.
Doug: Yeah, I don’t have a problem with people that have got recorded webinars, that’s great. I mean it fits better in my time schedule but just doesn’t try to pass it off as being live. The same as a bot, I’ve seen more marketers now say that this is a bot.
Doug: So they’re telling you in advance so they’re not disguising it and they’re explaining why they’ve automated this to help with customer service or answer your questions or whatever it is but they mention that upfront.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah and I agree with you on that. I think actually being honest upfront it builds more credibility and trust especially if you’re targeting other marketers. Other marketers are absolutely the most skeptical in my opinion so I agree with you on all fronts.
Doug: Now you mention that you also have the ability to collect email and text are you collecting those other pieces of information from your subscribers as they come into your funnel?
Tanner Chidester: Absolutely. So what will happen is what I do is if they go inside ManyChat or Messenger I actually scrape it right inside there and what you do is you use a little Zapier or a Zap I guess you could say and you can scrape it right to your email list without them ever having to leave. So it’s very effective and then your right inside the funnel. I get their phone number, email and get them a Messenger within the first five minutes.
Tanner Chidester: So at that point, you can slam them no matter where they’re at and it’s very effective not to mention if you have a sales team you can do that as well, so we do a lot of touchpoints and I am a little bit of the buy or die philosophy. We don’t try to message people who don’t want us to message them but we definitely are very thorough with all our leads and I think that’s something that’s really helped us.
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MARKETING FUNNEL TIPS FROM THE 28-YEAR-OLD MILLIONAIRE
I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Doug: Well and there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean I’ve seen both sides. I’ve seen where people message the heck out of someone and then I’ve seen the other side say, “Well you know I send them three emails.” It’s like, well you know it takes nine to 11 times to get someone to buy. So just send four more and you’ll see an increase in sales. I mean if you feel you can help people then help them. If they don’t want your product then leave them alone.
Tanner Chidester: 100% I agree with you.
Doug: So why do you collect the other data? I just want to make sure the points clear because right now in the marketing world everything is the new holy grail, oh if you just do this you’ll make zillions of dollars. If you get on Tik Tok that’s where you need to be. So here you are, you’re using Messenger and your collecting emails and you’re collecting texts.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah I mean just at the end of the day you just never know what’s going to happen. Ultimately all you really do have control over is technically you can’t control phone numbers, people can tell you not to text them and you kind of can’t and the same thing with emails. So Messenger at any time like if Facebook decides to shut it down which I highly doubt but they could shut that down, so I just want to make sure I make my business as safe as possible.
Tanner Chidester: It’s the same reason I run traffic on YouTube or other places is because relying on one method is just dangerous because if it ever gets shut down or there’s some type of policy with Google or Facebook it destroys your entire business.
Tanner Chidester: So I just always like to be thorough and it never hurts to try to have as many touchpoints as possible. So I just think you’re doing yourself a disservice to not grab email or not push to Messenger. I think you get as much as you can and then just hit them on all the platforms.
Doug: Yeah. Well you know I just wanted to hear it from you. I mean I’ve been preaching that for a long time and my audience is probably getting sick and tired of me saying that but it totally makes sense. You don’t own the social platform so you can hate on Facebook all you want for not doing your stuff for free but if they disappear then where’s your data? Where are your customers?
Tanner Chidester: Absolutely and again I highly doubt that will happen but it’s just always better to prepare for the worst pray for the best type analogy is what I always say.
Doug: Now in terms of traffic, you sound like a guy who’s really sharp and you’ve got it dialed in, so I’m assuming the first thing you tried like you said didn’t work. So when you’re running a campaign when you say paid traffic what does that look like?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah so as of now what we really do is predominantly we spend about six figures a month on Facebook, well over that and we do around I want to say $25k to $50k on YouTube. So we’re anywhere between $200 to $250 a month. The biggest thing like I said is we just do, and hopefully, I’m answering the question, if not just kind of correct me but the biggest thing we do is we go from the ad to Messenger and then the first button inside there will be to a VSL webinar or something like that.
Tanner Chidester: YouTube you cannot really do that as effectively. There’s too much of a drop-off. So on YouTube, we’ll go straight to a page and try to make it convert. But specifically with a high ticket at the end of the day what I’ve found is that the more conversation you can have the better chance there is that they’ll sign up and you make it a lot easier for your sales reps.
