VIP days 101 with Jordan Gill
"Time is so precious. Money is a renewable resource, time is not. And so there's always going to be a segment of every audience in every industry that is always looking for the fastest way to get something done.” - Jordan Gill
Today, in this episode, we are joined by a very important person who has been teaching and coaching thousands of people on VIP days for the past two and a half years, Jordan Gill! She is the founder of System Save Me, a business that helps coaches and consultants build successful six-figure businesses through VIP day offerings.
Highlights:
What is a VIP Day or Week, and how can it help you start or scale your nonprofit coaching or consulting business
What are some examples of successful VIP Day offers that have been used by Jordan Gill and her students
How can you leverage VIP Days to create a more efficient customer experience
Connect with Jordan:
Website: https://systemssavedme.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/systemssavedme/
Find Us Online: https://www.confessionswithjessandcindy.com/
Connect with Cindy:
Cindy Wagman Coaching https://cindywagman.com/
The Good Partnership https://www.thegoodpartnership.com/
Connect with Jess:
Out In the Boons: https://www.outintheboons.me/
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Cindy: Welcome to the Confessions podcast. I'm Cindy Wagman.
[00:00:00] Jess: And I'm Jess Campbell. Where two former in house nonprofit pros turned coaches and consultants to purpose driven organizations.
[00:00:00] Cindy: After years of building up our separate six figure businesses from scratch, we've thrown a lot of spaghetti at the wall and have lived to see what sticks.
[00:00:20] Jess: We're on a mission to help other nonprofit coaches and consultants looking to start or scale their own businesses past the six figure mark by pulling back the curtains.
[00:00:20] Cindy: Whether you're still working inside a nonprofit and thinking of one day going out on your own or you've been running your consulting business for years, you understand that working with nonprofits is just different. We're giving you access to the business leaders who serve nonprofits as their clients. You know, the people who truly get it.
[00:00:53] Jess: No more gatekeeping. No more secrets. This podcast is going to give you an inside look at what running a successful nonprofit coaching and consulting business looks like. Basically, we're asking people how much money they make, how they get paid, and what has and hasn't worked in their businesses.
[00:00:53] Cindy: We'll listen in as these leaders sharing their insights, their numbers, and the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to building a nonprofit, coaching or consulting business. We're going to empower you to make the power moves that give you the income and freedom you set out to create from day one.
[00:01:28] Jess: You ready? Let's go. So let's talk about VIP days.
[00:01:28] Cindy: Let's talk about VIP days.
[00:01:28] Jess: We're both obsessed.
[00:01:40] Jordan: Obsessed.
[00:01:40] Cindy: I'm like, I have a problem because now I see everything as a VIP day.
[00:01:52] Jess: Yeah, you can have a VIP day. Yeah, totally. And I think for anyone that's about to listen to this episode, we have the queen. We have queens. And she's so freaking smart. I just want to live in her brain for a bit and down to earth. Oh, my gosh, she's amazing. Yes. And so for those of you who haven't heard, we are chatting with the one and only Jordan Gill system saved me today about all things VIP days, weeks, and offers. And this is something both Cindy and I really believe in. Like legit. We offer these in our business, and I didn't learn about them until somewhat recently, so it might be your first time hearing about them, too. And so we really unpacked what a VIP offer is. How do you price that? How do you market that? How do you deliver that? It was so good.
[00:02:50] Cindy: So good. I'm taking notes. I actually enrolled in one of Jordan's programs because I'm like, I need the fast track. I mean, we talk about that, right? The fast track or fast path to doing things. And I was like, I want to do this in my business and I'm just going to learn from her.
[00:03:04] Jess: Absolutely.
[00:03:04] Cindy: All your listeners get to do the same thing.
[00:03:17] Jess: Totally. So if you are someone in your business who is maybe feeling burnt out out of that retainer ongoing lifestyle or you really enjoy working with clients, but that ongoing pace is not serving you. This is a really great episode for you to listen to. And what I loved about what Jordan did is she gave us so many kind of case study style examples. I was, like, writing down all of the ideas. And so I just think if you've never even heard about these before, this will be such a helpful episode for you to tune into and then let us know, DM Cindy and I, and tell us if you decide to go for one of these.
[00:03:48] Cindy: Yeah. What's your VIP offer?
[00:03:48] Jess: Yes.
[00:04:06] Cindy: I love it. Well, here is our conversation with Jordan Gill.
[00:04:06] Jordan: And.
[00:04:06] Cindy: I don't like giving blanket advice, but Jess and I are going to be doing VIP days. I'll leave it there.
[00:04:06] Jess: Yeah, we're so listen, everyone, put those ear pods on somewhere quiet. We have the one and only Jordan Gill assistant, Save Me, here to talk to us today. I feel like we're talking to a celebrity. Welcome, Jordan.
[00:04:26] Jordan: You're so silly. I'm so glad to be here.
[00:04:41] Jess: Cindy and I are huge fans of your work. I know our friend Tanya Bauticharia also is a big fan of your work, but I realized that people listening in might not be a fan person of you just yet. So tell us about you.
[00:05:02] Jordan: Yes. So I'm Jordan Gill, and I founded System Save Me in 2016. And it's always been a journey, as all entrepreneurship is. But I started out with monthly retainers as work. Five months in, hated. It was like, not about this life and had to figure out a new way to service clients because I did enjoy working with clients. It was just the client delay scope creep. Not a fan. So I found VIP days, and basically from that moment on, I said goodbye to monthly retainers and serviced in just VIP days for about three years before. Everyone was like, how are you? Vacationing all the time and puzzling and doing all these things? And I was like, oh, I do VIP days. Everyone's like, what? So then I decided, okay, let me go ahead and teach about VIP days. So, for the past two and a half years, I have been spreading the VIP day gospel, as I like to say, and been able to help thousands at our virtual conferences. About 450 clients in the past two and a half years. And it's been such a joy. I still do VIP days myself because I literally do still think that they are the best way to service clients. But, yeah, it's been a fun ride. And I live in Dallas, Texas, with my husband and my bonus son, who is eight, and our coffee poo Vivian, who is quite the addition to our.
