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SPI 809: The Secrets behind Conversion Copywriting and Making Consistent Sales

What was going on in your life that brought you here today? That’s the kind of question you should ask your clients to understand them better. Once that happens, you’ll speak their language in your marketing, serve more people, and get next-level conversion rates!

Today’s guest, Abi Prendergast, will share how to uncover the words and phrases that compel people to open your emails, buy your courses, or engage with whatever you’re offering. She is an author and copywriter who has worked with the likes of Amy Porterfield and Joanna Wiebe to replace all-or-nothing launches with consistent, evergreen revenue.

So how do you start a conversation with your audience members, and what are the things they say you should pay close attention to?

To answer this question, Abi and I discuss one-on-one chats, surveys, and tapping into communities. We also talk about testimonials and analytics tools for next-level sales pages and share strategies like the Sinatra test to help you better position your products.

I know copywriting can get overwhelming, but listen in on my chat with Abi to learn about the key things you should focus on!

Today’s Guest

Abi Prendergast

Abi Prendergast is an author, funnel strategist, and conversion copywriter for some of the biggest names in the course creation industry. Her signature process, Day #1 Evergreen, empowers coaches to replace all-or-nothing live launches with consistent $100K months.

You’ll Learn

Resources

SPI 809: The Secrets behind Conversion Copywriting and Making Consistent Sales

Abi Prendergast: If you don’t have any testimonials, do a beta test or get some sort of social proof. Put your course to the Sinatra test that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. And that could be your own story. If you defeated all odds, you know, you’re a busy mom of three with five dogs, and you’re just being pulled in all directions all the time, and you managed to get your business off the ground, then it doesn’t matter if you don’t have thirty testimonials. Tell your story in a way that people can relate to. And you know, if you could make it, then your customers can make it too.

Pat Flynn: Wouldn’t it be great? I mean, just imagine if you knew exactly what words or phrases to say to get people to open more emails. Imagine what it would be like if you knew exactly how to tap into the minds of your audience when you write the next sales page that you convert more students or more customers to your courses, whatever it might be.

Today, we’re going to be talking with expert conversion copywriter, Abi Prendergast, who has worked with some incredible people. I mean, hundreds of people to sell a load of things for them, including people like Amy Porterfield. And you can find her at aptcontent.co.uk. This half hour conversation that you’re about to listen to is going to tap into some of the most important lessons that you can learn when it comes to making it work online and how to convert people, especially if you are not really great at doing so.

And I’m not really great at doing this either. So this was a learning lesson for me as well. And Abi is just incredible and she’s also very helpful. So definitely pay attention, get out that notebook. This one might be one to relisten to. So here we go. Here she is, Abi Prendergast from aptcontent.co.uk

Announcer: You’re listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network, a show that’s all about working hard now, so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host. He thinks literally anyone can build a successful online business, but not everyone has the patience to do it. Pat Flynn!

Pat Flynn: Abi, welcome to SPI. Thank you so much for being here today.

Abi Prendergast: Thanks so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Pat Flynn: So you are a conversion copywriter. In your own words, what does that mean exactly?

Abi Prendergast: Okay, so a conversion copywriter makes it their mission to understand the audience that they’re selling to.

So rather than just guessing at what kind of messages are going to come back. Guessing at what’s going to make the sale, actually doing extensive audience research doing voice of customer research so that rather than just pulling marketing messages from thin air, you’re actually speaking in the language that your audience is speaking, hitting on the pain points, the frustrations, the desires.

in their own words. And that not only increases conversion, it’s also an opportunity to create a really meaningful connection between you and the customer.

Pat Flynn: I think when people hear the word copywriter, it’s like, Oh, they’re just writing words so that I can make sales. But I love how you went directly to where those words should be coming from the sort of origin of that.

How did you first get into copywriting, was this something you were always into and what you started out with or what were you doing beforehand?

Abi Prendergast: I think like most copywriters, I just loved writing. I did an internship in China while I was studying and that was doing copywriting and editing for a PR agency.

And then at the end, I said to them, you do realize I can just do this at home for you and you don’t have to deal with all of these interns that Don’t know what they’re doing. Just I’ll do it from home. And they said, sure, let’s give it a go. And then when I realized that I could make money with my words, I became obsessed.

