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Guest: Desiree Crowley
Company / Business name: TimeJump Media
Business web site | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook
Desiree Crowley is a transformational coach, visibility strategist and speaker for women coaches ready to expand their exposure and scale to six figures in their online coaching business. She helps women create a stand out presence online so that they can bust their visibility fears, stand out as the premium expert in their field, and create six figures and beyond!
Tools / Books / Resources mentioned:
Tools: NoneShow Notes:
Desiree Crowley starts off by explaining what a transformational coach does which is coaching entrepreneurs to transform their mindset to be more confident and be more visible. She also talks about certification programs in this space.
Desiree’s entrepreneurial journey is a typical journey where she took the opportunity of being laid off to learn all about digital marketing , blogging etc. She finally believed in a coach and her program to invest $5,000 and spent all her spare time on her business.
Desiree started a facebook group and ran a challenge ‘level up your beauty’ to encourage women to go on video. She built her mailing list to 500 but didn’t get any paying clients. She invested in another coach which finally resulted in $12K or so in few weeks.
Even though Desiree’s entrepreneurial journey had ups and downs, she believes that every step that she took (even where she failed) was necessary for her to get to where she is now. She learned from each one of those steps.
Desiree believes that being consistent is key to grow your personal brand. Even though her first lead magnet was a bust, Desiree learnt and improvided and continued to grow the list. Her business is about putting people in front of the camera with video.
Desiree believes that being imperfect is OK. Success is all about the habits and rituals you do every day.Episode Transcript (Click to expand)
00:05
Ramesh: Hello everyone. Welcome to the agile entrepreneur podcast. This is your host, Ramesh Dantha. This podcast is about starting and building your own business with purpose, passion, perseverance and possibilities. Today we have an exciting guest. Her name is Desiree Crowley. Hi Desiree, welcome.
00:30
Desiree: Hello. Thanks for having me.
00:33
Ramesh: So let me introduce Desiree to you. Desiree is a transformational coach, visibility strategist and speaker for women coaches ready to expand their exposure and scale to six figures in their online coaching business. She helps women create a standout presence online so that they can bust their visibility of fears, stand out as a premium expert in their field and create six figures and beyond. So Desiree the way I look at you, you are a coach for coaches.
01:06
Desiree: Yes, I'm mostly specialize in coaches, but I’ve definitely worked with a lot of different business owners. But of course, you know, the mixing is important.
01:16
Ramesh: Excellent. So my very first question, well, what is a transformational coach?
01:23
Desiree: Transformational coach is basically, I guess to me, I don't know anyone else, but for me it definitely means it goes along with mindset. So a famous Tony Robbins quote is that success in business is 80% your mindset or your psychology and 20% is the strategy or the mechanics of what actually goes into it. And I just have fully seen that in my own life in my clients and in my business. And I was certified as a transformational coach and I decided to bring that in and to my previous background. And so I just kind of put that together and I have found that that's really what makes the difference for my clients is that they really do need both. And luckily I have been able to master specifically around my area of expertise, which is visibility and putting yourself out there in a bigger way and helping my clients to transform with it, because it really does take an inner transformation to be that six figure entrepreneur that puts herself out there in that way.
02:28
Ramesh: Okay. I see. So if you don't mind me asking, how do you get certified as a transformational coach?
02:35
Desiree: You can look at, there's various programs you can do. I mean there's like the big ICF one, but I went through a certification program of about three years ago and just received the certification from a coach that had partnered with the ICF. So it just, you just can look for different programs and yeah, that's how I did it. Unfortunately the coach that I did it through, doesn’t offer the program anymore. Otherwise I would recommend that one, but I know that there's many others out there as well.
03:06
Ramesh: Okay, great. Hey, Desiree, and then, so let's look at your own entrepreneur journey. If you could walk us through, when did you start your business and then let's go through or what was the initial business model and then how it evolved. If you could go through the journey, please.
03:23
Desiree: Sure. And feel free to stop because this could be long.
03:27
Ramesh: I'll Probably interrupt and ask you questions anyway, go ahead. Yeah.
