How To Turn Your Side Hustle Into A Thriving Business with Sarah Guilliot

Tim Melanson: Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Today’s guest is a sales page copywriter and. And with, uh, sarah designs.com. And what she does is she helps people create sales pages for courses, group programs, et cetera, uh, just about anything that would require a sales page. So I’m rocking up today with Sarah Goo. Hey Sarah, are you ready to rock? I’m ready.

Cool. So we always start off at a good note here. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah, so it’s been quite the journey since leaving corporate and striking out on my own. And I’ve, I’ve tried all these different business models and even partnering with other people and, um, I’d kind of avoided doing, uh, design and copy for hire cuz I got burned out in corporate.

But then I eventually circled back to that and, It’s, it’s been interesting because I, I’ve learned, and this is something I actually learned, like it was like a combo failure success for me, which was that I learned that I am best on short term projects. Like retainers aren’t for me. . I had, um, a client who I had done website work for them.

I had helped them with their launches and then they, they came to me wanting marketing. Support, like someone to almost be like a marketing manager. And, um, I was, I pitched them this idea for a monthly retainer. I brought in a subcontractor to help assist and had all these grandiose ideas, but I had a really hard time with that monthly, like keeping in touch, making sure they knew what was going on, and they ended up a little bit disappointed and I had an op opportunity to fix it with them, but, Sat back, I took a minute to myself and I was like, Let’s think about this.

Um, I could spend time fixing this or I could get honest with myself. And I realized that I just don’t like these long contracts that go on for months and I have been doing these more of a v i P day or a v I P week, or it’s this discrete short process and that really suits me. So I. Backing out of that project and I, I sent them off with just my subcontractor.

So it was a super win for her cuz she became their main person and we parted on good terms and I was just like, I felt really, I dunno, I felt really excited to. Realize that about myself, and it helps me from making that mistake again, in future. So those are combo success, failure moment as they usually are

Tim Melanson: Right on. Well that’s, that’s, uh, pretty common that that happens. Just, just about everybody at some point where you, you try to be too much, I guess. And mm-hmm. and it’s, it’s really good that you realized that and, and pulled the shoot right away. Cause most people would’ve tried to fix it, I think. Right.

And then ended up being unhappy.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah. Yeah. It would’ve just meant that maybe I, maybe I fixed it for the next three months, but then at that point I would’ve been like, Ugh, I, I don’t think this is working out. And then, then they would’ve had to go find somebody. So, yeah, It ended, It ended well. I think going in the right direction.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And I. I think that that’s a good point too, is that some people are more comfortable with the short term projects and some people really need that stability of the, the retainer. Mm-hmm. , you know, it’s, it’s one of those things where like, uh, there’s nothing really right or wrong about either, just, it’s just a personality thing I imagine.

Right.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah, it’s interesting that you say that, the stability of the retainer, because that first two months that I was in there, I was like, Oh, I feel so relaxed. I’m not stressed. I don’t have to worry about finding a bunch more clients. It felt really good. I loved that stability, but in the end I was like, and also it was the, the topic, the, um, you know, marketing calendar, all that stuff.

Kind of outside my zone of genius, uh, whereas I’m designer and copywriter, so I was also stretching myself on what I was promising. But I, I loved the feeling of having the regular money, but now I’m just like honing in on, okay, I can still get that feeling. I just need to figure out the model that works for me, which is the swoop in save the day and swoop back out again.

Tim Melanson: nice. Yeah, I, I actually like the, uh, the, the short term projects as well. That’s more my style. For a long time. Actually. That’s one of the reasons why I like. What I’m doing now, and people will try to get me to do long term things and I’m like, eh, I’ve got some long term stuff. But, uh, you know, for the most part, I, I love the whole swooping in and, and doing something.

