Ep 109: Simplicity with Sheryl Plouffe

You ever wonder what success actually means?

How do you get it?

And how do you keep it?

We all want it yet sometimes it feels only some of us get to have it.

Can you put it in a box?

How can you get it?

Can people take it away? Or are you the one with the power?

Does it mean the same to all of us? Or are we the ones that create it?

From PGA golf pros to doctors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and spiritual mentors. We get together to meet with successful people from around the globe to dissect success for vibrant conversations and interviews. Make sure you click the subscribe button on the app store because each week we will drop a new episode to bust through the myths around success and dissect its true meaning.

And welcome back to another episode of dissect big success. It's me Blair Kaplan Venables. I'm here with the one the only Theresa Lambert. I love it. She's currently sitting in a sun filled room into Mexico and I'm sitting in a gloomy about to snow town up in Canada called Kamloops. But we also have Sheryl Plouffe here. I love Sheryl I met her years ago because I was a guest on her podcast and we developed a really awesome friendships. So Sheryl runs a trading company that advises six figure coaches and consultants to scale their business and by implementing scalable systems for marketing, sales and fulfillment. She also creates and implements custom content plans for seven figure business owners. I'm so excited to talk to you today because you speak my language you speak Teresa language, we are honored that you're taking the time to dissect success with us.

So great to be here. I'm excited to dive into this because this is such an important topic. And I'm sitting in southern Ontario, Canada, just as you are in Canada as well. Blair, I don't think we have snow outside yet, but I haven't actually looked out the curtains yet. Don't do it. Don't do it. I know that. As a Canadian I know. I know. All too well. Don't look out the window.

It's funny, like yesterday, since January in I'm used to minus 40. Like I'm from the prairies. And I outside it was walking. It was like three degrees, there was no snow. And I was like it feels like spring and the birds were chirping. And then I woke up today and like that we're still winter. So but let's I digress. Let's get get into it. Sheryl, what does success mean

to you? Well, I mean, I think if we think about words to describe it, I mean, I think it's really about freedom and choice. And being able to break the ceiling, right break the ceiling of of earning potential and revenue and things of that nature. But I think at the end of the day, I think about my family. And we have a son who is a hockey goalie and plays baseball at a high level, and I love going to his games. And it's the freedom of being able to do that. And yes, sometimes I am doing some work activities while I'm at the ball, diamond is happened. I'm sitting in the bleachers, and I'm watching them practice or I'm watching a game and I'm maybe doing an odd little thing here and there. But I'm sitting in the sun doing it. And it's sometimes it hits me and I go, this is what I've built. I've built this so that I can do it this way I can live my life this way. So I think it's really about freedom and choice.

Brilliant, and love that it is it is such a beautiful answer. And you know, we've been doing this for a couple of years. And that's one of the most common things. It's about freedom, freedom and choice. So

I think it's also if I had to add another word to it, I think it is impact. A lot of the people that I'm connected to or working with and have relationships with are people who are coaches or consultants, business owners who are building something online, but it's built on their intellectual property it's built on their knowledge and expertise and for the majority of people who go into these types of businesses and create these types of businesses is because they want to be at a place where they're having impact on somebody else's life that that's an important part. Yes, revenue and we need to build a business etc. But they do want to have an impact on other people's lives and leave some type of lasting legacy through others.

Yeah, I feel Like, that's such a beautiful piece to add around the impact, because it also gives us so much fulfillment as a as a coach, myself and a consultant myself and somebody who really supports people and in business, and you get to see what they can do with that impact is always something that comes back in. But it kind of enriches our lives, when we can make an impact. And I love how you put it when we're able to make an impact from wherever we are. I mean, you know, Fletcher said, but you were talking about maybe doing some work from your, you know, from your son's hockey game every now and then if it happens, and this moment of being like, wow, I can do that. And I keep having these moments, being at the beach or lying next to my pool, or, you know, like just being somewhere in the world and being like, wow, like, this is actually my life's work. And I get to do it from anywhere I have, I can and I have the flexibility and freedom to do that. And how beautiful is that, to that we get to build businesses like that,

