Jessica Nazarali: I sure am, John.

John Lee Dumas: Yes! Jessica is a business strategist and Certified Master Coach, founder of It Girl Academy and Foundation. She travels the world, coaching women on how to create sustainable, successful, and inspiring online businesses. She leads from her own personal experience since carving out her own online business in 2011 and generating 60K+ months consistently.

Jessica, take a minute, fill in some gaps from that intro, and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

Jessica Nazarali: So, I’m Australian, if you can’t tell by my accent, and for the past 18 months, my husband and I have been location-independent and traveling the world. So, it’s been such a joy and such a pleasure to be able to do that through creating an online business.

John Lee Dumas: So, within that, Jessica, let’s talk about what you consider your area of expertise. Break that down for us.

Jessica Nazarali: So, I work with entrepreneurs who desire to create consistent monthly income, and I help them to do this using the evergreen model for enrolling consistent clients and customers into their business. So, instead of having to do big, stressful launches, I show people how you can be, on a day-to-day basis, enrolling customers and clients into your program.

And it’s something I’m so passionate about. I went through kind of a big roller coaster. I did my first public launch, and I went, “Wow! Is there a different way of running a business that will really work for me?” And so, now, I’m just so passionate about helping other entrepreneurs to have that freedom of not having to do launches if that’s not something that they want to do.

John Lee Dumas: So, let’s dive into this evergreen launch. What’s something that we don’t know about evergreen launches and just about evergreen in general that we should, as entrepreneurs?

Jessica Nazarali: Having that monthly consistent cash flow really is a game changer. You see on some people who are launching – and it’s like there’s so much up-front costs, and it’s such a roller-coaster ride, and there’s so much riding on this launch going well – and then there’s all those thoughts like, “What do we do if it doesn’t go well? What if we don’t hit our numbers? We just have to wait another six months before we launch?” because it’s not like you can do another big public launch right away.

So, the pro is, obviously, having that consistent monthly income, but I would say what a lot of people don’t know about the evergreen model is that you really need to like the numbers, and you really need to be okay with basically going in daily and tweaking small little things. You have to be good with A/B testing and enjoy that. I think if you don’t, you either need to hire somebody who does, or you need to become good at it because I think it’s a lot more technical than doing a big public launch because, obviously, launching, you still need to be managing your numbers and looking at it.

John Lee Dumas: So, let me break in here for a second. So, evergreen launches, what’s a tip or a tool or a tactic that you’ve seen used successfully, recently, in evergreen launches that would be helpful for us?

Jessica Nazarali: Making sure that there’s scarcity in your funnel. So, you need to make sure that there is a reason for somebody to take action now. And just because –

John Lee Dumas: Give me an example of that. What’s an example of a reason someone should take action? Give me a real-life example of urgency in an evergreen funnel.

Jessica Nazarali: So, it could be that the price is increasing, a bonus is expiring. They’re the two that I’ve found have worked the best. You want it to be real as well, so after each person in the funnel, like at a certain point, that that bonus is gonna go away, and if they email and say, “Oh, I missed it. Can I still get it?” I think being really authentic and saying, “Well, no, actually, it really has expired.” So, you have to be, I guess, strict in terms of the scarcity that you’re implementing. Otherwise, it can come across as a little bit like people can get it whenever. So, definitely being strict with whatever scarcity that you’re offering.

John Lee Dumas: Jessica, let’s go back into your journey as an entrepreneur. You are always having 60K+ months on a consistent basis. Take us to what you consider your worst entrepreneurial moment to date. Tell us that story.

Jessica Nazarali: This was a couple of years ago, and I was launching my first info product. I was really excited to be releasing a lower-cost product, and I was certain that my audience would love it because I had never offered something at that price point before, and it was giving so much value. And then, I launched the program, and what was really interesting about this is the sales weren’t coming in as high, as many as I thought.

And so, I’m looking at the sales page, I’m looking at the email funnels, and I was sending this to colleagues and friends and asking, “Can you see something wrong with this? Why aren’t as many people buying?” And nobody could give me a reason.

And, John, what actually happened is we weren’t emailing everyone that we were meant to be emailing. We were only emailing like a very small segment of my list, and we were meant to be emailing not the whole list but a majority of it. And so, what I really learned from this moment was I had somebody in there and actually scheduling the emails and I was like, “Wow, even though I don’t necessarily have to be going in there and pressing Send, I really need to be taking responsibility. At the end of the day, it’s my business. I need to make sure the correct list is being emailed.”

