She Sold Out A Community Card AND 9x12 Postcard In 3 Weeks (No Experience)

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This interview was the best, and I'm quite confident that it will make you money if you just listen, take notes, and implement what you learned. I'm pretty confident about that because I just spoke with Emily who sold out her first community card and her first 9x12 postcard in just around a month. And this was an absolute masterclass where she showed us exactly how she turned $170 into over $2,000 with Facebook ads. She told us exactly how they're set up, and she laid out the exact automations she has set up in order to close clients and renew clients. She explained her whole follow-up process.

It's a straight masterclass. And for those of you who don't know what the 9x12 method is, it's where you take a large 9x12 in postcard, and you're going to mail it to 5,000 doors in town. What you do with the card is you sell 16 ad slots on it to local businesses that want to go to the doors. You charge around $500 a slot usually, and then you get the card printed and mailed through a printing company, and then you keep the difference as profit. And like I said, she sold a 9x12 postcard and a community card.

A community card is just a smaller version of the 9x12, and it goes to less doors. You make less profit, but you sell it much quicker. So, she broke down the difference between the two options, explained why she's going to be sticking with the 9x12 most likely. So, if you've been looking for a way to make a little bit of extra money on the side or a lot of money if you're serious about it and you want to quit your job eventually, then this business is a good place to start, and this interview is a good place to start because she teaches us so much. So, let's see what she has to say.

Enjoy. Emily, congrats on selling out your first community card and your first 9x12 postcard. And you've been particularly vocal in our community, um handing out amazing advice left and right. I think you've posted like 36 posts in the past couple of months. So, I'm sure many people already recognize your face.

Um but for those who don't, tell me who you are, what you do now, and how you got into the 9x12 method. >> Oh, okay. So, yes, I'm Emily. Um I guess what I do now is run this business. Um but getting into this um the 9x12 uh okay, let me kind of go back a little bit.

So, I actually owned a social media marketing membership for real estate agents. I started it back in 2020. Um and it blew up and did amazing, but I'm not going to lie. Uh the last year and a half has been a little bit harder. Um the market's just changed a lot for real estate agents.

Social media's changed a lot for real estate agents. AI came in and disrupted a lot for me. Um and so I was just kind of really sifting through YouTube trying to figure out what can I do that I can start making money right away. Um and I came across Mitch's YouTube videos and I was like I could totally do this. Like I think I could definitely do this.

I did door-to-door sales once when I lived out in California and I was one of their best sales reps that they had. It was literally selling like a restaurant coupon book. Um and so I literally started this business on May 1st and started selling my ads May 7th. Literally only took me a week to get this business up and going um with very little money uh put into it. And I took off from there and uh I had a lot of momentum going and and got those two postcards sold out pretty >> That's awesome.

that that was very smart of you not to just continue to try to beat a dead horse with the other business. Is that Are you still running that business alongside the postcard or are you just doing this full-time now? >> Well, yeah, I am, but honestly very minimally and like I did try to beat this dead horse over and over again and I just got to a point where I was like I'm just going to let it ride out. You know, I still have members in the community and stuff, but I just like and then it just really honestly sucked the life out of me, you know, giving so much of myself and like I don't know. It just wasn't working anymore the way that it was.

And so it was just time to pivot. Um and so I still doing that but very minimally. Um but really I'm putting most of my eggs in this basket and I'm really um my 9 by 12 business and creating a brand around it. Um So it's you know, it's called the Lincoln Spotlight and I've joined some networking groups here in town and kind of my whole vision is just to build a brand around we help local businesses get in front of local residents. And so on top of that I'm learning how to do newsletter marketing so that I want to start like a monthly newsletter for each of the neighborhood or like the routes that I do.

It'll be kind of like a meet your neighbors kind of thing and meet the business owners that service in your neighborhood and things like that and just really make this feel like genuine community connections, not just like we're selling you an ad, but just really bringing people together with this brand. So um and so I just kind of tell people this is my first initiative in building that is the direct mail pieces. >> Absolutely. Sounds like you're trying to build a nice little ecosystem which does very well. Um you're building trust all around and obviously with the postcards being the Trojan horse that kind of gets you in the door with advertisers.

That makes the sale and the hardest part is building trust and now you're planning on building into other services, right? >> Yeah, so yes, I'm glad you mentioned that. So what I've actually done is because I have owned a a social media marketing membership, um but also built websites, done email marketing for people, um all the things. But there were some skill sets I don't quite have. Um so one thing that I did is I actually partnered with a local um uh marketing agency here in town and we're going to tag team.

That's because once I've got these advertisers in, that is definitely like step one. And then it's like, "Hey, uh you know, we should definitely improve your landing page or you don't even have a landing page, you know, a website. So, let's look into that." Um email marketing so we can like stay on top of their leads. you know, I use GoHighLevel, so it's reputation management and Google Reviews and all those things.

So, it's just really opened the door for on a lot of that. I just signed a contract this morning for a website design for one of my clients that I got from the postcard. >> Um and so yeah, so I've just really been able to kind of branch off of that and the agency that I work with, they also have a Rolodex of clients that they're like, "They would be perfect on your postcard." So, that also is going to make it so much easier to get these routes going, you know, a little bit quicker. >> Yeah, absolutely.

So, you for the most part, you are making the sales, but you're going to outsource the work to the marketing agency, so they would do most of the social media marketing and all those other services that you're talking about? >> I think so. To be honest, like for me personally, my passion is not into all of the marketing side. Some of it I'm going to take on like this website one I'm going to do. It's someone I've known like and I just want to take it on.