that we get to that people build businesses. That's right, and that we get to design it that way. I think that's the ultimate goal is what life do you want to design? And I think it is that conversation we get into the business side of it is to say, am I developing a lifestyle business? Or do I want to build a business with the intention of selling it in the future? Right? I think if you make those decisions early, that will help dictate the path that you go down. So I think diamond, a stage in my life, being now in my 50s that I want a lifestyle business, probably for the next, you know, decade, the 15 ish years. That's what I want. I just I love to work. I love to do this type of thing. So I don't have any, let's say short term aspirations to sell my business. I really want this to be a lifestyle business. But maybe in the future, I'll change my mind and decide that I want to sell it or do something else. That's different. But a lot of people who get into coaching consulting are doing it because they want a specific type of lifestyle.

we absolutely I think that's that's brilliant. And you have to have a certain level of self awareness about the things that you love and enjoy in order to start designing that. So you Blair love to travel obviously, Teresa, you love to travel as well, since you're in Mexico right now and I I like to travel but I do have a tendency to like being at home. Like I like to go on trips occasionally. But I'm not a person who wants to be sort of a nomadic you know, type of life. I do like being at home. So I've designed it in such a way where I have the freedom to be able to take trips if I want to and you know, for work or for pleasure, but I do like to be home a lot and I enjoy it. So it's really about design and I think it's this piece around stages of business as well. There's going to be a season where as you're especially starting and growing up to that six, let's say the milestone of six figures, which tends to be the first milestone only 10% of women. Business owners reach that, which is an alarmingly low number and only 2% of our reach seven figures. So getting up to that six figure mark is a milestone that we need to get women to quickly. And, but knowing the design of the business will help to dictate what we do. And I think a lot of the time, it's that development of a product or service that is probably more one to one, maybe it's more customized. One of the biggest mistakes that I see women making, specifically women making is that they are packaging up all of their knowledge and expertise and know how into a $27 thing. And they're and it's we I want to be able to share with women that what you want to do to get to that six figures as quickly as possible is you start with the high ticket, you start with a higher ticket piece and work with fewer people, but still have that revenue so that you can then start reinvesting in the business. And write a check for speed at some points along the journey, so that you can get there faster. And this is I don't know if in your experience Teresa, or Blair, if you see this, but for me, I do see this quite a bit, where people are thinking that it's a race to the bottom, where they're trying to package everything up. And then they figure if the lowest price point that I can possibly do this at means that I'll have a million people who buy this thing, and then I'll be well off. And it's the opposite effect.

Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, I'm really focusing on working with entrepreneurs that are like multiple, five figures, and they're ready to break through into the six figures, and then multiple, six figures. So I feel like it's interesting, because we do a very similar thing, helping entrepreneurs scale, but at slightly different stages of their business. And 100%, I think a lot of the times to people. One, I mean, you can make a lot of money with high ticket and evergreen courses and all of that stuff. But I have always found and I like to say this a lot is like, I don't actually think that it's harder to sell a high ticket offer than it is to sell a low ticket offer, it's actually the same effort, it's just the outcome is entirely different. So you can send a you can sell a $10,000 110 $1,000 program, or you can sell it sell 120 $7 program, and it might feel like the exact same amount of effort. But obviously, the impact. And what you get out like the result of it is tremendously different. And, and I agree, I think a lot of entrepreneurs I have found there is this belief that if it's cheap, people will just buy it. And the reality is, it doesn't matter what price you put on it, you still have to be clear on who it's for the problem it solves and why people should buy it. And what makes you an expert, right? Like you still have to position yourself and market yourself and create the perceived value of your product, regardless whether you charge actually zero, or $100,000, or it like it's still the same concept. So but people somehow feel if it's cheap people just buy and that's such a myth doesn't