03:34
Desiree: Yeah. So the way that I started, I first, I actually was laid off from my job in 2015 and I just knew that, that was basically God's way of saying like, there's something greater for you. It was really devastating at the time, but I just knew in my heart that it was time to do something for myself and to start my own business. I had no idea what that was going to look like. I didn't even know the coaching world really existed at that point. So I started with a just kind of what I felt at that moment I really enjoyed, and that people would just ask me about, which was a lot of just fashion, beauty, lifestyle type of advice and makeup, things like that. And some like, well, I can start a blog with that. And that's basically how it started. I started a blog, it was healing and beauty steals and I started, I really just kind of dove in. I had no idea what I was doing. I really started learning so much about the online space, digital marketing, blogging, all, everything, you can think of social media and I would say that I spent a lot of time just try to teach myself these things. And I did, you know invest in some courses. I invested in my first course I remember right around that time, it was only, I mean back then it was like $197, which was a huge deal for me. I thought that was outrageous.
05:03
Ramesh: And then feel free to mention the courses if you think they are relevant for the audience as well, if you really thought something new in those courses.
05:11
Desiree: Absolutely. I definitely will. So that's how, that's how that started. And I realized, so I invested in this program and then I realized that I got overcome with what we call the imposter syndrome. I just felt like, why am I the person to talk about fashion and style? I need some certifications. I need all sorts of things. Like I'm nobody to talk about this stuff. Even though the reason I started it was from the encouragement from many people around me that believed that I did have knowledge around this and wanted my knowledge about it. So I just, you know and then I realized wow this mindset thing is a real thing. And, slowly I just started to, I guess you can say on accident, right? Things never happen on accident, but I stumbled across an ad for a coach that was promoting something. And long story short, I ended up on a phone call with her, you know how that goes. So and I had no idea, I was so new. But this coach basically gave me just a little bit of that confidence that I was, I guess looking for at that time. But okay, yeah, you know, you can do this, you can teach coach on style and confidence. And so I decided, all right, I pulled out a credit card and invested $5,000 into this program that was a marketing just full on just all my marketing and I thought well, that's all I need. I just need the exact process. You know, I definitely got sold on that belief that you just need a step by step process and you're going to make your millions and that's all you need. And so I'm like, damn, that's all I'm missing. I moved forward and I did. I was, to my benefit I was very coachable. I did everything. I took action. I was obsessed. I started working at different jobs temporarily for that time and I would just go during lunches and just work on my business. After lunch, it was all, I was pretty consumed by it and I did all this work. I learned so much along the way and then I realized, I'm not clear. I'm actually super confused on who my person is. Like who am I really serving? What am I actually doing? What's the transformation that I'm offering? And I just, I got really stuck. I allowed myself to get stuck, I would say. And from there, I don't know how I, aye came to this, I guess my epiphany moment where I realized, you know what, I have been doing videos back then with Paris, I don't know if you remember Periscope, it was like the app for live stream.
07:58
Ramesh: I am not familiar with it.
08:02
Desiree: So before Facebook live was a thing, before it ever existed, there was Periscope. And Periscope was where entrepreneurs, coaches were doing live streams, were promoting their business, growing their business. And I had been doing videos on there, you know, just sharing content, sharing a value. And I just realized that there was so many women specially, I mean, there's men, plenty of men too, but I just came across so many entrepreneurs that just couldn't even think about putting themselves on a video or getting themselves in front of a camera or putting themselves out there in that way. Yeah. Let alone on a live stream. So I just, I decided to run a challenge to help women to learn how to use live video. And then by the time I ran the challenge, Facebook live had just barely become into existence. It had just gotten released. So it was all the rage, but nobody was really using it, because they were so scared. So finally I decided you know, I'm going to just run a challenge just because I see that this is a problem. I found this like a space I guess, that I could fill, and I could teach people. And I was like, I don't know if this is what I'm going to do, but I'm going to try it. I'm going to take some action on it and do it. And I ran this challenge. I also started growing my list right along that time.
09:26
Ramesh: Oh, I'm sorry. Where did you run this challenge? Or did you just send it to your email list or did you do it in a Facebook or a where did you do this?