So, then we implemented a process that whenever we’re emailing anyone, it goes in a sheet. We will record who was emailed, how many people were on that list, so then we can very easily see if that number’s smaller, well, okay, something is off there. But it was a very humbling moment because I was there thinking, “Oh, it’s the product,” or, “The benefits aren’t clear.” But, no, we just weren’t emailing everyone we were meant to. So, it was a bit of a wakeup call.

John Lee Dumas: So, Fire Nation, there are just certain things about your business and your launch that, yes, you can delegate, but you still have to have eyes on because you have to be there confirming. You have to have those checks and balances. They have to be in place because, hey, we’re human, and we’re going to make mistakes. Just realize that if we’re covering each other, if we have that checks and balances in place, it’s gonna be a lot less likely that something like that could happen.

So, Jessica, that’s my big takeaway from your story, but what do you wanna make sure – just a couple sentences – that our listeners get from your story?

Jessica Nazarali: The No. 1 thing, in my opinion, is that, regardless of who you’re hiring, that it is your business at the end of the day, so you have to take responsibility for what’s going out, what’s not going out, and you need to set up systems and structures that enable you to be able to look at reports or be able to get an overview of your business, but you don’t necessarily have to be in there doing some of these day-to-day activities, but you still need to really, really be on top of it.

That was definitely my wakeup lesson when that happened. It was like, “Wow! Okay, I need to be much more on top of this.” But I’m grateful it happened then because now I am.

John Lee Dumas: So, Fire Nation, what I really want to move into next is a story that Jessica’s gonna tell us about her aha moment, a great idea that she had at some point, and how she turned that idea into success. So, Jessica, take us to that moment. Tell us that story.

Jessica Nazarali: This happened about two years ago. It was the end of 2014, and I’d just had an incredible year – I’d hit six figures in my business – but I was really burned out and exhausted because I was only working with one-on-one clients. I didn’t even have an e-book. And it seems silly to say now, but I didn’t know how to scale. I was like, “Okay, do I just increase my prices? What do I do?” And then, somebody said, “Why don’t you release a group program?” and I was like, “Wow! Yes, that’s a good idea.”

So, I released the group program, and this was my first big public launch, and I was fortunate that it was a six-figure launch, and I was really grateful and excited to work with the people in the program, but I got to the end of this launch, and I was like, “Wow, is this gonna be it? Is this my business model moving forward? Am I gonna launch – I don’t know – two, three, four times a year, doing big group programs and big launches? Is that gonna be my business model moving forward?” And I really checked in with myself, and it didn’t feel right to me.

And so, that’s when I started researching the evergreen model, and I looked at people like Mindvalley and Neil Patel who do it really well. And I went against what my mentors and colleagues were doing at the time. I was told, “You won’t make as much money if you do it that way. You can make more money from doing launches. It’s gonna be really difficult. You’re gonna have to get really up-close and personal with the technology. It’s a lot more technical than just doing a launch.” And so many people advised me against it, but I said, “No, this is what is really true for me, and I know that working with people in this way is what’s gonna be best for me and my business.”

So, I took the leap. I just started researching it on my own. I didn’t hire anyone to help me because, at the time, I didn’t know who to hire, and I just started slowly chipping away at it. And the big aha moment was really defying what other people were telling me I could or couldn’t do, and really listening to myself and saying, “No, this is right for me, and I at least need to try it so that I can make my own decision whether having this business model is gonna be right or not.”

John Lee Dumas: Fire Nation, so many people were telling Jessica, “You can’t do that. You’re not gonna make as much money. It’s more technical. It’s harder,” and for a lot of people, that would be red flags. It’d be like, “Oh, no, everybody’s saying I can’t or shouldn’t do that.”

The same thing was happening to me when I was coming up with idea back in 2012, “I want to launch a daily podcast, interviewing entrepreneurs.” The top podcaster in the industry said, “Bad idea, John,” and I said “Wow, that’s exciting. If the best people in the industry are telling me that this is a bad idea because it can’t be done, because it’s too much work, and all these other reasons, and I can do it, and I can do it successfully, there’s a huge opportunity.”

And Jessica saw it. I saw it. Other people have seen that opportunity, Fire Nation. So, again, it’s great to learn from those who have been there and done that, but don’t take everything that people say just for law. It’s not. Test it. Know yourself. Jessica works well in this evergreen model. She likes the numbers. She likes checking and testing and tweaking and adjusting, and maybe you do, too. Or maybe you like something completely different than what we’re talking about and that a lot of people would think is crazy, but it’s not because you will thrive in it if it’s something that fires you up.

