My business plan = koalas
Before I had made any real money online, I read a book that said, “The people that are generous when they have a lot of money are the same people that were generous when they didn’t have any.”
That sentence pricked my heart. I decided immediately that I was going to figure out how to help people that needed help. Enchanted with the idea of Oprah “You-Get-A-Car” Giveaways, my brain locked onto the idea of delivering gifts to unsuspecting recipients.
But, I wanted the deliveries to be anonymous.
My plan?
Dress up like a koala to deliver the gifts.
(Yes, that is me in the koala suit.)
My plan after that?
No idea.
Now, I’m sure you have questions.
- Why a koala? Literally no clue.
- How was I going to get money or prizes to give away? Literally no clue.
- How was I going to find worthy recipients of gifts? Literally no clue.
- The most concerning question: was there anything about this that was a sustainable business model? Absolutely not.
But, did that stop me from ordering a $500 koala suit from China?
No.
Clumsily, I scavenged donations from friends, family and local businesses to give to people around Christmas time. Extra money went toward helping a friend who was battling brain cancer.
I think some good came of the whole thing.
But, zooming out, I had no idea what I was doing.
I remember when I bought the koala costume, my older brother asked me, “What’s your business plan? Money = koala?”
He was trying to help me realize that though I felt the vision of it, there were some logistics to figure out before this idea became not just sustainable, but reasonable.
But, like so many people that jump into starting a business fueled by the passion of a fuzzy vision, this “business” died because I didn’t have a plan to make any real money.
The life or death metric
There is only one thing that keeps your business alive: cash.
Cash is the lifeblood of any business.
If you have no cash, you have no business.
If you have no cash but you think you have a business, you really only have an expensive hobby.
Your business plan is not much better than “koala”
You may read that koala story and think, “Okay, my business isn’t making money (or the amount that I want) but at least my plan is better than a ‘koala.’”
You think that, but it might not actually be that much better.
I ran out of money
In October 2017, I decided to quit my full-time job and create CF Design School.
I had a nest egg of money saved up so I stopped taking agency clients and focused solely on developing the funnel design curriculum.
Within a couple months, I finished the course.
But, I didn’t launch.
Instead, I decided to start a YouTube channel, create a website, write 30 blog articles, get professional pictures taken and take 4-5 additional online courses to “make sure I knew what I was doing.”
When I ran out of business things to do, I signed up for an improv class to “help me on camera” and competed in a Tough Mudder race to make sure I was “mentally and physically strong.”
Basically, I did every thing I could to not launch.
I actively avoided making cash and disregarded the Money Plan that I had created.
I fooled myself into thinking I was doing important tasks when really, I was procrastinating. I was terrified of launching and failing. I was also terrified of launching and succeeding.
By the end of May 2018, I had to come to terms with the fact that if I didn’t start making money soon, I was going to need to get a job (or more agency clients). I had simply run out of money. My nest egg had run out.
So, I forced my own hand in launching CF Design School in June of 2018.
The beginning was stretching. But starting one sale at a time, I clawed CF Design School to a $1M product and into the #1 funnel design program in the industry.
But as I think back to this time, there exists a twinge of exasperation when I think, “Why the heck was I taking an improv class?!”
Though “Buy a koala suit” may not be on your business plan, how many of you are making business cards or fleshing out your Instagram or creating swag — fooling yourselves that they’re prerequisites to making money?
If this is the case, your “business plan” is bad.
If you do not have or are not executing a curated Money Plan focused on generating cash, your business will die (or never get off the ground in the first place).
Your Money Plan
After having unsuccessfully launched many products before figuring out how to actually make money online, I’ve learned to treat the most important thing as the most important thing.
This is why I put so much focus on Money Plans.
In fact, when people ask me, “Kathryn, if you were starting your business from scratch, what would you do?” I answer with, “I would create a Money Plan.”
What’s a Money Plan?
It’s the plan for how your business will make money.
If money determines whether your business lives or dies, then there better be a very clear plan to make money.
I know this sounds like common sense, but the amount of times we distract ourselves with frivolous tasks that aren’t directly money-making, especially in the beginning, is alarmingly high.
