Episode 012 – Scale Your Business with Audria Richmond

Roberto: Hey y’all, Roberto here and welcome to episode 12 of the Relationship Makes Money show. And what’s really cool about the name and this week’s episode is relationships truly do make money, and relationships really lead to so many friendships. And one of my favorite things about this industry is the ability just to be able to connect with so many individuals, students and other humans that have purchased our products and programs throughout the years and to be able to see their successes in their own way in their own right. And so, today we have someone who actually started out buying some of our sponsorship products bought some of our sponsorship online programs for her marketing business for her company and that’s Audria Richmond. Now Audria is a marketing the launch strategist. And listen, when you know it’s time to actually scale your business model and automate the marketing and you’re ready to multiply that money. She is a force y’all. And, like, you really want her on your side when it comes to that because when you combine strategy and creativity in tech savviness that is what Audria brings to the table. And so, she’s got bestselling books and courses and products and programs that have literally helped thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners around the world, build highly profitable brands, and I’m so excited to have this conversation today with Audria. Now, Audria will be joining us December two through four at Position Partner Profit. If you haven’t registered yet, head over to positionpartnerprofit.com to be able to register to either join us virtually or in Houston. And without further ado, y’all, here we go. Welcome to Episode 12 of the show.

Welcome to the Relationships Make Money podcast where it’s all about the people, partners, and profits. Each week we’ll explore conversations around partnerships, leadership, our thoughts, and profits. And now your host Roberto Candelaria.

Roberto: Well, hey Audria, welcome to the show, my friend.

Audria: Hey, hey. I’m excited to be here.

Roberto: Listen, I am so excited to now, listen y’all. The thing about Audria is you already heard her bio her intro all that fun jazz. But this is a pre-warning as it is with some of our guests. I don’t know where this is going because as the show says Relationships Make Money and the thing with relationships is you just kind of got to ebb and flow sometimes. So—

Audria: Yes, let’s go with the flow.

Roberto: We don’t know where we’re going but we know where we’re ending and we’re going to run off. So as you did, I guess to get started here like, like, let people know, like, who you are, how did you get here? Right? Because like, you’re a beast. But like, how did we get to where we are today?

Audria: It’s crazy, you actually ask this it’s because I literally just talked about this last night. But I feel like it’s so many parts of my story that I can tell. I always like to start with a decision, right? I discovered this like, online marketing thing when I was dead broke. And I was like, this is crazy people online, they’re not making this kind of money. This is insane. This is not a thing. And at the time, you know, I was, I had a failed photography business. My husband and I had a failed juicing business at the time. And then I had a failed magazine, fail, fail, fail. When I say failed. We couldn’t make ends meet kind of fail. And so we were looking for some solutions online. And I remember reading the book, Book Yourself Solid by Michael Porter. And in the first chapter, he talks about firing all your clients, and I’m like, bro, no, not doing it. I rarely pay my bills. I’m keeping these clients, even if they drive me crazy. And so I ended up reading his book, and it kind of turned me like you kind of go down this rabbit hole once you start learning about opt in pages and freebies, and all of the things. And I remember coming across a person, I don’t want to mention the person but like, we’re just so mesmerized by her content. And so join that program. And I kind of got into this whole online marketing world. And as I started to learn these things and discover these things, I was like, “You know what, let me try it. Let me see if this thing actually works.” And so I created my first little, little training video, it was called 10 Steps to Launching a Premier Brand. I put it out there. And like within 60 days, we made like $20,000 and at this point, I was like, “Okay, this online marketing thing, it must be a thing,” because when I first came in online, believe it or not, I wanted to be a course creator. I did not want to be a coach, consultant, any of that I wanted to just create courses and make a whole lot of money. And I kind of got morphed into coaching and consulting. So when we say like how did I get here? It started with the book, the book turning to my first investment which was $549. That was just the first payment, and being able to come into this world and see a whole new possibility that wasn’t privy to me. And so I started to really study that thing and love marketing and master marketing. And I was like, if I can do it, I can teach it. And I can tell everybody else about it was kind of like I had discovered this goldmine. And I just been doing marketing and launching ever since. So it’s, it’s a lot of other things. But that’s kind of how I got here. Where do you see today.