Um but there's like I said, there's some skill sets that I just don't have. I don't do SEO. I don't do Facebook or Google Ads and I want to just be able to give my clients the best experience. So, I'm going to partner with this marketing um and we've just kind of decided we would just do some sort of like a commission split and so I'll also be able like making some recurring revenue. um whatever packages of theirs that I sell, they'll give me a monthly cutback every month that they stay a client.

So, it's just another revenue stream to bring in and then I can kind of focus my energy on the things I really like doing with the 9x12, which I would My goal is to start some more routes. So, that's where I want to focus my energy at. >> Absolutely. I mean, it's it's very smart because you're focusing on not only what you like to do, but also what you're skilled at. You're not wasting your time learning all all of these new things.

>> And you're just outsourcing it to people who already will be able to provide your clients with solid service. So, you're making sure that they get solid service. You don't actually have to deal with all the fulfillment side of things and you get recurring revenue on the back end. It's pretty great. >> Yeah, because that's the thing is, you know, this website build will take a lot of my hours this upcoming month.

And so then that takes away from me building another route. >> And so, you know, the website's going to be a one-time deal, but these routes are going to be consistently. So, I'd rather give those clients over to someone I know can fulfill them. And, you know, but it can be kind of a headache to do all of that. So, >> Absolutely.

Yeah. Now, I want to take a step back before we keep diving into your your plans for scaling this business. But, you said you started you you learned about the business and then you started actually reaching out to businesses within about a week. And a lot of people sit on the sidelines. They think they need to do a million things before they can start reaching out to businesses, but you did it within a week.

So, what did those first 7 days look like for you? >> Well, all right. Honestly, if anyone watching this is not in Mitch's program, like definitely get in it if this is what you're going to do because that is how I was able to start this business within a week. Um Mitch has you have everything that we could need inside of there. Um I am one of those people where I like to have everything like ready to go.

Um and I know some people could seriously just start selling the day of. Absolutely. But, I wanted to kind of have some of my ducks in a row. So, I got the website up. Honestly, I got it up in like 20 minutes and it It beautiful.

>> You know, it was it was great. Um I really wanted the website. Not everyone needs it, you know, depending or you could wait, but I really liked it because um I was doing door-to-door sales and I wanted to be able to give on my flyer, which again Mitch has the flyer ready for you. You just plug and play your stuff and I kind of rearrange so I would go door-to-door. I had a QR code on my flyers so that they could they could scan, go to my website and they could even just purchase their ad space from right there.

[snorts] And it just kind of made me feel a little bit more legit cuz I would walk in and say, "Hey, I'm I'm Leigh. I'm the owner of the Lincoln Spotlight." And so many people would be like, "Oh, yeah, I've heard of you." And I'm like, >> It's a brand new business, but and so it just kind of legitimized legitimized How do we say that word? Um the business a little bit more.

So, I did do the website and then the flyers and I just started going door-to-door. I would just pick pockets of areas. I'd be driving by and like, "Okay, I'm going to hit this shopping And um what I would do is I ordered the mock-up postcards that you have, the 9 by 12s and the uh community card one as well. Um and then I would attach my flyer to it and then on it I would take a big sticky note um and I would write like a personal I want like I would love to put your business on. I can't remember exactly what I said, but something like I would love to see X business on here.

Let me know if you want to jump on this. Just like really again personalize it so that people really understood like, "Oh, this is for me. Like I should pay attention and look at this." and then anytime that I would door-to-door, always make sure to get a business card of whoever I needed to speak to. Cuz a lot of times you'll walk into a business and whoever's the owner or the marketing coordinator is not available at the time.

So then I just dropped it off with someone at the front desk and said, "Oh, can I get their business card so I can follow up?" And always follow up. Um obviously, but you'd be surprised how many people I think get in their mind like, "Oh, that didn't work." Um you know, whatever. But like you just have to make sure to follow up.

Send an email and send a call or give them a call. Um and maybe even two emails. >> Yeah. Actually, I love that strategy with the just the simple postcard and the post-it note. Here, I'll I'll show one of the postcards right here.

You just bring in the big postcard that basically sells itself, and then you put a sticky note on it, and you actually hand wrote the little note, which is kind of different from what other people are doing because a lot of people are are like printing off a info packet, which still works for a lot of people in our community, obviously. But I like the handwriting aspect of it. It makes it really personal. And because you're not doing like such high volume, like you're definitely not seeing more than 100 businesses a day, you can get away with taking the 30 seconds to write that >> Yeah, I You just go ahead. Go ahead.

>> Okay. And you're not giving away too much information off the bat, which I like, especially if the owner is not in. You kind of want to just spark intrigue, just like when you're sending it off in email, that's why your subject line is just question. You want to get them to respond, that way they're a little bit more invested. So I like that.

I like that a >> Yes, I use that subject line, by the way, all the time. Like anytime I want to make sure that they're paying >> Um always question is my favorite subject line. yeah, you know, to be honest, I don't know that I left the actual postcard with them if they weren't there because I didn't want to go through all of my postcards. So I maybe just left a flyer with their name if I like really felt like they were going to be a good um person that was going to need to see it, I would it. I just kind of like felt it out.