happen that way. No, you're right, you're right, you're just so right, there's just as much effort going into creating your $27 thing as there is into creating a high ticket thing. And I would even argue I don't even know if it's the perception of the value, it is the actual value. So if you create your high ticket thing, and I really recommend that every coach consultant who wants to scale have something priced between five and $10,000, a scalable offer between five and 10 will really help to position you to have more cash flow. And to be able to grow with that, I think you should also have a suite of customized things that you can do at even higher price points than that, you know, your your 25,050 or $75,000 things. But those are not necessarily always scalable, because there's finite, you know, effort that you can put into it. And you have a capacity issue there. Because typically people will be buying into you. But the scalable thing the five to $10,000 offer is it takes the same amount of effort to create that and figure out what is the value of this thing as it is a $27 or a $97 thing. So here's the problem, I think that we're also running into is that everything's been done. Everybody knows the funnel, right? It's like we we all need to have a sales process. That's a different thing. Everyone needs to know their customer journey. There needs to be a sales process. I don't think it needs to be a complicated sales process. When you have a high ticket offer. It's literally let's get on a call. Let's discuss it let's have a discussion and see if it's a fit. But the $27 thing and the funnels have been done like everybody knows when they're in a funnel now. And so that's a is a bit of a problem because no one wants to be in a funnel. No one wants to be sold but people want to buy, are we always in a funnel, we're always in a funnel that we're always in a funnel, but no one really wants to be no one. Nobody really wants to be feeling like they're in a funnel, because it's a very impersonal type of approach. So I think that you have to be dialed into the sales process. But especially for people with high ticket products and services, you don't need to have necessarily the most complex technological funnel in the world in order to be successful.

Yeah, absolutely. I love this. So much, I It's so interesting, because obviously, Sheryl, you and I have not known each other getting on this call. And I really feel a lot of alignment in what you're, what you're sharing. And I think that claim that experience to claim the experience that you create for all stages of their journey with you and your business through your funnel, if you want to use like expert language is so so critical. And that's something that I've always taken from my experience in hotels and scaling on hotel is that ultimately it comes down to the experience that you create. And people don't want to feel like that they're being you know, rotated through different departments. And it's the same way you don't want your people to feel like they're being rotated through different steps, you want to create something that's seamless. So from the point of view, you have the first contact in a hotel, that would be when you make the reservation to arriving at the front door to be increased to coming to the front desk, to checking into getting your keys to going into suite to eating at the restaurant or going to the spa and having this experience. Everything has to feel seamless, so that ultimately people feel seen and heard and taken care of and, and they feel like hey, I really belong here. And I want to be here. And this is fun. And this is light. And this is easy. And so I think that the complexity that we put into business, really sometimes Hills the experience, because we overthink how elaborate it has to be when we could really create a simple seamless experience and Ajani. That's, they don't even know that they're on a journey with us. But they're on that call. And they're like, wow, like I'm so excited, right? Like you want to get that person, once you start working with them, you want them to be excited, not worried or doubtful or exhausted from your crazy funnel onboarding process overwhelmed like it's like,

so true. I think about the the hospitality industry, which you obviously have a lot of experience in. And I actually used to work in some, you know, fancy hotels as well. So I know about the Banff Springs Hotel, for example, I worked at in Royal York Hotel in Toronto. And it's exactly that it's really about the touch points. And all of those different touch points that you have with a brand make a difference, it really does make a difference. But I think that when it comes to your scaling process of getting from six to seven figures, you don't want to make things more complicated, you actually want to simplify. And I think that at this point in time as we are in web two transitioning to web three, that it's more going to be predicated on relationships, access, who do you have access to who's in your network? Who can you call up and rely on to be a promoter? Who can you collaborate with or strategically partner with, I think those will be the things that will be more important going forward community in the web three world, as opposed to what we've been coming out of, is this idea that we have to have, you know, a million likes on our Facebook page, and you know, a million people following us on Instagram and things like that. It's really more about moving away from impersonal and moving toward high touch and personal, in my opinion.