So, depending on the type of business you want, I’m going to show you how to craft and execute your own personal Money Plan.
Let’s get to it.
Why you should listen to me
My name is Kathryn Jones. Through many reps (i.e. koalas), I’ve identified the necessary components required to make money. I’ve used that knowledge to help me build my own multi-million dollar business.
I’ve developed these patterns into an easy-to-follow framework to help others generate cash as well.
This framework is called the Money Plan Matrix.
What you’ll find in this guide
Here’s what you’ll find in this guide:
▷Part 1: The Money Plan Matrix
▷Part 2: How to make money selling 1-to-1
▷Part 3: How to make money selling 1-to-many
▷Part 4: How to make money selling many-to-many
▷Part 5: The CF Design School Case Study Money Plan
Part 1: The Money Plan Matrix
The Money Plan Matrix identifies the essential things you need to make money in your business.
The “Bare Essentials” Axis
The process for making cash is, when boiled down, very elementary.
You only need a few things.
These are indicated on the Bare Essentials Axis of the Money Plan Matrix.
The first Bare Essential
The first thing you need is a Product, or something to sell.
The second Bare Essential
The second thing you need is Prospects, or people to buy.
Simple enough.
The third Bare Essential
The third thing you need is to know what milestones you should Pursue in each phase of your business.
For example, at what point should you create a webinar? When is the right time to hire? How soon is too soon to start partnering with people?
Knowing what to Pursue helps you avoid distractions on your path to cash.
The “Business Type” Axis
As your business progresses, your Product will need to evolve, how you approach your Prospects will need to evolve and the milestones you Pursue will evolve as well.
This is expected.
But, these evolutions depend entirely on what type of business you’re seeking to create. Big or small? One man show or huge enterprise? Side hustle or your main gig?
The beauty about entrepreneurship is that you get to create a business that works for you. My coach once said, “It doesn’t matter how much money you’re making. If your business doesn’t work for you, it’s a bad business.”
So, your first assignment with the Money Plan Matrix, regardless of whether you’re just starting or have been in business for 10+ years, is to determine which Business Type you desire to have.
The Money Plan Matrix covers three types of businesses.
Figuring out which Business Type you want will instruct you on the Bare Essentials your business will require to make money.
The first Business Type
The first business type is Merchant.
A Merchant is defined as someone who sells 1-to-1, something like a storefront.
An example of this is someone who owns an Etsy store or even a Funnel Designer that graduates from CF Design School.
They sell one product to a single person.
In the CF Design School world, this looks like someone selling a custom funnel to a person or business.
The second Business Type
The second business type is Machine.
A Machine is defined as someone who sells 1-to-many.
An example of this is Lauren Golden who sells her freelancing course via webinar, selling multiple units at a time to an ongoing stream of paid traffic.
The third Business Type
The third business type is a Movement.
A Movement is defined as someone who sells many-to-many.
This is where you partner with affiliates so that you, as the business owner, are no longer the only person actively selling your product.
An example of this is Cash Flow Tactics. They are selling their new high-ticket offer to other people’s audiences through Joint Ventures. They do a profit share with the owner of the borrowed audience.
How the Matrix works
Once you decide your Business Type, simply follow the Matrix from left to right to see what elements your Product, Prospect and Pursuit require.
We’ll dive into how to achieve each of these components in just a bit.
But as an example, if you seek to make money as a Merchant Business Type (selling 1-to-1), reading the Matrix left to right shows you that:
- Your Product needs a Promise
- Your Prospect must be Proposed to
- Your must Pursue these two things until you have Proof
You with me?
Now, there are three additional rules that govern the Money Plan Matrix.
No skipping steps
As we just discussed, if you seek to make money as a Merchant Business Type, you must have each of the three Bare Essentials:
- Your Product needs a Promise
- Your Prospect must be Proposed to
- Your must Pursue these two things until you have Proof
But, if you seek to expand your business from a Merchant to a Machine, you must include the Bare Essential from both Merchant and Machine. Each row builds off of the other.