Mm-hmm. . Cause it’s, it’s very defined as well. When you do it that way, you’ve got like a system that you follow and you just get it done.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I’m loving that. I’m super into refining my system cuz otherwise I promised the world and then I start doing a bunch of extra things and it gets really inefficient and really unprofitable quickly.

Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. But it’s also good to have sort of like a team as well where you can start to refer things off like once you’ve done that project too, which is something that I’m actually looking into right now. For those short term projects where I know I’m not gonna want anything long term with them. It’d be great to have that already kind of established where they just fly on with your subcontractor, like what you did.

Right.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah. Yeah. I, I agree. And that’s another thing that I’ve really enjoyed about transitioning to, you know, being a work at home Rock star is, Creating a whole new network of people that I know and like, you know, going on a hundred coffee chats and joining groups with other people. I’ve made a bunch of friends who have skills that, um, kind of are parallel to mine or like you said, or it’s like the next step in the process that I can send people onto.

And yeah, you end up being like a really great resource for your clients over and over again cuz they know that they can come to you for your specialty, but also if they need. Outside of your specialty, you kind of become a connector for them. Which is, which is pretty cool.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. And, and there’s a lot of really like terrible resources in our, in our field as well.

I said there is, Cause I, I know because I, you know, I’ve got another meeting coming up on Thursday with somebody else who posted on their social media that they got burned by another. Another design development company like it is just in this space. There’s so many people that I think, think they know what they’re doing and they actually are just maybe transitioning from job to job, maybe.

I don’t know. There’s lots of reasons why someone would say, Yeah, I think I could do this, Build this website, or build this sales page and mm-hmm. , there’s a lot to it. I mean, there’s a reason why we do what we do and why, Right. There’s a lot more to it than people might think is to it. You know? They just look at a page and they go, Well, that.

That can’t take too long. I can draw that thing in a couple hours, .

Sarah Guilliot: Exactly

Marc Mawhinney: right.

Tim Melanson: There’s more to it than that, right?

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah. Yeah. It’s like with the, you know, the growth of Canva in the industry where there’s um, so many more people coming on the scene that are like, you know, I’m a professional graphic designer, and I’m like, Well, that’s great.

You know, you can, maybe you are. Let’s see what, what you have. But really they’ve just. Playing in Canva for like six months. I’m like, Okay, well I have 20 years experience with graphic design. I like Canva too. But um, yeah, there’s a difference in what you bring to the table and you never know when you meet someone new who they

Tim Melanson: are.

Yeah, I think, and a good analogy for that is, is the photographers, right? Like, cuz uh, everybody’s got a camera in their phone now and Oh my God, but, but you’ll never get the same quality of photographs than you would with somebody who’s got the training of it. And, you know, maybe, maybe now because you know you can have an event and have.

30 people taking photos and chances are you will have a good set of photos. But if you had one person who was like, No, no, I’ll just do it with my cell phone. . I mean, I dunno if you’re gonna get the desired results out of that. Right.

Sarah Guilliot: Exactly. Yeah. I spent, um, an afternoon couple weeks ago. I was like, I need more shots of myself cuz I just have a couple head shots from a professional photographer that I love.

I’m like, well, you know, let’s see what I can do in my backyard. Now my phone is filled with like 50 pictures of me looking awkward and like the, you know, the, it’s all kind of stretched out too, cuz it’s not a real camera. And I’m like, uh, I’m kind of avoiding hiring a, you know, a real photographer. But in the end I know that’s what I’m gonna have to do if I want pictures that I’m proud of and won’t hesitate to use.

Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And that’s the thing, I mean, you just do it once and then you’ve got those pictures for the. Five years or so, right? Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. ,

Sarah Guilliot: hopefully. Yes, exactly.

Tim Melanson: Yep. So now, uh, you know, the, the bad note, we do talk about the bad note. So that’s kind of wrapped into your good note story. What, is there another example you have of something that didn’t go as planned that you could share?