[00:06:03] Jess: Family, I think Vivian the Kafapoo. As I say, no choice but to be a personality.
[00:06:31] Jordan: Yeah, 100%.
[00:06:31] Jess: So I would say that I don't know. Cindy, correct me if I'm wrong. 70, 80% of the folks listening are probably working one to one retainer style clients. They might not know what a VIP day or VIP week is. So can you just inform us what that offer looks like?
[00:06:47] Jordan: Yeah, totally. So VIP day and a week, they're similar. It's just obviously one is a day and one is a week. But the definition that we use is they are a four figure offering minimum. So don't come at people with like a $600, $300 VIP day. That literally doesn't make sense. A minimum four figure offering that lasts between three and 8 hours for a day within a 24 hours period that leads your client through your transformation, your method, your process. So what I see a lot of people doing is like, ask me anything or like, power hour brain situation. And that's not a VIP day. Not because it's wrong or bad, but just it's a different type of offer. A VIP day is truly like a yellow brick road path. Like you're helping somebody. Whether it's a strategy path, whether it's an implementation path where you're building it out in a day, those are what VIPAS are. And again, a week is obviously then from Monday to Friday. And the gist of it is that it's very clear when your offer starts and when it finishes. So your clients don't really have what typically happens in monthly retainers where clients are just like, there's time and there's just endless amounts of it, and I can just delay and do whatever I want with it and it's like, oh my gosh, a nightmare. So that's the beauty of VIPA and VIP day weeks is there's very clear understanding of when it starts. When it stops, there's no complications. So, yeah, that's what a VIP day is. Or VIP week.
[00:08:31] Cindy: Awesome. And like Jess said earlier, we're all in. I'm working on my offer is actually like, next month as part of your program. So I'm really excited to dive in. When is there a right time to look at this as part of your service or product offering? Is there too soon? I mean, I don't think there's ever too late, but what do we need to have in place to be able to do this?
[00:08:47] Jordan: Well, yeah, that's a great question. I would say that I don't, like, usually, like, generalizations like that, but I guess it hasn't come across my plate yet where I've seen somebody offer VIP days right out the gate. And it'd be a successful experience mainly because when you're first starting out in your business, there's a lot you're figuring out at the same exact time. And with VIP days, there is this element of knowing exactly who the clients are you want to work with, exactly the process or framework you're taking them through. And when you're in the very, very beginnings of your business, which I would consider your first fullish year, that probably isn't going to be the best offering for you to start with is a VIP day or VIPA week. And that's not to say my mind won't be changed one day, but I just would say if you know who you like working with and, you know, generally speaking, the process and framework you want to take them through, then it's like, okay, a VIP day would work really great. I also think that it is where you don't have to do just VIP days. You can actually do both retainers and VIP days and allow for VIP days to bring in cash flow and cash injections and have it be an offer that you kind of sprinkle in whenever you have availability and things like that. So it doesn't have to be whatever either or world. It can be both. And if you are like, I like the stability and security of monthly retainers, which I get. But I did VIP days for three years straight and was totally fine. Made six figures, worked four days a month, and there was no issue of like, stability or security issues in my mind. So I think that it's just a preference. Like, there's not a right or wrong or good or bad. But I do like to share that it doesn't have to be like a total 180 switch. It can be something that you kind of seed in, see if you enjoy it, and then be like, okay, I want to go all in, or I like doing a few of these every month or every quarter.
[00:11:11] Jess: So helpful, I think, for folks listening in again, if this is the first time they're ever hearing about a VIP day, might want some examples of like, some offers. And you just said that you work with over 400, 450 clients and you've taught thousands of people who have adopted a VIP day as an offering. So could you tell us through some of your students what a VIP day offer could look like, just maybe spark some inspiration for people listening in?
[00:11:48] Jordan: Yes, I'm definitely a case study idea learner. So I love sharing ideas. There's some really wild ones that took me a minute to be like, I don't know if this can be done, but I'll stick to generally. I would say your folks on the nonprofit consulting side are pretty, I don't know, in the typical range of VIP days. So there's website designers who build a website in a day, which still boggles my mind. I've literally bought several of them and invested in several of them. And I'm like houseway. I don't even understand. I actually did an entire rebrand just using VIP days to prove this concept, and it was glorious. And I did a branding strategy, VIP day. So branding in a day. So I got the new logo, the colors, prints, all of that stuff. I did a photo shoot VIP day, which was really cool, actually. Technically it was two days. It was two different shoots. And then copywriting VIP day for the website copy and then my website VIP day. And it was awesome. Loved every second of it. So there's four examples there, but then also when it comes to strategy, so if you're somebody who is a strategist by nature and you're not necessarily building a website or like writing copy, something that's a very tangible implementation or service, you can definitely go the strategy route of, okay, what's the plan for how you're going to launch this new program? Right? Or how are you going to do a strategy around an event or a gala to help with fundraising or those sorts of things are also really great VIP days. And again, it's not that you then have to sign them on for a longer retainer. If you don't want to, you can literally give them the plan and say goodbye, which I know a lot of strategists have a hard time with, letting go of the implementation piece, like true strategist. And I'm like, it's okay, you could totally do it. It's possible. And at the same time, if you do enjoy the implementation, you can absolutely exchange that at the end of your strategy VIP day and say, hey, do you want to continue the working relationship? So those are a few different examples that I would think are probably the most relevant to yours. There's a couple of others where it's like an audit. So if you're wanting to look at how they're maybe doing their operations and their nonprofit and that's like your specialty, then you could do a VIP day where you aren't on the call at all with the client. You're over there doing your wizardry, checking all the things, and then you meet with them at the end and share your suggestions on improvement. So that's one. And then there's like a coaching VIP day. So if you were maybe an executive coach for nonprofit founders or something, you could totally do a VIP day. That's more coaching, consulting prescriptive for those intangible parts of running a business and running a nonprofit.
