Stacy Tuschl is a best-selling author, speaker, the owner of multiple 7-figure businesses, and the creator of the Foot Traffic Formula™, where she helps small business owners get more customers in their door, more profit in their pockets, and more happiness in their homes.
Stacy’s in-depth process guides her students to break through their challenges, operate at their highest potential, and create self-sustaining businesses—all without sacrificing their families or lifestyles. You shouldn’t be sacrificing your life for your business; your business should be supporting your life.
Listen to this informative Publish. Promote. Profit. episode with Stacy Tuschl about creating 7-Figure Businesses using a book.
Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week’s show:
– How a book works best when it has a product that it can sell.
– Why it’s important for your book to focus on a specific topic.
– How sometimes the best way to learn is through making mistakes.
– Why business owners should be checking their DMs on social media.
– How your program must have even more value than your book.
Connect with Stacy:
Links Mentioned:
implementationcode.co/freecourse
Guest Contact Info:
Instagram
@stacytuschl
Facebook
facebook.com/stacytuschl
Rob Kosberg:
Hey, welcome everybody. It’s Rob Kosberg here with a kind of special edition of our Publish. Promote. Profit. podcast. As many of you know, I’m writing a new book, Book Funnel Secrets, and I am interviewing some real book funnel experts and those that are having great success with their book funnels. And so I have a great guest today that I’m going to be speaking to. Stacy Tuschl started her own business at the age of 18 in her parents’ backyard and turned that company into a multimillion dollar business that still runs today. I love that.
Stacy’s the bestselling author of The Implementation Code and founder of The Foot Traffic Formula, helping small businesses around the world get more customers in the door. The Foot Traffic podcast now has over 1.5 million downloads, is frequently on the top 30 of all marketing podcast on iTunes. She interviews guests like Suze Orman, Dave Hollis, Dean Graziosi. Stacy was named the 2019 Wisconsin Small Business Person of the Year by the United States Business Administration. It is such a pleasure, Stacy, an honor to have you on. And thanks for being on the podcast and being willing to be in the book.
Stacy Tuschl:
Yeah. So excited to chat. I just love sharing what worked, what didn’t like. Anything we can do to help other people. I love it.
Rob Kosberg:
Well, we’re going to hopefully talk all about that as it relates to the book. So let’s dive in. Give me kind of … lay the groundwork if you could. Tell me a little bit about your business and when I say about your business, who you help, but also just the workings of it. What your value ladder looks like and that sort of thing.
Stacy Tuschl:
Yeah, for sure. So I started this online portion of my business about seven years ago. The backyard business is actually a dance and music school that I’ve owned now for about 20 years. But I was just teaching people like, how did I grow that business? And how does it still run without me today and all the things. And what’s funny is when I got into the expert space, I thought I have to have a book. So before I ever came out, I wrote an entire book, did the whole thing. And what’s really sad is it’s actually a really well written book, but there was no book funnel. It was the wrong book. We’ve done nothing. All of that time, money, energy, nothing. It kills me. And I thought I needed it for the expertise and the credibility.
I will say it helps, but it helps a whole lot more when it goes with the product you want to sell. So my value ladder is definitely starting really with the book funnel. And then from there, we go into this specific one, Implementation Code. We go into a challenge, a paid challenge. We go into a productivity course and then continuing up my value ladder, we have group coaching programs and a mastermind.
Rob Kosberg:
So right from the book to a paid challenge. So I’m going to want to talk about your book funnel, which my assumption is that all those pieces are in there, and your assistant gave me the link to the book funnel. One thing I always do is I go through, I buy some things, I record everything. So I’m going to be doing that. And having along with this interview with you, I’ll have those things together so people can literally see it as we’re talking about it.
Stacy Tuschl:
And I would be more than happy to not make you buy it and just give you the link for every single step of the funnel. So please let me do that.
Rob Kosberg:
So, talk to me about the, you mentioned a couple of things that I think it’s at least worthwhile. You’re using your book and it’s on your website and it’s part of your funnel, but it’s also the wrong book. Talk to me about why it was the wrong book to write, because I think that’ll be really instructive to a lot of people that are listening and that are wondering, what does it even mean that I wrote the wrong book?
