Make Marketing Suck Less

Profit Without Worry with Michelle Evans

Hey hey rebels, welcome to this week's Rebel Rising Podcast episode. This week, Michelle Evans is on the show. She's giving us the back story on her very own 3 Word Rebellion, Profit without Worry. We'll also be covering how you can implement her strategy into your business so that you don't have to worry about your cash flow ever again.

A bit more about Michelle: Michelle L Evans walked away from her global marketing strategy role at Microsoft in 2012 after a successful 16-year corporate career spanning many industries. Now Michelle helps coaches & experts go from simply surviving to predictably SOLD OUT using the automation power of marketing funnels.

When she’s not working on her business, you can usually find her in the car taking one of her three kids to some sort of activity or at home drinking a glass of wine with her handsome and talented photographer/systems engineer/baker husband (his chocolate truffles + lava cakes are a-mazing).

Tune into the audio:

Michelle: Hi, Michelle. Welcome to the Rebel Rising Podcast.

Michelle Evans: Thanks for having me.

Michelle: I am so excited that you are here because you just recently launched your 3 Word Rebellion, but before we get into all of that, tell my listeners a little bit about you and your business.

Michelle Evans: Thanks. Yes. I'm just super excited to talk about my 3 Word Rebellion and just before we get there, I have been in business now for seven and a half years. It's so crazy to think about that.

Michelle: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michelle Evans: Yeah. In January of 2012, I quit Microsoft, and walked away, and decided to go out into the big wide world of crazy entrepreneurship. And I got to tell you, Michelle, I never ever thought that my business would be where it is today. It's just incredible to see the journey that I've been on. But what I really focus on is helping business owners create systems in their business so that they can constantly have clients and leads coming in so they don't have to, I don't want to say the words yet for my 3 Word Rebellion, so they don't have to worry about, you know, if they're going to get paid this month because I know…

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: You and I have known each other for a while and especially in the early days of my business, cash flow and like where is my next client going to come from was almost an all-consuming part of my business.

Michelle: Oh, yeah.

Michelle Evans: And it's something that I never had to worry about or think about when I have a job, right?

Michelle: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michelle Evans: I had a paycheck that came in every couple of weeks and I could count on it. But as you know, in entrepreneurship, even if you have sales, sometimes that money doesn't come in and just constantly thinking about okay, what am I doing today to get more business in the door became a real stress for me.

Michelle: Hmm.

Michelle Evans: Yeah, go ahead.

Michelle: No, I was going to say I'm sure so many people can relate to that. I mean, I know I relate to that constant like, okay, I have really good cash flow right now, but now I'm looking at a couple of months I'm like, “Oh crap, what am I going to do?” Like where are these people going to come from? It causes so much anxiety.

Michelle Evans: It does. And you know, in 2015, I decided to join this mastermind because I was like, “I got to get this figured out. I can't be on this,” but really feels like an emotional roller coaster. It's like, “Yay, I've made all these sales. Oh my god, where are the next one's going to come from?” Like, it's just this up and down, right?

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: And so I joined this mastermind and the coach who led, she had makes seven figures a year, multiple seven figures a year, and I was like, “Okay, I'm just going to buckle, down and I'm going to learn from her, and really figure out how to just get my business rolling.” But what I found was number one, she was all about just random acts of marketing and hustle. Hustle, hustle, hustle 24/7. And for her, you know, she didn't teach the system she had behind the scenes. She was just like, “Get out there to as many events as you can be at, and speak on as many stages as you can, and be a guest and do as much as you can to be visible.” And her mantra was, you know, you sleep when you're dead. In a nine-month period of time, I went to over 50 events.

Michelle: Oh my gosh.

Michelle Evans: Five, zero. It was insane.

Michelle: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michelle Evans: It was insane. And from this, I would come home from all these events, I don't know if you've ever done this, with, you know, stacks of business cards that I'd met there. And then, you know, what I was supposed to do in between events was just be making sales calls to all these business cards and I went through that nine-month period of time. Thank god, I already had clients because I made zero sales doing that. None. I spent so much money and so much time and so much emotional … It was just like emotionally draining. Like it was draining every ounce of my being to keep doing this. And after about nine months, I had my 1000th failed sales call and I knew because I was tracking it in my CRM, and I just woke up in the middle of the night and I was like, “What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Clearly, it's not working.”

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: All of those, you know, that mean voice that's in your head, right? We all have that mean voice. It was like, “You're not good enough. You're never going to make this work. Who are you to think that anybody's going to want to buy from you?” And it was just like driving me crazy. I couldn't sleep and I was so stressed out and I was just like, “You know what, I am not her and I need to figure out what works for me.”