So, if you desire to make money as a Machine Business Type, you must have each of the six Bare Essentials:
- Your Product needs a Promise and a Process
- Your Prospect must be Proposed to and Pitched to
- Your must Pursue these four things until you have Proof and Profit
And finally, if you want a Movement Business Type, you must have each of the nine Bare Essentials:
- Your Product needs a Promise, Process and Play
- Your Prospect must be Proposed to, Pitched to and Partnered with
- Your must Pursue these six things until you have Proof, Profit and have become the Point Man
Again, more on how to get all of these things later. But for now, it’s just important to know that one thing builds off of another. No skipping steps.
There is no time requirement
You can check off each of the Bare Essentials as quickly as you can move. There is no need to pay months of “dues” before you can progress from a Merchant to a Machine or a Machine to a Movement.
Simply know that the Bare Essentials must be acquired chronologically, from Merchant to Machine to Movement.
If you scream through all of the Bare Essentials, all the better.
Each Business Type is more powerful than the first
As you advance from one Business Type to the next, you increase your capacity for:
- How much cash you can earn
- How much time you can own
- How much influence you can have
For example, if you create a Machine (1-to-many) instead of a Merchant (1-to-1), you can:
- Earn more money, since you’re selling to more people at once
- Own more time, since you can automate your selling to many people at once
- Have more impact, since you’re actively spreading your message to many people at once
If you create a Movement (many-to-many) instead of a Machine (1-to-many), you can:
- Earn even more money, since other people are selling for you
- Own even more of your time, since other people are selling for you
- Have even more impact, since other people are spreading your message to their masses
Knowing this can act as an awesome gauge when you’re trying to figure out how to make your competitors irrelevant.
For example, is your biggest competitor a Merchant? Build a Machine.
Is your biggest competitor a Machine? Build a Movement.
You beat a Machine with a Movement
In 2019, CF Design School had been on the market for nearly 8 months.
The people who bought were getting amazing results.
But, I was stuck at the $250,000 mark. I couldn’t figure out how to get sales to really go.
Around that time, I was at a business conference where my biggest competitor was speaking on stage. I was devastated.
I knew my solution was better.
But, I couldn’t figure out how to get anyone to listen to me when my competitor’s Machine-of-a-business was steam rolling everything in it’s path.
The thought kept racing through my mind, “How do you beat a Machine?”
While mulling this over, a phase that I can only attribute to God came so clearly to me: “You beat a Machine with a Movement.”
You beat a Machine with a Movement?
I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant so I wrote it down and started to study it’s components.
I learned that a Movement is a group of people that both believe and live a singular story.
That’s when it clicked!
I couldn’t take down my competitor’s Machine by myself. But, I could with an army of people.
“What,” I thought, “would happen if I could get people to believe in my product as much as I do?” And even crazier, “What if I could get people as passionate about selling my product as I am?”
I went about creating a Movement and within a year, not only had my business crossed $1M, but it was me — not my competitor — who was asked to speak on funnel design at one of the largest marketing conferences in the world.
A Movement will beat a Machine every time, just as a Machine will beat a Merchant.
Warning: you may end up hating me
In moving through the Money Plan Matrix, I may kill your dream.
And, if I don’t kill it, I may expose some serious holes in your own money making plan, or lack thereof.
It’s crazy how easy (and alluring) it is to avoid answering the simple questions about your business (i.e. What do you do?) before moving on to the sexy stuff (i.e. branding and headshots).
Since we’ve both spoken at Funnel Hacking Live, a lot of people will ask my sister-in-law McCall Jones and I how they too can speak on that stage.
Our first question, “Well, what do you do?”
Shockingly, a lot of people cannot answer this question. Even people who have made a lot of money sometimes get so lost in their own business that they can’t answer the question clearly.
Pro tip: if you don’t know what you do, other people aren’t going to take the time to figure it out. And that includes people that host events.
I’ll be the first to say that the work I’m going to ask you to do in the Money Plan Matrix is not sexy. But, it’s the thing that will lead you to sexy results down the line (yay cash).
So, stick with me.