Stacy Tuschl:
Yeah, absolutely. So what’s funny is sometimes something solves a problem, but it doesn’t fix the one problem you actually want to solve more. So I was talking to somebody in PR and I said, “Listen, every time somebody gets me on a show, I’m talking out something that really doesn’t light me up, or it’s not going to lead anywhere.” And they said, “You need something bigger, tap of funnel that’s more broad.” And I said, “Well, I love implementing. I’m an action taker. I could totally do The Implementation Code book.” And we fell in love with that idea, but none of my high ticket products lead there or really have to do with that. So great. It gets me on PR, but if it doesn’t sell the product…
Rob Kosberg:
…What good is it?
Stacy Tuschl:
That’s what I’m really trying to do. I will say The Implementation Code has opened a lot of doors for lots of different types of podcasts and lots of different types of PR. And it does help sell the funnel and the product in there that’s 297, but my high ticket offers is not in that. They’re not in that funnel. So, the new book is going to be all about well-oiled operations, which is what my program is titled. And it will head down my actual funnel. So I’m very excited because I know what a good book funnel can do. Wait till I find out what it does for the right program. So that’s where I started and you know it’s like, why do you want visibility? To sell your product. So you just have to make sure like that part of it makes sense, but I was very strategic with book number two, The Implementation Code. And it was lots of calls to actions in the book.
I did a free mini course that went along with it. So I kept teasing in every single chapter. I go, I’ll give you, I’ll definitely mail you a copy too. But I basically am saying, okay, you’ll want to do this. Oh, hey and if you want this, go grab it for free. I’ve got the template right there. So every single chapter, I said, what am I teasing? And what am I going to gift in the free one?
And then in the free course, now I’ve got your email. You’re maybe in a Kajabi or Kajabi access, right, or portal, which I can also show you other products inside the portal to get you to want to go buy different funnels. So that’s where I think the sweet spot for this book really happened. It was great to get people finding me and going down that path. After the, you get the free course, and that’s why you go to grab that. I think you can cheat here without buying the book. I think you can go to implementationcode.co/freecourse. Now they’re thinking, oh, I already own the book. I’m going to go grab the free course. And they put their name in email and that’s what kicks off the free course. And then it immediately will prompt you and say, “Hey, did you want to get our 21 day implementation challenge?” So now I’m teaching you on a weekly basis how to implement the book.
Right. So that’s been really good. And then the last step is, hey, and I think it’s 197 or 297. And it’s a six week really in depth course on calendar management, my email inbox. So think implementation, organizing. Getting rid of papers and just your messy office. Right. So the funnel goes really well there, but it stops there. So not everybody that goes through that is going to want to buy my other stuff, but definitely a portion of them are the right people.
Rob Kosberg:
I would think several of them are, right?
Stacy Tuschl:
Yes. But if so, think like this, you could be 100% a solopreneur. Get every one of those pieces. If I start talking systems, hiring, you might be like, “Whoa, no, no, no. That’s not for me.” Right? Yeah. So it’s just not 100% in alignment and if you’re going to do it, get it right. You know what I mean?
Rob Kosberg:
Let’s go back to the biggest mistake that I see clients make. And I mean, we stop them from making it, but that I see authors make as they go too broad. And it is by far the biggest mistake. One of my good friends, Carrie Wilkerson wrote a book called The Barefoot Executive that has done exceptionally well and has gotten her on stages all over the world. The problem is it was not the right book, and it ha it is kind of pigeonholed her in a way that what that book brings to her, she doesn’t really work with or want, which is the newbie entrepreneur.
Now, she’s done amazing with her speaking business and that’s the primary thing. But we’ve had this exact conversation, her and I, and it is the same conversation that we have with all authors. I mean, let’s get narrow, let’s get in the niche, because we don’t need to sell a 100,000 copies. I mean, you can sell 10,000 and copies and make millions of dollars with your book by bringing people into your world and serving them and making a difference in their life. So I love what you’re doing. I can’t wait to see the success from it.