Amazing. I, you know, I was just with a bunch of amazing entrepreneurs in Mexico is a meeting of the minds. And there was a big focus there on talking about digital and social, and that we're kind of shifting back or forward to where we were before, which is organic, organic content. And it's about creating community and with my background, being in public relations, something I've always said and something I teach is that social media is a PR tool. It's a place to build community and establish relationships. It's not a sales tool that in fact, it just made a social media post about it and I'm probably going to talk about that more but people want to feel connection. They don't want to feel like they're being sold to they want to feel like you know, when you have a thought leader or posting that they're posting for you, you want they want to feel like they're your friend. Like there are celebrities out there and thought leader Is that I feel like I know them like as if they're my best friend. And I buy from them because of that connection. And sometimes they respond to my comments. And I feel like wow, they know who I am. And like, how do we build that? And that's really a huge part of the funnel is like, how do we nurture those relationships? Right. And eventually, those relationships, like with Teresa and I, this podcast started off as a project. Like we were just having these brilliant conversations about success. I said, we should start a podcast, we started a podcast, and then people started listening. Thank God, thank God for all of you out there. And then they start reaching out, like, how can I work with you guys? Like how do we work together? And so Teresa and I created a business accelerator that's really intimate, we just launched her third cohort. And it's a high touch point. So for us, people say that they feel like they're just sitting around with us, they know lots about us in our lives, because we that's how we show up. And that drew people into a high ticket offer. So it doesn't have to be so complicated with the lead magnet and the this and that, and what you're saying also, like, I think I want to, I think, well, that could be really beneficial, you know, talk, because we're kind of coming towards the end of this is for those businesses scaling, I think some of the mistakes that I've seen, and that my some of my mentors have shared with me is that the people have too many offers. Oh, yes. Not just that. But we're like, the people are scared to get on the phone and have a call or send that voice note. And every time I do, every time I do, I make money. Not every call. But every time I put that effort in, and like I do a free workshop almost every month. And part of that is I give away a discovery call. And on that call, I see what support they need. And if I can help them, I give them an offer. And then I get their cell up or down. Getting on the phone is time consuming, but is crucial because people do business with people they like know and trust. And if you're selling a high ticket offer, and they've never heard of you before, you know they're not already in your world, not likely that they're going to just show up and spend the money. You got to you know, build that relationship. So, you know, what mistakes do you see people making when they're scaling?

Can I give a real life example, we would love that. I an hour ago, was on a 90 minute consultation call that someone paid me for. And this is a person that is in the b2b space helps business owners with $20 million of revenue and above they have teams of people. I can't remember right now all the specifics of who is avatar is but think we get the idea that this is kind of a high level, CEO, type C suite type person that he's trying to reach. And we he paid me to have this consultation because he is doing all the things in his words. He says I'm doing all the things I'm spending all the money. I'm trying to get all the funnels and I'm I had to let go of my team last year because my revenue is not there. And I have to cut expenses, because I'm doing all the things. And what are those things that he's doing? He's going down every rabbit hole of every SAS product. He's he's on Facebook, he is building every funnel that he's told that he needs to build, right? He's, he's investing in all this technology and all the complexity of all these different things that he's doing. And he does have a podcast, he's not leveraging the podcast properly. So that was a big part of the conversation that we had. So what I had him do was and through the process of asking questions, come to learn that he's just not talking to enough people. He has all the complex funnels going and everything. But he's I said to all of all these people that on this specific on this specific list, how many of you talk to and he's like, none, I send an email to them. But no one responded. And I'm like, what we need to do right now is we need to talk to people. So here's the script, you're going to go in and you're going to message these people in your email. This is we're taking action, we're actually going to do it right now. Because I could sit there and say to him, here's what you should do. But I needed to make sure that he was actually going to do it. And this is really what it's all about is simplifying. And just instead of getting caught up in all the complexity of everything is simplifying what you're doing and talk to people, good things are gonna happen. Business will develop. You both just gave a great example of how you collaborated to create this amazing podcast. So where did that come from? It probably stemmed from a conversation and you got to know each other better. And then you decided, Hey, we should do something together. Good things come from talking to people. And I think that in a place in a space where we've been taught to automate everything Hey, you should be it should be passive income. You should automate everything and you're gonna be able to sit on a beach and every Monday just rolling in, you know, get a million followers on Instagram and you're good. Now, it's really not about that, I think it's really going to be about simplifying and talking to people. And getting back to that human connection, I actually had someone on my podcast talking about that, that human communication. And that's what I like to do is more high touch you can be, the more you can care, let's just get on calls with people and give what can you do to help someone else achieve their goals. And that's, I think the foundation of it. But that's a real life example, literally an hour ago, I felt badly for him, because he's been caught up in all of this, you know, down these, these rabbit holes of doing this, and this not and those are not business building activities. So he needs to focus on business building activities and talk to people.