Part 2: How to make money selling 1-to-1
If you want to make money selling 1-to-1, you need the Merchant Money Plan.
MERCHANT MONEY PLAN = PROMISE + PROPOSE → PROOF
The Bare Essentials for the Merchant Money Plan mean that:
- Your Product needs a Promise
- Your Prospect must be Proposed to
- Your must Pursue these two things until you have Proof
Who the the 1-to-1 business type is for
The Merchant Business Type is great for people who freelance, have an agency or focus specifically on customized work. It works especially great if the services you offer are higher-ticket. This gives you the power to, for example, have one $50K-$100K client per quarter.
Step 1: Your Product needs a Promise
The Product you deliver must have a very clear Promise.
For example, “If you pay me $x, then I will give you y.”
If you want to make money, you cannot sell something with a vague deliverable.
A bad Promise example
Let’s start with a bad Promise.
Let’s say you sell “business coaching.”
Initially, it may feel like saying, “If you pay me $1,000, then I will give you business coaching” sounds pretty clear.
But, it’s not.
Why?
“Business coaching” does not pass the Tangible Test.
I broke down the Tangible Test in great detail in a previous guide.
But, as a quick recap, for your deliverable to pass the Tangible Test, it must be:
- Concretely measurable
- Something you can point to or hold
Is “business coaching” concretely measurable?
Not really.
How do you measure “business coaching?” Is it by number of sessions? It is by revenue earned? It is by expenses cost? It is by followers gained?
Because there is too much ambiguity, “business coaching” does not pass the “concretely measurable” portion of the Tangible Test. People will pass on you and go to someone who has a Promise they feel more confident in.
The second portion of the Tangible Test is that your deliverable must be something you can “point to or hold.”
Is “business coaching” something that you can “point to or hold?”
Potentially. Someone wasn’t doing business coaching before and now they are. But still, someone could question what “coaching” actually means.
For example, someone could say that your coaching wasn’t how they wanted, that your coaching didn’t get them the results they wanted, that your coaching didn’t help them build the business they wanted, that your coaching took too long to get results, etc.
Again, the ambiguity creates too much doubt in your Prospects for them to buy.
Therefore, “business coaching” is a bad Promise.
A good Promise example
Now, what might a good Promise look like?
Consider if instead of “business coaching” you sold “increased profit in 3 months or less.”
Is this deliverable “concretely measurable?”
Absolutely.
You could compare the profit at Day 0 vs. Day 90. If there is more profit on Day 90, you undeniably fulfilled on your end of the Promise.
Is it something you can “point to or hold?” Yes, you can point to the increased dollar amount in someone’s bank account.
So, if you’re wanting to successfully sell 1-to-1, the first thing you need in your Money Plan is a Promise that passes the Tangible Test.
The customer gives you $x and you give the customer y.
Step 2: Your Prospect must be Proposed to
The second portion of your Money Plan is all about how to approach your potential customers or Prospects.
When selling 1-to-1, your Prospect must be Proposed to.
This means that you need to be very clear in what you’re asking, so much so that your Prospect can answer with a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
Think of it like a marriage proposal.
“Do you want to marry me?” You answer with ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
You must be that direct with your Prospect: “Do you want to buy x?” Your question must be so clear that they answer can with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’
None of this beating-around-the-bush stuff.
This may seem silly to mention but I cannot tell you how many people botch this.
A bad Proposal example
I had a neighbor once text me and ask, “Do you want some cookies?”
I responded, “Oh my gosh, thank you! Yes!”
Her response, “Great. How many do you want?”
I said, “Just a couple would be amazing! Thanks for thinking of us.”
She responded, “The lowest I can bring you is a half dozen. Would that be okay?”
I was grateful for her generosity. Six cookies instead of two? Sure!
I agreed and appreciated the kind gesture.
I went and told Travis that our neighbor was bringing over cookies.
“Awesome,” he said. “How many did you buy?”
“How many did I buy?” I responded.
“Yeah, that’s her business. She sells baked goods,” he said.
I was shocked. I literally thought she was just being neighborly and bringing us over cookies. Turns out, she was selling and I had no idea.