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah. Um, I had, let’s see, it was, was it last year? Um, I had a referral for a sales page. Uh, I actually know it was a website build project. It was on Kajabi. And, um, so I knew a woman that I had worked with, and then she had a group and someone in her group needed help. And she referred her to me and I met her and I was like, I don’t know if we.

Or a match, you know, energetically , like, I felt like some weirdness about our interaction, but she needed help and I needed work, so I was like, well, it’ll be fine. Um, and she was like just constantly hammering me with questions like leading up to the project. I’m like, Well, poor thing. She doesn’t know, I’ll help her out.

You know, I’ll answer all her questions. So it was kind of a drain there. These were red flags right and left. I was ignoring, right? Cause I’m like, Oh, it’s fine, I’m being fussy, whatever. Um, and did the project. I pulled in subcontractor, a friend of our, a fellow friend, uh, Amanda, uh, to help with branding.

And then I was building out the website. Um, And this gal was in more of a spiritual sort of niche, which is not usually my typical thing. I’m not very woo. Um, but you know, that’s fine. I figure I can help whoever. Um, but it went. Poorly . I like designed out everything I used. Amanda’s amazing brand. She loved that.

Um, and it was a two day v i p day and um, so it was two full working days with her and was presenting it to her and she just, Didn’t like it and she told me it was cuz it didn’t feel magical. And I was like, Oh, you know, can you tell me more about what you mean by how it doesn’t feel magical? You know, not that people don’t know how to explain what they’re trying to get at.

And it was just, it was, there were so many signs leading up to this that we weren’t going to be able to communicate with one another. And it was just a real struggle. And I ended up refunding. Half of the project. So like, I worked two days. I refunded her one of the days cause I was like, like I don’t understand what you need me to do.

And she was having a really hard time communicating with me, but I’d still done a significant amount of work on the project and given her a lot of help and information. So I was like, I’m just gonna, you know. Cut it off here. I’m sorry that you’re disappointed. Um, hopefully this was a head start that gets you moving and maybe you can find somebody who can, you know, bring your vision to life better.

So I felt terrible at the time. Also, my dad died like the day after I had this conversation with her, and it was so he had been sick. So there’s other things going on in my life at the same time and, um, it was just the whole thing made. Feel sick, and I didn’t wanna do work with clients for probably like four or five months after that.

I was really hesitant to have my own clients again after that. It was just, it felt so traumatic. Now that time has passed, I’m like, I’ve learned, you know, to look back with clearer eyes and say, Okay, you know, what am I, what have I learned here? Like, People with a spiritual topic aren’t the right fit for me, cuz I can’t really speak to their audience and don’t ignore those red flags.

Yeah. Like really notice and don’t ignore them, you know?

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, you and I have, uh, probably a lot of these similar stories, , because, uh, we work in the same field. I mean, I, I do, but I’m, I’m more on the tech side and my, my girlfriend actually does all the design side, but like the, the, the thing. These creative fields.

And, and that goes for just about any business idea that would be on the creative side, it would be like more of a subjective thing. Mm-hmm. , it’s very difficult to get into someone’s head and build what they want. It is. Mm-hmm. , especially if they aren’t very clear about what they want, right? Mm-hmm. , . And I think in, in, uh, and another thing too, maybe this is just a warning for anybody.

When somebody doesn’t like what you want, it is really hard on the self-esteem. Mm-hmm. . You and, and it doesn’t matter how many great clients you had, cuz I’ve seen this happen with actually Amanda as well. But, but I mean, with everybody who’s a designer, and even myself like, cause I’m a musician as well, you can have, you know, a whole room full of fans loving what you’re doing and you see that one person with their crossed arms going like, this song sucks.

Or, and, and that’s the one that you wanna focus on, right? Uhhuh. And now all of a sudden you’re like, Oh, maybe I’m. Maybe I’m not such a good designer. Maybe I’m not such a good musician. Right? And, and so I think that like, maybe the, hopefully what someone will take out of this is that if those red flags are shooting your way, it’s not like a, Oh, I’ll just get through this, this project and everything will be fine.