And to start with, it was content. Then when I realized you could use language to sell people. When I found out what a copywriter was, I started moving towards websites, sales pages, and then eventually got introduced to the world of online course creators, which is where I found my passion. And since then, that’s the audience I’ve been writing copy for.

Pat Flynn: Who have you helped with their copy?

Abi Prendergast: I’ve helped, I would say probably hundreds of course creators now. Some of my, my big fish clients, I guess it would be Amy Porterfield. So I worked with her in 2022. That was cool because she has a wonderful team, a great team of strategists. I got to work on some of her big funnels, like list builder society.

I’ve worked with copyhackers, which was fantastic. Cause Joanna Wiebe is my mentor. She kind of got me into conversion copywriting. So when she asked me to write a sales page for her, that was, it was very nerve wracking, but it was, that was really exciting.

Pat Flynn: That’s really cool. Well, I am. So excited to dive into more of your superpower today.

And if you know, a lot of the audience who’s listening is not quite yet at Amy Porterfield status and may not be able to hire a professional conversion copywriter yet. I mean, if they are, then they should definitely check out what you have to offer. You have a book as well, and resources we’ll share at the very end, but for the beginner who’s starting to sell their very first thing, let’s say it is an online course or a community or something.

When it comes to the voice of customer, the VOC that you mentioned earlier, discovering from who it is that you’re serving, how does one go about doing that? What is the mechanism? That’s the actual, you tactics to get that information from them. How do you do that? Is it a giant survey? Is it like, tell me a little bit more about that process.

Abi Prendergast: So my absolute favorite way to collect voice of customers by having one to one conversations with people, this can be your sales calls. I mean, I, you know, I’ve in the past, I’ve gotten on calls with coaches and the empathy that they extend when they’re on that sales call, that empathetic sales call really is their best source of voice of customer.

And, you know, you, once you get into the challenges, people experiencing what they want, your customer kind of ends up writing a sales page for you. And your sales page becomes your best most empathetic sales call in print. I also love Facebook groups Facebook communities, people post in that when they’re feeling frustrated and those emotionally charged moments are just epic for voice of customer.

So rather than people saying I’m struggling to grow my blog, they’ll say something like I’m losing my mind over SEO, it’s so confusing. I’m crying on the kitchen floor at 3am because I just don’t know what I’m doing. And these YouTube videos are not making it any easier. And that’s the kind of thing that, when you put that into your copy, your reader feels like you’ve read their mind. I think in the entrepreneur community, people talk a lot about how we buy from people we know, like and trust, and that’s awesome. And it’s true, but I think there is a forced dimension that we buy from people who understand us.

So that really is the purpose of voice of customer to understand your audience and drop into the conversation that they’re having with themselves. So to link background, yeah. Sales calls, always record those as well. That’d be another tip who use a tool like Otter or Fathom, I think, to just transcribe those.

So when you’re writing, you can just pull from them, Facebook groups. And then if you do have an evergreen funnel you can build various touch points into that funnel to collect that voice of customer. So my, my favorite is a thank you page survey because people have literally just signed up for your lead magnet, your webinar.

That’s what marketers like to call a seducible moment. You’ve just given them something that they feel obligated to reciprocate. And they’re going to tell you what was going on in their life when they made that decision to opt in.

Pat Flynn: Amazing. When you have a transcript from one of those conversations and, or survey results in front of you, and they’re just, it’s a sea of words, and you have a blank page, if you will, that is a sales page that you’re trying to write, what’s going through your mind?

What are you looking for in particular? Are there any, signals that like, okay, this phrase is the right one versus this phrase. How do you filter what is said and captured to what ends up on a page?

Abi Prendergast: So the first thing I do is I have a messaging guide, kind of a framework. So I’m looking for problems, desires, and unfulfilled dreams.

And then beyond that it would be objections and frustrations with their current behavior. So what I start doing is just looking for frequency. So what’s the most common problem that people have? Because if it’s coming up a lot, that’s usually the one that you’re going to want to lead with. If I’m going through thousands of responses, I’ll do it on a spreadsheet and then I’ll start looking for the voice of customer once I’ve kind of got those messaging buckets.