Roberto: And, you know, I wrote some notes as you were talking, and because even as you were going through, and y’all some of the other conversations we’ve had, which y’all don’t get to hear, because they want to record it. Because we cut up together is, you know, I heard you say that it starts with, with making a decision. And what’s interesting about that, and just kind of the way that you described it here is you were just like, I made a decision. I went and did it, I failed. But when I failed, I also made a decision to get back up and keep going because I’m not okay, living under a bridge. Yes. And then you made another decision, and you went out and you failed. And you know, I think one of the themes about what you were saying is that you know how to show up and adapt. Like that you got this idea. You’re gonna go and what doesn’t work, okay, I’m still going to keep showing up and I’m going to adapt, and I’m going to keep going and I’m going to keep showing up and I’m going to adapt and I’m gonna keep going because it’s funny, you know, you mentioned buying online courses, you know, Audria and I like Audria about some of our sponsorship products, a whole I mean, it seems like 500 years ago in internet marketing. And one thing that I can tell you about Audria is that she was always just like, she is today so dedicated to the brand and showing up like, we’d be like, there’s a bonus q&a Call and she’d be like, Audria is like, I’m gonna send you an email. Here’s the full sponsorship proposal. Here’s this and like, it was a 60 minute call. I think she was the only one that sent in her sponsorship proposal. And I remember that, like, we’re just going to revamp your entire proposal right now. Right? Like afterwards, right? Afterwards, people like, well, here’s mine. Can you do mine? It’s like, No, you missed the call. Like, you didn’t show up for yourself? So I guess talk to us about that. Like, when people look at marketing, you know, marketing is one of those topics. Even for me, sometimes I was like, I’m not a good marketer. I’m a great communicator. Right? I’m not a good marketer. I’m a good teacher, and people come up with like, the tomfoolery around like, why we aren’t good marketers, though? Like, what is marketing in your terms? And how do people become an uncloned marketer?

Audria: Yeah, I think those two things you asked really good questions, I want to, I want to tackle both of them. The first thing you asked is like, how do you actually show up, you know, as a marketer, and it will speak to the uncommon part, the first part is showing up is you already spoke to it is communicating and educating. I always tell people like marketing is nothing but educating your client, on making the decision to do business with your brand. It’s like proving the case, you have to show that you are the obvious choice is I like to say, like, how do you know and you’re the obvious choice because your content say so, how you show up say so. So when I think about marketing, marketing is not a thing that you do is who you beat, right? And it’s like, you know, you’ve never sold me your sponsorship programs, you showed up with your products and services, right? And that was enough for me. And I always tell people, like when I used to work at Best Buy, you know, I was like, the only female selling computers, right? It was a sales department with all these guys. And then it’s like, how the hell you selling all these computers? And I’m like, “because I spend time talking to people hear what they got to say, answering their questions, telling them no, you shouldn’t spend your money on that you’re gonna lose your shit if you buy this or not”. I mean, like being 100 with people. And I think what’s missing in marketing is the communication is the honesty is the connection piece, right? People are treating people like transactional little numbers instead of humans. And when you treat people like humans, it should humanize your marketing. If your marketing is not converting, it’s probably because you’re not humanizing it. Right? And so how do you be uncloned? Well, number one, stop, you know, you’re gonna hate me for this one, but I was just gonna say it, I’m gonna keep 100 You know how I get down? Like, I’m not gonna teach you how to be a mini version of me. The biggest part of being uncloned is finding your individuality and taking risks on things that somebody tells you you shouldn’t do. Right? Typically, when people come to me, they’re part of other programs that told them like “you shouldn’t do this. You shouldn’t do that”. And nowadays, and then, what I always like to tell people, it’s like, Who are you at your core, like, what makes up you? Because that’s going to make what you offer. It’s going to make what you sell. And it’s definitely going to make up how you market. It’s one of the main reasons I don’t teach one marketing strategy, it depends on your personality type, maybe you’re not a three-part video series type of person, maybe your webinar person, maybe you’re not a webinar person, maybe you’re an event person, maybe all of that scares you. And you have one on one call type person. Either way, my job as the, you know, as a marketing and lunch strategist is finding your individuality, amplifying it, showcasing the difference, that makes you the obvious choice. So that’s how I approach marketing with my clients.