[00:14:30] Cindy: That's so cool. I'm so excited. I'm starting mine with the fundraising plan in a day or week and undecided. But part of what you were saying struck me. I wrote a note down, which is like, we often talk about the benefits to ourselves, but you actually talked in your experience, the benefit was significant as the customer. And I'd love for you to talk a little bit more about how we can think of this as making their lives easier or moving them into action faster. What's been more of that side of the experience for you?
[00:15:28] Jordan: Yes. Oh my gosh. So I was looking the other day because I was like, how many? I hire consultants in my business, and I do have some contractors that are ongoing on my team, but I was like, how many non VIP days have I actually invested in in the past two and a half years of being like, VIP day, all in obsessed. And I think there's only one that was like, a month, and I even tried to convince her to do it in a day. You're hurting my soul a little bit that this isn't a VIP day, but it worked out great, and it was still a good experience. But I encourage a lot of people because this is something that is so prevalent in, quote, unquote, the real outside business world. So you think about, for example, if you're a big traveler, which I am, I hate lines. I hate I mean, patience just was not something that was given to me or I'm interested in figuring out. So with travel, there's the regular security line that you have to wait and people don't know what they're doing. And then you got to take your shoes off and your feet is being shared. It's like, no, thank you. Or you can do TSA PreCheck, which you pay like, $100 for five years, and you get to skip the line, keep your shoes on. And it's like a five minute experience. I actually timed it in a real recently because I was like, I need the actual proof, and actually got stopped in the TSA PreCheck line, and it still took me four minutes and, like, 37 seconds. Like, guys, so if you didn't learn anything else, please get TSA PreCheck for your security needs. But this is reflected everywhere. Like, security. If you are big on Uber, there's the regular delivery, and then there's like, the speedier delivery that you pay, like, $2 more to get it there five minutes faster. I'm that person. I will pay $2 for it to get here five minutes faster. I want my food hot or whatever the case is. So this this is happening all around, right? Like, even the most expensive cars are the fastest ones. It's truly everywhere. I see it all the time. And my husband's like, please. But I want to encourage you that this is just taking it and now applying it when it comes to consulting, when it comes to service and in business. And people always are going to want stuff faster if they can't have it for free, the next best thing for people is fast. And so if you are able to deliver again that same quality of experience, but in a faster timeframe, people are going to pay a pretty penny for that because you're saving them that time. Time is precious. You don't have oodles and oodles as of today. You don't have oodles and oodles of time to just be frolicking through the sunflower fields. Time is so precious. Money as a renewable resource, time is not. And so there's always going to be a segment of every audience in every industry that is always looking for the fastest way to get something done.
[00:18:26] Jess: This is so good. And as someone that wants I move at a really fast pace. And so people who love process, I'm like, it stresses me out, but they're there. And so I'm curious what you say to people who, again, have that objection around, how can I possibly do all of this in a day? I'm not sure open to sharing your framework or I'm sure some stuff has to get stripped away, but it boggles my mind, too, that someone can build out a website in a day, but then here I am. I can complete a 15 part email sequence in a week. It's just we all got our gifts. So how do you combat people who are like, oh, but my process would only work if it was over three months?
[00:19:32] Jordan: I love skeptics. I love them very much, and I like a good challenge. So I'll share something really one of the more interesting VIP days that, again, I had to confer with my woo woo folks, because the most woo thing I have in my house is a candle. And that's not a knock on woo woo. That just isn't how I'm like. I process the world. Somebody came to me and said, I'm a songwriter producer, and I want to help those who have experienced trauma build a song that can help them heal their trauma. And I was like, okay, I am not trauma informed. I'm not certified. I don't know any of this. So let me go to my people, see if this is, like, something that people even want, right? And so conferred with my woo's, and they were like, yeah, this sounds awesome. Like, I want to refer people to her. So I was like, okay. So I connected her, and that's what she does. Like, literally, her VIP day is in the morning. She hears about their experience, she takes a break while they take a break for the day and probably have to, like, do some processing and whatnot. She is literally producing and writing and singing the song and putting it all together. And then at the end of the day, she sits down with them and they listen to the song together and the person's crying, and it's beautiful, and it's like, all this stuff, and I'm like, whoa, okay. So powerful. And I would not have thought that initially when I spoke to her, I've been like, okay, there's a lot of elements here that I'm not sure about, but it's a really beautiful gift she's able to give people in a single day. I would say that there are some elements, like, if you're, I don't know, in the health sphere, right, and someone comes to you and their goal is to tone up or lose weight or something, obviously, you're not going to be losing a bunch of weight in a single day, right? However, what you can do is have a VIP day that's around the strategy to get you there over the long term. And what I've seen different health coaches or even sleep coaches. We've worked with stuff like that, where it's like we're building the plan. And then what's cool is they'll create either like a private podcast or a Google Calendar that their clients can upload that allows for that accountability piece to be there, but that person doesn't have to be there for the accountability, which is really cool. So there's ways that you can take some of the magic that is in the longer term, but create a different way of delivering it that doesn't involve you as the person and whatnot. So I've seen some pretty creative ways with the deliverables of the VIP day. But also, again, in my program, I talk about assets, which are ways that you can speed up your VIP day. So for example, for a lot of copywriters, they have a sheet of power words that they pull from, or for website designers, they have different blocks of I'm not a website person. So blocks of website that they put together and make it awesome, right? So they're starting from scratch, but they aren't really starting from scratch, right? And even for systems, it's like, okay, I understand how each of these tools talk to each other, so I'm not having to guess that on the day of. Right. So there's ways that and again, we call them assets, where it's like, this is going to help speed up the process on the day. So I'm not having to extend extra brain power for things that are necessary but aren't necessary for me to think of every single time.
