If you read the title of this episode and that's what made you click about why proximity based offers need identity based messaging, I'm so excited that you are here and that we get to have a really honest conversation about this topic because here's what I know to be true, and this is something that it took me a long time and a lot of money of mistakes to learn this lesson in business. But, and this might sting just a little bit because listen, your offer might be absolutely incredible.
You know your stuff. You're delivering results. You're delivering on that promise. Clients, once they're on the inside of your program, rave about you, love working with you, but if you are still marketing publicly. Like you are selling a 100 or a 300 or a thousand dollars digital course, it is not going to land when you are trying to appeal to a more sophisticated buyer when you are trying to sell a more premium, higher touch offer.
And in today's episode, this is really for you If you have recently shifted your business model or if you were thinking about introducing a newer or higher ticket, higher touch offer within your business offer, because when you're selling private one-on-one coaching, higher in done for you, delivery a high level mastermind. VIP days, a curated group coaching experience.
How prospects approach making that buying decision is very different than when they are reading a sales page to make more of an impulse purchase for a product that really has a much lower barrier to entry. There's no applications. There's no sales call.
It's just whether or not they can afford to pay and whether or not the price point that you're asking, usually a couple hundred dollars matches the promise and the tangibility of whatever it is that you're going to be teaching that's outlined on the sales page. But if you've made this shift and you are still marketing like that, but you're noticing having a difficult time converting these higher end clients.
Usually it is because your messaging has not cut up to the changes that you've made in your model. You're probably still educating, you're still teaching, and you're still trying to prove your expertise and. You're probably running very large challenges, five day events. It's like this high volume, high contact type of sales approach, but it's not converting like it used to.
And today we're gonna be talking about why proximity based offers need a different kind of messaging because when people are buying access to you, your intellectual property. Your perspective, your presence, proximity to you, proximity to the individuals that you've curated in this space. They're not just investing in a result alone.
Yes, getting result is important, but they're also investing in who you are and how you lead, and what influences the lens at which you're going to be guiding them to get to that definition of success. And that means that the messaging that you put publicly needs to reflect you. Not only your intellect and your method, but your identity, your values, your image needs to be congruent. The lifestyle that you're living, there needs to be harmony amongst that.
So if your content has been falling flat or overly strategic way to educational, how to influencer type based. Or like it's missing that heart, that soul, that connection, even though it's technically correct. This episode is gonna help you see why and what to do about it. So let's get all the way in.
Now when I first really started to get a good understanding of what this concept was and why proximity based offers needed a different approach, than traditional digital courses, I was, this was probably back in like 2019. I was at a critical inflection point in my own business. I had made about 300, $350,000 in revenue. I was selling my signature program at the time, it was called Services That Sell. If you've been listening since that's been around. Thank you.
And if you actually were in that program like, like you, you know what that was like. It was a $2,000 digital course, but it had coaching components in it, and I had joined a program that was $18,000 and I thought that the way for me to scale my business was by figuring out how to. Scale this $2,000 digital course and probably three months into this $18,000 investment. I had a massive aha moment because I was setting up the automated webinar, creating an evergreen email sequence.
I had just paid for a Facebook ads manager, um, and I was like following the process and following the method, but what I noticed was even at that $2,000 price point, there was still this grittiness. There was still this ancy and this friction for my prospect to make a buying decision without having some sort of human contact. And I. I started to analyze all of my peers who were also in this program with me. There was probably like 15 of us at the time, and I noticed a very clear distinction.
The people in the program that were really having success with this webinar, automated email sequence, evergreen kind of thing, were all their programs were a thousand dollars or less. And I noticed that me and my other peers that were selling programs that were two, three to $5,000, the process was just not working the same way it was working for those, selling a lower ticket offer. And that is when I had my aha moment that around that 200 to $3,000 price point.
