Wendy McCallum (01:42)
Hello there. Welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I'm your host, Wendy McCallum. Today we're going to talk about a mindset for small business that I think is just a complete game changer for coaches. This has been my mindset for the last 15 years in business and it has served me so well. And when I explain it to new coaches in my business coaching programs, they are always so relieved.
to know that this is an option for them. And when they start practicing it, it opens up all of these cool possibilities for them. And so I wanted to share this with you today. This is the idea that everything is a beta and that your business is an experiment. It's so common because I think humans just generally seek certainty for us to want to know exactly how our business is gonna go.
and what our niche is and who we're going to work with and how much we're going to charge and what programs we're going to offer right from the get-go. But the truth is no good business owner approaches it that way. People who are the most successful are also the people who are the most flexible with their business, who are the most responsive. And those people generally are embracing the idea that their business is a living thing. It is going to change as they learn.
and it is going to get better as they gather more information and data. And this is all based on this idea of what we call experiment mode in your business, which means that you're approaching it as though you don't actually know yet what's going to work and what's not going to work, but you're willing to get out there and test things and gather data and information and learn from that and then make the next decision.
using whatever information and data you have learned from the last decision. And I know that this might seem really basic, but honestly, it is just a complete game changer for people to start thinking about business this way. And it has been just such a big piece, I think, of my success over the years is that I've been able to do this and do this well. So what does this idea of like everything is a beta mean? So a beta is...
the first time you do something really. So a beta is the first iteration of something. It's like a practice run for lack of a better word. If you start thinking of every new thing you do for the first time as a practice round, as having the purpose of the thing being to like do it as best as you can, but also learn from that.
Knowing that because it's a practice round, because it's the first time you've done that thing, whether it is be on a podcast, host your first episode of your own podcast, create an offer, coach somebody one-on-one on a topic you've never coached them on. If you're thinking about it as a beta, then that means that you're not going to get it completely right. The goal isn't even to get it perfectly right.
The goal is to do your best with it and learn from it so that you can make it better the next time around, right? So that's really this idea of everything is a beta. And what it does is it helps you shift from perfectionism, which as a coach, by now you're well aware of how perfectionism keeps us paralyzed and out of growth and progress and into experimentation. So I want you to drop the perfectionism attitude that you might have around your business.
and move into and embrace this idea of experimentation in your business. This is going to allow you to create the best, most resonant, most fulfilling business model for you. Because what I know for sure is that you don't know yet what that is. I don't even know what that is. And I've been doing this for 15 years. I am continually changing my business model.
in response to what I learn from my clients and from my audience in terms of what they want. And also from what I learn from my own experience coaching and running these programs, what I like, what I don't like, and what resonates the most with me. And also what's successful, what leads to profit, what is most attractive to people. So I'm taking all of that data all the time in my business and I'm using it to change things as I go.
So let's talk about why this is just so helpful as an attitude. And we'll start with, you know, this, it's just such an obvious thing, but we still all do it. We still call ourselves perfectionists. We still sit on the thing forever and ever and ever fine tuning it and fine tuning it and fine tuning it because we are afraid that it is not yet perfect. And that is this idea that perfectionism,
kills progress. If it kills your progress guys, it kills your sales, which means it kills your profits. Perfectionism is the enemy of entrepreneurs. It is the thing that will sink you the fastest. So I am really going to encourage you to ditch it and to start thinking of everything as an experiment going forward. If you're waiting to create the perfect offer or to, you know, nail your perfect niche or to complete the perfect website landing page,
then you are just slowing yourself down and delaying revenue. You're delaying profit. I really want you to, instead of thinking of perfectionism as the goal, start thinking about the goal as being good enough. Is this good enough to launch as a beta? Is this a good enough thing to put out into the world and see what I learned from doing that so that I can then...
make it better, but make it better in a responsive way, make it better in a meaningful way, instead of just guessing at what might make it better. So perfectionism kills your progress, it slows you down and it delays your revenue. For that reason alone, it is worth embracing this idea of a beta mindset or an experiment mindset. I want you to start thinking of everything that you do as a beta. Like I said, every time you do something for the first time,
This is a beta. My BBB coaches are constantly, constantly using this phrase. They love it. It's a beta. Everything's a beta. It just takes the pressure off too, because it feels like, you know, if you're treating it as a beta, it doesn't need to be perfect. In fact, that's not even the goal the first time around. And it will make it far less likely that you delay on the doing, on taking action in relation to that thing.