09:34
Desiree: Yeah, I have been. So I guess to backtrack a little bit, I had started a Facebook group, not really with any good strategy or intention. It was just, I had been in another like a wives group, whatever group and I had just put it out there to, I was like, hey, anyone building a business, like want to just kind of collaborate and talk about business stuff. I'm going to just do a group if you want to join. So it was definitely just very in the sense in that way. Just like, hey, I'm just going to do this group. Someone helped me manage it. Not that I'm going to be the leader of it. So I started that group and as I started going along, I was like, you know what, I’ve got you know some people already in here. And then I realized, you know group can be a really great way to grow a business. So I decided to just run the challenge in the group. So I started growing my list with, I had previously created like a video series that completely bombed. I mean, it was awful.
10:38
Ramesh: What was the video series on?
10:43
Desiree: I called it up level your beauty. But it was very vague. I just, I had no idea like how important messaging was at that moment and I really wasn't clear on what I was doing and so I just, but I was taking action. So I think, like I said, there's something to be said about just moving forward.
11:01
Ramesh: Yeah, exactly. I mean I think you learn from the experience. I mean that is what it's all about, moving forward.
11:06
Desiree: Yup, exactly. So I had done that. But it was just very vague, it was tangible, yes, this is why people would want to join. So anyway, so I learned from that. But then after that is when I decided to do this challenge and I actually, I guess all, I guess conventional wisdom, I just started running ads. I learned the basics of how to set up some ads. I started running an ad to this video series. It converted. And not the video series, I'm sorry, the challenge, so well, I mean I was getting, you know, about $2 leads at that point and it was for a challenge. So that's really good. And I got about 500 people on my list by the time the challenge started and I was, like I said, I was still brand new. I still hadn't gotten one single client and I did the challenge.
12:03
Ramesh: How long did it take? I mean by this time, like how much time did you spend
12:08
Desiree: For which part?
12:10
Ramesh: For the challenge, and then basically when you started and it's few months, I'm thinking.
12:15
Desiree: Yeah. So I mean I had been, I think I did the challenge around like, I think it was in the fall. Yeah sometime in the fall of 2016. And so I did the challenge and I got some discovery calls. People were interested, but I had no sales skills at that point either. So I didn't really know what I was doing there either. But fast forward a few weeks after that I had kind of built this list. I didn't really know what to do with it. Excuse me. And I when 2017 started, I decided okay, something has to change. I'll spare you the drama. But basically that coach yeah, she was not exactly the best fit for me at that time. So yeah. So things just kind of fall apart with her and I realized, well, I still need, I still need to have like help. I still need help and I decided to hire a one on one coach this time. And also I also invested in like a year long program that was kind of a bigger community, which I also felt like I was craving. I really think that's important too, is to have the right support as far as community. So I was kind of trying to decide between the two, like one-on-one or this community with this other coach. And I felt in my heart that both were the right thing for me, which was scary. I really believed in following those, those divided tuition in those hits. And that's exactly what I did. I was like, okay this is like the stupidest thing ever. But I really feel like it's right. And I did it. I invested in the coach and in the community and I made $12,000 within like just like four or five weeks of doing it.
14:13
Ramesh: So basically, okay, this is good. So I mean you went through you know, two or three coaching programs, but each one of them, you're learning something. But I mean, actually even learning that something is not good is also a good learning, the first coach and then by 2017, you started making money.
14:34
Desiree: Yeah, exactly. So I mean, I think that's what people don't realize. Like, I mean, I was at this for months and months and months and I could have easily given up and I wanted to give up many times and I thought like, maybe no one's ever going to pay me. Maybe I'm just this like money blocker, like money just can never ever, I thought all sorts of things and there were all lies obviously, but it's easy to think that. And so I just, I think, yeah, I finally, I finally had my breakthrough and I think it was just this combination of so many, like a few different things that came into play. But I made that the investment that I’ve made in that program and in the one on one coach, I mean, I made that back so quickly that, that's when I’ve realized, wow! Like the universe really does have my back and this was the right thing for me. Even though it seems like the stupidest thing in the world. Why would I invest so much into two different things? But one, they were very different, you know, one was more of a community. The other one was, and it was my certification actually, but the other one was just attention on my business and on what I'm doing and really helping me to pull the hot leads, because I hadn't you know built an email list, but I had no idea what, I mean I was sending them stuff here and there. But I had no idea how to pull the hottest leads out of them and actually turn them into clients.