Um but now that I have done my first postcard, I have extra postcards and now I just leave them with people. >> And I mean the the the real postcards now have real businesses on it that are local so they recognize those businesses. It's probably helped dramatically sell out these new cards for you, right? >> Yeah, when someone sees they're like, "Oh, McCoy Roofing did this. Okay, like I guess we should get our business on here.

Like they're doing it." >> You know? So that is really helpful. >> When you were starting out though, when you just had the sample card, you didn't have much social proof, what did the conversation look like when you went through the door? Obviously there's two separate conversations.

Let's say the first conversation you just hit the gatekeeper like a receptionist or something and the owner isn't in. Tell me about that conversation and then the second conversation I want you to tell me is if the owner is in how you would talk to them. >> Oh, okay. I'm not going to lie, I haven't been out door knocking in a few >> Okay. [laughter] uh which I need next week I'm going to start.

It's summertime now and my son's home a lot from and like it it's just it's really hard to get things done when summertime with kids. >> But anyways, uh okay. So I would walk in and just basically say, "Hey, I'm Emily with the Lincoln Spotlight." And uh then I would say, "Is the owner available or someone that I could speak to about marketing?" And people are always super open.

You know, either they're there or not. If not, then I would just say, "All right, you know, like I just wanted to drop this off. We're doing this Um I don't even think I positioned it in this instance of like we're sharing the cost of a marketing thing. Um I did more of that kind of a script of we're going in to share marketing costs. Well, maybe I Oh, I'm trying to think now.

I mean, it was very simple. It was really just this is what I'm doing and I thought that you guys would be a really great fit. and you know, they'd see it and look at it and be like, "Oh, yeah, like I like that, you know?" Sometimes if it was a business I really wanted, I'd ask if I could come like when a good time was to come back because I really wanted to talk to just the owner. Um so you kind of just got to feel it out, yeah, I'd say I I I just kept it pretty simple as far as you know, not really telling them too much unless I did get to speak to the owner then then I'd say, you know, just be educated on what you're doing.

I'd say like we're doing this route here. We're heading out to Creek neighborhood, Porter Ridge, and South Point. Um we're hitting 5,000 homes. And you know, I'll design the ad for you, whatnot. And um it was kind of about it.

To be honest, I think I sold half of my postcard by going door-to-door. >> Wow. And so did you try to close them on the spot most of the time or did you were you kind of lenient with them? Let them think about it. Did you have any closing scripts or >> Uh I'm not very good at it.

Closing scripts. I actually just went to ChatGPT and like had him like go through them like, "What are, you know, let's put some scripts together." And so sitting on my desk, I need to go over it because I am someone like uh uh okay. Um so I do need to get better at that. But uh I had some people that were just like, yeah, like one guy, very first store actually that I went into, bought three small ads right on the spot and sent me the payment that day.

So, you know, you have your days where like you kill it and then you have a few days in a row where you're not. It's like you get a little discouraged, but it's just a numbers game. You know, you just got to realize like the odds will figure themselves out for you. Um So, yeah. >> Yeah, and honestly, it's not a big deal that you don't have any like crazy closing scripts because a lot of these small businesses just if you try to close them too hard or try to hard sell them, then you're just going to scare them away.

Whereas you're you're taking a proper approach of following up. So, what did your follow-up look like? >> Yeah, so and that's a really good point. I I think that that's very true. I don't want to push anyone and pressure them because then they're automatically just going to be like gross.

I don't want to do this. So, you know, it was usually just like no big deal. Like can I just get your card and I'll follow up with Um and so then yeah, so I just was using a Google spreadsheet and tracking everything and would just have, you know, drop-downs to say like follow up, follow up and I would just stay on that spreadsheet every day. and make my notes. Now I've moved over into like a more formal CRM, but that worked just fine to get started.

yeah, I it's I totally understand it's not very fun to like make those phone calls But I would usually shoot them an email that day and say it was super nice to meet you. Here's a little bit more information for you and then link it to my website. That way they had the information to look over, you know, that night when they're home or whatever. Cuz a lot of people just like they're it's their work day, so they don't have all the time to like really process what you're coming to them for. Um and so they do need some Um so then I would send them that email and just say thank you and and here's some more information.

And then I would call them maybe like 3 days later and just follow up with them. And um that's probably where I need to get a little bit stronger on my closing scripts. but I didn't I don't know. I got to say like it didn't feel too hard to be honest. >> Did Did you feel like people were really like got really agitated by your follow-ups or did you feel like they were appreciative?

>> No, they were definitely appreciative um I mean these are very legitimate businesses, you know, and they look at and they're like, "Oh, yeah." Like they got it. They understood it and they appreciated the opportunity. You know, they didn't I can't really think of any bad experiences that I had with any business owner. Like no one was ever rude or Yeah, anything like that.

Everyone was always like, "Oh, okay. Like yeah, let me think about that. That might be something we're interested in." >> Yeah. Well, I think you're doing it in the right order.

You're You're seeing them in person. That they automatically know you're a real human, not just a spam bot. That's number one. Then you send them the information over email. There's a good chance they're not going to respond to that email and a lot of times it's just because they're thinking about it or Um and then a lot of people a lot of like 9 by 12ers get scared at that point.

They're like, "Okay, they're not interested. I'm just going to leave them let them go." When in reality, there's a very good chance they were interested. You just needed to give them a phone call to just seal the deal. >> Yes.

Yes, seriously. I would really encourage people like make the phone call. Um I know it's hard for some people, but business owners are busy and they just sometimes need an extra reminder and just a little bit of a push to like, "Are we doing this or not?" You know? Um and I think you just come from a place of wanting to help them, you know?