So for example, a freelancing course, people might say their number one problem might be struggle getting clients and then their second one might be management. So it’s, I’d organize it into messaging buckets. And then the next thing would be to look for a sticky voice of customer. I’ve tried really hard to break this down into something concrete, but the best way I can describe it is, does it make you feel something?

Does it, when you’re reading it, does it engage you? Do you find yourself smiling or feeling empathy for that person? I mean, if we are looking for concrete things like specificity, so rather than people saying, they save time. You know, I see that crosshead a lot on people’s websites, like save, save time with this.

The person that said, I save 25 minutes a week and I use that time to, to do X, whatever that is. So that those specific elements belong on your page and storytelling, emotional content, again, just anything that makes you, that you, that you feel pulled into, if you’re engaged by it, your audience probably will be too.

Pat Flynn: That’s so true. And that’s a great point. starting point for sure. I’m sure that that being the sort of beginning process on one hand, it’s okay, that’s where we start for somebody who is maybe more advanced or like, you know, you’re at the top of your game in this, what are some of the things that you’re doing that are very, so here’s what I’m trying to get at.

So Mr. Beast, right? Is a YouTuber. He has people, he literally hires people to watch his videos before they go live because he’s paying attention to when people are not paying attention anymore, when are people lifting up on their chair because of an exciting moment, and he, I mean, he’s going all out with that.

What is the copywriter’s equivalent to that. Is there something like that, that all of you who at the top of your game in the copywriting world do to get to that sort of level of detail of what’s working and what’s not? Like, is it to the word and your split testing words? And like, I’m just looking for a little insight in this world of that you’re obviously a part of.

Abi Prendergast: Yeah, I guess it’s just testing everything. It’s accepting that. You know, as conversion copywriters, we love to say we’re eliminating guesswork because we’re doing voiceover customer research. We’re always guessing. We never know how anything’s going to perform until it’s out there. You know, the idea is to reduce guesswork as much as possible and also acknowledge where you’ve guessed.

So when you’ve got a sales page and then you’re going to optimize it, actually look in there and say, okay, this crosshead here, that’s good. The kind of the bits and boulders are scrolling down the page, I guessed at it. And then when you’re reviewing your thank you page surveys, the results of any AB test, you’ve run your punch loads, surveys, the Q and A, all of those touch points you can build into your funnel, then pulling and knowing what to optimize, I guess it’s just, yeah, it’s testing everything.

Pat Flynn: Yeah. Test is typically the right answer for most of the stuff we do online, no matter what platform you’re on or what you’re doing. If. A person launches, let’s say, an online course, they did their best work to do some research and they have now a baseline conversion rate. How do you know what to change?

Because that sales page has a headline, it has images, it has connecting copy, it has testimonials. I mean, I could rearrange things a million times. What’s guiding your decision to what actions to take? Take or what even to test.

Abi Prendergast: Are we talking about just a sales page or a full funnel?

Pat Flynn: Yeah, just a sales page for now.

We’ll stick for that and then we’ll go.

Abi Prendergast: Yeah. So to optimize, I mean, one of the first things I would look at would be a customer heat map to see where people are dropping off on the sales page. I think it’s something crazy. Like 80 percent of people will only read the headline. So if you’re, if people are dropping off straight away.

Start with the headline.

Pat Flynn: Change the headline.

Abi Prendergast: Yeah. And, and the goal, I think a lot of entrepreneurs feel the pressure to get all the information about their course above the fold, because people say you’ve got five seconds to capture reader’s attention. Otherwise you’ve lost them. And I think it’s important to remember the goal is literally that, to capture attention.

You don’t need to read everything. You just need to get them to read the next sentence. So headline, that’s where, yeah, we’d start A, B test. And then pull from thank you page surveys where I’ve actually made the sale. So having a thank you page survey after people have enrolled in, in your course or your program, and then looking down for the voice of customer, cause that’s going to be the richest because people have literally just bought.

They’re really excited. They’re going to share what was going on in their heads when they bought. So you start with the headlines and then yeah, if people are excessively scrolling up and down your page, that’s usually a sign they’re confused. So, clarity. If people are dropping off early, I would then go into the copy and just make sure it’s really optimized for the richest voice of customer.

I think the other thing is people do skim read and that is the expectation. I’m a copywriter. I literally live for words and I skim read and that’s fine. Just make sure your sales page is optimized for the person skim reading. So your headline, your crossheads. And people tend to read in an F shaped pattern.