Tanner Chidester: I actually have had zero attrition on my sales team for over about a year and a half which is kind of unreal when you think about it because typically sales guys will fatigue quite quickly because you’re throwing everything you can at them and sometimes the quality is horrendous right?
Tanner Chidester: Like they get on the phone and they did an application but they lied or it wasn’t followed up with et cetera. So I’ve really found that my method not only gets the highest quality calls but its vetted extremely high so by the time they get to call a rep can look at the messenger conversation, they can look at the app.
Tanner Chidester: They have their phone number to text them so they can remind them before the call. All kinds of stuff like that. So we do run ads straight to the page but ultimately I just think that’s what’s really helped me scale so fast because the ROI’s extremely high.
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MARKETING FUNNEL TIPS FROM THE 28-YEAR-OLD MILLIONAIRE
I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Doug: Well, it’s interesting listening to you talk about your sales reps with no attrition because that’s an ongoing battle. So why do you think that at the end of the day people are so qualified? Is it the number of touches that you put through? So the people that are not qualified or that become disinterested or just self-select?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, so I just think it’s the follow-up process. So when you’re inside Messenger if they say something on the application that you don’t like or they’re hesitant you can see that from their responses. So, “Hey I saw you put this on the app, what’s the reason for that?” They have to answer. Or, “Hey have you ever had a coach before?” “Yeah, he really sucked, X, Y, and Z.” So you’re getting very detailed answers before they ever get to the phone call.
Tanner Chidester: On the other side if someone comes from YouTube or straight from a page all you have to go off is the application and their email. So you really don’t have any chance to follow up or if you do there’s a chance they probably won’t see it.
Tanner Chidester: So by the time you get to the call you’re fighting a lot of those objections that you wouldn’t have to fight if you had a good follow up a system before. So my sales reps at the end of the day, they’re good but I think they recognize that the calls they’re getting are so much easier to close because we hit them so hard on follow-up before they even get on the call.
Doug: So are you using a CRM of some sort to manage that data on the back end once they come through?
Tanner Chidester: Absolutely. So I use Active Campaign surprisingly I know that probably sounds weird. There’s Pipe Drive, Hub Spot stuff like that but-
Doug: There’s a million of them, yeah.
Tanner Chidester: Exactly but I just keep it in Active Campaign so my team doesn’t get confused and its in one spot. I have a really good tech guy who just set it all up so the second an application comes through it will automatically go into Active Campaign. We have a little deals section and then it goes to that specific rep and they can leave notes on it, they can move it to a deposit spot, loss, all that kind of stuff. So yeah absolutely we definitely have to do that and track everything.
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MARKETING FUNNEL TIPS FROM THE 28-YEAR-OLD MILLIONAIRE
I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Doug: Well, I don’t think it’s weird. The challenge I think that we have as marketers these days is there are so many choices out there. There are all the legacy systems and then there’s all the new stuff that’s coming. There’s a new one it seems like every day that’s in the space. At some point, you just need to make a decision, put your credit card down, buy one, build your business and if you a year down the road figure out hey, this isn’t right for me then change. Don’t spend the next year analyzing your CRM before you start your business.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, actually it’s funny you say that. I could say that about coaches because sometimes people worry so much about who they hire and I say, “Look just hire someone because even if you mess up your going to learn from your mistake anyway.”
Tanner Chidester: And yeah it could be costly but I found that even when I hire the wrong coach I learn so much of what not to do that it ends up actually helping me in the end anyway. But you’ll see someone who sits on the fence for a year and they waste so much time just scared of indecision. So whether its systems or coaches I agree with you on that 100%.
Doug: Well in looking at how you’ve scaled your business I mean one of the things that I learned in both my business and in my health was the first coach I hired wasn’t great. So I had to fire her and then the second guy was great but I got to a point, I got to my weight goal, I lost my 80ish pounds but he couldn’t take me to the next level but I spent six years with him and then I moved to the next level coaching and I think the same thing happens with our business. You hire accountants, you hire lawyers, you hire marketers, you hire advisors and as your business changes your going to have to change them anyhow because not everyone’s going to be able to scale with you. Have you found that in your business as well?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, 100% and I think a lot of times actually I’ve spent about $250,000 on coaches to date in the last two and a half years so I’ve had quite an experience, good and bad and I think sometimes we also… I agree with your point but also I’ll get in my own way because it’s almost like you take so much for gospel what the coach says that sometimes it can be a detriment because they’ll say something wrong and then you just do it and do it and do it until you convince yourself through repetition or failure that it’s incorrect.