16:03
Ramesh: Yes. Actually this is pretty fascinating journey. So, but if you were to go back because, and initially you are struggling and then suddenly there was a breakthrough. So, but if you were to go back, could you have done anything different?
16:16
Desiree: Ooh, I just feel like that was my journey. Like I just don't, I don't believe that things happen by coincidence and I feel like, yeah like you were saying, like there was just so much learning that happened all along the way. I would say there's definitely, obviously hindsight's 20:20, and now because of those experiences, like I am more careful with like even my investments and making smart investments into my business and also realizing that it's part of, it's what successful people do. They invest in themselves. They have the proper support, they surround themselves with the right type of people. And I think there's just so, there's not one thing that makes you successful. There's many factors. And I just think that I learned so, so much that I needed to learn in order to even be where I'm at today and to be able to pass that on to anyone that I come across my clients, my community. And yeah, I just wouldn't take that back even though there were some really sucky moments for sure.
17:23
Ramesh: Yeah. So I could see that. So now let's talk a little bit about your business. Like how do you acquire customers and how does your customer pipeline fill up? Is it one-on-one? Are you dealing with you know, multiple customers at the same time? If you could talk about this whole customer acquisition process.
17:42
Desiree: Yeah. For my business personally. So right now, I mean it's a different obviously than when I first started, but a lot of the same principles, you know, I'm still working and focusing on building an email list. So I do have specific Facebook, this is my favorite way. Okay. There's many ways, but Facebook ads are just, they are my thing, that's what I love doing and that's how I love bringing in new leads and clients and the way that, yeah, I really focus on growing my list and then of course, nurturing that list and consistently knowing how to pull those hot leads out of that list. And from there, I mean, obviously there's other ways that I’ve expanded to as well. Like now, you know, now I'm doing interviews like this one, I'm doing podcast interviews, I'm speaking on other people's stages and now it's become, you know, yes, you do have to put yourself out there, but now it's just a lot easier to even attract those opportunities. And so I think those types of things have helped me to fill up my pipeline as well as just, yeah just consistent, I would say overall consistently having something out there that is putting you out there and showing you to the right people, whatever that looks like for you.
19:06
Ramesh: Okay. So, all right, so let's get into the next part of the podcast, which is, it's an advice to the aspiring entrepreneurs or the other people who have started the business. How can they grow? But I think we could take it based on like, if somebody comes to you like this, so you got customers, a women entrepreneur, she started her business. So what is your approach? I mean, how do you go from there?
19:31
Desiree: How do I help them? So for one do I have a process? Absolutely. But I really do believe that. So, and this is why all my programs have my support. Like I'm there, I have some self study things, but it's my actual coaching programs, like whether it's group or one-on-one, I'm there every step of the way. But the actual, the actual process, the first thing is to really identify who is the person you're speaking to and really know them better than they even know themselves. I think that's the foundational piece of everything you do and you know what I learned from my first lead magnet that was a total bust is that you cannot put airy fairy concepts out there and think that people are going to respond. It needs to be tangible. You need to know exactly what you're offering them, even from the lead magnet, even with the free stuff. So that's the foundational pieces knowing that. And then from there you can then start creating content. So of course, as a visibility strategist, one of the first things I have my clients do in my processes, start putting yourself out there. I don't care how you do it. Just the biggest thing is taking imperfect action consistently and just creating that habit of just being out there and publishing and positioning yourself as that authority right away. And the best way to do that is by creating really awesome content that shows that you really know what you're talking about. So that's one of the first things that I have them do. And then of course, teaching them how to, I have a framework that I’ve created along the way that really works for Facebook ads. It works for posts, it even works for Facebook lives. So each of my framework and then I have them start creating content around there person's pain points, around what they desire more than anything. And then of course, the calls to action you need to tell people what to do next and then from there once they start, so that's really early on. And then from there, of course, we start refining. Okay, what do you want to be known as? What is your thing? What's your story? Who are you as a person? Because there may be people that do exactly what you do and knows you. No one is you. And so you need to allow yourself to shine. And this is the person I am, this is why you would pick me over someone else if you resonate with me. So just teaching them how to share their story and in a way that strategic of course, and that is something that the ideal client would resonate with. And from there it just, then bringing in the structure. So building their email list, email marketing. I think that's, like I said, that's the money is still in the list. Does not matter what else is out there. The money's still on the list. And so that's, you know, creating a powerful freebie that people, that your ideal client just loves and response to, building that email list and then promoting that funnel, you know that funnel, that first funnel that you start building and doing it, you know through social media, through either joint ventures or partnerships, collaborations. And then of course my favorite is Facebook ads. So and then live videos is a big part of what I teach them as well. Because I don't think that's going anywhere anytime soon.