So make sure juiciest benefits are at the front of the sentence. So rather than saying, my course will show you how to benefit, just saying benefit right at the front so that it’s catching people’s eye and you’ve got that opportunity to pull them back in.

Pat Flynn: That’s really great. What tools are you using to understand all these metrics?

Abi Prendergast: So I love Hotjar. Hotjar is great because it gives you overall metrics like the number of customers that have clicked a button, the average time on page, but you can also actually watch videos. So I like to just watch 10 to 20 videos, nothing excessive and just see how people are reading, where they’re drawn.

It also will tell you like which FAQs people clicked. So I, I found in my course that pretty much everyone who made it to the FAQs was clicking on the question, how long will this course take me to complete? So that told me, okay, time is clearly a bigger factor than I anticipated for this audience. So I built that into my email sequence.

I had a whole email about time and about how the course will save them time.

Pat Flynn: So rather than some parameter inside of an action, like a click to determine things, you’re, you’re literally watching anonymous recordings of visitors to determine these things and I think that’s such an, an easier way to do that.

And so you said Hotjar, which is great. What tool are you using for, you’d mentioned this several times. So I want to make sure we touch on it. The thank you survey. So this is after either a person subscribes to your email list, they get a thank you page, and then you’re asking them questions and, or you mentioned in this last example, after a person purchases a course, a survey, so you can get some more voice customer in that, did you call it like a.

Moment of seduction? What was that? A seducible moment.

Abi Prendergast: A seducible moment.

Pat Flynn: Seducible moment, yeah. I gotta make sure I get that right next time. What tool are you using for the thank you survey? And what are like questions you’re asking during that?

Abi Prendergast: Yeah, so I literally just have a It’s on my Squarespace site.

That’s where my thank you page is. So when they opt in, it takes them there and it’s just embedded on Squarespace. So I get emailed the answers and I, they all go into a folder and my VA will then put them into a spreadsheet for me. She’ll organize it into the messaging buckets I’ve created. And then I can go in and look for the sticky voice of customer.

Cause that’s the fun bit.

Pat Flynn: Oh, it’s just the form you said?

Abi Prendergast: Yeah, it’s just a form and you can use. Typeform or even Google Forms. There’s so many ways to do it. It doesn’t have to be complicated. So yeah, I always set that up for my clients. It’s non negotiable because I want that voice of customer. And as for the questions that ask, I mean, this was coined by Joanna Wiebe, this question.

What was going on in your life that brought you here today. And I, I love that question.

Pat Flynn: Dang, that’s a great question. Holy moly.

Abi Prendergast: I’ve tested so many versions.

Pat Flynn: Can you say that one more time?

Abi Prendergast: What was going on in your life that brought you here today?

Pat Flynn: And that was from, from Joanne.

Abi Prendergast: Yeah. Joanna. I mean, people will tell you the challenges.

They will tell you what they want. They will tell you what’s getting on their nerves right now. Some people just put like curiosity, but like you tend to get, you get such a wide variety. And I’m always surprised by how much detail I get. Like I get, sometimes I’ll get a couple of paragraphs. That’s even more true for my program because it’s an even more seducible moment.

And your thank you page survey, it doesn’t need to be static. So I mean, the one thing I’m working on at the moment is building my authority. So I’m going to change my thank you page survey to say where do you go for information about Selling your online course. And then people will tell me blogs they read, and then I can plot myself there.

If things change in the industry, if AI releases a new update and everyone thinks that they can do my job, then I can have a survey saying, you know, what are your expectations around AI? What are your biggest fears around AI? And then I can plug those specific messaging kind of gaps. So, yeah, I mean, whatever you wish you knew about your audience, Ask them on your thank you page survey because It’s not like emailing them a question.

It’s, you’re literally fresh on their mind. They’ve just downloaded your freebie. And one more tip while I’m on a roll, stick to what questions, questions that start with what, questions that start with why can just sometimes feel a bit accusatory. Like if I said to you, like, why haven’t you set your evergreen funnel up already?

You might be like, well, okay. But if I say like, what’s kept you from setting up your evergreen funnel, it’s just, It’s softer, it opens up the question more. To answer your question, anything, whatever you want to know, put it in your thank you page survey.