Roberto: Yeah, and I think that that’s so key, you know, is finding your individuality because we have, and I say, we also this could be you if you’re listening in your car, at the gym, wherever. But you know, also, Audria and me, like, we’ve come up in this industry alongside each other, and I say alongside each other, because people always be like, Oh, well, my student is my student, this and y’all, those of you that know me, and that are getting to know me, you know, I’m just like, look, we’re all on this journey, we are all taking one step at a time. And you know, sometimes you got people in your life that you are 2-3-5 steps ahead of them in one area, but you get to another area, they 2-3-5 steps ahead of you. And that’s what we say like we just walking in this journey together. And I love that you said to find your individuality, because there’s been so much of an air of like the bro marketing. Just, just everywhere. And so, you know, when you talk about finding your individuality, and I love all the different ways that you said, right, whether it be a webinar, or a course, or events, or coaching, you know, in getting to that finding the individuality once they find it. Now, y’all I do all of those things, because I’m an overachiever.

Audria: They all work, right?

Roberto: They all work right? There is no one way. Right?

Audria: Yes.

Roberto: The only like, the one way is the one that feels good to you. Like, I started our ebook.

Audria: Yes.

Roberto: Like, all of this started with a $7. PDF called Relationships Raise Money, y’all. And here we are. 11 years later come full circle to naming the podcast Relationships Make Money from something that started 11 years ago as a $7. PDF.

Audria: Yes.

Roberto: So as people find this individuality, like how do they begin to explore like, their own unique voice? And then it’s a two part question, and then give themselves permission to go after it.

Audria: I’m actually gonna sum it up. Because it comes, yeah, it comes down to not seeking approval. And it sounds cliche, right? Like, oh, I don’t seek approval. Let me tell you how you do. If you ever call someone and say, What do you think, insert X, you are not trusting yourself? You’re not trusting your ideas? Are you not trusting what you want to do? And if you respect the next person, their answer will pretty much trump whatever you thought about doing. And so when we talk about finding your individuality, and like getting to a place of doing you, if you will, number one, you already know you, you already know what you want to do, you already know what things you like and don’t like. But for some reason, you have to seek the approval of a few people, maybe you seek their approval of your coach, because you’re paying them, maybe you seek the approval of your spouse because you love them. Maybe you seek the approval your family and friends because they are the only one that know you’re doing this thing, right. But there comes a time in your career in your business where you have to have an idea and execute on it without asking other people what they think. And I will tell you some of my best ideas and best marketing campaigns came from skipping that question from my peers, and just doing what I felt like, felt good to me. And let the results tell me whether or not that was a good good decision or not. Because what happens is when you start to ask people what they think, you are essentially borrowing their limiting beliefs, you are borrowing their insecurities, you’re borrowing all of that data and letting it trump your vision. And a lot of the times are the some of the best things don’t see the light of day, it’s because somebody shot it down before it can even fly. And so for me, when I, when we talked about individuality and like standing out and doing all the things we talked about, like trusting yourself and getting to a place of where you want 100% can do that. It comes from you not having to seek approval from other people to make your decisions to get things done. And it’s not easy. And so if you’re like, “Well how do I do that?” Well the next time you need to make a decision about something instead of calling your friend just do it. You know?

Roberto: Yeah, I mean and and that’s so key like they just do it because, because I think what happens is like when we’re like as people when we try to do things the right way. And by the right way, y’all I mean like the checklist, okay, like, like, listen I know some of y’all have opted into every single free checklist about every single $7 free checklist out there on the internet. And just like I need to check every single box here.

Audria: yeah,

Roberto: There’s 973 steps. I need to check all 973 boxes, but the thing is, is like when we’re worried about doing things the right way, you actually miss your way.

Audira: Yes.

Roberto: And like, that’s what’s going on here. I mean, that that’s what I have to say. Right?

Audria: Yes, yes

Roberto: When you try to fit into a societal norm, you miss you.

Audria: Yes, yes.

Roberto: and you just what makes it uncloned?

Audria: Yes, yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

Roberto: Yeah. So like, listen, for people that are moving forward, and they’re just like, hey, I’m going to do this, I’m gonna build a course, I’m gonna go coaching, I’m gonna do the marketing, like, what are three things that somebody should think about when creating that offer? And, and I want to have this quick conversation about offer y’all because, listen, there’s a difference between saying everybody “come to my free workshop, everybody gets a free PDF”, there’s a difference between saying, like, “I need to make $5,000 This month, or I need to make $5 This month”, or “I need to make $100,000 This month, and I’m just gonna go do and actually having an offer.” Yeah. And so I guess, again, two parts. I love two part questions.