Tanner Chidester: So I’ve seen it on both sides where it’s super helpful because they give you that clear direction and its good advice and then on the other side it’s not. So something I’ve really kind of taken to heart is no matter who I hire I always keep an open mind and I question them. Even if they are someone that I’ve paid because everyone gives you advice based on their experiences.
Tanner Chidester: Stuff I say is 100% based on my experiences and what’s worked for me. So I’m biased right? So I’ve just found at the end of the day do what works for you, obviously, listen to the people you pay but don’t listen to the point where you drive your business into the ground because they keep telling you to do something and it doesn’t work. And I kind of found that out the hard way I guess you could say but I hope that wasn’t too far off track. I like to talk.
Doug: No, you’re in the same space and that’s why I like the analogy of fitness and business because they run in parallel. So you still need to be your own advocate. There are all sorts of advisors you can go but it’s no different than going to the doctor. If you get a diagnosis you don’t like you don’t go, “Okay fine.” You get a second opinion and say is there another way before you go down that road. So in terms of looking at what you’re most excited about in the next six to 12 months what’s keeping you up at night?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah so it’s funny you ask that. I just had kind of a transition where I was feeling pretty discontent with my business, not because it’s not going well but because I feel like I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do. You know I got it to seven figures, we last year were able to become an eight-figure business. I’ve got the next award at the ClickFunnels event that they’re going to be handing out to me I think it’s Friday or something.
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I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Tanner Chidester: So I was actually just kind of feeling like a man what’s next? So the guy I’m going to actually recommend that you interview next, his name’s Ryan Moran I’m sure you might have heard of him but he really specializes in product businesses and selling businesses for exits and so what’s really happening now is the consulting businesses I have I’m really using that cash flow to either invest in other businesses or create my own businesses and kind of really become I guess like an owner versus an entrepreneur and build a company I can really sell and a product that isn’t Tanner Chidester right? Something that can standalone and sell.
Tanner Chidester: So that’s really what’s kind of getting me motivated right now and I’m in the beginning phases but I’ve really built a lot of good connections and rapport with people and just a lot of experience and so I feel like it’s absolutely the perfect timing because if I tried to do this from the beginning I think I would have failed miserably but now I feel really good. So that’s kind of what’s gotten me excited as of late so we’ll see how it goes right?
Doug: That’s really cool. Well good for you, congrats.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, thank you I really appreciate it.
Doug: Yeah I mean it’s a lot of work to do that and obviously, you’ve done more things right than you’ve done wrong because you’ve built your business like you said, up to eight figures. And just to share a glimpse I was just talking to somebody yesterday who’s a young guy like you are and he started a new business with his dad and built it in three years and sold it for a billion dollars.
Tanner Chidester: Oh my gosh. What business was this by the way?
Doug: They’re in real estate investing.
Tanner Chidester: Good grief that’s amazing.
Doug: So when teaching people now he goes, “Well I’m obviously not doing this for the money.” So they make sure the right people are in the room. So good for you, so it’ll give you some options to go and look at some other businesses. I won’t pry into what direction you’re going because I’m sure you’ve got some great ideas there.
Tanner Chidester: Oh no, no, yeah I appreciate it.
Doug: In terms of business advice, I’m sure your out speaking at various events and you overhear all sorts of conversations, what’s some of the bad advice you hear about starting a new digital business or starting some new digital marketing these days?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah so something I really don’t like and you’re going to find this kind of ironic, I actually love Russell Brunson but I’m pretty vocal about I don’t like the low ticket model for beginners. I think that that’s what actually kept me stuck for the first two years. So my first two years, my story’s really hilarious.
Tanner Chidester: I mean it wasn’t at the time but it is now. But the first two years of business I had a $47 product and I was really trying to sell and I sold about two grand in two years. I couldn’t do anything and I think the biggest reason was as a beginner you don’t have the experience, you don’t have capital, you don’t have knowledge.
Tanner Chidester: You really don’t understand how funnels work or paid advertising, you don’t have money for paid advertising. And so it was funny but my 25th birthday I just remember I was like, “My gosh if I don’t figure this stuff out this year I’m going to have to go back to school. I feel like such a loser.” Blah, blah, blah and that’s when I heard about high ticket coaching and I was like, “What is this?” Well yeah, you just sell it for a higher price. I was like, “People will buy that? Really?” And they’re like “Yeah.” I was like, “Okay.”