[00:23:36] Cindy: So cool.
[00:23:36] Cindy: I want to talk about this sort.Of like running the business that does VIP days. I know you talk about being able to work in very few days and still have a full month's worth of income. Tell us a little bit about that. And also, do we market the same way we market other services? Is there a cycle? How do we manage the delivery time versus the legion and building the business?
[00:23:56] Jordan: Yeah, for sure you can run a real lean, mean business with VIP days. And I certainly did. I didn't need a team. I had a very simple five minute onboarding process for my clients that I hit an automation button and it just went. So the operations of the business is like, I don't know if you can get any more streamlined. Honestly, I pretty much had like a three day work week when I was doing just VIP days. So I would work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, and I would have four day weekends every single weekend. That's where my friends were like, what is your life? It's a great life, isn't it? So sometimes I'm like, that was nice. Right now I have a team of nine and it's the whole thing, but it's still a joy in a different way. But I had a three day work week and so how that would kind of parse out every week is Thursdays would be my VIP days. And then I would take obviously Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday off and be able to rest and chill and whatnot. So I always encourage people to think about that with their VIP days because you are extending a lot of energy mentally, both in all the ways. And so whatever ideal world you have set up for your schedule is the next day, after your VIP day, you don't have anything going on because you're just not going to be as productive. And so then on Tuesday and Wednesday are kind of my marketing days. So I would either schedule some podcast recordings for guest podcasting or I would do sales calls. And again, the thing with VIP days is I only needed to sell like four months to hit my goals. So I don't need to talk to hundreds of people like you do for courses or programs. I have to talk to eight to twelve ish people, depending. So I'm not having a ton of sales calls on my plate, per se. And I also was really big on referral partners. So I would say majority of my VIP days came from either referral partners or guest podcasting or even some events that I would attend. So not even speaking at events, like not even being the person on the stage, like just attending the event, being in the room, connecting with people. Because that's the funny thing about Ops. People like operations, people like me, we're not at events. So I was the only Ops person in the room. So it's like, if you need ops help, I'm the person you go to, right? Which is super beneficial. So I would say that you can definitely have a good process and flow for like two days of, like, marketing, selling, one day of delivery. And so, again, what I see people who have monthly retainers getting to an unfortunate flow of is they're so heavy on delivery that your marketing and sales is not happening. And then when a retainer drops or budget changes or whatever the case is, and a client two, or I've even seen sometimes three in the span of two months drop, you like, you haven't been marketing, you haven't been selling. So now it's going to take you exponentially longer to even find that next client because you haven't been doing that work. And so what's great about VIP day is it's an ongoing practice. It's just a part of your weeks, and you're not so exhausted by all of the delivery you're doing because it's very segmented, but you're also doing marketing and selling consistently enough to where your next client is just like, not that far away because you've been doing the work the whole time.
[00:27:15] Jess: Love that. Hey, Jordan, we are back with another round of our favorite part of an episode where we ask you rapidfire questions. Are you ready?
[00:27:49] Jordan: Yes, I am ready.
[00:27:49] Jess: Great. You mentioned that you are a resident of Dallas, Texas. So if I'm coming to visit you in Dallas, where are you taking me to go eat?
[00:28:04] Jordan: Oh my gosh. Well, it depends on your food preferences, which I'm very cognizant of because I have to be gluten free, dairy free, egg free for allergies and my chronic illnesses. So depending on your food preferences, I would change my answer. But if I just could decide all on my own and had the free will, I would take you to Heartache Barbecue because it is the absolute best barbecue you've ever, ever had. Hickory smoke. You can smell the smoke from miles away and it's delicious. And then I also would take you to it's kind of a hidden gem downtown called Woolworth for dinner. And that is more like American style, but they have like true mixologists who are on their staff and so you can tell them like your flavor profiles and they'll whip up something fun and exciting. So, yeah, I would say Harry's Barbecue for lunch and then you would go to Woolworth in downtown Dallas for dinner.
[00:29:08] Jess: Amazing. That sounds incredible. How specific. So I know you were kind of a self described, like to be really cozy and take moments to chill out. What does self care for Jordan Gill ideal self care for Jordan Gill look like?
[00:29:25] Jordan: Oh, yeah, I love this question. So I love massages. So I have made it an absolute requirement, especially with having nine team members and delivering at such a high level in business. I have weekly massages on Monday mornings at 10:00 a.m. Every single week. It's pretty rare for me. I had to not do it this week because I had jury duty on Monday. But that is something that is very non negotiable and that's to set my tone right for the rest of the week. So weekly massages. And then also I enjoy myself a good love sack chill, which is a bean bag, but they're like these giant bean bags that are absolutely absurd, but they are the best. I had to save up for my first one. They're like $1,000. I'm not joking. So I saved up for my love sack and was like, yes, I got one. And it has been the best investment. You can read on it, you can chill on it. And so I would say that's my second one. And then my third self care thing is that I don't have a ton of notifications on my phone. So I am not constantly actually have now a work phone and a personal phone. And so I'm very cognizant about making sure my energy isn't sucked everywhere.