It's not about pushing them to get on it. It's just I try to keep it very genuine um of what I'm doing. So, >> Yeah, exactly. And I've I've received messages from multiple businesses that respond to me and said, "Thank you. I appreciate the follow-up.

Actually, I've just been pushing this off. They actually do appreciate it. So you guys heard it from Emily. She sold out multiple cards and she is telling you it's okay to follow up. They usually appreciate it and it'll make you more money, right?

>> Uh yeah, and like you know speaking of then now I've built that connection with these advertisers and now I'm working on my second card and I pretty much have the first um side of the card sold out and I've not done anything but just go back and reach out to my previous um advertisers and um they were more than happy to sign up again. You know again didn't have a bad experience being pushed into something they didn't know if they really wanted to do. Um just make sure that you're I mean I don't know. Do you want me to go into all of that stuff yet? >> Yeah, I mean yeah, I I'm I wanted to kind of ask you like you started out with a community card.

I want to ask you how how why and how you progressed into a 9 by 12 card instead and then we'll get into your second 9 by 12 card and why you continued to go with the 9 by 12 card. >> Yeah. So okay. So I started like I said May 7th we're in like the end of July and I sold out my first community card within 3 weeks and I had pretty much my 9 by 12 completely done as well. Um I had about three slots left and then unfortunately I had a death in my family and so I took a couple weeks off um to you know do all of that the things and and I kind of lost a little bit of momentum so I would say on my 9 by 12 after that I ended up just filling some of those slots with Well actually I'll come back to that part.

So I'll talk about kind of what I did at the end of the 9 by 12 to fill those slots. The community card though so I got that in 3 weeks. To be honest, it I had struggled with it, and I think it was probably my approach. I had this really fun idea that I was going to make this summer community card and get businesses that would do a fun summer deal for the community, and that people would really hold on to that card and like kind of take it around. Um, but the businesses that I like was really eyeing, they're kind of like, "Well, we don't really need any more business, so we don't really need to spend the money on it."

So, that was kind of an issue. Um, also, I was choosing I don't know. I guess some of these types of businesses just they just don't market themselves. Like, maybe they're doing social media, but they've never spent money on doing any kind of advertising. And so, they just Yeah, and I also wasn't getting the best deals out of them, either.

So, it just kind of like it just wasn't I don't know. I'm not sure what the deal was. I think if I had picked some maybe more established businesses, they would have paid the higher price, and they would have like understood the value of it a little bit more, you know? but I think picking some of these more like smaller mom-and-pop shops, they weren't quite it just didn't quite work the way I wanted it to. So, I started pricing it at 250, then I went down to 200, then I just like I just need to get this done and out.

So, then I went down to 150 for some of my last ones. Um, but I got it done in 3 weeks, and like obviously still made money off of it, you know? >> Um, for sure. So, I think I would just do the community card a little bit different next, you know, if I did it next time. Um, I think you could still price it at 300 a spot.

It's just getting the right kind of businesses on it. >> Yeah. So, so I take it you you didn't really have like many service businesses on it. It was more like brick and mortar shops, maybe >> It was all brick and mortar. Yeah, exactly.

And so, yeah, like I said, they just they didn't have the budget, but I just really thought they'd be so fun to have on the card. And so then I also was like, I just really want you on this card, so I'll just like discount this for you, you know. Um and so yeah, I think if I did more home service businesses and things like you absolutely could crush this card and do those higher prices on it. >> Yeah. So, what was your strategy?

Because it sounds like you were selling the community card and the 9 by 12 at the same time. What made you choose to do that rather than just starting with >> I just really wanted to make some money. >> I mean, I was like, let's just do this, you know, like I can do this. And I I started out, like I said, my momentum was there and then, you know, again life threw me a curveball and and so it kind [clears throat] of changed the trajectory of things for a few weeks. Um and hoping next week when my son is back in camp, I'll get the next 2 weeks like get that momentum up again.

but yeah, I just one, I really wanted to do this community card because I'm trying to build a brand about community and putting local businesses in front of um homeowners. So, I really wanted to do the community card, but then I also wanted to start the 9 by 12, too. and so I just went for both of them. But yeah. >> So, were you were you pitching them both to every business that you that you walked in the door with or did you just pitch the 9 by 12 and use the community card as a downsell?

>> Yeah, that's a good question. I actually didn't do I'm looking at it right now. I'm trying to think any one of these Uh Uh, let's see here. really just did the community card like for the businesses that I really wanted to like do a summer deal for cuz we're very suburban families here, you know what I mean? And so I just kind of wanted all the kids are out of school and so I just wanted this really fun card.

So that's kind of more or less I went for the people that I thought would be a really good fit on that card and tried to sell >> Got you. >> I did have like that very first guy that bought three ads. I ended up putting him on the community card and then also on the 9 by 12. um and then he'll be on my second 9 by 12 as well cuz he bought three slots. So that helped with that.

and then yeah at this point I I don't know that I'll really do the community card again. I just really like the 9 by 12. So that's probably >> Yeah. And you know now that I've done it and now going back into kind of the like getting the second card going it is you know you've had other people on your podcast that they'll all tell you it is easier once you've gotten going and I'm excited to see how much easier it'll be on the third one, you know, and then the fourth one. Um because so many of these people are renewing with me again.