Stacy Tuschl:
And here’s the thing. I say like all the bad steps that I’ve done, but sometimes you just have to make those mistakes for you to fully grasp how to do it right next time. And this next one will be the best one because I’ve done all of the things I shouldn’t have done. So please don’t be too hard on yourself if you’ve copied and done some of the things I’ve done. And you’re like, oh no, I shouldn’t have done that.
Rob Kosberg:
If you just don’t stop. Right?
Stacy Tuschl:
Correct.
Rob Kosberg:
I mean, you figured out, you move on to the next one.
Stacy Tuschl:
Yeah. And you don’t let it paralyze you from moving forward.
Rob Kosberg:
Talk to me about the challenge, The Implementation Challenge. So 21 days. My assumption is that it is some type of recorded challenge. What is the cost of it? Talk to me about what that all looks like and how you deliver that challenge.
Stacy Tuschl:
So, I think it’s 21 days, $27 is what I think we did. I think we were going to do 21 days for $21. And then we’re like, but they know. Those numbers are better. So I think we switched it to 27. And one of the things that I did too, was I had this implementation tracker that I make them print immediately. And the goal was, get this thing printed, get in their home someplace visible. So it would remind them to get back into the course or the book or something. So I was constantly trying to remind them of what they signed up for. And even with the front part of the funnel of the book, you get … it’s the free plus shipping, so you can get the book.
Then you could upsell to the audio. And then I think we even had one more, unless it was the challenge. I’ll have to look and see when I gave you the links, but we definitely had other things that they could add on right away or different formats of would you rather listen, would you rather this? Right. All the things. And I did record it all myself audio.
Rob Kosberg:
Wow. That’s not easy to do.
Stacy Tuschl:
No, but as a podcaster, I didn’t record the first book. I let somebody else do it. I paid somebody else to do it. And people would be like, “I’m so disappointed it’s not you.” I think if you’re not a podcaster, you can get away with it. But if you’re a podcaster, they’re used to listening to you all the time.
Rob Kosberg:
They want to hear you.
Stacy Tuschl:
They do.
Rob Kosberg:
I agree with that. Bite the bullet and do it.
Stacy Tuschl:
You must, yeah.
Rob Kosberg:
So, talk to me a little bit about traffic and how you’re introducing people to the book. Obviously I found it on your website and it’s pretty prominent there. Are you running paid traffic at all to it? Or have you done that in the past? Or what other ways, like your podcast, et cetera?
Stacy Tuschl:
Yeah. So we absolutely were running paid traffic to it when it was the right funnel. When we realized this is not doing anything for us. Right? And before iOS came in and did stuff, it was profiting. It was absolutely worth it. We’re just keeping on, even if it’s the wrong funnel. Once it started to do that, I would have gone in there and said, how do I start to make these tweaks better? But for us, it just wasn’t the best use of our time so we said, “Just leave it. Keep it on the website.” It is something like organically that is still selling all the time. So to me, it’s such a great piece to have. Plus, it’s also this, how do I say? It’s like an asset you can use for so many things like people saying, “Can I pay for you to come speak and I’ll buy a book deal with you.”
So now they’re buying. I just spoke on stage and they bought 800 copies. Right. So there’s so many other ways you can use it. And then we did a nice PDF version of the book. So, we’ll give the eBook a way for free in certain, not funnel-funnels, but just more I might say on Instagram, “Hey, do you want to copy my book? DM me right now, free book. And I’m going to send you a link.” And now I’m starting to sell by chat because I just got them inside of my … right. So there’s a lot of ways to use the book and not to mention getting on podcasts and other PR, because you’ve got this framework that you want to teach. So we’ve used it a bunch of different ways.
As soon as the new funnel is out with the new book, we will heavily go back to ads. What we found worked I think the best for us was because it was so broad, it was really a more of a warm market book. I think with the new book being more specific and strategic and operations and all of that, I think it’s going to actually do decent with codes because that’s not a topic that’s talked about all the time. You see marketing everywhere, but you don’t see a lot of systems and team building and all of that stuff.
Rob Kosberg:
I’m interested in several things. You said one, the sell by chat, I think is very cool. What a cool way to use your content in a freeway, right. That doesn’t cost you anything to deliver.
Stacy Tuschl:
Yeah.