[00:30:43] Jess: What's your favorite business book?
[00:30:43] Jordan: Oh my gosh. So I would say Radical Candor is my favorite business book mainly because I really appreciate people who can be upfront and share what's on their minds in a way that is productive. But I don't like being around people or being connected with people who are uncomfortable sharing when they're uncomfortable. Like if I'm being frank because I'm going to share when I'm uncomfortable. And it's not a knock on people. It's just I want to make if I didn't share, then I actually don't care. You know what I'm saying? And so radical. Candor is a great book, especially if you have team members because you're able to figure out how your team can be comfortable enough to say, like, hey, we're not going to do that, or hey, this is a bad idea, or whatever the case is, which my team does to me. And I appreciate and I value their perspective. And so I would say that's probably my favorite business book. It's good for even if you don't have a team.
[00:31:54] Jess: Totally. Final question. I know you like to play around on Instagram. I'm not sure if you've crossed over to Tik Tok, but who is an absolute must follow on either platform.
[00:31:54] Jordan: Yes, TikTok is more of a ridiculous follow situation. If you look at who I follow on TikTok, it's probably more embarrassing than anything. But Instagram, I would say the two people I actually just told my team that I want to really do similar content to is number one is Alex Katoni of Copy Posse.
[00:32:18] Jess: Oh, good.
[00:32:18] Jordan: Queen, queen, queen. Yeah. And then secondly is CodySanchez. And so she actually helps people build boring businesses. That's like her thing. And so she's like, get a Laundromat, get an ice machine, get a vending machine, get a pool business, like whatever. And her content is so interesting. She'll literally just be like filming outside of Chickfila and be talking about Chickfila franchisees and how that works. So she'll be in a Laundromat and talking about the breakdown of profit and loss and how much you would need to put down to buy a Laundromat or whatever. And so her content is phenomenal and so interesting and intrigues me as someday I would like to buy some boring businesses.
[00:33:00] Jess: That's so fun. I'm going to go follow Cody as well. I haven't heard of that account.
[00:33:22] Jordan: Awesome.
[00:33:22] Jess: Thank you so much for playing. That was so fun.
[00:33:22] Jordan: Yes, thanks. Those are great questions.
[00:33:30] Cindy: Go ahead, Jessica.
[00:33:30] Jess: I didn't have a question. I mean, I do have questions, but I just am like I love that so much. We talk about that. We preach that so much that we just recorded an episode yesterday on working on your business versus in your business. And I found myself in that pickle before where I was so busy working nonstop with a client, not doing any business development, and then the contract was up and I was like, laugh. I just really love that you made that sound.
[00:33:45] Jordan: Yeah.
[00:34:10] Cindy: Okay, I'm going to ask a silly question. Did you ever get bored? Because it's like that cycle, right? Do you have multiple types of VIP days or were you finding that you were doing the same thing over and over again, which is not a bad thing and certainly can be a really profitable one. But I'd love to just like if that is your business, how did that feel in terms of variety and creativity?
[00:34:10] Jordan: Yeah, so my target client was seasonal business owners, so that's wedding planners, tax professionals, hail, damage consultants, wine like people, so anyone who has seasons in their business. And I didn't notice this trend until I looked at them all on a wall and post it. And I was like, you guys are all seasonal, which I have a background.
[00:34:55] Cindy: So cool.
[00:35:09] Jordan: Yeah. So I have a background in sports, which is very seasonal. And so I had this natural attraction to seasonal businesses, whether it's an off season or on season. And so it made sense. And I didn't see it necessarily at the time or when I first started offering them, but that was a focus for me. So the variety came in the types of clients. My system was the same of working through their CRM, so their customer relationship management software and building that out, that was the same. But the creativity came in the types of businesses. So talking about the seasons of weddings versus the season of grapes for wine are completely different. And so it was really cool to still have that variety piece and that creativity where it wasn't just like if I had niche down so much that it was just like, I'm only working with baby sleep coaches or something. That would not be fun for me. So if you're somebody who does want that variety and creativity, you can create that in the niche or in the target audience that you're working with versus necessarily the processor framework that you're doing. I did have one VIP day front end, and then I had a VIP weekend. And the difference was the day was about building out the CRM and the weekend was building out the CRM and then talking about the team management piece. Because for seasonal businesses, there's a lot of seasonal hiring and training that goes into that. And so for somebody who was like, I need to have a better season next time, it really was both pieces of your systems and your team and training and stuff like that. But that was just a back end offer. Even if someone did just the initial VIP day and they wanted to do just another VIP day for the team stuff, I could upsell them into that and whatnot. So you can create a ton of different back end VIP days too. I really encourage people to have one front end VIP day that's like core to whatever the work is that they do. And then if you want to have a bunch of back end VIP, what I call back end VIP days because you're not talking about it necessarily publicly, it's really best for people that you've worked with before. You can totally play around with that too. So that again, you have variety in VIP days, but it doesn't clutter up and complicate the sales process.
[00:37:42] Jess: This is so good. I mean, I'm just like taking all in. One thing that people who are just learning about you might not know is that you are excellent on the customer experience. And I haven't done a VIP day with you, but I've attended your conferences. I just signed up for a new offer you're putting out. And I know that you give a lot of attention to that. You teach about it? And I'm wondering for folks that are listening or if you can pull from any examples of VIP experiences from any of your students, like what makes a really excellent VIP day or week experience. Because I get the sense that people would rehire you, like, multiple times for multiple VIP, depending on what your offer is. But you might need a strategy plan once a year. You might need a new, I don't know, website. Not every year, hopefully. That seems successive, but you know what I mean? And you would always go back to that person. And so to make sure that we deliver really great customer experiences, I would just love to know what you think makes a good one.