People's approach, like the psychology that they use, the. Sermon that they apply when they're making a buying decision is fundamentally different than when they are trying to buy a $200 product for, in comparison to a $4,000 coaching program. And that was really when I started to notice the distinction in how marketing needed to shift. And quite honestly, like the gap that was missing in this online education space because.
I've taken so many coaching programs, masterminds, worked with coaches over the years, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, like trying to understand this industry and develop my skillset. And I have yet to meet somebody who was able to give the context of when these funnels make sense to apply and which business models these marketing strategies are most effective for.
And I'm not saying that this is A blanket statement, but this is just what I have noticed in my own experience and what has worked really well for my students. When you are really building a business, primarily based off of your intellectual property, secondarily, you are building a business that is relationship based, meaning like. The clients that you are working with, there is close proximity to one another. It is more of a relational based offer.
There's more intimacy within the relationship of who you're making the investment decisions with. and I also just really noticed that if I. Like the other distinction that I noticed between me, my peers, and the leaders in the space who were kind of educating us on this is that I'm not spending, $50,000 a month on ads. I am not. Running my business like a content marketer or like an influencer. I am really doing this from a lifestyle perspective.
I am doing this to preserve as much profit as possible, and when I notice those distinctions, that's what really helped clarify this concept that I'm introducing to you today. When you are selling to a more sophisticated buyer, and what I mean by that is, is you're solving a more specialized problem. You're charging a higher ticket price point because the specialization of the problem that you're solving and you're selling to somebody who is using more discernment.
Your approach to your marketing and messaging needs to match the psychology that that person is applying to their buying decision. And that is a fundamental distinction that I've noticed in the digital marketing online education space, based off of where the price point of your offer is and also the type of marketing style that you are primarily leading with.
If you don't have hundreds of thousands of followers, you know, 50 to a hundred thousand people on your email list, you need a different approach to marketing. I'm nine years into business and my email list is still hovering around 10,000. Like we've made millions. I've made over $7 million in my business over the last eight years. But like I am not running a mass volume play.
I am running a business model that really is rooted in lifetime value, long-term client retention, specific, specialized problems for niche nuanced audiences. And I think when I really understood that, could claim that and then adjusted my marketing strategy to that, that's when things really started to shift for me. The other thing that's really important for me to note here is that our industry flows in cycles. This is true for any business industry. I would say back in 2018 to 2022.
Very heavy educational how to. Tactical type of content performed very, very well. What I'm noticing now between 2023 we're in 2025, I think this is going to be the case for the next few years, is that educational content alone is not enough to establish credibility, trust, and move a higher ticket type of client to make a buying decision. Yes, it's part of the equation, but it can't be the.
Only thing that you focus on when it comes to your marketing content, and part of the reason why I think that this shift is happening is because there is a rise of artificial intelligence. All of us have access to chat GPT, now we can pretty much ask anything and get a reasonable response.
I think because of that, there is a level of human connection that buyers, especially more discerning buyers, more sophisticated buyers, more buyers who are looking to solve um, more complex problems, they are looking for a greater level of connection, not just your intellect alone to make that buying decision. And whenever I'm trying to like explain this concept, I always like to look at my own buyer behavior pattern as a gut check, and I recommend that you do the same.
I want you to think about the last time that you made a purchase that was less than a hundred dollars on an online education, some sort of skillset development thing. And I want you to think the last time that you were considering or made an investment in something that was maybe 5,000, 10,000, $20,000, and I want you to pay attention. What was the difference in how you made that buying decision? What were the questions that you privately considered?
What were the thoughts that you privately had? What were the touch points that you made sure to make with the creator and before you felt comfortable making the buying decision? And I want you to think about your own lens, your own level of discernment, and how that is distinctly different dependent on the price point of the offer, the sophistication of the problem that that offer is solving, and the specificity at which it is addressing through the problem that it solves.