You could actually damage your business and your mindset for a little while if you go through it with this person. And, uh, and, and this is something on both sides too, when you’re looking for something as well, I think. It’s important to be clear. If you want someone to build your vision that you have in your head, you better be very clear at getting that out to a person, because we can’t read minds.

Mm-hmm. . But on the other hand, very few really talented designers are gonna be interested in even doing that. I mean, yeah, there’s a reason why we know what we know, right? It’s a matter of like, you hire somebody with experie. To build something that your audience is gonna love. Mm-hmm. , And it doesn’t really matter if you like it or not.

What matters is whether it’s going to actually connect with your audience or not. And that’s what the, that’s what the training gives you, right? I would assume. Am I wrong

Sarah Guilliot: with that? Yes, No, absolutely. A hundred percent. Not every client is gonna understand that some do. Super, super valuable. They’re like, No, I trust you.

You know what you’re doing. You know, Show me the vision that’s. Help me achieve my goals. And then you, you come in and, and you do that and yeah, having that experience, definitely, like I’ve spent years designing and I know how to create work that my clients will love, but it takes a lot of interactions and time, and that’s not the product that I’ve built right now, now that I’m doing like a v i p week or two week project.

Um, I’m not having a lot of inter back and forth interaction with them, so I don’t, I wanna attract those people that understand that I have the expertise and I know what to create that’s gonna appeal to their audience. And also, I have actually changed my offer. Um, so now I, like you said, it’s, I mean, it’s so arbitrary.

It’s so, so much opinion that now when I do sales pages, I’m like, okay, I work with people who already have a brand. So there’s not as much question about what I’m gonna end up building. I’m like, I’m using your brand guidelines to build this page, and then I’m writing the copy. So I’m controlling both of, I’m controlling the copy and how it fits on the page, but I’m using their existing brand.

So that takes away some of that, like, Ooh, what will they think? , you know, pressure nice for, for those kinds of clients. So, yeah.

Marc Mawhinney: Hi, it’s Mark Moty from Natural Born Coaches, and I want. Two very big thumbs up to Tim Melanson and his creative crew agency. I have been using them for a long time and I am 100% happy.

They get the job done right. They’re fast and they let me focus on my business. I don’t have to worry about anything, so again, I want to give them two very big thumbs up. I have no problem recommending. I don’t give testimonials for everyone because my name is attached to it, but I gladly do so for Tim and the Creative Crew Agency.

So use them. You won’t regret it and good luck.

Tim Melanson: So let’s talk a little bit about practicing and getting good at what you do. So what, what’s your, what’s your approach to like as, I mean cuz technology keeps changing, there’s things that are changing all the time. How do you stay, you know, on top of.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah, so like in terms of sales pages, there’s, I mean, some, a lot of sales page content, like what fits on a page is kind of evergreen.

It’s like I’ve taken, I’ve taken courses in corporate, I was building hundreds of landing pages to sell products. They all kind of come down to the same pieces that need to be included on each page. So I have the experience from the past. What needs to be there and like the best way to arrange it and like, will it be responsive, you know, , how will this look once people are on, on their mobile device?

Um, and then I have taken, you know, some other people’s courses on how they create sales pages and this day and age. So some things have changed, like. The selling tactics, I’m, I’m finding, are leaning more in the direction of, um, they used to be find the pain, agitate the pain, you know, make the person like, Oh, things are horrible and I might think we’ll solve this for you.

And now they’re moving more in a hopeful sort of empathy based direction, which is great. That fits my personality. Exactly. So I’ve been, you know, I’ve taken a few courses. I’ve tried not to take too many cuz I don’t. End up accidentally recreating what somebody else is selling. Um, but yeah, I try to take some online courses, um, to help me keep up with that and just keep an eye out for what’s happening.