[00:38:50] Jordan: Yeah, for sure. I think that the term VIP day can feel a little scary or intimidating. I've gotten that feedback before and whatnot, but VIP is very much dependent on the person. Actually just came from a team development meeting where we all talked about love languages and the different love languages we have and whatnot But VIP day doesn't mean that you're meeting at the Ritz Carlton with champagne. Unless that's totally what you want to do, and that's awesome. But my VIP day is, like I did one last week and I showed up in my typical joggers and sweatshirt, and we're just, like, doing the thing. And that one was in person because she lived here in Dallas. So it worked out. But I encourage you to think of just like what elevates the experience and doesn't distract from the experience. So, for example, I did a VIP day around curriculum design, and so someone helped me to put my curriculum in the best formatting for consumption. And it was awesome Because it was virtual. And she gave at the end of the VIP day. Well, she had sent me a box in the mail and said, you can't open it until at the end of our VIP day, So, of course it's, like, annoying because I'm sitting in this box and it's this beautifully branded box. I'm like, but it's fine. I Waited. I didn't cheat. So we opened the box at the end and there's a bunch of different goodies and things in there, but there was a scratch off in there. I was like, oh, this is fun. And so I scratched it off, and it actually was a one night. She Was Going To cover one night of an airbnb stay for me to record my content at. I was like, what? Right? Like, I was like, this is so brilliant, I can't even prop.
[00:40:32] Jess: Brilliant. Oh my God.
[00:40:43] Jordan: Right? And so there's different and I was like, does everybody get this? She's like, well, there's like five or six different scratch offs, so I don't know which one you're going to get. But like, cool. So she had, I think, like a video recording kit that she'll send to you of like a tripod and a lighting kit and whatever else she really thought. She's a curriculum designer. So what are the things that this person is going to need once they leave here and go and record all the content we've spoken about? How can I make that easier for them? And I'm just like, I can't even right? So that's an experience that I've had that's been really great. There is another one where I hired a website developer for something and it was a VIP day where we weren't on the call at all together, thank goodness, because there's nothing more I don't want to do than watch code. Maybe taxes, but I don't want to watch you code. And so what was lovely is she had this really intense prework questionnaire. And I was like, but it was a super lovely touch because she actually sent in the email of a pre work questionnaire. She's like, this is going to be a lot. And I'm not apologizing for it, but what I've done to make it a little bit better is give you a $10 Starbucks gift card, go get you a chai tea or coffee, and make it a little bit more enjoyable. And I'm like, you know what? I will go get myself a chai ti lotti and I will do this prework. Thank you so much. Right? So anticipating where there could be frustration or there could be a dip in experience and being like, oh, like, I'm going to think up a way that I can meet you where you're at and actually make it a positive experience rather than something that you want to nails on a chalkboard and pass out about. Right? So those are a few examples that, again, on the receiving end of VIP days that have been really, really great, that, again, aren't the Ritz Carlton and aren't those things they're little tiny touches, but they also don't distract. They aren't I'm just getting like, I don't know, like something that's just like a mousepad or something with your logo on it. It's like, hey, but what are we doing here? So thinking through anticipating, thinking through how to elevate the parts that, you know, they're going to either grown or moan about. Like, how do we then take it from a negative to a positive? Those are the ways that you increase client experience. And I've seen people be really creative with how to do that. And it's been really fun to see, and so make it your own. It doesn't have to be an airbnb night. It doesn't have to be a Starbucks gift card. But just, again, it can look like a few different things. I actually did a retreat with some of my alumni, and I went to Target, and I bought them all these, like, $15 fuzzy blankets, because I'm like, I'm always cold, so let me make sure that they aren't going to be cold. And I live in Dallas, Texas. So cold is relative. But they all came, and that was, like, their favorite thing. They were so excited about these $15 Target fuzzy blankets. They're like, you can never have enough fuzzy blankets. And I'm like, this is why you're my people.
[00:43:58] Jess: True.
[00:43:58] Jordan: Right? It's like you just think through those little touches. Television.
[00:44:05] Jess: No one does that. I know Cindy has a question, but just to jump in, it's those little touches that separate you from everyone else. And I tell this to my nonprofit clients by you sending a loom video. You're doing 99% of the things or 99% of nonprofits will not do that thing. You put something physical in the mail as a thank you card, a handwritten note, it will set you apart. These are some really great examples, coupled with those things you called assets, like the ongoing podcast. This is such a masterclass for whether you do a VIP day or you just do this as part of your offer suite in general. These are so good.
[00:44:34] Jordan: Thank you.
[00:44:34] Cindy: To that point. When your clients are nonprofits, they're used to being treated like shit. So when you treat them nicely, it's.
[00:44:50] Jordan: Like, above a man.
[00:44:50] Jess: Could you imagine if it was part of your VIP day? You bought them all lunch, like, you sent them lunch, catered lunch for them? They die. They would die.
[00:45:04] Jordan: Totally.
[00:45:04] Cindy: They just are used to not, like, not getting anything nice. Okay, I had a question a while ago, and I totally forgot it, but then I remembered, so I can ask it now, but it might seem like a little bit out of the blue. Earlier you mentioned referral partners, and I know I get asked a lot about that in terms of, like, how do you set that up and what does that look like? So I'd love to hear your experience of what are those formal relationships or just informal and what has worked for you?