Had Travis not told me, I would have either never paid her or it would have been an awkward encounter when she circled back and requested money via Venmo.
How many times do we sell our products and services this way?
It’s unclear that you’re charging, unclear how you can help and potentially unclear that you’re a business at all.
Can you imagine how different that entire exchange would have been if she had asked, “Do you want to buy some cookies?” rather than “Do you want some cookies?”
A good Proposal example
Let’s go back to marriage proposals.
You probably wouldn’t feel so good if you knew that the person that proposed to you was proposing to a bunch of different people in the exact same way, right?
You also probably wouldn’t like it if a random stranger proposed to you either.
Instead, you would want someone you knew to craft a Proposal that was personal and curated for you.
That’s how we want to approach our Prospects.
How do we do this?
First, make sure that people know who you are.
Post about your Promise on social media. Curate your audience to include Prospects.
Then, for anyone that shows interest, reach out to them individually with a specific Proposal. If you’re unsure of how to do this, my program Scale It will show you how to create and sell Customized Game Plans to people that result in 5-figure deals.
Step 3: Pursue Proof
Continue to refine your Promise and your Proposals until you have Proof:
- Proof of results
- Proof of sales
You first must Pursue proof of results. Can you actually do what you say you do in your Promise? Work your butt off to ensure that your clients get extraordinary results.
Then, you must Pursue proof of sales. You might get people results but it’s possible that you struggle getting people to pay for your services. If you are excellent at what you do, but people only want it for free, you have no business.
Curate your Promise and Proposal until you have Proof in these two categories.
Completing these things will result in cash, or a successfully executed Merchant (1-to-1) Money Plan.
Part 3: How to make money selling 1-to-many
If you want to make money selling 1-to-many, you need the Machine Money Plan.
MACHINE MONEY PLAN = PROCESS + PITCH → PROFIT
The Bare Essentials for the Machine Money Plan mean that:
- Your Product needs a Promise and a Process
- Your Prospect must be Proposed to and Pitched to
- Your must Pursue these two things until you have Proof and Profit
Who the the 1-to-many business type is for
The Machine Business Type is great for people who want to sell their Product in bulk. This may mean transforming your services into an online course or selling many units of your e-commerce product.
Step 1: Your Product needs a Process
In addition to having a clear Promise, your Product needs a Process.
When you go from selling 1-to-1 to 1-to-many, you must remove yourself from the fulfillment. This means that you no longer sell a ‘Done For You’ products but instead ‘Done With You.’
This requires that that you come up with a repeatable Process that people can follow to get predictable results themselves.
Some people also call this your unique methodology or vehicle.
The best Processes are those that:
- Have a name
- Have a step-by-step path for taking someone from Square 0 to your Promised deliverable
A bad Process example
I once purchased an online course that Promised to show me how to grow my Facebook Group.
The course had over 40 videos that equated to 20+ hours of content.
Woof.
Two hours into viewing, I still had no idea what my first steps should be. A lot of information was being thrown in my face but I had no idea how to implement it.
There was no Process to take me step-by-step to the Promised deliverable.
I abandoned the course and sought information elsewhere.
A good Process example
Focusing solely on Process (with no commentary on the program itself), Weight Watchers does an incredible job.
There is a very clear path to get from your starting point to losing weight:
- You do a 3-minute personal assessment based on your age, weight, height, sex, physical activity, etc.
- You receive a personalized SmartPoints Budget
- You then eat foods (each assigned a points value) to fit within that budget
- Repeat daily until you get the desired result
The Process is so simple that no coaches, group coaching or additional help is required. You can get results by following steps all on your own.
Your Process must be this clear as well.
Can someone purchase your product, and without any outside intervention from you, attain the Promised deliverable? If no, work on your Process. If yes, move onto the next step in the Matrix.
Step 2: Your Prospects must be Pitched to
When selling 1-to-many, your Prospect must be Pitched to.
We want to carry over the “customized” principle that we learned from the Merchant Money Plan before. But, rather than customizing a Proposal for each individual person, we’re going to curate a customized Pitch for a specific group of people.
Remember, we want to sell 1-to-many.