Audria: I’m here for —

Roberto: I should have gone to law school, I should have gone to law school. So, number one, what is an offer? And two, what are like three things people should think about in creating an offer?

Audria: Okay. So when I think of an offer, I think of something that you sell that solves a problem, right? And it happens to be, it happens to have components that helps to get the result, right? So if your offer is an event, how is it going to help me get the result of whatever you’re promising? So if your event is about how to be a great mom, my hopes is when I attend your event, and I can leave with some type of resolve for that, right? whatever your thing is, when I think about what you need to think about when you’re creating your offer is a few things, one, and this is where a lot of people come to me a lot of people are just doing what their coach said, The coach said, you know, “do two zoom calls, give them a welcome email and do a meet up with them on Zoom like you like, cool, they got my thing”. But like, what if you don’t like zoom? What if you don’t want to do two calls, maybe you want to do five, right? But when we start talking about your offer, the first thing you want to think about is what is what is the result that I want the person to get? That’s the first thing, the second thing you want to think about is like, and let me go back a step further. Number one, you want to think about who is it for? Because if you know who is for then you kind of have a consensus of what you need to actually create. And then number two, you need to think about what do I need to create to give someone a result, right? So if I know that the best way they’re gonna get a result is to have one on one to me, but one on one access to me to give them one on one. I think a lot of the times when I see offers, they omit things that they don’t want to do that actually makes the offer trash. So like, you selling this like big solution without the key components. And so when we talk about like a really dope unkown offer, we’re talking about not leaving out the components, we’re talking about going the extra mile, we’re talking about if you know your clients are not great copywriters, and give them templates, like, it’s about knowing the facts, so you know the facts about your client, and you know, like, where they’re gonna get stuck. Like if you know, you’re dealing with clients who don’t know tech stuff, then it probably wouldn’t hurt to have a tech tutorial, right. And so, it’s about when I say understanding your client, not just understanding the problem, but also understanding the skill set that they’re gonna need to develop, or improve in order to actually benefit from your product or service. So that’s number, number two was really thinking about the key components in like the offer itself. And number three, you want to go out and research existing offers that could be similar to what you’re offering. And what you’re looking for is gaps. Where are people missing out it because if you do to have the opposite this have most people create their offers, they go and see what other people are doing. They copy and paste, they smack a price on it. You have no idea how that person concluded to the offer that they’re selling. The reason I’m asking you to do it last is because what you want to see is did I create something so unique, so different, so uncloned? That if my people got exposed to the same people who are looking for this, would they buy it, then that’s when you know you’ve got an uncloned offer and it comes from doing the research. It comes from doing the due diligence and what you’re looking for is gaps you looking for where people are skipping the extra mile. There’s a lot of people who won’t go the extra mile y’all. You will be surprised as sending some in the mail is just the extra mile. You will be surprised as soon as somebody on onboarding email is just the extra mile. You will be surprised that just picking up the phone and having a customer service number is going the extra mile. So when I talk about good offers is going beyond what people are willing to do, and create an experience that client wants. That’s not so directly tied into your lifestyle. That was such a good, great, great question.

Roberto: It was such a great answer. I was just sitting here and I was like, “Okay, we’re done.” And you know, what’s, what’s so, what’s so interesting is you know, when you talk about like having a thank you email is the extra mile.

Audria: Yeah.

Roberto: And I hesitated with the words, you’re like, Have you ever seen the video? Yeah, but see the faces that make it and it’s just like, it’s crazy how things that we know as humans,

Audria: Yes.

Roberto: Or just like, “Oh, when I buy something, of course, I want a receipt. Of course, I want a confirmation email, of course,” like things that we just know, naturally that we want.

Audria: Yeah.

Roberto: How much we don’t see when it comes to online marketing. And as you were thinking that, I’m like, it’s kind of crazy or even sad, I guess to say like, that even sending an onboarding email is, it’s considered the extra mile these days? Because —

Audria: Yes, it’s sad.

Roberto: So many fly by night operations.

Audria: You don’t get caught up, like the us just say caught up. Yes.

Roberto: Well, like, let’s take this more personal and, And y’all Audrey, I don’t know. I’m about to ask her. This. Like we said, we just you know, I told y’all, we just go in.

Audria: Yeah.