23:13
Ramesh: It looks like that's really taking off, I mean like I see more and more live video on even like LinkedIn as well.
23:24
Desiree: Yup. Exactly. Exactly. So that's just growing. And I think any entrepreneur that's not utilizing video consistently, it's going to be a detriment to their business. And I get that it's not easy. You know, there's so many questions that people have, well what do I say on video? How do I make sure I sound good and professional and as an expert and just so many things come up for entrepreneurs and that's really where I started. You know, my first challenge that really that people that I really, I realized, wow, people really need this. They hurt eating it up like candy. I realized that that's such a big pain point for a lot of online entrepreneurs. So that's still such a big part of my process and my program that I walk my clients through.
24:10
Ramesh: Excellent. So Desiree I think you really made a video, you know, I think that's why now I understand your visibility aspect to your overall program here. So as we come towards the end of the podcast are there any things that we have not covered or things that you want to give an advice to the audience?
24:31
Desiree: Ooh, gosh, there's so much I could say. I really would say at the end of the day and this is something that I'm so grateful that I learned, but just looking back and I see a lot of entrepreneurs falling into this, especially when they're getting things going and things aren't going as well as they thought it would. You know, they're going through those stumbling blocks and the challenges. Just take everything as a learning experience. Because it's, that's exactly what it is. And life's not happening to you. It's happening for you. And I’ve just really internalized that. Otherwise you're just going to make yourself miserable and you're going to make the entire journey miserable if you're just blaming and you're like, well nothing ever works for me. And maybe I'm not meant for this. Maybe I'm not good enough or whatever. You know, there's so many things that can come up and doubt, you know I feel like I had what we call entrepreneurial depression for awhile and I think I just suffered unnecessarily when in reality everything, I'm just so glad that I went to those things and then now I understand so much and I feel like I'm so much wiser as a person and I have that much more power now in my business because of that. And so just realize that you're going to be tested. You are going to be tested in this journey and it's up to you to how committed you are and how connected to why you even started to begin with. And if other things started to take over, I mean building a business, it's really the best personal development training you could ever go through. It's going to bring out every insecurity, everything that you didn't even realize you probably struggled with and probably new things as well. And I also believe take imperfect action every day. Perfectionism is a thing. And I see it over and over as I see it in myself. I see it in men and in women all over all the time. And it's that feeling of well I'm just, it's like I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough to do the video. I'm not good enough to, to say this or whatever it is. Just take small, imperfect action. Just pick something that you can commit to every day, whether that's, you know what, I'm just going to post a picture with two sentences. You know, whatever it is, commit to something and start building that muscle. Because at the end of the day, your success is all about your habits and your rituals that you do on a daily basis, that will show over time.
27:07
Ramesh: On the action you take on every minute, every day. So this is fantastic. I mean journey is pretty fascinating from 2016. It looks like the floodgates just opened in 2017 for you. So good luck to you as you keep building your business. It looks like you're on the right trend here with no visibility transformation and then the whole live video thing that you're really focusing on.
27:38
Desiree: Yes. Thank you. Yeah. It's been a journey and that's what it is. Everyone's got their journey.
27:44
Ramesh: Yeah. Everyone has got the journey and then definitely your journey. It's taken a really good turn since 2017. Good luck.
27:52
Desiree: Yes. Thank you very much.