Tanner Chidester: So I remember I went out that first week and I made 10 grand and that was triple what I made in a month. And at that point, I went all in and I was actually a little upset. I mean during those two years I had done door to door sales and all these things that I don’t think I knew were going to help me at the time but it was really kind of upsetting. I was more upset than happy because I was like, “Man I was living horribly for this long and this was all I had to do?”
Tanner Chidester: So for a beginner who doesn’t have money or experience I think high ticket is absolutely the best way to go because it allows them to make a bunch of mistakes, mess up a lot, not have experience and still make quite a bit of money with great margins and that allows them to get out of the situation they’re in because most people, and they’re making three, four thousand a month they have to make money before they quit that job.
Tanner Chidester: And to me, the fastest way to do that is just building a high ticket service offer, get good at sales, close it over the phone and then from there build experience. And now I have low ticket products and stuff but I think that was the worst advice I was given as a beginner because it stunted my growth and you don’t have the experience or the cash flow to really make that work in my opinion.
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Doug: So let’s talk about that. So what was it that changed your mind? That switch that kind of flipped and went okay I’m going to get out the $47 thing and I’m going to move my price to 10 grand?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah I mean you know it started off lower but I’ve sold stuff between two to 10. I’ve even sold up to 30 but it’s being stuck. Experience is the best teacher although it’s the slowest and after two years of being stubborn not hiring coaches and not listening to anyone I kind of was like, you know either I have to humble myself and listen to someone who has a different opinion or stay stuck and cry about it and I felt like I was doing everything I knew how to do and so honestly I kind of just lucked out.
Tanner Chidester: I think the coach I hired was a proponent of a high ticket. If he had said low ticket I wouldn’t have questioned him and because it worked for me obviously it builds that belief right? Like going from zero to 10k in a week versus 2002 years it was easy to be like oh yeah this is the way.
Tanner Chidester: So I never say never but I do think for a beginner with limited experience it’s much easier to get someone on a phone call, sell something for $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 than it is to try to automate a $47, $97 product.
Doug: Yeah well said. So I’m going to ask you kind of a personal question you can answer it or not. So in terms of imposter syndrome how did you feel when you sold that first big-ticket item?
Tanner Chidester: So honestly that’s a great question. I didn’t feel bad because it was a fitness product. So I felt great because I was shredded to the bone, I was modeling, I mean I looked like a Greek God at the time. I look okay now but that’s all I did because I was broke so I had a lot of time to work out.
Tanner Chidester: And then when I started doing business coaching and consulting I’d already built a seven-figure business that was B to C so I was like, yeah I know what to do, I’ll show you. So I never struggle with that just because everything I’ve ever sold I felt like I had a lot of experience and I’d done a lot of stuff so I did luck out in that aspect. But I mean its something that a lot of entrepreneurs do struggle with for sure.
Doug: So do you have any, you know being that you overcame those thoughts that many people have, do you have any advice for people that are listening going, “I could never do that.”
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, it’s a struggle, right? So everyone’s different and I think something I’ve been blessed with Doug is I’ve always had a pretty much just do it mindset. So what I do is kind of ignore my feelings which can be good and bad. And I’m very open to criticism and feedback from people but I guess for me it was like I wanted to live this lifestyle where money was not an issue.
Tanner Chidester: I didn’t grow up poor but we had seven kids and my dad was a teacher. So I grew up in a home that was like if you want something you have to get it yourself. And I knew as an engineer and going to college I was never going to make the money I wanted to make unless I went into business, so for me, it was kind of just like I had to make it work and figure it out. And I knew everyone started from zero so I was like why not me? These guys who I see on TV or on the internet who I want to be like, they once upon a time didn’t know anything either so why not now? Or why can’t I sell it?
Tanner Chidester: And I don’t know if that’s good advice for everyone. Some people really do struggle mentally but for me, it was always just kind of logical and I’m a very logical thinker where okay so I want to be a millionaire. The only way to do it is business, so yeah I’m just going to do what I have to do to make it work.
Tanner Chidester: If someone really struggles with that, I mean there’s a lot of different ways to attack it but I think at some point you have to kind of ignore what people are saying because my parents told me I was dumb. They love me but they were like, “You’re an idiot. You’re going to make six figures a year and now you’re making $24,000.”