Pat Flynn: So good. That was amazing.

You mentioned ai. We’ll get into that in a, in a sec. ’cause I’m, I’m always so curious about experts takes on AI in industries that everybody’s saying AI will take over. So, we’ll, we’ll get into that in just a minute. But on a scale of one to 10, one being not that important, 10 being like it is literally one of the most important things, if not the most important thing.

How important are testimonials?

Abi Prendergast: This is tough.

Pat Flynn: Why isn’t it a 10? I’m curious, like what’s going through your mind right now?

Abi Prendergast: Because there are going to be course creators listening that have no testimonials and they can still sell their course.

Pat Flynn: Therefore, they’re not absolutely necessary so it’s not a 10 in that regard, right?

Abi Prendergast: I mean, you know, I could relay some statistics, like it’s something like 86% of people will be less likely to buy a product if there’s no testimonials. They’re super important. I just don’t want to say a 10 because I know that when you’re starting out, you don’t have those testimonials. That shouldn’t stop you from selling your course.

I mean, just get at least like two. Get at least two. Just, just show that. I think it was something like people read one to three before forming an opinion on your product. So if you can get three, you’re, you’re right.

Pat Flynn: Okay, so would you say like an 8 or 9?

Abi Prendergast: Yeah, let’s say, let’s go for an 8.5.

Pat Flynn: The number is not important.

It was just the interesting way to open up the discussion. And so I’m curious for those who are listening, who are likely going through their first iteration of a course, for example, how do you sell without a testimonial, what becomes the most important thing in that moment?

Abi Prendergast: If you don’t have any testimonials, do a beta test or get a testimony from a client.

I mean, just some sort of social proof. I mean, one study I find interesting, I think, where did I read this? I think it was in made to stick and it’s about a distributor company in India and there were so many distribution companies that they, they couldn’t compete. So they, instead of trying to have like the most social proof, the most reviews, they picked one client.

They took on the responsibility of delivering every Harry Potter book to every bookstore. And it was such a complicated job because you couldn’t deliver them early because then if people can open doors early, they had to be all delivered at exactly the same time. And by having that one case study, that one testimonial, they were able to then secure bigger business because they pulled that off.

So I think it’s the, put your course to the Sinatra test that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. And that could be your own story. So if you, again, the-

Pat Flynn: Sinatra test. I love that.

Abi Prendergast: Yeah. If you defeated all odds, you know, you’re a busy mom of three with five dogs and you’re just being pulled in all directions all the time and you managed to get your business off the ground, then it doesn’t matter if you don’t have like 30 testimonials, tell your story in a way that people can relate to.

And you know, if you could make it, then your customers can make it too.

Pat Flynn: Yeah. That’s great. I love that answer. Thank you. I’m having such a great time, time talking about copywriting. I never thought that could happen. This is amazing. So before, again, we get into AI, I have a somewhat of a selfish question and I think it’s asked on behalf of the audience. You had mentioned sinatra test that is like a very sticky, fun, memorable way to frame some lesson that you just offered. Tell me a little bit more about your thoughts on the importance of creating that in your own business as a personal brand, as an authority to coin things, to create your own proprietary frameworks and this kind of stuff.

I think I am having a hard time convincing people. Maybe just I haven’t said it enough, but I found it very impactful to sit down and like, try to get a little creative with the way that I’m teaching something so that it becomes more memorable. Do you have any tips on how to do that? And can you speak to the importance of that as well?

Abi Prendergast: I can speak to the importance of it. I mean, I read recently people see 6,000 ads a day.

Pat Flynn: That’s crazy.

Abi Prendergast: So if, yeah, if your message isn’t sticky. Then people are going to get it.

Pat Flynn: It’s icky.

Abi Prendergast: Yeah. It’s icky. I love that. Brilliant. There we go. That’s sticky. As to how to create that sticky copy, voice a customer, like let your customers do it.

You don’t have to come up with these madly creative ideas because When people are emotional, they’re creative and people are often emotional when they’re sharing their frustration things in, in Facebook groups. So let your customers do it.

Pat Flynn: Cause like, did you make up that Sinatra thing just now? Like, did that just come off the top of your head or?