So, we want to find common characteristics in the “many” we’re selling to and create a sales presentation for them.
Now, in building a Machine, we want to remove you as much as possible from both the fulfillment and the selling process. Therefore, the Pitch is something we want to record and automate.
This is where something like a pre-recorded webinar, a workshop, a challenge, or a short sales video works excellently.
A bad Pitch example
If you’ve been in the online space for more than 2 minutes, chances are that you’ve sat through a painfully boring webinar.
Don’t be like that.
Even still, sometimes with the best intentions, your sales pitch just sucks.
When I launched the first version of my CF Design School webinar, everyone was dropping off at minute 19. That was a problem because I didn’t even pitch the product until minute 60.
No one was buying.
Therefore, I had a bad Pitch.
A good Pitch example
It is brutal to have an awesome product and a bad Pitch.
But, as the CEO of your business, it’s your responsibility not only to get people results but to learn how to sell your stuff!
For the first version of my CF Design School webinar, I had to go back through and rework minute 19 until people watched further and further into the presentation.
Eventually, I got my webinar not only to a point where it was making sales, but where people like Russell Brunson reached out to ask me how I created such an engaging webinar.
In fact, Myron Golden said that my webinar was “the best webinar [he] had ever seen. Second place can’t even been seen in the rearview mirror.” He didn’t need my product but “purchased it because [he] couldn’t not buy after seeing the sales pitch.”
Step 3: Pursue Profit
Continue to refine your Process and your Pitch until you have Profit.
It doesn’t matter how you’re acquiring traffic.
The only thing to question is, “Am I making more money than I’m spending to acquire a customer?”
If the answer is ‘yes,’ congratulate yourself on a working funnel.
Having a proven Process and Pitch where the execution of both brings you Profit means that you have successfully executed the Machine (1-to-many) Money Plan.
With the Process taking care of your fulfillment and Pitch ensuring you can sell, you’re now ready to have other people sell your product for you.
Part 4: How to make money selling many-to-many
If you want to make money selling many-to-1, you need the Movement Money Plan.
MOVEMENT MONEY PLAN = PLAY + PARTNER → POINT MAN
The Bare Essentials for the Movement Money Plan mean that:
- Your Product needs a Promise, a Process and Play
- Your Prospect must be Proposed to, Pitched to and Partnered with
- Your must Pursue these two things until you have Proof, Profit and have become the Point Man
Who the the many-to-many business type is for
The Movement Business Type is great for people who are not content to just have a great product but rather want to the be #1 go-to expert in their niche, or as we call it, the Point Man. If you’re seeking market-wide recognition via speaking gigs, book deals, podcast invitations, then creating a Movement is for you.
Step 1: Your Product needs Play
In addition to having a clear Promise and Process, your Product also needs Play.
When selling many-to-many, there are two specific people you want to sell your product for you:
- The people who have gotten results from your product
- People with audiences who have the pain your product solves
Introducing Play into your Product helps you attract both.
Play is how we get people to happily and efficiently go through your Process.
One of the easiest ways to do this is through gamification.
If you can gamify your Process, you not only eliminate fear of moving forward, but you create content that feels “bingeable” for your students. With Play, you create incentive to move through the Process more boldly and quickly.
Why does this matter?
People that get results from your Product are more likely to become evangelists, and therefore affiliates for your product.
People who you partner with want assurance that your Product will work for their audience. The higher the completion or success rate of your Product, the easier it is to book partners.
A bad example of Play
I don’t mean to be dramatic but a large majority of online courses suck. A major contributing factor is because there is no element of Play in them.
Did you know that less than 1% of online courses are completed?
I’m not saying that less than 1% of people get results from the courses.
It’s worse than that.
I’m saying that less than 1% finish watching the videos inside of the courses they buy!
Why?
I believe that it a terrible combination of no Promise, Process or Play.
A good example of Play
Clickfunnels has an award called the Two Comma Club Award. This is given to anyone that pushes $1,000,000 through a single funnel.
You get to walk on stage, receive a huge plaque, take a picture with the founders of Clickfunnels and get recognized in front of a group of 5,000 people.