>> Yeah. So obviously you're you're a mother and you but you're doing this this is like your full-time gig right now on top [clears throat] of being a mother. You're busy cuz it's summer time. But what does your day-to-day actually look like with this business? Is it pretty structured?

well it will be once I get through summer I think. So yeah I was in the beginning I you know what I've really been doing is taking the time um when my son's home because yeah having a 6-year-old is just like it's it's just you know, they're always doing >> 6 once, I know. I know. So, uh I've really just been take It's you know, I can't do the door-to-door and drag my son around in the car and it's 100° out and all the things. So, that's why I've kind of like put a pin in it for a minute.

Um and so, I've really just been focusing on getting those renewals and building my systems on the back end so that I can be ready for when I'm ready to do my second route, I feel super confident that my systems are all in place and I'm ready to go. So, that's really where I've been focusing my energy. Um I think, you know, once I get like a normal schedule here going again, I don't I guess I don't know what that's going to look like. Like, I do Okay, do you want to hear an interesting Of course. >> So, when I first started this, I uh my Okay, so I I've been on Indeed like looking for a jobs and something popped up for a company that sells advertising and what they do is a community a neighborhood magazine.

And I was like, "Oh, that's like kind of what I'm doing, you know? Like, let me look into this." So, anyways, I got far into the the interview process. But you guys, this is like how good this business is, the 9 by 12 compared to like something else. So, basically, it was like a They said a 3-month ramp-up period to get 30 advertisers before you launched the the magazine.

And you did not get paid in that 3 months. Then before they got into the interview, um it could take some people up to 7 months to get those 30 advertisers. And you're not getting paid for your work. And they have you calling a hundred prospects every Monday. Like that's a lot.

>> And then you're going on all these interviews like hitting up four sales calls four to five sales calls every day then Thursday through Friday or I'm sorry, Tuesday through Friday. And so anyways, and then by the time you sell those 30, your first paycheck was $3,000. And you had to sell additional ads on top of that to like increase your volume. And I'm like, wait, so you want me to work for free for like at least three months? You know, and then so to me I was like, yeah, that's an absolute no because I'm already making money.

I make money right away doing this. You know, um with very little startup costs and very little monthly costs on top of that. >> Yeah. And I mean, it sounds like with that you're not really building your own business here, your own brand. You're kind of, you know, using their template and just, you know, basically paying them.

You're doing work for them. Whereas with this, you're doing work for >> Yeah, but I will say it did then kind of show me I'm like, okay, well then, you know, I probably need to be a little bit more structured on like Mondays are going to be like my outreach day or something, you know, and like because it is a numbers game and how many businesses do I need to hit, you know, I don't know. I'm not sure what that's going to look like because like I said, I've just been getting a lot of renewals and my Facebook ads have been working and so I don't know. Do I need to be making those sales calls? Do I need to be sending out the emails or is it all just about like taking the customers I have, the clients, and just making sure that they continue to have a really good experience and just, you know, offering them more services and things like that.

>> Well, it sounds like you're over the cusp because obviously the first month you have to do a lot of outreach. It's mandatory because you need to get the first set of advertisers to even know you exist. >> Now you're on your third card, your your second your second month, your third um you already have an ecosystem of advertisers that have either expressed interest, um have heard from you at least, and the ones that have actually paid and joined your cards, and you know, potentially had results. So you have a very large ecosystem now. It's only going to get smoother as time goes on as long as you keep in touch and keep in touch with these advertisers.

>> So that's that's kind of what you're trying to build your system around right now, I take it, right? >> Yeah, totally. So I have built out Um so, you know, once an advertiser once the postcard gets delivered, I have them going through like a campaign that sends them like, "Hey, just checking in. You know, let me know if you have any questions, if you've had any like people come through the door." You know, then I have an email that goes through later um "I'd love to hear of any success stories."

Basically, can you write a review? Then it's, "Hey, I'm starting the next route. I'd love to uh renew with you." And then what I do is I set myself a task reminder. So the day after that email goes out, I send them a personal email, and I actually uh redo their ad for them and say, "Hey, I was thinking maybe we could like revamp your ad or maybe change your offer."

And I'll send them an example of it and say, "What do you think? Do you want to jump on this next route?" uh because I think well, lots of reasons. You know, you're making that personal touch, and you're kind of getting them to think about, "Oh, maybe I should do a new offer." Or, "Oh, yeah, that ad might work a little bit better."

You know? And so, I just kind of make them feel like you're already I know you're already going to sign up for the next one. So like, what is it you want to do? >> That's awesome. It's an assumptive close.

I think that's what they call that. I love it. >> Okay, so drip campaign basically just like trying to feed them into the next month. If you don't really hear from them, you have a a task scheduled to build an ad for them. What do you build that ad on?

Do you use Canva or AI? What do you use? >> I honestly, I started using Canva because that's like my background, but then someone in the community said that they use ChatGPT and I was like, why haven't I thought of that? And so, I just kind of gave it some prerequisites that is just what I do now. >> I love it.

>> Yeah, ChatGPT is awesome. You should also try ads.9by12method.com, which all of our community members have free access to. that I just upgraded, so now it should work as great as GPT or better because it's actually properly trained to build 9 by 12 postcard ads.

So, you should give it a shot. >> Okay, yeah, I totally will. >> Yeah, for people who aren't in the community, ChatGPT is awesome as well. It's fantastic. >> Yeah, but I don't doubt cuz there is a lot of times where ChatGPT will come back and I'm like, wait, what did you just do?