I love to use beta offers as a way to get clients faster. So I'm constantly, creative wheels are always turning. I'm always thinking of new program ideas or new offers that might serve my client base, my audience. And I love to use a beta offer as a way to test it. And I am constantly doing that. I will throw out new things. Now I think there's such a thing as like,
too many offers and over saturating and confusing your audience. So I'm not suggesting that you throw it every idea that you have. But when I have something that feels good and I know it's good if I keep coming back to it, I will first throw it out, you know, and test the idea, the viability of the idea with my existing audience. I will ask my audience or my existing client base what they think of this idea. Is this something that would be of interest to you? And if not, how could I tweak it so that it would be? And then...
I'm pretty shortly after that, I'm going to test it, I'm going to offer it, and I'm to see what happens. And I sometimes do this on the fly. I will, and this will include like pricing it on the fly sometimes, which is not always a good idea, but once you get a little more established, it's easier to do that, to figure out what a good value price might be for something and offer it. I have been on discovery calls with clients before and realized that what I have to offer them is actually not the right fit. And if I just combined
this offer with that offer, that might actually be exactly what they need to get unstuck and move forward. And I will combine those offers on the discovery call and offer it to them as a beta with a price. that allows me to get a client that I might not have otherwise gotten because I have created a beta offer on the fly that is actually something that's going to serve them and is attractive to them and feels valuable to them.
The other thing you can do is, and this is why it's a faster way to make money, is that you can create your offer on the fly. So you come up with the idea, and I am famous for this, and I absolutely love this. Like I would say to my coaches in the BBB, you just need to sell one ticket to something, and that will light a fire under your ass, and you will get the thing done. So if you're somebody who stalls on content creation, or who has lots of great ideas, but doesn't take action on them, get out there and sell it.
Create a beta offer, come up with the price and get out there and sell it, sell it to one person and that is gonna lead to you creating the offer. Now, I like to create the offers as I am, basically as I'm selling them and let me give you an example to make this a little clearer. I like to, for example, and I've just done this with a new program that I'm working on right now that is in a beta. The beta starts in a couple of weeks as of the recording of this episode. In that,
program, which is a coaching skills intensive designed to help coaches build their confidence around their, their real life, real time coaching skills. That program came to me because I had a member of my BBB community come to me and say, this isn't something that you have ever covered in anything that I'm aware of. It's not part of the BBB, which is really focused on business, but I really would love some support from you around how to actually coach and
In that moment, I thought this is such a great idea. It led to the creation for me. started thinking about this in my mind. Why am I not teaching this as a separate program? This would be such a great intensive to offer. And she said, I'm in, if you, if you create this, I'm in. So I already had one person who I knew was in and I put together a beta offer and started talking about it first within my existing BBB community, because I wanted to offer them for spots. I immediately had three more people say, I'm in.
Now I'm creating it, right? Because I've got the momentum there and I've got people already committed to this program. I know that it is a viable idea. People like the idea of it. However, I'm going to create the content as I teach it. As I go through the program with them, I will be creating the content that will then become the evergreen content, the content that lives inside the online portion of this program.
I'm gonna teach it live and record it and then that recording is gonna get edited and it's gonna become the lesson that is then a prerecorded lesson for the next iteration of this program. So for the next cohort that goes through this program, they will have a prerecorded video. Those people who are going through it for the first time in the beta are going to it taught live to them.
and recorded. that's another reason I love betas because you can just go with them and record the content as you go. That's an option. For newer coaches, you may not feel comfortable with that, but as somebody who has done a lot of coaching, group coaching and presenting, I feel really confident and comfortable doing that. And I think it's going to be a really great way to get this content done and up. But if I hadn't offered it as a beta and if I hadn't had some people say, yes, we're in, I would not have
taken the next steps, which were to start trying to fill a full cohort of this as a beta and actually getting the content all organized and then getting out there and actually teaching it and recording it. I also think that betas are a really great way to test your niche instead of overthinking your niche. We can get really bogged down in who is this program actually for? Let me give you an example. I have a program called Change Your Fucking Life, CYFL, I call it.
And it is a really phenomenal program that is focused on helping women who are standing on the brink of a huge decision to move out of a place of anxiety and paralysis around that decision and into a place of empowered, confident action. So in the course of this eight week program, there are all kinds of different coaching exercises that I take them through that help them to get real clarity around this decision and real confidence in what needs to happen next. And also helps them to do some work around reducing
uncertainty in it and gathering more information so that they feel really empowered in that decision. I knew this was a great idea for program because I had been coaching privately in this area and using all of these exercises in my one-on-one coaching practice for years and years. I wanted to create a group program for it. I didn't know exactly who it was for though. I didn't have a niche. I knew it was for women. I knew it was for women on the brink of a big change, but I thought to myself, geez, this could apply for women who are
you know, facing a big career transition. This could apply to a niche of women who were considering retirement. This could apply to working mothers who were at the edge or right at the beginning of empty nesting. This could apply to women who are considering leaving long-term relationships. So there were all kinds of different niches available to me with that program. What I did was test the program without a specific niche. I just tested it as a life coaching program. I had a bunch of women join the program.