This award works as a huge allure to have people go through the Processes that Clickfunnels lays out in their company’s coaching programs.
Step 2: Your Prospects must be Partnered with
When selling 1-to-many, your Prospect must be Partnered with.
When partnering with people who have successfully gotten results from your Product, this can be as simple as adding a “Become An Affiliate” button inside of your course.
But, when it comes to partnering with people who own big audiences, we again want to carry over the “customized” principle that we learned from the Merchant Money Plan. We also want to incorporate Pitch principles to make sure that our customized pitch to potential partners centers around the common characteristics of their gathered audience.
When a partner supplies the audience and you supply the product, there are many allures:
- There are no upfront costs for traffic
- You sell in bulk
- These partnerships are repeatable inside of the same audiences every 6-12 months
- i.e. I’m on my 5th Joint Venture with the same audience (I do one launch with them per year)
- Immediate status increase and name recognition
- Other exposure opportunities (like speaking gigs)
A bad Partner example
I once had someone who sold a very similar product to mine ask if I wanted to partner.
This guy sent me an email that said, “I think your audience would really like my product. It’d be a great fit!”
Well, no duh it’d be a great fit. We’re direct competitors!
As you can guess, we did not partner together.
I also had someone send me an email and ask if I would promote their product. I had no idea who they were, if their product would benefit my audience or even what their product was!
Another swing and a miss.
A good Partner example
The way to get big names to partner with you is to show them how you fit in their story line.
Consider the following questions:
- Who creates the problem I solve?
- Who needs my problem solved before they can solve theirs?
Find the audiences that fit these descriptions and then wow them with a customized outreach. These partners won’t feel threatened, but rather grateful, that you’re helping their audience in ways that they can’t.
If you want to learn how to become an expert at JVs (even making them your main source of traffic), check out my online event happening soon. I’ll be walking you through every detail.
Step 3: Pursue becoming the Point Man
A Point Man is someone who has the “most prominent position on something,” or is considered the spokesperson.
Continue to partner with people in your space until you are the undeniable expert on your topic. The more you do this, the easier it is to book additional partners, the easier organic sales come and the easier it is to get booked for speaking events.
If you can get all of the big names in your market to endorse you, their audiences will as well. It’s the quickest way to becoming the Point Man.
Part 5: The CF Design School Case Study Money Plan
Let me walk you through how CF Design School became a $1M product by using the Money Plan Matrix.
Let’s go through this step-by-step, shall we?
Merchant Money Plan
The starting point for any business is the Merchant Money Plan.
MERCHANT MONEY PLAN = PROMISE + PROPOSE → PROOF
Here’s what this looked like for CF Design School.
CF Design School’s Promise
CF Design School’s Promise is this:
- “If you pay me $1,497, I’ll show you how to create and sell funnels that convert.”
Does this pass the Tangible Test?
- Is it concretely measurable?
- Yes, the funnel didn’t convert before and now it does
- Yes, you weren’t selling funnels before and now you are
- Is it something you can point to and hold?
- Yes, there wasn’t a funnel that converted before and now it exists
- Yes, there wasn’t money in your bank account before and now there is
CF Design School’s Proposal
Before CF Design School was an online program, I started selling these converting funnels 1-by-1 as an agency.
If you want to know the exact scripts I used to do this, check out “Part 2: The ‘money-by-the-weekend checklist to follow” portion of my Make Money By The Weekend Guide.
CF Design School’s Proof
I continued honing my Promise and Proposal until I had proven that I had:
- Proof of results
- Proof of sales
As an example, check out Becky’s story (starts at 29:43-31:58).
Machine Money Plan
Once I had completed the Bare Essentials for the Merchant Business Type, I moved onto completing the Machine Money Plan.
MACHINE MONEY PLAN = PROCESS + PITCH → PROFIT
Here’s what this looked like for CF Design School.
CF Design School’s Process
CF Design School’s Process is the “6-step science of Design Hacking.”