And then, um, then yeah, just then it’s just a matter of, with each new client refining my process and noticing what. True for each one. Cuz I’m not a very linear thinker, , Um, which is probably different from you , maybe your girlfriend understands. Um, so sometimes I don’t see the forest for the trees. I end up just like intuitively creating something.

I’m like, Well wait, actually there is a recipe to this. So I’m, I’m constantly evolving that and I found also that creating. Um, trainings or sending out regular emails and writing about my process is helping me hone in too on what I do and the best way to do it. And I, I, I can sense that it’s getting more refined as I go, so I’m just gonna keep on doing that.

hope that it keeps getting better.

Tim Melanson: Right on. Well, I mean, yeah, that’s exactly it. It does get more refined the more you do it, right? Mm-hmm. , and whether you know it or not, you are following it. Recipe . Yeah,

Sarah Guilliot: exactly.

Tim Melanson: And, you know, but that’s, you know, that kinda leads to, you know, if you are ever gonna get into a place where you’re going to sort of start to subcontract and stuff.

Well, having that recipe written down would be useful as well. Right? Mm-hmm. .

Sarah Guilliot: Mm-hmm. . Yes. For sure.

Tim Melanson: So, let’s talk a little bit about the jam room. Cause one of the challenges about working from home is finding a space to work from home where you can be productive. So what, what have you? Yeah,

Sarah Guilliot: so we’re, we moved, we, we used to be in um, a nice big house.

I had an office, it was amazing. Um, which was a playroom, but nobody was playing with it in it. It was just toys everywhere. So I’m like, Well, if you guys aren’t using this now, it’s my office. It was great. And then we moved, cause we’re, we’re building a house. We bought property and we’re in a, um, a rental house, so there’s much less rooms here.

Um, but I was able to find, This room, uh, which I kind of, you know, can share with a daughter . And, but when I have these calls, I know like there’s a bed behind me, which is really awkward. And I, I don’t like to have the fake background. I, I don’t know, I just wanna, I. Do. I don’t wanna have to think about that.

So I just wanna be able to come on camera and everything. So since I’m on a lot of Zoom calls, I was like, I don’t really like having a bed behind me. So I ended up buying this wood screen from Home Depot , which I had seen on like, you know, you see like Amy Porterfield, she has this beautifully built wooden background and other people have pretty places in their house that they’ve set up.

And I was like, The screen is like 150 bucks from Home Depot and I can just prop it up against the bed and it looks like a million times better, and I have a gigantic light in the corner. So that’s been great for me for videos, but for being productive at home, I’m just not . I noticed I’m not productive at home, so my go-tos are my car.

It’s like my mobile command unit. I love being in my car. I feel like, I don’t know, insulated and focused in there, and I’ll just go to a park and I can work there on the hotspot on my phone and the library. The library is amazing. I find that if I really wanna get things done, I need to have. Like three solid hours at the library and that’s a really safe, solid place for me.

And now I’ve kind of trained my brain to be super productive whenever I go to the library. So, So those are, Yeah, those are my places. Nice. I’ve

Tim Melanson: never heard the library, but that’s a really good idea cuz a lot of people go to coffee shops and coffee shops are, are good, but they’re kind of bustly and there’s like stuff going on and so it’s very difficult to concentrate if you, if you need that quiet.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah, and I always, then I would feel like, Oh, I gotta constantly buy things or I’m gonna feel guilty for sitting here. , I don’t have to buy anything. I don’t feel

Tim Melanson: guilty library. It’s un, it’s unlimited refills, , It’s part of their branding. They want us to be there, . Right on. So now how about learning from others?

I mean, you mentioned before that you, you know, often take courses, but do you, like, do you believe in getting coaches and that kind of stuff as well, and masterminds, all that? What do you. Yeah,

Sarah Guilliot: yeah, I, um, I hesitated to get a coach for the longest time, and, um, this was three, four years ago. I finally was like, I feel like I, I’ve taken a bunch of courses and I get the content and then I maybe look at it a little bit and do a little bit, but I don’t really make headway or I have specific questions that I need answered and I need, I wish I had somebody.