Because >> you know, I ask it to make a simple oil change and all of a sudden like it's like, wait. >> They made it like an actual card on a background for some reason. >> Yeah, yeah. So, um but yeah, I'll definitely try that. For sure.

>> So, what what are you using for the drip campaign? What what kind of tech? >> Um I use Go HighLevel cuz that's what I use for my uh membership for my real estate agents and so, you know, um so, I've been able to build out the I'm running Facebook ads and I've built out the automations on there. I'm going to set up the A2P here soon so that um I can send them like an a text right Um [clears throat] right now when someone goes through my Facebook ads, they get an automated email sent to them, which I actually want to build that drip campaign out a little bit And because it is speed to lead, and honestly most of the people that come in through my ads are like 1:00 a.m.

, 11:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m. Just a lot of night owl business owners, I guess.

You know, they're working all day and they're not scrolling until late at night, I guess. >> So, it's time to hit them. >> Yes, and I don't you know, I'm not going to try calling them at midnight. So, um I want to get some better systems up. I don't know if I'll do like a booking page to like book your call with me.

Cuz it really is just like a typically like a 10 15-minute call, you know. >> They're pretty quick. >> Yeah, so what does your Facebook ad look like and are you using like a a lead page or you using a lead form? What what's it all look like? >> Yeah, I'm doing the lead form.

Honestly, I followed your training and just set it up and um but I did change the caption a little bit to specify what neighborhoods we're doing and like what's included and I also did like an average price on it because that I noticed the first time around I was getting some people that they like didn't seem to think that they were supposed to pay for this. They're like, "I have to pay?" And I'm like, "Well, So, I made sure to just put in like price starting at and I I do 550 as an and so um I've seemed to have gotten better quality leads from that. >> I I I can imagine. >> Yeah, and then what I actually did was I took my um postcard and I took a picture of it and I put it on Chat GTP and I said build me like I want this actual postcard coming out of a mailbox.

So, now people can see the actual local businesses that are on it. You know, cuz before I was using a mock up. and I just kind of say, you know, Lincoln business owners, we're sending this out to 5,000 homes in this neighborhood. And then it's a carousel page carousel page. And the second one that is a one-year mock-up photos of the stack of them by the front door.

And I'm like, your business could be in this stack. And I just think it's fun because they're like, oh yeah, that's like a lot of postcards where my business will be going out on it. So. So, okay. So so one ad, one campaign.

The ad you use chat GPT to create a postcard sticking out of a mailbox um with a very simple caption. And you pre-qualify them with the price, which is huge. Now you don't have a bunch of lollygaggers. And people are still responding. So, what's your budget that you're spending per day on the ads and how many leads are you getting in?

>> Um, so I'm spending $10 a day and I typically average about one lead a day. Um, I'll usually wake up in the morning and I will see a brand new lead come in. Um, some of them, yeah, some of them aren't great, but some of them are really great. So, my I haven't looked at where my ad spend is right now, but um, earlier this week I was at $177 and I closed two people this week um or maybe it was last week. I can't remember.

What day is it today? I don't know. >> I think you posted about it last week. >> Okay. So yeah, so it was last week.

Um, yes, that's right because I had a third advertiser come in on Friday and I don't know yet if he's he was in for it and now I haven't been able to get a hold of him. But he is really busy, so we'll see what happens. But either way, I'd spent $177 on my ads and these two that I one bought six ad spots at 275 and then an or no, I'm sorry, at 250 and then another guy bought three ad spots at 350 >> And so I was able to like pre-sell cards, you know, for the next few months with the their ads. So >> that's great. Um I'm personally not offering like a year-long package yet cuz I just want to make sure you know, do a couple cards and see where people are standing and if I can just get people to say like, "Hey, like did you just want to like put this in your marketing budget and we you know, make like you own that industry spot, you know?"

>> So [clears throat] So I'm just doing six months out. $177 over $2,000 in revenue. That is more than a 10x return on ad spend, which is amazing. And it How long did it take you to put together that Facebook ad? Would you recommend other people go do it right now?

>> I I can't even remember for sure, but it took no time. Like I your training super simple. And by the way, I hate Facebook ads. I've tried them before with my own business. I actually [clears throat] had like Yeah, I actually even hired someone like 3 years ago to teach me how to do ads and like run ads for my business and I just I just hated it, honestly.

Um but the training was super simple. Just follow Mitchell's steps. You know, the only thing you might want to change is just, you know, obviously your own ad creative and then maybe change your copy up a little bit. That's the only thing that you need to change from the tutorial. And so yeah, it's all keep running ads cuz then again, like I said, I have another guy on Friday.

He wants to buy a spot at 550. And so what I did with my was my bare minimum for a medium slot is 500 for an ad slot. My bare minimum for a small ad slot is 250 and my bare minimum for a large one is 900. So what I did on like the medium is if you want to buy one ad spot, it's 550. If you want to buy three, it's 525.

If you want to buy a uh six, then it's 500. So, basically if I like this guy that I got on Friday, he wants one spot for 550. Well, that pretty much took care of the cost of that ad because I'm still going to hit my 500 bare minimum. You know what I mean? So, I made sure to kind of like price in my ad cost into the >> That's very smart.

And I just want to say really quickly cuz I know I'm going to get a million messages. If anybody I'll just comment ads down below and I'll send you the link to the training so you can set up your Facebook ad. That just getting that out there right now. Comment ads. but question.