I really am loving LinkedIn lately. So sending me a message on LinkedIn is a great place. As someone who has a French Canadian name like Plouffe. It turned out that years ago, it was easy to find Sheryl Plouffe on all social platforms. So you can send me a message anywhere, but I I love to connect with people on LinkedIn. It's just been a really fun place. Obviously, there is something to be said in the conversation here that we've been talking about simplicity, right. So I want to also walk the talk. And it really is about having a initially a 15 minute conversation with someone on our team. We talk about scalable systems, and then we can analyze, and this is an important point. You have to know maybe you don't know but and that's the point of the 15 minute call is to figure out what stage are you at like, are you ready right now for scalable systems. You might Do not be, and we're happy to send other resources to you or send you in the right direction or make an introduction or whatever thing will help move the needle for you. But you have to understand like, are you ready for that or not? And there may be some fundamental things that you're doing to Blair's point earlier, you might have 10 offers right now. So maybe it warrants a conversation around simplifying that first, before we start moving into that next step of how do you scale from six to seven figures. But I think it is really just as simple as getting on a call, and just figuring out where are you at what stage what season are you in? And then making a plan for what's the next step beyond that to grow?

I know, something I was talking about what I just really need to simplify that. That is what I'm seeing happening in the world right now is that we need to, and I think COVID was a big part of that realization, it was an aha moment of saying, wait a minute, because I was stuck in that pattern to I was throwing all kinds of spaghetti at the walls and trying to figure it all out and had all these different things. The more you dilute yourself, the more you really can't give your best to one particular Avenue. And so I did the same thing. And, you know, yeah, just it's just the way that it needs to be. And you know, proud to say that, in this one particular, you know, thing that I did that we're able to get to six figures in one calendar year. And to your point, it doesn't happen in two days. But it can happen in six months. It can happen in a year. Definitely.

I think it's really looking at the what we will call it our three buckets, which is fulfillment, marketing and sales. And understanding what you're doing in each of those buckets. I happen to like and recommend and teach and train people to use a profitable podcast in the marketing bucket. Because I feel that especially when you have your fulfillment or your offer dialed in at a high ticket level, maybe more like the five to 10 plus $1,000 range which everyone should have is that you're not going to sell that through an automated funnel on Facebook. Right your it will warrant getting on a conversation to see if it's a fit not only for the client, but for you as the as the mentor. You want to make sure that you want to work with that person too. It warrants a conversation it has to happen. We have to find out if it's a fit. So in that scenario, having podcasting as the marketing mechanism makes a lot of sense because you're already connecting with them and have touch points pre call during the podcast. We also teach what we call the power partner talk which is what happens after so that could be to either develop clientele. Referrals are speaking engagements, and that's the focus get clients speaking engagements or referrals and your business will grow. So then you have to have your sales dialed in as well. But those are the three buckets that we work in

I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. And that's so powerful. I certainly feel a lot of alignment, I feel like absolutely, like, listen to what Sheryl says. Like, retention. Thank you for sharing what you're sharing. And I know there's such a depth behind what you just shared. There was so much more knowledge where there is and, and so I would highly recommend everyone getting in touch with Sheryl on LinkedIn. Again, we'll make sure that it's in the show notes. Sheryl, thank you so much

Thank you for having me. This has been a really fun conversation. I love it.

Blair I feel like

well, you just didn't do what we've always done the same way.

I know I was just about to get them waiting off dissecting success. Peace, everyone, and we will see you again next week.

That's a wrap for another episode of dissecting success. enjoyed this episode. Make sure to subscribe to Blair Kaplan, Venables and Teresa Lambert's podcast dissecting success on the App Store.