And I want you to understand if you are going through that level of. Differentiation when making those types of buying decisions. So are your prospects. And I just think it's really important that when you are selling Morgan, that proximity based offer, you need to lead with more identity based messaging. 'cause when I made the shift after coming back from my sabbatical.
And I've always, my business has always been rooted in higher ticket offers, but even making the shift from primarily selling a curriculum based offer that sold a very specific promise, that taught a very particular process and methodology to now primarily selling private one-on-one coaching six month relationships. Clients can either pay a flat rate fee or clients can do a revenue share model.
It is a very different dynamic and yes, like there's a level of intellect than respect that needs to be established. The client needs to actually trust that they that in my advice and my ability to help them build their business and grow their business and navigate business challenges that they're coming up against. But the thing that my clients have said over and over and over, and over and over again. That was the kicker.
That was the, the final thing that caused 'em to feel safe and trust in making the buying decision was identity based, alignment aligned, values aligned perspective and point of view on not just achieving success, but really how I went about achieving my success, the values that I was leading with as it related to achieving my success. The constraints in which I prioritize aspects of my lifestyle.
That is what made the difference between whether or not they would invest in a private one-on-one coaching relationship, because it is just that it is a relationship. It's not just a transactional based offer. And the thing that I wanna note is that you are probably already doing a lot of identity based connection and trust building privately. Like once somebody gets onto a sales call with you or once they get inside of your container or something along those lines, but very.
Often what I notice with clients, and what I'm noticing in the marketing landscape right now is many people are not leading with that publicly in their marketing strategy. They're doing it privately, naturally, but when they start thinking about how do I. Not even, how do I, I think many people hide from doing this in their public marketing because it feels too vulnerable. It feels so left field from what the large voices in our industry are saying, because many of us follow content creators.
Many of us follow influencers. Many of us follow the big online education folks who are in our space, who are, who are still running their marketing. Towards lower impulse based purchases as their primary mechanism for their business model. And when we start comparing and primarily learning from that point of view, of course it's natural. We're going to adopt that and try to mimic that. But I. I really want us to use some more discernment is if you are leading a proximity based business model.
If you are selling, you know, you're only working with 10, 20, 30 clients in a year, your marketing strategy absolutely needs to look differently then the person that's selling 3000 spots into their digital course, because it's a, it's fundamentally a different game that you are playing, and that means your strategy needs to also change and shift.
The other thing I really struggled with when shifting my messaging to more of an identity based approach versus leading with like the how to educational intellect was that. I also had to reconcile not just that fundamental belief and that fact and make that change in my marketing approach, but I also had to really reconcile with like what parts of my identity I felt comfortable monetizing and really magnifying. And also I think it's a different shift too when you.
As an individual have significantly evolved so far away from who your prospects used to be, like who they are versus where you are. You know, like I think about the problems that I used to solve for the person that was buying services that sell are very different than the problems that I'm dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Running a seven figure coaching business and when, when your identity gets so far.
Beyond where the gap gets so wide from where your prospect is in regards to the offer that you're selling. That's the other thing you really have to reconcile is because many of us probably approach our content, at least I did, where I'm just like, I'm documenting my journey. I'm going to document real time what I'm working through, the problems that I'm navigating, what's coming up on coaching calls, like I'm, I'm, my content is very rooted in the relevance of what I'm personally experiencing.
But if that is how you used to market and you're now 10, 15, 20 steps ahead of where your core offer. Is and where that prospect is, there can be a really big dissonance between what you are experiencing day to day in the business and what your prospect is going through as it relates to where your offer is and the problem that that offer solves. And when you start to really understand these moving dynamics of, Hey, I probably shouldn't just lead with my intellect in my marketing.
I need to also start to infuse my identity. And then when you start to realize how far maybe beyond. Your prospect, your current identity is, that's another thing that needs to be reconciled. And then let's not even talk about the layer here. If you've already delegated all of your marketing distribution out to a team, you have somebody else that's, you know, taking your B-roll and putting text on screen for you.