So, Jessica, I do want to move forward into today because you have a lot of cool things going on. Again, a couple 60K+ months on an evergreen model is pretty exciting, so what are you most fired up about today?

Jessica Nazarali: Well, I’m really excited about my new coaching certification program, which is launching in the beginning of 2017. I think that’s gonna be so much fun and just different to what’s in the market because not only are we teaching coaching skills in this program, we’re also teaching how to teach, mentor, and consult. So, it’s not a traditional coaching program. It really is for men and women who already have skills that they’ve used in the workplace that they want to transition into their own business, and now it’s just really about helping them to learn what skills to pull on and how to package and position themselves. So, I’m super excited for that.

And, personally, I’m actually pregnant, so I’m excited to have a baby next year.

John Lee Dumas: Well, that’s a lot of things to be excited about, and I’m sure your baby will enjoy the fact that you are an evergreen mother, meaning that you’re just making money while you’re taking care of your little baby, so great stuff.

And, Fire Nation, we’re gonna take care of you in the Lightning Round, so don’t go anywhere, but first we’re gonna thank our sponsors.

Jessica, are you prepared for the Lightning Round?

Jessica Nazarali: I am, John. I certainly am.

John Lee Dumas: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Jessica Nazarali: What was holding me back was I was really worried about what people would think. I didn’t have that many friends or family members who were entrepreneurs, so I was just caught up in thinking they’ll judge me or that they wouldn’t understand. And I didn’t really have that experience, to be honest. I think, sometimes, we can come up with – what we think is gonna happen actually doesn’t, or the reality is much kinder. So, that is what was holding me back in the beginning, though.

John Lee Dumas: What’s the best advice you have ever received?

Jessica Nazarali: Your life and business is a marathon, not a sprint.

John Lee Dumas: What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success?

Jessica Nazarali: Being very clear in my goals, and visualizing them daily, and seeing them come to life.

John Lee Dumas: Can you share an Internet resource, like Evernote, with Fire Nation?

Jessica Nazarali: This is one I’ve just found, and it’s so cool. It’s called Blinkist, and it’s an app that distills the key concepts of a book in 15-, 20-minute chunks, and there’s an audio version and a text version, and it’s really, really cool.

John Lee Dumas: Can you recommend one book for our listeners and then expound upon why?

Jessica Nazarali: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and the reason being all humans, and especially entrepreneurs, we need to be creative, and this really helps you to harness creativity and use it to your advantage in your business and life.

John Lee Dumas: Was she the author of Eat, Pray, Love?

Jessica Nazarali: She was, yes. I read it because I loved that book, and then I read Big Magic, and I was like, “Wow, it’s a completely different take and theme than Eat, Pray, Love,” but it’s so applicable, especially for entrepreneurs.

John Lee Dumas: Well, Jessica, this is the last question of the Lightning Round, but it is a doozy. Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning in a brand-new world identical to Earth, but you knew no one. You still have all the experience and knowledge you currently have. Your food and shelter is taken care of, but all you have is a laptop and $500.00. What would you do in the next seven days?

Jessica Nazarali: Great question. I would focus on creating valuable content, I would create a webinar, I would buy an email marketing platform, and I would drive traffic with the rest of the money left over with Facebook ads. And then, I would pitch something on the webinar; win something or a group program – a group program, if I could create one in a week. But, yeah, that’s what I’d do.

John Lee Dumas: Love that system. Well, Jessica, let’s end today on fire with a parting piece of guidance, the best way that we can connect with you, and then we’ll say goodbye.

Jessica Nazarali: Parting advice is to focus on creating high-value content your audience and customers and clients really will follow when you just focus on being of service and creating value to give to your people.

If anyone wants to connect with me further, you can go to JessicaNazarali.com, and at JessicaNazarali.com/Webinar, you can receive a training on the evergreen model and discover how it could potentially work for you and your business.

John Lee Dumas: Wow! Fire Nation, you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You’ve been hanging out with JN and JLD today, so keep up the heat and head over to EOFire.com. Just type “Jessica” in the search bar. Her Show Notes page will pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today. These are the best show notes in the biz – timestamps, links galore. And, of course, head over to JessicaNazarali.com/Webinar to learn a lot about what Jessica’s been talking about today. Great, great resource.

And, Jessica, I want to thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we’ll catch you on the flipside.

Jessica Nazarali: Thanks, John. It’s been such a pleasure.