I went through it, it was such a fun experience, they got so much out of it. And in the course of that, I started to realize what the better niche might be for this program in terms of marketing it going forward. I got lots of information from the conversations that I had with those women about the types of the decisions that they were facing. And that is gonna help me market this program in the future. And I actually have some plans to take this program and sell it in a very niche way to some very specific.
audiences, much more specific than the audience that the beta was marketed to. then you can test your niche, right, as a beta. So the next time I run this program as a niche program, if I run it to women who are considering leaving their long-term partners, for example, I will treat that as a beta and I will test it in that niche and I will develop marketing copy and language and a way of running, hosting and coaching this program.
that serves that niche and I will learn from that. So it allows you to test your niche instead of overthinking it. You can throw it out there first with a broader niche and learn from the participants in the program what are the problems that they're actually facing and what is the language that they're using describe how they're feeling and how can I use that the next time I run this program to narrow the niche and market in a more specific way, for example. It's also a great way to approach pricing.
When I run a program or an offer for the first time, I always make it very, very clear that it's beta pricing and it's one time only. Generally speaking, the messaging is this pricing is going to go up. I don't always say how much it's going to go up by. I usually try with my beta as a rule of thumb to discount the pricing by about 40 to 50%. So I usually know that the price is probably going to about double when I run it into the fully priced regular.
version of the program the next time around. So I will say that around the pricing that this beta pricing is significantly reduced pricing, or this is about 50 % less than what this program is going to cost when it runs in its next iteration. And I do that because I want to entice people to join me in the beta. And I also, you know, want to leave space, obviously, to change my pricing going forward. But your pricing is also beta the first time you offer it. And as long as you're clear about that,
You can change it. I mean, you can change it anyway, to be clear. You can always change your pricing, but I think it feels better to do that if you've been really clear with people that the beta pricing is just the beta pricing and it's not going to stay that way. So it's a great way to test pricing, you know, and you can then when you increase your price, that's a beta. Then that first time that you offered at that price is a beta. How do people respond to that? Do you have people signing up for it easily? Is there resistance to the price? And then you get to gather that
information and data and use that going forward to tweak your prices even further. Maybe your prices are too low, maybe your prices are a little bit on the high side, you can change that going forward.
The other thing I love about betas is that you can sell before you create the program, as I mentioned earlier, like this is actually such a great way to create programs and to just get out there and sell something.
before you have it done. And I do this all the time. I sell spots to programs that I believe in without having the programs completed. Now, what I will often do with my betas is I will have a couple of weeks of content already done and dusted. And that will be uploaded into the online, if it's an online program and there's a course component to it, it'll be uploaded there and ready to go so that I'm always staying a couple of weeks ahead with the content, but I am creating the content as I run the beta.
Sometimes I'll do what I was talking about earlier, which is that I'll actually record the content live. So I won't have any prerecorded content. I'll just teach it live, record it, and then that will become the prerecorded content for the next iteration of the course after the beta. But I love the idea of selling before you create because this helps you to validate demand too. I know at this point in time with this course that I'm working on right now, this Coaching, Confident Coaching Skills Intensive, that there is a demand for that.
There is an interest in that. I have been hearing that from the coaches that I work with, but also it was validated when I said to my small group, hey, I'm thinking about doing this thing. Would you be into that? And I had four people right out of the gate say, that sounds great. I'm in, right? So it gives you the opportunity to validate. And then most importantly, I think you get to create a responsive program. This is what I love the most about Beta.
is that if you don't create your whole program right away before the program starts, which is something that I actually advocate when it comes to content creation, never think that you've got the program nailed before you run it, because you don't. And that's a bad idea. It's going to limit the program. It's going to make the program not as good if you try to have it all sorted and dusted before the program starts, before the beta starts. The beta is about figuring out
what works, doesn't work, what you need more of, what you need less of, what you need to tweak, what you need to add, all of those things. So you wanna go into the beta thinking, I don't know how this is gonna go and I can't wait to find out what these people want and what works for them and I'm going to be responsive in my content. I'm gonna ask them for feedback and I'm going to respond by creating content that is in alignment with what they want and need in this program and what is most helpful to them.