So, you have these people paying for large packages. Are are they paying you all of that money up front? Like the guy that bought six $250 ads? Or do you have a contract? How does that >> Yeah, that's a good question.

So, I definitely had some hesitation that they just didn't quite have that kind of money on hand and they wanted to pay month to month. So, I'm going to kind of feel it out, but I did put together a contract. Um and then I set up a subscription in Stripe for them. And I made sure like in Stripe it will just automatically take it out. There is no like invoice and pay when you can.

Like it'll just pull the money. And so, I do have a spreadsheet that I will track everything and that way I don't, you know, lose track of the payments or anything like that. So, um we'll see how it goes. I don't know if I might do something more like three payments minimum. but I did also tell them like, "Hey, we might not get this postcard out exactly every month.

It might be like 6 weeks, but you're still are going to pay month to month." You know? >> Well, that's very smart to do the subscription. That way I mean, you're not chasing money every single month. That's very good.

>> Yes. Don't do that. >> Definitely. Um so so you have a Have you already tested that? Like were they okay signing it and everything?

>> Yep. Both of them have signed it. They were fine doing that. Um no problem. And I think honestly I can't remember.

I just I think I took your contract that you had and then plugged it into chat GTP and just kind of because like now chat GTP knows how I'm running my business. And like so then I said like clean it up and like add in the little nuts and bolts that I need for the way that I'm running things. And like I got a great contract out of it. >> That's yeah. I mean, for anybody that's not using AI, start using it now just so that it knows you because my Claude my Claude knows me better than my parents know me or my fiance.

Probably both combined. Um and it's very helpful now because when I ask it a question, I don't have to give so much context. It already knows why I'm asking the question and all the context around my life the reason I'm asking that question. So get into AI. >> Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. >> So I love that you have, you know, leads coming inbound now really for really cheap. They're already pre-qualified. They literally said, "Yes, I'm interested." Even though I saw that it might be $550.

So that's a really good lead for the most part. Um and then you have these automations built on the back end after after they actually purchase from you. So after you fulfilled the postcard, you have the automations. Do you have any automations set up for like when they come in as a lead or when you first reached out to them? >> Yep.

Yep. So I have like a pipeline built out. You know, it'll say new lead and then contacted, follow up needed. Um Um, then like they're interested, they've committed, and then they've paid. Once they pay, then um, I have an internal note for me to like make sure I tag them the way that I need to tag them.

But once I move them into paid, then they drop into a new pipeline, and that's my production And so then I have like um, received brand or yeah, received like branding assets, ad created, ad And um, then you know, internal notes to create the virtual card. Um, and then I get it delivered, and once I put them into the delivered bucket, then they automatically go into the post advertising pipeline. And then that's where I have my follow-up to like see how things are going for them throughout the process. >> Amazing. You're going to kill You're going to kill it.

Obviously, you have a little bit of business experience, and you've sold out cards, but it obviously didn't start out that way. Started out reaching out to businesses. You didn't have all these fancy automations, but you just slowly built into it. But So, you're using GoHighLevel. Um, that's I assume that's what you'd recommend to people if they want to start setting up all those automations, right?

>> Yeah, you know, so like I used GoHighLevel for my real estate business, but I hadn't used the CRM or like built in the pipelines and workflows, and I even was like uh, I'm a little overwhelmed by this. But, I just went into ChatGPT, and I'm like, I need to build this. It literally just walked me through step by step. >> Yeah, that's the best part. Yeah.

>> So, it was it was easy. I got that all done pretty quickly, and >> Beautiful. So, how did I want to go back to the the social media marketing How are you having the conversation with them up front? Did you Did you reach out to them? Did they reach out to you?

Are you asking like Are you negotiating commissions right now? How's the conversation going? >> Okay. Yeah, so actually how that came about and this is part of everything is my strategy for the 9 by 12 has been my personal sphere. I have a really great neighborhood Facebook group that I posted in about this and I got like maybe four or five advertisers on it from there.

And then the door-to-door and then I joined a networking group which I had this morning right before this call and I closed a client right there and I have another guy that wants to get on that Wait, what was your question? >> Um like what's the conversation look like with the social media marketing agency that you're partnering up with to do a lot of fulfillment? >> Okay, so yeah, so how that actually happened was from my networking group. Our leader in our networking group was like I need to get you talking with this guy, you know, I think there could be something there. And we started talking and I was I didn't really know what how it would go in all honesty.

we just really hit it off and I really like you know, he's all about integrity and and his work ethic and stuff and I was like okay, my clients would be in good hands with him. So but I would just say in all honesty just you know, reach out to some agencies in your area and just say hey, like this is what I'm doing and I think there could be a collaboration here because So for anyone that's watching this and you don't do social media, you don't do marketing or whatever, but you could just go partner with an agency and then same thing just say like, you know, I would just like to make a commission off of people that I bring you. Or just work out who do you have in your Rolodex that could also benefit and you can give them back a commission split too, you know. Um so I think that that's a great way to do >> Yeah, I mean anything to not have to say no to a business because if a business went on your card, they trust you now. You got through the hardest part was getting them to trust you.

And they ask you, "Hey, do you build websites?" You don't want to say no to that. You want to either know know how to build a website or know somebody who can be really good with them and can build a website for them. But you're the one that put in the work to get the customer, so you should get a little bit of kickback. And so it's it's all about having a good relationship over there that can do that.