Roberto: When you talked about these uncloned offers you talk about, you know, your individuality and what comes from that? And that when you market it, just it keeps going. And so I know that my life, like my life changed in 2019 when my father passed. And I know that earlier this year, you know, your mother ascended as well.

Audria: Yes.

Roberto: What did having these offers in place allow you as a human during the grieving process? Right? Like, what did having uncloned offers mean for you as a human? Because you did the work?

Audria: Well, for starters, I’m thankful that I prioritized the thing that wasn’t popular. You know, when everybody was on stages, killing it, smashing it at every event that had a son, you know, I was like, grinding it out, creating courses, creating planners, writing books, all these things that obviously take time, right? I’m a huge component of leverage, right? When my mother passed, I had all of these digital products, I had books, I had courses, and I had automations, and systems in place. And so when she passed away, I made $12,000, that month, just in the shop, not that much total. But like in the month of April, I made $12,000, from my shop, from products that I had created two three years ago. And I was able to utilize that money to help with the funeral and all of the things and I didn’t lose my brand, still have value, because I didn’t have to be there to deliver the thing. And as much as I love coaching, I also feel like there should be a balance of having some type, of course, or something that doesn’t involve your personal time. Because at that time, I didn’t have a massive coaching team. I didn’t have a huge operation, it was just me and my executive assistant, and my husband, and my husband is supporting me during the funeral. And so my executive assistant, she couldn’t like pop up and do a q&a. Those people are like, what are you here for you, you’re the, you’re the support lady like what is going on? So, you know, at that moment, too, I was in the process of developing a certification I had been working on, you know, how you know, you’d be working on it, then working on it. And then when my mom would pass, I was like, This is urgent. You need to get this done now, right? You need to certify people now. So my mother passed away in April, I hired our program success manager in May. And she started running all of our calls for us since July to now. So it’s like, it forced me to figure out a way to duplicate myself, right? And I feel like, the only way I’m able to duplicate myself so well. It’s because of my dope offers baby. So yes, yes, that that will be my answer.

Roberto: Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it. So you’re going to be with us in December, you know, and we’re doing this event called Position Partner Profit. And, you know, what does that, what does that meant to you in your career? Like what does positioning meant to you? What have partnerships done for you? Because they obviously they both lead to profit, but like —

Audria: Absolutely, yeah, positioning is huge. Yeah, positioning is huge. People are very curated and how they approached me, and I used to be kind of offended by that. Like, you know, I used to think like, I kind of I’m pretty approachable. I never knew it was a sign of respect. So when people reached out to me, you know, they’re very calculated, and how to reach out to me if they’re worried me now some people, they skip the knowing and went straight for the pitching and they got straight kicked out, but for the people will actually study me and know me and know how I roll, they come correct from day one, right? Because they know how I show up, I’m very big on excellence, right? So when I, when I think about partnerships, right, or partnering, people are very, I feel like all the people I’ve partner with, we have some value alignment, we have some of the same values, some of the same believes, were very integral, we actually do care about our clients, we do actually care about them getting a result. And so, that’s the first thing that I think about as it relates to partner, but positioning is all about how the world sees you, and how you’re showing up for yourself. And so when I think about positioning, I think about, that plays a huge part in whether or not people will give you $10 for your course, or they’re gonna give you, you know, 30 grand for your course. It makes all the difference. And if you’re positioning yourself weak, and not in a way where people can respect you, you’re not going to profit, in my opinion. So yeah.

Roberto: That just, just that right there. Well, thank you for being with us today. And as we close out the show, to the, to the human who’s listening, you know, we serve a lot of women and a lot of people of color to the person who’s listening. And, you know, what advice would you give them?

Audria: I would give them the advice of like, see yourself powerfully, even if you don’t think that it’s possible to see yourself powerfully because I feel like if you don’t see yourself powerfully, you can’t show up for yourself powerfully. And the next thing I would say is to trust yourself, your ideas are not crazy, and put it out there. I don’t care what it’s like just put it out there and let the market respond, not your friends and family. So I would definitely say trust yourself.

Roberto: Awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for joining us for another episode of the show. Come join Audria either virtually or in Houston with us and we will chat with you next week on the show.

Thanks for listening to another episode of the Relationships Make Money Podcast. Subscribe to the show and never miss another episode. Want to stay connected? Learn more about our Facebook community and other free resources at robertoteaches.com.