Author Krista Mashore: Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue
An Interview With Doug Brown
SERVE don’t SELL- provide 80 % value to your clients and 20% selling products or services. This way you stay top of mind as the leader in your industry.
Be UNIQUE — do not do the same thing everyone in your industry is doing! Think innovative, think how can I stand out? If you’re a realtor, STOP doing open houses, and stop cold calling. Instead create color printed brochures, swag bags, YouTube Videos, and Facebook ads!
As a part of my series called “Five Strategies I Used To Grow My Business To Reach Seven Figures In Revenue”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Krista Mashore, the author of Four best-selling books focusing on her groundbreaking digital marketing strategy. She recently took her new business, from zero to 8 figures in just 35 short months utilizing her tactics. She is the recipient of FOUR prestigious Two Comma-Club Awards. Through her coaching, teaching, speaking and training Krista is revolutionizing the way professionals’ market themselves online. She offers an innovative step-by-step approach on how professionals can gain a massive digital footprint and become the authority in their industry. For more on Krista Mashore check out her podcast “FIRED Up with Krista Mashore and her latest book, “The Ultimate Digital Marketing Playbook”.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I had a tough start, to be quite honest. I got myself in a bit of trouble as a kid and unfortunately found myself in juvenile detention. After this I found myself in foster care for some of my teenage years. Many have called me “rags to riches”, because of my story to be quite honest.
As I got older, I worked my way through college and paid myself through a master’s degree in teaching! I then set out to teach third grade, but I was barely making enough to take care of my family. One day at brunch with my closest friends I received a phone call … I learned my husband at the time was cheating on me. Before I knew it, I had two girls and no way to take care of them financially. But as I always say, mindset is key. I told myself I would provide my two daughter’s the best life I could. So, I got my real estate license and decided I would DOMINATE my market. How? I did everything bigger and better than my competitors. I chose innovation, as opposed to doing what everyone else was doing. I mailed large colored brochures, I took advantage of YouTube and Facebook ads. I decided I would not do and open house or participate in cold calling… and I became one of the top 1% of realtors in the nation. After this, I knew I had a groundbreaking approach to marketing for any profession, so I became a coach, and 4 Time Best Selling Author!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
When the market crashed, I sold nearly all foreclosed homes… many in my industry started labeling me as the foreclosure queen… NOT a name I wanted at all! So, I rebranded who I worked with!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My Current Husband supported me while I left my Real estate business where I made 2 million a year to pursue coaching, where I was positive I could do more! He stood by my side every step of the way!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
It’s not the direction of the wind that determines where the boat ends up, it’s the set of the sail — Jim Rohn — this quote helped me learn that we cannot blame our past environments for our lack of success or happiness. We simply have to adjust and keep sailing.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. We’d love to learn a bit about your company. What is the pain point that your company is helping to address?
Helping the professional become the go to authority in their market, utilizing digital marketing.
When you first started the business, what drove you, what was your primary motivation?
We SERVE our clients instead of sell — this is what I have strived to do since I’ve started!
What drives you now? Is it the same? Did it change? Can you explain what you mean?
The success of my clients drives me! It is the best feeling in the world!
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We are creating an app that will combine several CRM and landing page platforms — that should help customers innovate their business seamlessly!
The topic of this series is ‘Five Strategies I Used to Grow My Business to Reach Seven Figures in Revenue’. Congratulations! Seven figures is really a huge milestone. In your experience what was the most difficult part of being able to hit your first million dollars in sales revenue?
I have just recently hit 8 figures with my current business! I found one of the hardest parts of making it here was finding the persistence to keep going when COVID hit, however when I have the option to sink or float, I will make sure I float every time. I always say you need to adapt adapt adapt to your environment, and for me that meant going completely virtual!
To get to a million you 100% have to invest in the education behind your profession, which takes a lot of money out of your account, however you need to stay consistent, and you will get it back and then some in return!
Could you share the number one sales strategy that you found helpful to help you reach this milestone?
SERVE don’t SELL — customers trust you so much more when you provide them valuable information much more than you try to sell them information.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you or your team made during a sales process? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I run a coaching business, and we used to sell to whoever wanted to join … however we did come across a few negative nellies along the way. and I say if I have to be working with you every day — I don’t want to be around someone that does not want to be around me! I prefer to surround myself with customers who want to learn from me — so in short, we created a NO a**hole policy ☺ … sometimes you have to turn down a sale — to keep up your rapport, and in turn get more sales!
Does your company have a sales team? If yes, do you have any advice about how companies can create very high performing sales teams?
Yes, and my sales team is AMAZING! Most work off of commission, which I know is extremely helpful in pushing sales! They also serve instead of selling when talking to customers — I chose those who could get personal and remain extremely personable! That’s the key! And when your sales team does well, reward them, it just keeps pushing them!
Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Strategies I Used to Grow My Business to Reach Seven Figures in Revenue”. Please share a story or an example for each.
- SERVE don’t SELL- provide 80 % value to your clients and 20% selling products or services. This way you stay top of mind as the leader in your industry.
- Be UNIQUE — do not do the same thing everyone in your industry is doing! Think innovative, think how can I stand out? If you’re a realtor, STOP doing open houses, and stop cold calling. Instead create color printed brochures, swag bags, YouTube Videos, and Facebook ads!
- Know when it’s time to add a team to your business! — Everyone wants to make a million dollars and hire no one to help them… while this may be feasible, it’s not maintainable. Hire the help, you will be surprised how far it will take you.
- Utilize Video marketing — video is so so powerful in getting you seen, known, and heard, throughout your community. So, start practicing sending your clients happy birthday videos, video emails, video texts, whatever it may be. This helps you stay top of mind when they think of your industry
- Finally create a platform! You cannot be seen heard and known if you don’t have a platform. And people are so much more likely to work with someone who has a valid platform. So, create that beautiful Instagram page, create a YouTube channel, create a Facebook group and website, and stay consistent with them!
What would you advise to another business leader who initially went through years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill? From your experience do you have any general advice about how to boost growth or sales and “restart their engines”?
When you reach a stand still, it usually means you stopped adapting to the times, you stopped innovating, or you lost your niche. Find your niche, find out what their problems are, and become their solution. Learn the ins and outs of digital marketing and GO after them!
In your specific industry what methods have you found to be most effective in order to find and attract the right customers? Can you share any stories or examples?
SERVE don’t SELL — customers trust you so much more when you provide them valuable information much more than you try to sell them information.
Based on your experience, can you share a few strategies to give your customers the best possible user experience and customer service?
- A landing page for any call to action created
- A website detailing all you have to offer
- Social media pages that match your brand image
- A team behind you to answer all social media messages comments and more
- A livestream schedule to stay engaged with customers
- A chat bot on your site
As you likely know, this HBR article demonstrates that studies have shown that retaining customers can be far more lucrative than finding new ones. Do you use any specific initiatives to limit customer attrition or customer churn? Can you share some of your advice from your experience about how to limit customer churn?
To avoid customer churn, you want to keep innovating! As a coach — whenever a social media platform comes out with a new way to engage customers — I create a course on it. I continually offer my customers a way to remain the most innovative professional in their market. I am constantly serving and selling them at the same time. I also provide them emails and social posts with daily articles on how to adapt their business to the current environment!
Wonderful. We are nearly done. Here are the final “meaty” questions of our discussion. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
SERVE don’t SELL — customers trust you so much more when you provide them valuable information much more than you try to sell them information.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
Tony Robbins! He is the biggest name in my industry, and I would LOVE to bounce ideas around with him!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