That's how you create really great programs. And I have always done it that way. Take the BBB, for example, it started almost three years ago. When it started, we had a content library. had included in the online content library, what I would call the core modules, the things that I knew coaches needed to know when they were launching and building their businesses. So there were things that I was very clear on as being valuable and essential as a result of doing the one-on-one
support that I had been doing at that point for a couple of years with coaches who were trying to launch businesses. So I'd been supporting coaches in a private way for a long time and I had learned a lot from that as to what they needed to know. So I created a set of tools around that and videos and lessons. But I also knew that in the course of running the coaching program, I was going to learn a lot more.
about what was gonna be helpful in this program. And I actually promised my beta group in exchange for their feedback that I would create new lessons to fill in the gaps. So where they saw a gap in the BBB, I asked them to let me know. And I then created a module with the right lessons, templates, checklists, cheat sheets, all the rest of it to go with that gap. So the BBB library over the course of the first six months that I was running betas and I actually ran three levels of beta, because you don't necessarily just do one beta. Sometimes I'll do...
couple of iterations. With the BBDB, I did beta one, beta two, beta three, because things were changing in that course as I figured out what was working and wasn't working and what people needed. So the library of online content doubled at least in the first six months. I added lots and lots of content in response to those areas that coaches were really looking for support around. Turned out that they actually wanted to know
how to group coach better and how to organize groups better. They wanted skills around time management in groups. They wanted to know what the best way was to set expectations around for your group members around how coaching calls were gonna go, those types of things. So I created a module around group coaching. They wanted to know how to start a podcast, which wasn't something that I had originally intended to include in the BBB, but I had at that point already started two podcasts and I thought,
Of course I can do this. So I shared my knowledge and all of my resources, templates, cheat sheets and processes with them in a podcast unit. So this is how betas help you to create the best version of the product. I now have in the BBB just something that I feel so confident in. And the reason I feel so confident in the BBB is because I'm consistently soliciting feedback from my members and I'm...
constantly fine tuning and tweaking the programming. So if we try something in there and it doesn't really catch on, it's not really something that people seem interested in, I get feedback on that and I'll try something different. And over the last three years, we have tried a lot of different things in there, but the things that really work have all stayed and stuck, which is why we have office hours every week. It's why we have a masterclass every month, because people love the masterclasses. That's why I continue to do the copy classes. People love the copy classes.
We've tried, you know, we've tried book club in there and we still do book club sometimes, but we've tried some other things that we haven't kept in the model. It's a beta. It's still a beta in my mind. I'm still tweaking and fine tuning that programming. And that's the way I treat all the programs that I do, whether they're one-on-one offers or they're group coach programs. So I love that because the beta mindset allows you to stay responsive.
It keeps you curious. It keeps you engaged with your audience. And what that does is allow you to create programming and offers that you are incredibly confident in. You know the value is there. What does that do? It makes it so much easier to sell it because you're never second guessing yourself because you have asked and gotten straight from the horse's mouth what these people want and need more of and you have included that in the program and
they have said to you, this is amazing, the value's there, thank you for being responsive and creating this. So I love that part of the beta mindset. You can also test your marketing when you're in beta mode. You can look at the first time you launch something, you think of it as a beta launch. So this is my beta launch, I'm experimenting with what the best way is to launch and sell this thing. I'm gonna learn something from it this time around.
I'm gonna change some things. I'm not gonna nail it. There are gonna be some things that work and some things that don't work as well. And I'm going to tweak my marketing approach the next time I offer this based on what I learned this time around. Or as I like to encourage my coaches to do, I'm going to start with a smaller launch plan and the next time around, I'm going to add more things to it so that I don't overwhelm myself the first time around with this. So.
You can test like sales calls. can test different ways of selling the thing. So in the early days of the BBB, for example, I did a very different style of open house than what I do now. And then at some point I started testing the idea of what if I just invite people who are interested in the BBB to come into a live office hours call and see for themselves what it's like and how it works and get a sense of the vibe of the community and how I am as a coach to see whether it's a good fit for them.
And that worked really, really well. And then eventually I thought, okay, well, why don't I do an organized time every couple of months where anybody can come into an open office hours call. And so that in itself was a beta marketing strategy. And I'm still tweaking that. I'm still doing things, you know, and then I thought, well, what if I start offering a really juicy bonus every time there's an open house and there's something, you know, some kind of a value add for people who sign up immediately after that open house. How does that work for me?