Michelle: I just want to stop you right there because that is an important point that everyone needs to hear that what works for other people, their blueprint, their formula, whatever, it might not work for you.

Michelle Evans: Yeah. Yeah, and it really took a lot of money and a lot of emotional capital from me in order to have that message sink in.

I'm good enough as I am and I need to embrace what makes me great and what attracts people to me and do that.

And what was interesting is when I first joined that mastermind, they had poo-pooed the kind of marketing that I wanted to do. Looking back, I can see all the red flags now, but at the time, I was so like star-struck by being mentored by this person that I overlooked them.

Michelle Evans: And so, you know, I woke up in the middle of the night and I was just like, “I can't do this. I'm not her. This is not working. I hate trying to sell from stages. I hate having to make all these calls to people who don't even remember who I am. I just hate this.” And I said, “But what do I like?” And Michelle, you know, it was so, it was just like crystal clear. I like connections. I like impacting people. I like working with people where it's a win-win on both sides where they're getting a lot out of it and where I feel like we're really good fit. And I was like, “Okay, how do I get those people?”

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: Because I know how to do marketing, but I had completely disregarded my marketing background in favor of this wild and crazy selling backgrounds of my mentor, right? And so I went back to something called the marketing funnel and it was super simple. I made a PDF and I wrote three emails and I sent it out to my email list. Now, this mostly consisted of all those people who I had called and who said no to me.

Michelle: Okay.

Michelle Evans: But I was like, “Whatever. I'm just going to send it out to my email list and just see what happens.” From those three emails, I had 26 people sign up to have a sales call with me and I had 12 people immediately buy and I had another three that were on my waiting list. And then I had some ideas for some additional products that would help people better. It was from that point because I made more money in that three-week period of time than I had in the previous nine months. And I was just like, you know what? I need … First of all, random acts of marketing where you're just going out, and just doing stuff, and being really busy, that doesn't work. It just doesn't work if you don't have a system running behind the scenes to glue all of those random acts of marketing together.

Michelle: Yes.

Michelle Evans: And number two, I need to be true to who I am. And I know you love this work too, but I always tell everybody before you start to market yourself, take the How to Fascinate Quiz. It figures out what makes you fascinating to others.

Michelle: Yes.

Michelle Evans: Because for me, you know, you and I are really different how to fascinate profiles and so what works for you isn't going to work exactly for me and what works for me won't work exactly for you and that's okay.

Michelle: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Exactly. Exactly. And what I love about the story …

I mean, it's so funny because usually, I go through my 3 Word Rebellion questions, but it is so clear what you're rebelling against.

Michelle Evans: Yes.

Michelle: This idea of these one-size-fits-all things that should work for everyone. Doing random acts of marketing, which is my favorite turn off phrase ever, I think.

Michelle Evans: But it's true because I lived it and so I'm rebelling against it because I know the emotional, financial, and confidence blows that it gives you when you actually fall into that trap of trying to be somebody or something that you're not.

Michelle: Yeah. So your business then became like helping others create these relationships and having this predictable sales system that people call a funnel. The F word.

Michelle Evans: I know. We have to reclaim it, right? That was your brilliant piece is reclaim the F word, Michelle.

Michelle: So I know for a long time you were leading with this message of marketing funnels and I'm sure we've hinted around your 3 Word Rebellion, so people are probably like, “Okay, what was she leading with before and now what is her new 3 Word Rebellion?”

Michelle Evans: Yeah. Yeah. I was leading with marketing funnels because first of all, it's something that a lot of people are in tuned to now. They've heard the phrase. If they've been in the online marketing space, they've heard that phrase and a lot of times they don't really know what it means, but they know that they've been in people's funnels and a lot of times they don't like how those funnels make them feel.

Michelle: Yes.

Michelle Evans: And I'm always like, “But you don't have to do with that way.” Like you can choose to go down the path of being pushy and gross, and like buy now, buy now, buy now or you're going to die or you cannot do that. And for me, I choose not to do that.

Michelle: But then I think you are probably getting slapped in the face with the … Like people thought they knew what a marketing funnel was.

Michelle Evans: Yeah. Yeah. And so, before I would even have a chance to showcase how my approach is different than some of those other people out there, they would be saying, “Well, I don't want to be so salesy. I don't want to be so pushy. I don't like technology,” and I'm like, “Okay, let me tell you something. I graduated from college in 19 six with a degree in marketing and I've been doing “marketing funnel” since then.” But for a good chunk of that time, professionally we didn't have what we have now. Like a marketing funnel was, you know, meeting somebody and inviting them to have a sample.