Abi Prendergast: No, no, that’s from Made To Stick. So read that because that’s a great book. That’s a great book. Yeah.

Pat Flynn: Yeah. I mean, and again, I mean, that was written in the early two thousands and we’re talking about it still because of that. Right. I’ve found it Challenging to do, but when I can nail it, it works really well.

This is the kind of thing that I feel that, for example, AI can be useful for. Is like, hey, give me 50 ideas that might be a metaphor for this thing, right? And then like these kind of little inserts and like I’ve never ever found so far AI to be able to replace any good persuasive copywriting that a human could do.

But when I need like a little acronym, and I’m like, I want to create an acronym around this framework, can you help me? It’s always done a pretty good job. And I eventually find my way into something. And that’s one way to do it. It’s like here is a four part process, and it spells the word, you know, bean or something.

And so I call this the bean method, right? And like, that’s like the simplest way to do it. But that that can still work. Speaking of AI, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Am I correct in that it’s a useful tool, but one that will never replace you? And if so, why?

Abi Prendergast: Yeah, I mean, I don’t feel like the authority to say it will never replace me.

I think, I’m curious. I’m just trying to watch from a place of curiosity as it unfolds. My Problem with AI is that it doesn’t prioritize voice of customer, as you’ve probably gathered voice of customer is, I mean, it’s at the heart of what I do. It’s when you, you know, when you speak like your customer, you, it allows you to drop into that conversation with them.

And I think, you know, with all these AI, even more so now with all these AI written articles and content. The internet, what it needs is, is meaningful conversation. We need to kind of go, I feel like it was kind of happening a bit, like with social media, it felt like that conversation was starting and then things kind of changed and then kind of got more automated and I don’t know.

Pat Flynn: So I just think people crave, I feel like it’s missing soul. Yeah.

Abi Prendergast: Yes.

Pat Flynn: Does that make sense?

Abi Prendergast: It’s exact, that’s perfect, yeah. Cause I think people are craving that, that soul.

Pat Flynn: Yeah. So, I mean, it’s not even just the words. Like, I could input, like, Here are all the survey results my audience gave me. And, like, here AI, go figure this out.

Versus, like, you as a human, especially a human who has deep empathy and you know you are converting for a specific reason, it’s like that empathy is something that I feel the AI is never going to have. Like, the AI will never know what it’s like to be human. It can guess. It’s a learning model with guesses on, on what, you know, the next words will be.

But that’s where I feel everybody, not just copywriters, but everybody could could lean into is that empathy for the customer, you know, cause on one hand, copywriting is formulaic, but on the other hand, it’s literally the opposite of that. It’s feeling, it’s, it’s emotion. It’s empathy, like you said. So I don’t know.

I’m just reflecting with you.

Abi Prendergast: Yeah. I mean, I’m inclined to agree, I think. Empathy. And I think if you can become a great listener, you can become a great copywriter. And I also think people like that human thinking is flawed. I mean, people like flaws. I, cause I see like these kind of new tools where you can make a video of yourself speaking perfectly.

And actually, you know, when I’m watching a webinar and they kind of mess up, like sharing their screen or they stumble over their words, I like them. And I think it’s called the pitfall effect. It makes you more likable. If you’re a high achiever and you, you make mistakes, people like you. I think AI is kind of based on like perfection almost.

It’s far from perfect. Don’t get me wrong, but I think kind of, yeah, humans were flawed and we’re deeply empathetic. And I think, yeah, those are just two things that AI so far, I haven’t seen capture.

Pat Flynn: I agree. As we finish up here and this has been an incredible conversation. Thank you. And I’ll make sure to obviously mention the webinar that you have that people can watch and also aptcontent.co.uk is where we can see what services you have to offer in case people want to work with you directly from there. So we’ll reiterate those links after, but to finish up, like, I’m curious, your thoughts, you’ve been in this business and in this space for quite a while, things are changing and not just in the AI space, but just people are changing and the way people consume are changing and best serves an audience has changed.

What do you see happening in the next couple of years in terms of for content creators, for experts, for authorities to be able to best serve their audiences? What are you feeling is the direction things are going? Is it still going to be online courses? Where are you feeling things are going for us experts out there?