Tanner Chidester: My ex-girlfriend told me I was stupid and my own brothers they would make comments like, they work with me now ironically but one of my brothers would be like, “Oh how’s your business going?” And he said it in a way where you knew-
Doug: It was condescending yeah.
Tanner Chidester: Absolutely and you know it was just this thing inside of me where I’ve always kind of had a chip on my shoulder and I think that stems a little bit from my childhood so I won’t go too deep into that but I’ve just always been like I can do anything I want. I’ll show you, I’m going to show you I can do it.
Tanner Chidester: So every time I wanted to quit I would just call my mentor. He was the only guy who told me I could do it and I was like, “Dude I think I’m going to quit. I think I’m going to quit this time.” And he just would always talk me off a ledge and I actually messaged him the other day about getting my Comma X award, whatever they call it and we were laughing about it because if it wasn’t for him I’d be making six figures a year but I’d be miserable.
Doug: Well, that’s great and I think that’s great advice and as you said, everybody is different, not everybody’s got the same genes that you do that can just do that and ignore their feelings. But what I’ve learned is that the lineup for the big-ticket items is shorter than the lineup for the small ticket items. If you’re going to pitch, right? There are fewer people to go through.
Doug: There are fewer people at least competing. I work in the media buying space so for me to rent an email for a client that’s spending $200 to $300,000 a week isn’t a big deal. I figured well why not do that? Why do a $5,000 a week if you can do a larger number? But like you said, not everyone can make that switch but it’s a switch that you should make if you want to do what you’re doing.
Tanner Chidester: Well yeah and like even talking about sales with it, when you’re on a phone call you can drop the price, you can handle any objections. You know when they’re on a sales page if it’s not perfect you’re done.
Tanner Chidester: They’re going to click off and they’re going to go somewhere else and I was talking to a young guy today he’s going to be super successful, he already is, he’s doing $100,000 a month and he’s 23 years old. I’m like my goodness.
Tanner Chidester: But he had such a mental issue selling a high ticket program to people. He was just like, “How can I guarantee they’ll get results? How can I do this?” I was like, “Dude look at the end of the day if you’re giving them one to one attention and you’re doing all these extra things, it’s not on you at the end of the day.”
Tanner Chidester: You’re going to have to get over that. You can’t make people be successful.” And he’s just having such a hard time with it and because I think a little differently it was hard for me to try to help him. I was like, “Man I don’t know man. I just know my product is that good and I know it’s going to get people results if they do what I say.”
Tanner Chidester: You know some people it holds them back and I don’t 100%, I’m not a therapist or anything like that so I don’t know if I have the best advice but it’s something everyone kind of has to overcome I think in business because everyone is once a beginner and so I just, I don’t know.
Tanner Chidester: I think if you have good intentions and you have integrity and you have something that really helps people you shouldn’t feel bad about getting paid for it. And yeah so I don’t know. I mean I’m hopeful someone’s listening to help them but it’s a tough topic. I mean its, its own episode.
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I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Doug: Absolutely. So do you have a client that you want to share a success story about? So you can name them, not name them. Someone who came in and you helped coach them and mentor them through their business?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah so I mean there’s a bunch of clients. I think the easiest thing to do is just go back recently because I’ve had so many but there’s a guy who came into my program recently and I’ll just call him Josh but he had had bad coaching experience.
Tanner Chidester: He’d spent about $25,000 on coaches and his experience was very similar to mine. You pay the coach five, 10 grand, you go in, you start running ads to your auto webinar, it doesn’t work, they tell you to fix this. You keep doing it, it doesn’t work.
Tanner Chidester: So before you know it your $20, $25k deep and you haven’t gotten any results. So he came into my program very frustrated, very skeptical. You know a very difficult client after not having success because pretty much anything you say they don’t believe you. I mean it’s just how it is.
Tanner Chidester: So he came in, he’s a week in and he’s already trying to get out. I mean he’s just not really following direction, he’s a guy who really overthinks stuff. Like he’s very analytical, so I’d say “Well just message this person.” And he’s like “Well what do I say though? What exactly?” I was like, “Dude just say this.” He was like, “But do I say that?” And I’m just like… You know a very, very just difficult client.
Tanner Chidester: And I called him and talked him off a ledge and he finally started implementing and now he’s blowing my phone up and he’s like “Dude I sold another 10k, I sold a 5k. Dude I’ve got to hire all these people.” And so I like that more just because he was struggling and he kind of went through it and he kept spending money, he didn’t give up.