Rob Kosberg:
Doesn’t cost them anything and it introduces them. So I want to hear-
Stacy Tuschl:
Can I share too? You might thinking, but I want them to buy book. I can’t tell you how many people start reading the PDF and go, “Can I have the link to buy the book?” Because people would rather hold it or buy it on Audible or things like that. So I don’t think it hurt me at all.
Rob Kosberg:
No, it didn’t. I promise you it did not. Plus, it got them in your world and when they read the book, they become a fan. They just have to, and they’re like, “Wow. I was DMing with Stacy.”
Stacy Tuschl:
Completely.
Rob Kosberg:
“And we were talking.” I mean, it is a mental framework, game changer as far as how they view you. So no. So talk to me about the sell by chat. What does that look like? And I would assume that there’s an automation component, meaning that you’re not selling by chat with every single person. I mean, some people will hear this, but let’s let them know.
Stacy Tuschl:
Let’s do it.
Rob Kosberg:
Let’s let them look behind the curtain and see the wizard.
Stacy Tuschl:
Yeah. So it’s not automated. It’s me with other people on my team doing it. So, I am in my DMs daily. I answer as many of them as I can, but yeah. Sometimes you’ll message us and we’ll say, “Hey, it’s Bella from Stacy’s team. Here’s the …” Yeah. So we’re very open and transparent. I believe people look at DMs as just another way to have customer service. And they’re expecting fast responses. Just like I don’t expect you Rob to be answering Info at Rob. I’m not surprised when somebody answers. I don’t think people are surprised anymore when somebody else is responding in the DMs.
So, we’re really treating it as another email inbox. So we get a flood of people, messaging, DMing, all of the things and just like you, somebody’s managing customer service, somebody is also managing our DMs. What’s really nice is when I want to jump in or need to jump in, they just flag it. So inside of your DMs, there’s this orange flag if you have a business account. So they’ll literally say, hey, if you Rob, if you message me and said like, “Oh, thanks for a good interview.” They would not respond to you. They would flag it and mark it unread. And I would see it and I would go in there and I’d be like, “Hey, thanks, Rob. Loved it.” So there’s a lot of ways you can do this just like you manage your email.
There are systems you can put in place here, but we just start conversations. So whether it’s me, whether it’s somebody on my team and you ask for the book, or you ask for that template I set on Instagram, stories. Now I’m like, “What did you like about the template? Tell me more about your business.” And we are selling by chat every single day.
Rob Kosberg:
Talk to me about that. What are you selling?
Stacy Tuschl:
Well, because it’s not automated, we get to be custom. So when we’re talking to somebody and we’re like, well, tell me more about you. Where are your struggles? What are you looking for? We get to say, they need the book or wow, did you know we have this program? I’d love to gift you a free guest pass to come into one of these programs to check it out. I think you’d be perfect for it. Right. Or even just saying, do you want to talk to one of our scale specialists? Let’s get you on a free consult, and they’ll tell you more. Right. So there’s so many things we can do. So I know it’s crazy that we would be doing this, but when you see what we’re bringing in on the other side, I’m going, how do I get more of us in there if we can’t keep up?
Rob Kosberg:
So, let’s recap that. A simple Instagram message or story or something. It says, “Hey, I was thinking about giving away free copy my book. Who would be interested?” Just comment below and I’ll get you a free copy of it. Or it could be a worksheet or PDF or something, anything. But the book obviously high value.
Stacy Tuschl:
If you go funnel hack my reels, half of my reels, I talk for about a minute. And then I say, “Hey, and if you want my fill-in-the-blank, comment below this word, and when you comment below, my team will DM you with the link to the free gift.”
Rob Kosberg:
What you think of the gift? And a percentage are never going to respond, but the ones do there, a conversation begins. And what you think? What were your challenges? What do you need? And then they can be directed into a product that could be helpful to them.
Stacy Tuschl:
If somebody’s not interested or they’re not responding, we get it. We’re not going to keep, yeah. We have enough people DMing every day that we just go where somebody actually wants our help and they’re interested. Talk to those people.