>> Yeah, and I do actually really recommend like going that route for anyone that doesn't have those skills because you're going to get like I have someone on my first postcard. Her website is awful. Like it is really bad. And so um, I've tried reaching out to her. I don't know if she's on vacation or not cuz she was really good about getting back to me.

But I really want to like sell her a website. Like she needs it because once people have scanned her QR code and they're going this crummy website and you can't find what you're looking for, you know, like so it's all about just upselling your people saying like I I want this to work the best that it can work for you. And in order for it to work the best, you need to make sure that you have like your things in the back end like that they're there. You know what I mean? Um, and so it's just offering those services as well.

>> Yeah. So do you have a plan like a strict plan for that? Like obviously you don't want to turn into like just a a laundry list or a menu of services. But also you don't want them to think that you're just selling them left and right. Hey, do you want this and you want also want this?

So do you have like a plan or you just going to go with the flow and you feel like they need something? >> No, okay. Well, that's a good question. One, I am putting together a package. It's going to be like called like I can't remember what we were going to call it.

It's not something like a growth starter kit or something like that. And so basically it would be like if they need a website that would be probably like outside of it, but otherwise it would be reputation management, Google optimization, SEO ads, and a monthly email newsletter to send out to their sphere. So we'll have but we probably need to set up like two packages, one for home services and one for a brick and mortar cuz it could be a little bit different um and their needs. But so yeah, we're going to put together these packages. We haven't finalized it yet, but yes, I was thinking with some of these I might Actually what I'm going to add now that I think about it, in my drip campaign for my post follow-up after the the postcard's been delivered, I'm going to add in there an email saying I will give you a free 30-minute assessment of your business marketing.

And then me and Jason, is his um we'll just hop on a call with them and go through and see like, "Hey, here's where we're like finding the holes in your marketing and where we could come in and like make that your like your efforts in this postcard even You know. >> That's perfect. >> And you're you're leading with contribution because it's just a free consultation. If you make it really clear to them like that no matter what even if they don't like buy any other services from you, they're going to learn something or bring something out of this meeting that they can, you know, implement in their business themselves at least to improve their business. So it's like a no-brainer for them.

Just 30 >> Yeah. And so yeah, there's some people I have taken the time to like look through um their branding and, you know, their website and whatnot. Um and so maybe I'll after sending that if they haven't taken a call, maybe then I'll reach out to them and say, "Hey, like I took a look through and like I don't know, give them some advice, a tip, just say like, "This is what I'm Let me know if you wanted to do that call or not." You know. >> I think that's a great That's a great place to start.

I mean >> Yeah. Then then you're not just like selling everybody left and right. You're just identifying who's actually interested in really taking things to the next level. And then once you know who's actually interested, then you can dive into their Take the time to dive into their business and actually prescribe something that makes sense. a lot of people watching this might be brand new.

It might be their first video. They just found out about the 9 by 12 method and community cards. If you have 30 seconds, everything else just got erased. You have 30 seconds to tell them what they should do next. What would you say?

>> Um well, I would say yeah, sign up. Um take the time to like get your logistics in place. Like get a flyer done. Get the uh postcard mock-ups, you know. Um and and just start.

I don't know. Um I mean, make the posts in the Facebook groups. Um like I said, even just like on your own personal one, you know, you're coming coming from a place of I'm doing something to help you. Um it's not about like selling them something that they don't need. It's really about like giving people an I don't know.

You know, I was lucky I had the time to like really invest in this and go hard right away. I understand not everyone has that, but it's just like it's just making the phone calls. It's sometimes like getting over those that mindset of not wanting to do something. But once you get going, it gets to be fun in all honesty. Like I really enjoy getting out and meeting new business owners and building those connections.

Um and so Yeah, I don't know. >> Yeah, I mean if there's one common theme that every successful person I've interviewed on my channel so far has answered that question at the end, it is just start. It's relatively casual. >> Yeah, it is. And like I said, with this business like you you're not going to lose a bunch of money.

You have everything that you need to get started. Um it's really just your time that you're investing into it. Um and it's the mindset, too. Like I even struggle sometimes with the mindset like, "Are people going to renew? Like what is this going to look like, you know, a few cards down?"

Um and so you just kind of like got to keep your mind right on it, too. And just believe in it. And as far as if you're just treating people with good like with good business, they're going to come back to work with you again, you know? Um So Yeah. >> Well, it's been an absolute pleasure.

It's been a masterclass, honestly. And I'm sure people are flooding the comments with ads so they can get the Facebook ads tutorial. Um hopefully there's not too many Facebook ads floating around around Lincoln, Nebraska, but I'm >> I know. I know. If anyone from Lincoln is on here, like get out of here.

>> Well, luckily luckily you're on our local spot light so people will see that you're in that location and they won't want to compete with you. So you've got your location claimed. You're good. But it's it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on spreading this wisdom.

I'm sure people will be very appreciative of it. >> All right. Well, thank you for having >> Thank you. Wow, now that was a masterclass, wasn't it? I told you it would be.

Now if you're interested in joining the community that she was talking about with all the resources, the step-by-step tutorial, the templates, the AI ad design generator that's free for our community members, and the ability to post and ask questions whenever you want, you can even see all of Emily's posts in there, then the link to join that community is in the description of this video. And again, if you want the exact breakdown on how to set up those Facebook ads, just comment ads down below and I'll send you the link. In the meantime, comment any questions you might have. I'm happy to answer them and I'll see you on the next one. Love you.

Peace.