Tanner Chidester: That’s actually harder to do because after a while when you’re making a profit and you’re paying coach after coach, after coach you’re basically working for free. You’re making money and then you’re paying someone else to help you. So when it doesn’t work out you kind of feel like man, I could have just saved that money.
Doug: Sure, yep.
Tanner Chidester: So I was just really proud of him because now he’ll already have multiple six-figure businesses, he’s been in for like a month and I think by the end of the year he’ll be doing seven figures because he’s very good at sales and he’s very good at speaking.
Tanner Chidester: But I just, I really like having the students who have bad stories or they’ve had bad results with other coaches or they spent a bunch of money because mentally I think that’s actually harder to keep going forward after spending 10 grand and it didn’t work or spending 10 grand on ads and it didn’t work because you know it’s like after a point you kind of start wondering is it ever going to actually work? Am I just going to keep wasting my money?
Tanner Chidester: So most people I think they quit right before they’re going to hit success and so I was just really proud of him for kind of sticking through and it’s fun to see because when they kind of flip from hating you to loving you it’s kind of fun and you’re like “Yeah man, I told you, you’ve just got to stick it out.” That’s probably my best story right now.
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I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Doug: That’s cool. That’s a great story I mean I think it was Napoleon Hill who had written a book, something about three feet from gold. He said most people stop right before they’re going to get the breakthrough.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah it’s like that picture you see where they have the pickax and the guy is walking back and you see the gold on the other side. It’s a real thing and it sounds cliché but I really realized that every time you fail you’re actually getting closer to success and at the time you don’t feel that way. Just feel like I wasted my time, I wasted my money but you’re learning what not to do which gets you closer to knowing what to do.
Tanner Chidester: So when you start a business if you’re looking at let’s say, 10 people they’re all standing in front of you, it’s like well who do I choose? Well, the thing is even if you choose wrong, well now you have nine and then if you choose wrong again now you have eight and that’s kind of how businesses have worked out for me. So I’m just glad I never quit.
Tanner Chidester: I‘m just glad I moved home like I had a crappy car. I did everything and anything I could to keep investing in coaches and courses and doing what I had to do because it was kind of like there was no out for me. I was like I’m going to be successful or I’m going to be homeless and when you have a mindset like that it’s hard to fail.
Doug: Well, we’re glad you’re not homeless. I’m glad your successful because now you can help the homeless.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, you probably saw me on the side of the road a few years back but I’m out now.
Doug: Well, I like your message. I mean you said that every time you fail you’re closer to succeeding and what I didn’t hear you say was I tried Facebook ads and Facebook doesn’t work. You said, “I tried Facebook ads as a coach and it didn’t work so I tried it again.”
Doug: So you didn’t throw the media out and say, “Hey Google doesn’t work and YouTube doesn’t work, Facebook doesn’t work.” It didn’t work with that coach, with that approach so you just readjusted your approach, figured out what worked and now you’ve got a license to print money.
Tanner Chidester: Right and I think what helped too is I wasn’t tied. I finally got unmarried to what the coach said. So if the coach was like, “Do it this way.” And it didn’t work I stopped thinking, I was just very simple, I was like, “Okay I need to convert these leads. What is working for me when I’m not doing paid traffic?” I was like, “Okay this is what’s working organically can I mimic this?” It’s like yes. I was like “Perfect.” I mimicked it and it worked. I was like oh my gosh I was way over complicating it. I was way overthinking it.
Tanner Chidester: At the end of the day it doesn’t freaking matter how it works, you’ve just got to get it to work. So people get so tied to it has to work this way. It’s like no it really doesn’t. As long as the lead turns into a sale you’re good to go. So that was really powerful for me to have work because now if a coach tells me something I feel I’ve done my due diligence and I’ve pushed and I’ve pushed and it’s not working. I’m like, “All right, what’s next?” What’s the next way we can try this and that was powerful for me.
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I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Doug: That’s really cool. It makes so much sense. Yep, I’m often having conversations around testing this, testing that and they’re going, “Why are you always testing?” I’m like, “You know what, we’re just trying to get an incremental improvement. One percent here, a half a percent there, two percent there and it makes a big difference at the end of the day.”
Tanner Chidester: Oh yeah I mean you get a two percent, three percent increase on a funnel, I mean that’s the difference between six figures a year and seven.