Abi Prendergast: I don’t see online courses going anywhere. I just think the standard has changed. Don’t put out an average course. make your benchmark to be exceptional. And you are, I’m sure you are, whoever’s listening, you’re exceptional. So, yeah, don’t, you know, you can’t just swipe templates anymore. I think, I think we just don’t need to have a lot more respect for our audience.

They’re not someone that we’re just trying to convert, that we’re just trying to sell. We do need to listen to them. We do need to empathize. We need to build our course based on what they want. And we needed our messages to reflect what they’re going through. If people can’t imagine your course in the context of their lives, it’s just going to be more white noise.

I mean, the market is becoming saturated, but that’s just your opportunity to be better, to do better. And I think I am getting the sense that people are wanting more live interactions. And so I think. Having a student community actually showing your face more as well, having some live elements of your program will serve you well.

Pat Flynn: Yes, we made a business model change on our end. We still have online courses, but they’re built around the community. They’re community powered courses, as we like to call it, and we’ve seen such incredible results. So far, I mean, completion rates are three X what they were before. So always staying on top of the audience and listening.

And it was through listening and conversations, like you said, in the beginning to loop back around that helped inform where to go. So I love this. You have a book. Can you tell me about the book a little bit and what people can expect from it? I think by the time this episode is out, we’ll definitely have that book available and where can they get it?

Abi Prendergast: Yeah. So the book is called Day One Evergreen and it’s basically my response to people say you just have to live launch so many times before you can even think about going evergreen and I’m picking a fight and I’m saying, no, you can go evergreen from day one, but you need to build these 10. Feedback touch points into your funnel so that you can let your evergreen funnel be a dynamic organism that kind of evolves and changes with your audience, with the worlds, with the seasons.

So it is essentially, I guess, a book on optimization, but made simple and made actually enjoyable. It’s a book on listening and it is a book on how to step out of your business and into that lovely life. That we were all promised to where we became course creators and woke up to sales every day.

Pat Flynn: Yeah. So again, you don’t need to.

Live launch or beta launch with people live and teach in person or online in real time. You can create this thing and then get it to a point where it can begin to start generating some residual income for you over time. But following these 10 steps that are mentioned in the book, where can people go get the book and what’s the name of it?

One more time.

Abi Prendergast: It’s Day One Evergreen by Abi Prendergast. It’s up on Amazon for sale and I’m going to be launching it in print in October.

Pat Flynn: Nice. Well, congratulations on the book launch. I know how that is and how exciting that is. And I look forward to reading it and writing a review for it for you.

Abi Prendergast: Oh, lovely.

Thank you. I look forward to that.

Pat Flynn: Even though it’s not a 10 to get a review on a, on something like, I guess I’ll do it.

Abi Prendergast: Yeah.

Pat Flynn: Thank you again. And everybody go check out Abi’s stuff. Well, I’ll mention the links right after this and take care. Thank you again for your time today.

Abi Prendergast: Thanks Pat. It’s been a pleasure.

Pat Flynn: All right. I hope you enjoyed that conversation. I definitely did and learned a lot. And especially for those of you just starting out, I hope this is encouraging. And as you can see, it is actually a lot simpler than we often make it out to be. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it’s definitely much simpler.

And to go into the heads of our audience, whether we have access to that audience as a subscriber base or not, you can go to, she mentioned Facebook groups, communities, Reddit is an incredible resource for things like this just to kind of understand what emotional moments are happening in your audience’s life and how we can pull those out and turn those into words on our page or words in a script that can help our audience, our audience understand that what we have to offer is a value and that not just they understand what we have to offer, but that they understand we know what’s going on. I think it was Jay Abraham who once said, if you can define the problem better than your target customer, they will automatically assume you have the solution.

So thank you to Abi. Again, you can check her out at aptcontent.co.uk. We also have her masterclass and some other links available over on the show notes page. If you go to SmartPassiveIncome.com/session809, you’ll see your links and resources and all the other goodies there. So thank you so much. I appreciate you for listening in and hope you enjoyed the content. If you did, let me know on X or on Instagram at Pat Flynn. We just love to know what you think. And I’ve been working on upping my interview game.

And I hope that you could feel it on this end because I’m trying my best to better serve you. So Let me know. Always down for feedback.

Thank you so much for listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. Our senior producer is David Grabowski, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media, and a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network. Catch you next week!

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