[00:45:49] Jordan: I love talking about referral partners. Love, love it. I didn't realize I did them necessarily differently, but the more I talk about it, the more you realize it's semi different. So it's not in the traditional sense of like, hey, do you want to send people my way? And then every month I annoy the crap out of you to send me clients. That's just not how I roll, because that's annoying and it's not helpful for anybody. They're welcome to business. Everyone wants more clients, right? So how I see referral partners is I look at my client journey, my clients journey, and see, okay, who comes before me in my clients journey systems is never the first thing people are buying. And that's fine. Like, I'm cool with it, I get it. So I'm kind of in the middle of the journey, and so it's like, okay, what are people doing before me? And they either are hiring a business coach or building a website, okay? So I can go to a website designer and say, hey, does it feel really crappy when you build this beautiful website and it's converting into leads, but then your client has a crappy sales process and they blame the website, right? They're like, you aren't getting me leads, whatever, when really they don't have their systems together. So I'm like, okay, wouldn't it be nice if actually while you're building the website, I can come in for a day, build the CRM, and then it's set up and ready for the website launch, and then their leads and their sales process is all happy and you look really great, right? And they're like, yes, sign me up, right? And it's a VIP day, so it can happen simultaneously as the website is being built, and it just fits very seamless. And so that's where I'm looking out for the referral partner just as much as I'm looking out for their clients. I'm looking at ways that the referral partner looks good to send people to me, because I don't need my name and knights. I don't really care about that stuff. And so even with business coaches, they want their clients to have a client onboarding process or a sales process, but they don't want to talk about it. They don't want to talk about how to set it up. They don't want to share loom videos or tutorials with you. Just go set it up and figure it out. And so with business coaches, I go to them and say, hey, are you suggesting your clients to set up a client onboarding system? Do you want me to set it up for them? And that way you never have to talk about Dubs auto or honey book or active campaign ever again in your life. That is music to their ears. So, like, hallelujah, Jesus, let me just send everybody to you. And so, again, I have inserted myself as an extension of other referral partners client experience. So I'm able to notice, okay, here's where my referral partners are feeling kind of annoyed or things that I guess affect their client experience that I can come in and be like, I get to just do it for you and make you look really good. I don't have to ask for clients every month, okay? I never have to ask for clients because it's so easy for them to be like, okay, they're starting to talk to me about the auto or about active campaign or about crap. I don't want to talk about. This is the time that I get to send them to Jordan and, like and get paid, like, you know, $500 referral fee, and I just get to sit back and stay in my zone. Same thing with website designers. I'm like, again, if they have crappy systems, send them to me. It'll take me a day. And then you look good because your website and your systems are all built into one. So I found it important to think about not just your referral partners clients, but think about your referral partners, take that step back and really think about how can I be an extension of their client experience and make them look good? And so that's really how I stay, like, ahead from a VIP day's perspective is because I didn't have to do the I don't know, the constant asking. That typically happens with referral partners. And again, there's referral partners that I have that I know are after me. And so it makes sense for me to cultivate those relationships because then it makes me look good from a systems perspective, whether it's online business managers are a great referral partner that I'm a good referral partner for, as well as one of my top referral partners that I send people to is an affiliate manager. She's actually like, a partnership manager. So affiliates, joint ventures, stuff like that. And I send her clients all the time. Number one, because she's phenomenal. But number two, she's a great extension of my client experience, and she makes it easy for me to refer people. I'm actually on a monthly newsletter where she sends it's super valuable. She's like, oh, these are the people I met this month. You should meet them too. And here's what's going on in my business, and here's a cool new thing I put in my office for whatever else. And so she provides that value every single month. But it also is a nice reminder for me of like, oh, yeah, I have somebody that I need to send to her. Let me go do that now.
[00:51:06] Jess: It's so smart.
[00:51:06]Jordan: It's magical.
[00:51:06] Jess: I mean, good on you for syncing this up. And I love what you said about it making others look good or you look good because you're being so helpful all the time. A follow up question to that, though, is just to get a little bit more nitty gritty, like, how official are these partners? Are you having contact signed? Is there like, an agreed upon referral fee? I think for folks in this world, this might be a very new concept, and I would just love as someone with more experience, to walk us through some of that detail.
[00:51:25] Jordan: Yeah, so for me, I don't play with legal stuff. I get very nervous if there's not a contract or an agreement for something because I just like to understand the expectations of both parties. And so for me, referral partners were a more formal situation where I sent them an agreement of, like, if you do send somebody to me, I promise I'm going to pay you this amount. I want it to be very reassuring to people to know, and especially if it's a newer relationship, if we've connected in some way that hasn't been over months and years, I want them to know that I'm not taking advantage of them. Right. So I did have or do have a referral partner program per se. And again, it's just a contract that is in perpetuity, so we don't necessarily need to resign a new contract every year. So it's just if you send somebody to me and they mention your name, then again, you get a $500 kickback. And if they sign and it will happen X amount of time after our VIP day, and we'll go from there. So it was a pretty simple agreement, but it was more me wanting to reassure them and let them know that their clients are going to be taken care of, but also you're going to be taken care of and here's how and whatnot. So for me, I feel better having some sort of like, legal situation in agreement with referral partners. I know people who don't, that's fine, but I feel better.
[00:53:15] Jess: Totally. Yeah. Let's make it official. As we wrap up our conversation, I want to circle back to something you said at the top of the very beginning of this chat, which was that a VIP day starts at a four figure investment. And again, for folks listening in, that might feel very intimidating as something they might be selling to nonprofits. And I would love for you to just talk through, like, why four figures? How did you come up with that threshold? I loved the section of what you said earlier about people paying for time, and it's either free or it's fast, so that was really helpful. But I would just love for you to talk about pricing a bit of VIP days and weeks because it's something that people need to price right. To make it work for a business. If you're only going to work four days a week, you have to make it worth it. Right? Right.