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: So, you know, like I started off my career in banking and we would go and we would do events at malls or at events and we would meet people and we would invite them to a new buyer seminar that we were doing. So for people who would be first-time homeowners, that is a marketing funnel.

Michelle: Yes.

Michelle Evans: It's done in a really different way, but it's like let me meet you where you are of looking at new homes but you've never bought a home so you have a lot of questions. Well, guess what? We have a little class for that. This is not a new thing. People have been doing marketing funnels forever, it's just that they didn't call it that for a long time.

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: You get to choose how you set this up. And so, I was really constantly battling against people's ideas that they knew what a funnel was.

Michelle: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, and they thought it was this dude bro thing where you're using manipulation techniques and false scarcity to get people to buy and it's about making people feel like a number versus a human being.

Michelle Evans: Yup. Yeah, and it's about funnel hacking, which you'll hear all the time where you're basically going and “spying” on your competition and then basically ripping off everything they're doing. That's stuff that people do for sure in this space. But again, my approach to a marketing funnel is about serving your audience, it's not about stealing from them.

Michelle: Yes. Serve, don't steal.

Michelle Evans: Yeah.

Michelle: Oh my goodness. So you are leading with this message of marketing funnels and then tell everyone now once we work together what your new 3 Word Rebellion is because I love it.

Michelle Evans: I love it too. So my new 3 Word Rebellion is profit without worry. And you know, you and I danced around it for a bit. Like I was just kind of hemming and hawing and going back and forth. I couldn't land on it. But when I rolled this out and you were like, “Michelle, I love that one,” and I really like felt into it and I think I took about two weeks to like … How do I feel? Test it out with some people.

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: But it just settled so easily into my approach and my thought about creating a system in your business that really takes away that worry that I was just like, “Oh my gosh, this is it.” And then, a miracle of all miracles, the .com URL was available and I was like, “This was meant to be.”

Michelle: I know when we are working on that, I was like, “I can't believe somebody doesn't already have this,” because for me, it is the change that you want to create in the world for business owners and it's a change that a lot of business owners want.

Michelle Evans: Yeah. It is the change that I want to make because I've lived that worry. I know what that word costs. I mean, Michelle, when you're worried about where your next sale is coming from, it's really hard to serve your audience.

Michelle: Yes.

Michelle Evans: It's really hard to have an impact. It's really hard to take risks because you're like, “I just need to get sales in the door.” But when you have something that you can trust, suddenly, you can impact people in a much bigger and better way because you're not worried about where your next sale's going to come from.

Michelle: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, because you have that system and I know you have a personal story about how having that system, being able to profit without worry actually helped you last year.

Michelle Evans: Yeah, last year was a really challenging year in my business. I lost a grandparent, my husband lost a grandparent, some friends of mine, their eight-day-old baby passed away. Our house was broken into just a few days before Christmas while we were sleeping in the house and then, one of my dearest friends from my childhood passed away. And it was just like thing, after thing, after thing for about a nine-month period of time. That was just a huge emotional rollercoaster. And you know, we all have these times in our life where just the yucky stuff starts happening.

Michelle: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michelle Evans: Prior to this … I've never had a year with that many things happen, but I've had years where things have happened and it's knocked me off course for a little bit.

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: And you know, it's taken me a while to get back on course. But this time thing after thing happened and my systems just kept working and I didn't have to worry about it. In fact, I barely worked from the end of October through the end of the year and I still had, you know, people buy my course. I still had people signing up to have one-on-one sessions with me. I pushed them all off to start after the first of the year, but I didn't have to worry.

Michelle Evans: When I was ready to come back to work, I had a full docket of clients and I had people who had been buying my course and were doing the work. So it was like my business could run even when I needed to go take care of some life stuff. It was incredible and I know I shared that with you because I did a podcast episode on my own podcast about it and it was one of the most downloaded. In fact, to this day, it's one of the most downloaded ones and I was like, “Wow, this must really resonate with people that life happens.”

Michelle: Yeah, life happens and then how do you run your business?

Michelle Evans: Yeah, especially if you're the only … You know, like it's just me and my business. I do have some support but they're not employees, they're contractors. But you know, the day to day stuff is pretty much just me and it was … This past year, I would never wish that kind of year on anybody, but this past year was really hard but it was also really validating to me. These are so important because you never know when life will happen.

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: And I would have been in a whole world of hurt if I didn't have these systems and I would have not been able probably to do the work with you because I wouldn't have had the emotional capacity to take it on because I would have been worried about getting clients and sales in the door.

Michelle: Yeah, getting your cash flow where it needs to be.