Rob Kosberg:
You can teach out of a chapter every single day or every other day. And then you just say, “Hey, what I taught was just from chapter two of my book. If anybody’s interested in the PDF, I’d be happy to give it away.” Now you start a conversation and see how you can help that individual.
Stacy Tuschl:
And what’s been cool is to see what the winners of the templates are we’ve created and what aren’t. So you know how I said, chapter one, I would tease something and then say, go here. And then chapter two. Well, with that funnel, I couldn’t really tell what was the winners. I just knew something got you to go. Well, now when I separate them on my Instagram, I can actually see what you liked from the book.
Rob Kosberg:
Oh, that’s good. Yeah, no one’s interested in the number one thing, but chapter two, they love chapter two and let’s give them more of that.
Stacy Tuschl:
Or you can go, wow, they like chapter one, but the more qualified people are coming from chapter two. So now I need to tweak or change my content to really leaning into chapter two because that’s what’s getting the qualified people to say, “I’m interested.”
Rob Kosberg:
So, talk to me, maybe lastly, or anything else that you want to talk about because you know your stuff and are clear expert. The new book, and talk to me about what the whole vision is for the new book. I know that it’s specific because those are really your people, but you must have already thought about what the funnel looks like or have an idea. Talk me through what you envision that being and looking like.
Stacy Tuschl:
So, this time I started the opposite. I have the product. It’s like, everybody’s in the program. It’s going well, amazing testimonials. I already know what’s exciting, what’s not, what’s boring, what’s sexy, all the things. Right. And I really want to, I was like, I’ll write it simultaneously. And I started to write notes and things like that, but I really said, no, no, I want to start with the end in mind. And then I want to make sure, because this is another thing I can’t stand with books and programs, is when you buy a book and then you love it and then you buy the program and you’re like, this is the $15 book that I just spend $5,000 to go … Literally I’ve spent five grand on programs and go, this is their book, but just taught on video. Right? Which is so irritating.
So, I decided when I was creating our higher ticket program, I said, no, no, no, this is reserved for the program. No one is going to get this stuff. This is the really, really good stuff. So I started, what’s the overview? What’s the why? What’s the what? All the things. Really keeping that how in the program and just really making sure the book, they’re grasping these pieces, but the really high level stuff must be in the paid program.
So, I think, but still so valuable making somebody go, “Holy cow. This is insane.” So reverse engineering it, I probably will go very similarly with the old one. I’m not going to do the 21 day challenge for the sake of, I don’t want somebody having to wait 21 days. I want somebody buying this book and being like, “What’s next?” Right. So I think I will probably have some free sort of masterclass or video training that goes with it. It might go from there to a book a call or maybe even to a DM or something like that, to get people to want to get into my Instagram DMs to get another free thing, and then know we know how to sell on the backend. It’s exciting.
Rob Kosberg:
Do you do any live events or any of those kinds of things? Are those still, is that a maybe idea within the book? Or what are your thoughts there?
Stacy Tuschl:
Yeah, so we have. When somebody joins our high ticket program, there is an event that goes with it. So at our event, we’re also going to be capturing live testimonials of people have gone through it and all of that stuff as well. So that’ll really help the funnel too. But yes, I’m a big, that’s how I started in the business world is my first thing was a conference. That was so life changing to me. So for me, yes, I am a conference girl. I want to put on live events and in-person events. So we’ve been doing it. About three times a year, we do retreats for our mastermind, and then once a year, this is the first year we’re bringing it back since COVID, is our big annual event.
Rob Kosberg:
So, Stacy, let’s give some links. Let’s help people know where they can learn a little bit more about you and maybe join your community.
Stacy Tuschl:
I would say the two best places is the Foot Traffic Podcast. If you like podcasts, come on over. Second place, DM me on Instagram. And especially if you want to see what this looks like behind the scenes, go for it. And if you DM me, just DM me “book” and I will send you a free copy of that PDF so you can see the book as well, but then you can also experience if you want to, what that looks like behind the scenes.
Rob Kosberg:
Awesome. Stacy, thank you. Thanks for sharing. Loved your energy and appreciate just your authenticity in sharing everything. So sincerely, thank you.
Stacy Tuschl:
Absolutely. Thank you.