[00:54:13] Jordan: Yeah. The part about the pricing is there's a perceived value with VIP days that if it's under a $1,000, people actually don't believe you, they don't perceive it to actually be a VIP day. It actually does do worse harm because it's kind of an unbelievable situation. And then therefore, if they don't believe it, then they aren't going to pay for it. Right. So I found that at least over a $1,000 has been something where people grasp as perceived value, and they aren't. It matches what their expectation of the VIP day is. So from there, whether it's four figures, five figures, et cetera, is looking at, okay, if I am taking a process that usually takes me three months, it usually takes me a month or whatever it is and I'm able to do it in a day. There's value in the fact that I've saved them 29 days or I've saved them almost three months of time. There's an actual price to that. And so thinking through how much of that is being saved. So if you're able to build a website in a day versus three months, then you're able to probably get them more sales in those three months than they would have gotten if they had signed on for somebody building a website for three months. Also something to look at is if you do something that involves usually multiple people. So for example, if a website designer is one of websites, an easy one because everybody understands usually websites, but you're thinking about, okay, usually you have to get a website designer, a website developer sometimes like a techie person that's more or less like in the systems and all of that stuff. And so if you're kind of all of those things in one, there's value. You're saving them money by not having to find these other people to hire and to manage. There is a cost to managing, right? And so anyone who has a team understands that and realizes there's benefit to having somebody manage the people, right? So if any of those things are a part of your day, look at what those actual costs are. How much would it be to pay for a website developer, a tech person and a project manager that then now you're observing as the website, as the website designer for a VIP day. So thinking through all of those things. On the flip side of that as well is if you look at the DIY version. So if somebody wants to do it themselves, you have to buy the template, you have to get familiar with WordPress or Shopify or whatever the heck else there is out there. You have to actually now put it all together and figure out there's so much time. And time is value. And so if you're building your website yourself, you're actually not able to take on as many clients as you normally would have. So there's actual cost to doing it yourself. So when you are pricing your VIP day, take all of that into consideration not only the price of if they did a longer project with somebody with multiple people attached, but also the other side of DIY do it yourself, then really look at what that cost is. And so I feel like for some reason 2000 $3,000 is where people generally start depending on what it is that they do and then they go up from there. Because I don't know what it is about the 2000 $3,000 mark that feels comfortable to people. And that's where I started to I started at $3,000. But a challenge that I like to give people. And this is what I kind of gave to myself at the beginning was my monthly retainers were $3,500 for 40 hours. And so my first VIP days were $3,000 for 4 hours. And so whatever your VIP day length is, like, try charging what your typical monthly retainer or project rate is for one day, whatever. That's 4 hours, 8 hours, it doesn't matter. And just like, see, because people have been surprised and been like, oh, snap. I was able to take what I would make in three months and make it in a single day. That's phenomenal. And even if that doesn't work the first time, I like to do it as a challenge for people because more times than not, actually, people have been able to have that rate be their starting rate, which is kind of wild to think about.
[00:58:54] Jess: I love it so much. I experimented for my first time with VIP weeks these last eight weeks, where I complete an entire end of your fundraising campaign for a client in five days. And it's like 15 emails, a hard copy appeal, the social captions, the toolkit, like, all the things, right? And I was just checking in with one of them yesterday, and one of the 15 emails I wrote for that person raised $4,000. I turned six. And so I was like, wow. And we did it in a week, I think to the pricing thing, which I know so many of us nonprofit consultants are carrying on our own trauma from being in the nonprofit sector. So many of us are women. We've got a whole bunch of uphill climbs to conquer. I just really appreciate all of these perspectives. And, yeah, I think people are they want to pay the fast pass. And so this is such a great tool. You're amazing. And I think both Cindy and I are so grateful to be in your orbit. For more people who want to be in your orbit, Jordan, where is the place for people to find you? She's also so fantastic on social with, like, your real. You really got it together.
[01:00:15] Jordan: Listen, what you're seeing is again, I preface with, I have nine people on my team, so I understand that sometimes I get the credit, but I do like to actually credit it to the amazing people who are behind the scenes and are able to make me look good. But the best way is to find me on my website. So Systemsaved.com, that's plural systems and then Instagram at Systems saved me. And yes, I do enjoy some real. I'm kind of ridiculous, but I enjoy it. So that's what it should be and whatnot but, yeah, I would say those two places are, like, the best ways to keep up with me, to see what I'm doing, to learn from me all that fun stuff.
[01:00:47] Jess: And for, again, folks who don't know, she has this amazing virtual conference that, to my understanding, was going in person in 2023. I've already got it marked on my calendar. I am going. To be there come rain, shine, whatever. So go. Follow Jordan. And thank you for being here. We so appreciate your time.
[01:01:14] Jordan: Thanks so much for having me. Cindy and Jess. Appreciate it.
[01:01:26] Cindy: Thank you again for listening to the Confessions podcast for nonprofit coaches and consultants. If you enjoyed today's episode, which I sure hope you did, you can enjoy your support in one of three ways.
[01:01:26] Jess: Number one, post a screenshot of this episode to your Instagram stories or LinkedIn profile and tag Cindy and us so we can really post you.
[01:01:26] Cindy: Number two share this podcast with a fellow nonprofit coaching consultant.
[01:01:26] Jess: And number three, leave a positive review on Apple podcasts so we can continue to grow and reach new listeners.
[01:01:56] Cindy: And, of course, make sure you subscribe so you can get the latest and greatest interviews as they drop every Thursday.
[01:01:56] Jess: And to our fellow nonprofit coaching and consulting friends, remember, we're an open book and here to answer your burning, biz questions.
[01:01:56] Cindy: See you next time.