It's all a beta is the point. Hopefully you're starting to get this. You get to change your content. You get to tweak your copy. We pay attention to which newsletters get the most clicks, which copy gets the most interest. At what point in time are people registering for the program or the offer? And is that connected to something that's happening on social media or?
you know, maybe a live event that we run. We look at conversion rates on different pieces of copy and marketing, and we tweak accordingly the next time around. Again, you don't know exactly what people need and want. And if you fall into the trap of thinking that you do, you are in the opposite of beta mindset.
you're probably in that perfectionist mindset where you're trying to get it all perfect right away the first time around, and you are going to miss a lot. You're gonna miss a lot of really valuable learning and you're going to create a program that is not nearly as good as it could be if you were embracing the beta mindset. The other thing that you can do is you can beta test the model through which you offer the programming. So, and I do this,
with most of the offers that I have. So for example, that CYFL program that I was talking about earlier on, the first time I tested that model, I tested it as a group, small group coach program. So there were live coaching sessions that went along with it. I learned a lot from that. What I realized was that there was a great deal of value in the actual content of that online program. And while those coach sessions were great, this was also a model that might work really well with one-on-one clients.
And so I created a new beta where I started to test selling people the online program accompanied with four, originally I think it was four one-on-one sessions with me. And I've over time, again, through the beta mindset realized that maybe four sessions isn't enough and shifted that to six. So you can take a program or an offer and you can beta test different ways of delivering it as well and learn from that.
It also now is a program that people can work through on their own as like a self-guided, self-paced program with zero one-on-one support from me. So tested actually three different models on that. The other thing I've done is I've tested and beta'd my one-on-one offers. So, you know, I've been doing this for 15 years. The way that I...
package my sessions has changed many, times over the 15 years. I started with selling so many different things. I had a three month, a six month, a 12 month offer. I realized this is way too much. I'm just going to take it down and only sell 12 sessions because that feels like the right fit for the type of work that I'm doing with clients. As it sets people up for success, it's enough time for them to actually affect the transformation that they are looking to affect, change the habits that they're looking to change. Six sessions isn't enough. 12 sessions.
is perfect. It also was great for my business model because I was I was able to price for 12 sessions, which was a higher price tag, which meant I had to sell less. So that's where I started. But interestingly, a few years ago, I was at a point where I was very, very busy in my one on one coaching practice. And I was really focused on building a lot of cool
online programming, including the BBB and all the business coaching that I'm doing now. And I realized I didn't really want to do 12 session engagements anymore with clients. So I started beta testing six sessions to see what that would feel like and look like. And that's what I've been doing now for the last couple of years. But in recent months, I've been thinking, maybe with some of these offers, I should be going back to 12. So again, you can change these things. I am never in a place where I think I've got it nailed. This is the way that it's going to be forever.
I'm just paying attention to how it feels and how it's working. And if it's not working anymore, either for my clients or for me, then I'm gonna start experimenting with changing it up a little bit. I also think a real advantage of betas is that it's a great way to get testimonials. And those testimonials can become incredibly important when it comes to marketing the full-priced version of the thing. So in exchange for people participating in any of my beta programs, I always say, I'm going to be...
soliciting you for regular feedback. And I'm really going to encourage you to be honest and open with me. You can always give me feedback on any of the live calls, but I'm also going to be formally soliciting you for feedback with a couple of different forms or questionnaires during the course of the beta. So get ready for that. And in the course of that soliciting for feedback, I also ask for permission to use their words and feedback.
in future marketing. So it's just a really great way to gather testimonials in exchange for this really great beta price. You get a couple of things. First of all, you get the ability to help influence the content in this program because I'm going to, I'm committed to creating resonant responsive programming for you. So if there's something missing, you can let me know and you can be sure that I'm going to consider including that in the program. And secondly, you're getting a good.
obviously you're getting a good price for this program. So you're getting this price, the value of this program at a significantly discounted price. And in exchange for that, I'm gonna be asking for your feedback on the regular. So for all of those reasons, embracing this sort of always evolving experiment mindset in your business is going to be a game changer. So if you're not there yet, I want you to write on a Post-it note somewhere, everything is a beta.
and start thinking about everything you do from now on in your business for the first time as a beta, which means it's not meant to be perfect. It's meant to be a learning experience that allows you to create something better the next time. And I want you to pay attention to how different that feels as a business owner and also to how that impacts your business.
and the quality of the programming that you create and frankly the bottom line. So I hope that you found that helpful. I would love as always love to hear your thoughts on Beta Mindset. If you're practicing it, how's it working for you? If you're new to it, how did this land? you can always send me your comments and feedback by email or through any of my social media channels. Thank you for listening and I will see you next time on The Coaching Edge.