You have somebody on your team that's taking your live streams or your podcast episodes and stripping it and making those into carousels. when we layer in the dynamic of your team members who are supporting the distribution of your content, the number one thing that I personally missed the mark on, and I see clients miss the mark on over and over and over again, is that nobody now is responsible for the messaging that is at responsibility.
That when you were the one creating your content, when you were the one maintaining a pulse in your prospects, when you had close proximity to them because you were just a step or two of. Above them to now where you are, you've delegated the distribution of your marketing content. You got people posting 2, 3, 5 times a week on your behalf, but nobody now is responsible for messaging. And messaging is something that cannot be delegated.
It is something that can, you can hire people to distribute it, but you, when you are selling your intellectual property, when you are selling a proximity based offer, when your prospects are making buying decisions based off of that alignment of your values, and not just your intellect, but the identity in which you're leading your lifestyle, and that is how they want to experience the results. You are the source material, and it's so important that.
At that is a responsibility that many of us as we scale ourselves outta the business, and we're gonna talk about this more in depth, um, in a couple episodes further in this season because I think it deserves its own episode.
I just wanna unpack the different layers here that happens when you make these shifts in your business model, when you choose to change your business model, when you choose to introduce a new offer that is for a more sophisticated buyer, and you start noticing, Hey, why is my messaging not landing the way that it used to? Why is my content not converting the way that it used to? It is because there now is a perception gap, and there's probably a very big missing hole in.
Your messaging and what needs to be conveyed and communicated for a prospect to reduce their perceived risk, and to not just see you as a credible, respected, intellectual individual, but also have that sense of connection and trust and intimacy that makes them feel safe making a buying decision.
And really when you can make this shift in your messaging to highlight the things that you're probably already doing and discussing privately and bringing that publicly, or if you're somebody that has a really strong referral base and many of your clients come or discover you by way of somebody referring you, I want you to think about that transference of trust that is happening again in a private room, in a private conversation. And it's just how can we start to amplify and.
Speak those things publicly on our platform versus only reserving that insight into you as an individual and that insight into your values and that insight into like really the true authenticity of who you are privately. We gotta bring that publicly. I really hope this episode landed for you. If you have more questions about this, feel free to send me a DM over on Instagram.
I would love to continue the conversation because if your offers have evolved, but your messaging hasn't, this is your sign. You don't need to burn it all down. You don't need to add more offers or just throw more money at your ad funnel or just produce more content. It's really time to reconsider your involvement and how you need to get back into your marketing department.
And you just need to bring more of you into your messaging from a public perspective, because when someone is buying access to your brain, your presence, your leadership, your perspective, they're not just buying intellect and information alone. They're buying resonance. And that's why identity-based messaging matters so much when you are selling those types of offers. And that is the core of what your business model is. I really hope this episode landed for you.
I hope that we can continue the conversation. If you are not already subscribed on Apple iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen, make sure to do that. Uh, if you enjoy this episode, leave a review. Okay. I read them. I appreciate them and it helps. So much to get other listeners to find this podcast. So it would mean the world to me for you to do that.
And if this messaging topic is something that you wanna go deeper in, I have an invitation for you in the show notes, so make sure to check that out. I'm creating a new course all about messaging. Um, it's gonna be called market, like a CEO, so you can get all the details on that in the show notes as well.
And in the next episode we're gonna be talking all about what happens when you step out of your content too far and your conversions start to tank, and what happens when you really start to delegate. To the point where now it's causing harm in your sales and your cash flow. And spoiler alert, it's not a team problem. It's not that you probably have the wrong people in the right, in the wrong seats, but it's probably a messaging issue and I wanna make sure that we understand that dynamic.
Especially if you are at a point where you have delegated your messaging, but your content isn't converting like you really wish it would. Make sure you tune into the next episode next week. So I'm gonna be breaking that all the way down. So I will talk to you soon. Thank you so much for being here.