Michelle Evans: Exactly.

Michelle:

So if everyone acted on your message, if every business owner who heard this decided to profit without worry, what do you think the world would be like?

Michelle Evans: You know, it would be a serving world. It would be a world where we meet people at the problem or the desire that they have and we show them the journey from where they are to where they want to be. It would be a world where … I mean, you know, let's just be honest, anybody who's called to be a speaker or a business owner, we're stepping out from the crowd and we're taking a risk, right?

Michelle: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Michelle Evans: And it's not because we just want to take a risk. I mean, if we just wanted to do that, we'd probably go to Vegas and get it all on, right?

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: But it's because we're called to have an impact. It's because we know that we can make a difference for the audiences that we're called to serve or to speak to.

Michelle: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michelle Evans: And so, the profit without worry is really to take care of that cashflow piece so that we can each push ourselves to get out there and connect with, and engage with, and impact the people that we're called to do that with. And so that's when I really see this work is much bigger than just a marketing funnel. It's really about creating the foundation for your business that you can trust so that you can go out there and do the work you're called to do.

Michelle: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. It's about that stability and predictability piece so that, yeah, you can devote your time to your family or devote your time to causes you care about or donate money to causes that you care about.

Michelle Evans: Yeah, a hundred percent.

Michelle: I love it. I love it. So tell us two things.

Number one, how can people start profiting without worry? Like what's the first step they can take?

Michelle Evans: Yeah, I mean, the first step that you can take is to get really clear on the problem that your audience is looking for a solution for and a lot of times, people say, “Well, my audience doesn't have a problem.” If they don't have problems, they're not looking for what you have to offer, right?

Michelle: If they don't have problems, I don't think they're human.

Michelle Evans: Yeah, exactly. Everybody has a problem. You need to get clear on what that is and get clear in the way like you teach of getting deep, deep, deep into this work. You can't just take the I want to lose weight. Why do you want to lose weight? I want to feel powerful. I want to be a good role model. I want to live a long life. Like what is it way down there that people are really wanting and desiring and what's the problem that's holding them back? Get clear to that and then, you know, really be clear on how you solve that.

Michelle: Yeah.

Michelle Evans: And how you solve it is different than what else they've seen out there.

Michelle: Yeah.

And so my final question before I ask where everyone can find you online is how do you think your 3 Word Rebellion is changing your business?

Because I know we're just at the beginning.

Michelle Evans: Yeah.

Michelle: But how do you see it working for you going forward?

Michelle Evans: Yeah, I can see so many possibilities for this and that's really one of the reasons that I was called to hire you and to work on this directly with you is because I wanted to get out of the like the day to day nuts and bolts of how to do this and wanted to get into a broader idea of what I'm calling my audience to do. What was cool is when I tested this out with some people, they were like, “Oh my god, that sounds amazing.” And then I rolled it out this week. So we're recording this on a Friday, I rolled it out on a Tuesday and from Tuesday to Friday, I've had more than quadrupled my normal podcast downloads and that's just in, you know, like three and a half days, right?

Michelle: Man. Amazing.

Michelle Evans: Yeah, and I didn't do anything differently this week than I did last week in terms of promoting. I didn't have some big ads or anything. I think that people were just curious of what the heck is this? And I'm really, really excited about where it takes me here because I think that it's going to help me reach the people that I want to reach in a way that I never could have when I was simply talking about marketing funnels.

Michelle: Yes. Yeah, because marketing funnels, it's kind of like nah. But if you say, “Oh, do you want to profit without worry,” I'm like, “Yes, I will listen to that podcast. I will hire you. Sign me up.”

Michelle Evans: Yeah, or even just tell me more like, “Okay, what does that mean?” And that's what I was really going for is the ability to have the conversation in an engaging and relevant way with my audience.

Michelle: I love that. So we all know you have a podcast called Profit Without Worry, but tell us where we can connect with you online.

Michelle Evans: Yeah, so my digital home, which is probably the best place to find me, is https://www.michellelevans.com/ and yes, there's an L in the middle because some jerk owns michelleevans.com, doesn't use it, and wanted $8,000 for that URL. So mine is michellelevans and now that's $10 a year. That's my rebelling against those jerks out there that are squatters.

Michelle: I love it and you can also find her wherever you download podcasts. And I do recommend that everyone listened to Profit Without Worry. Michelle is an amazing marketer. She's got an amazing mind for how to build relationships or a system for your business that doesn't feel crappy to you but provides that stability and predictability that we all crave. So thank you so much, Michelle, for being on the show.

Michelle Evans: Thank you for having me.