Doug: It doesn’t need to be 10X. You don’t need to 10X everything.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, it’s literally true and it’s fun when you see those improvements because you’re like, “Oh my gosh, it’s working.” And that’s why I love marketing because I feel like you’re rewarded for your efforts, you’re rewarded for persistence and you don’t have to be special. You don’t have to be a certain age or color or size. You just got to sit down and have some brainpower and you can pretty much do whatever you want.
Doug: And persistence.
Tanner Chidester: A lot of persistence. A lot more than most people have I would say.
Doug: So you touched on this earlier, I’m just going to ask you the question again just so I get the name right. A guest you recommend that I absolutely have to have on my podcast, you said was Ryan?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah, Ryan Moran.
Doug: Moran, okay.
Tanner Chidester: I recently just started kind of working with him and he’s a big proponent of product-based businesses and that is brand new to me, so just like when I was starting my consulting business I’m learning all over again but I really want to build a business that I can sell that doesn’t rely on me to be the face and constantly be doing the ads and the social media and me just, I like how he thinks.
Tanner Chidester: I think he’s very logical but man he’s just a deep thinker. I don’t even know how else to describe it, he just everything you ask him he has… It’s just I don’t know. He thinks so much deeper than most people and his responses I just love them. So I think you’ve got to meet him to kind of know what I’m talking about but he’s-
Doug: Well, would you make an introduction?
Tanner Chidester: Yeah absolutely, yeah it wouldn’t be hard at all.
Doug: That would be great.
Tanner Chidester: And yeah whether it’s relationships or business or whatever he’s actually really helped me with my personal relationships just because I feel like I’m a young guy, I’m still trying to mature. I don’t always feel like I know what I want in terms of relationships so hearing from a guy who’s older, who’s successful, I have a lot of respect for him and he just, I don’t know, his answers are just really deep and I think when you meet him you’ll kind of see what I mean.
Doug: Excellent. So the most important question of the day, how can people track you down, find you, connect with you, where’s the best place?
Tanner Chidester: I mean there’s always a million places but I always prefer social media. If they send me a message like I always will see it. So Instagram, Facebook is usually the two best places. You can also go to YouTube, I just kind of started that but send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram. You’ll always get a response. It might take me a while but you’ll always get one.
Doug: So what’s your handle on Instagram?
Tanner Chidester: So the handle on Instagram is just Tanner.Chidester. Unfortunately, I had someone who wouldn’t give me the Tanner Chidester so I just had to kind of improvise and then on Facebook, it’s just the same thing, my name just without the dot.
Doug: Perfect. Well, I’m going to say thanks so much. I really enjoyed the conversation. It’s so inspiring to hear your journey and see what you’ve done and that you didn’t give up and unlike a lot of people who try, media doesn’t work, you didn’t give up you just said hey it didn’t work this time, I’m going to try readjusting it and you got it to convert so good for you.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah I really appreciate it Doug and hopefully, I didn’t talk your ear off, I have a tendency to do that but I appreciate you having me here.
Doug: No, I just love talking to another marketer and congrats again on your next level with ClickFunnel. So what is the next level you’re going to achieve?
Tanner Chidester: So it’s the eight-figure award, I don’t know if they’re going to have another award but I’m sure Russell’s going to announce a 100 million award or something so for now, I feel content and I’ve done everything so I’m kind of hoping Russell doesn’t do that because I’m sure if he does then I’m going to feel like I have to get that.
Doug: Man, I’ve got to get that too. There goes your gym time.
Tanner Chidester: Yeah exactly. But yeah it’s been a great journey and it’s been fun doing it with my brothers and I’ve just learned so much so it’s been a fun ride.
Doug: Well, thanks again. So there you go, listeners, there’s another episode of Real Marketing Real Fast. Our guest today shared a ton of information, I hope you enjoyed our conversation with Tanner. I’ll make sure that in the show notes we’ve transcribed and given you links to his website and his social media and there’s some great advice so I hope you took some notes and I look forward to serving you on our next episode.
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I have a systematic process of moving people through my marketing funnel quickly and efficiently by asking important questions. Then we sign them up for a call.
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Get in touch with Tanner:
- Web – ELITE CEOS
- Tanner on LinkedIn
Find out more about Tanner:
Links to other related podcasts and or blog posts:
HOW TO QUICKLY ATTRACT MORE CLIENTS WITH MARKETING FUNNELS
A MARKETING FUNNEL FOR PROFESSIONALS BY A PROFESSIONAL