Remember, the best Processes are those that:
- Have a name; mine is “Design Hacking”
- Have a step-by-step path for taking someone from Square 0 to your Promised deliverable; mine is a “6-step science”
I boiled the method I was using to help my 1-on-1 clients down to a repeatable Process that anyone could follow. In fact, people from ages 10-68 from over 25 countries have gotten results with my Process.
CF Design School’s Pitch
If you’d like to see the webinar Pitch that got the attention of Russell Brunson and Myron Golden, click here.
If you’d like to see the current Pitch for CF Design School, you can watch here.
CF Design School’s Profit
When building my Machine, I was honestly afraid to run paid ads. I didn’t have much experience with them. So, all of my webinar traffic came from social and organic outreach.
I knew my Process worked. So, I focused my time on tweaking my Pitch until I saw regular and predictable Profit come in from my webinars.
Movement Money Plan
Once I had completed the Bare Essentials for the Merchant and Machine Business Type, I moved onto completing the Movement Money Plan.
MOVEMENT MONEY PLAN = PLAY + PARTNER → POINT MAN
Here’s what this looked like for CF Design School.
CF Design School’s Play
CF Design School helps people implement the 6-step science of Design Hacking (Process) through a series of 9 different badges.
When they earn Badge 8 or above, we celebrate bi-annually with a Graduation Ceremony.
CF Design School’s Partnering
CF Design School blew up when I started partnering with big names to share my product. I used a very specific method to regularly schedule and execute on 5 and 6-figure partnerships. As mentioned before, it was partnering with popular names in the funnel space that took my business from $250,000 revenue to over $1M.
If you’re looking to expand your sales with partnerships, apply to attend my upcoming virtual event where we’ll cover everything JVs in detail.
Kathryn Jones as Point Man
The more people I partnered with to sell CF Design School, the more people pursued me to execute Joint Ventures with their audiences. I became the Point Man for all things funnel design.
It was getting the endorsement of popular names in the Clickfunnels community that was a huge selling point for getting Russell Brunson to feature me on his platforms. Since I focused on partnering, I’ve spoken at Funnel Hacking Live 2020, Funnel Hacking Live 2021, had my Process featured in Clickfunnels paid coaching program, am a featured speaker at the recurring 2CCX Live online event and was recently invited to teach on Design Hacking for the Clickfunnels 2.0 launch.
Your journey with the Money Plan Matrix
From the start of my entrepreneurial journey, I knew I wanted to build a Movement. But, it was only through following the Money Plan Matrix in order that allowed me to do so.
- Merchant Money Plan: I started with Promise and Proposals until I achieved Proof
- Machine Money Plan: I then developed a Process and a Pitch until I found Profit
- Movement Money Plan: Finally, I incorporated Play and Partnering until I became the Point Man
Each step was necessary and laid the foundation for the next.
Now that you’re briefed on the Money Plan Matrix, your job is now to:
- Figure out what Business Type you want to create
- Start from the first Promise square in the Matrix
- Continue working through each of the Bare Essentials until you reach your desired Business Type
If you’re just starting out, lucky you. You can start, undistracted, from the first square in the Matrix.
If you’ve been stuck trying to build any of the Business Types, identify which squares in the Matrix you may have skipped or are pretty weak. Focus your efforts on developing those and watch the money come in.
Final words
Remember, cash is the lifeblood of your business.
Don’t get distracted developing or learning anything that isn’t directly propelling your Money Plan forward. Use the Money Plan Matrix to determine what you need to focus on first.
If you want help creating a Merchant business (selling 1-to-1), I have two programs that can help:
- CF Design School will give you a very clear skillset that can help you make money by the weekend
- Going through the program will give you a clear Promise
- And it will show you exactly how to Propose to your Prospects
- Scale It helps you book 5-figure deals via customized proposals
- This will help you take your agency or freelancing to the next level
- Yay for working less and making more
If you want help creating a Movement business (selling many-to-many), I have an upcoming event that can help:
- Operation Infiltrate is my online virtual event that will show you how to systematically and predictably find, book and dominate with JV Partnerships
Whatever you decide, create your Money Plan and stick to it.
And for the love of everything, hold off on the koala suits.
Good luck,
KJ