Tell me specifically. So that’s when I got my first coach. I was so nervous about finding the right coach. Her name is Jessica Rodriguez. She’s at Freedom Driven Success. She was my first coach and I was in a coaching program for like six months with her and then another six months. Um, even before that actually I started coaching with her while I was still in corporate while I was making the transition out.

So then I learned the value of coaching for me. I mean, maybe coaching isn’t for everyone, but for me it’s amazing cuz so. I can get really into action if I know exactly what I’m doing, but sometimes I stumble over what my next step should be. So since then it like opened the floodgates of coaching . I spent maybe way too much money on it, but I discovered a gal named Sarah Massey a couple years ago who teaches about the v I P day process.

Were you doing, you know, all the work in, in one day, but it’s charging a nice amount for that, and it’s just more efficient. A month long project, you could get the same amount of work done Amazingly, it doesn’t seem possible, but you can. Um, and that’s been incredible for me. I mean, that was, that made so many great friends in there that end up being subcontractors on projects or if I can’t do something, I hand them off to them.

Like, I don’t work in WordPress. So if there’s a WordPress project, I know like five people. Hand those over to, and, um, it’s been amazing for just having a solid format to follow whenever I’m confused about what those next steps are.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree with you because I, I have found that, Taking online courses, it’s very difficult to stay focused on what you’re doing.

Mm-hmm. and I, I don’t know how many online courses I’ve actually done, maybe three modules and then been done , which just, All right, I’m done. Now you don’t have that focus. Right. But, but when you’re, when you have, like, I’ve had a coach now for, I think it’s coming up on two years now that I meet with regularly, and it’s great.

I mean, cuz you, There’s another thing too, is that I find. When the meeting is coming up. Yeah. I get the most work done in that last little bit. Cause I’m like, ah, there’s no way I’m hopping on this call going like, I didn’t do anything. Sorry, . So, so like I find that there’s that, but, but also just, just having someone to bounce the ideas off of that’s not gonna just say, You know?

Yeah, sure. Sounds good. Yeah, sure. Sounds good. Cause that’s what a lot of your support network is gonna do. They’re there to support you, so, you know, whatever you say, they’re either gonna poo poo it or mm-hmm. , but they’re not gonna really, you know, bounce the ideas back and forth as well as someone who’s trained to do so would do so.

Right.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah, I, I agree completely. They are a great sounding board that’s gonna be honest with you. And the accountability too, like you’re talking about, or the, I can’t show up to that meeting with nothing done. I, I love that. Like, it, having a coach feels like they’re holding. They’re holding you accountable and they’re holding space for you.

So if you have a kind of a long term goal, you’re gonna make those tiny steps to get there. Whereas if you are all alone, you don’t have the pressure of like, Oh, I have that call next week. And you might wait eight months before you think about it again, or you completely forget what your goals were. And just having that, that circle back touchpoint with the coach reminds you, you know,

Yeah, that’s that thing I’m building that’s so important to me. And I just got lost in the weeds and forgot about until we had our, our next call. Yep.

Tim Melanson: And there’s a lot of systems you can create too that would replace a coach. And I know, I mean, it might not be for everybody cuz you know, I do have now like accountability systems, like spreadsheets that I keep regular tabs on the things that I’m supposed to be doing every day, which actually came from the coach.

But, but like now, you know, I’ve got like a, like two coaches. I’ve got that, that real person and I got that spreadsheet. And I mean, the difference is pretty distinct. You, you can’t BS with the spreadsheet. . and actually you can’t BS with a coach either. Now that I think about it, , they see through it, but uh, but I think it’s one of those things where once you get to a level, then you can sort of like stabilize there and then you’ve got another level to keep on going up.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. They’ll, maybe your spreadsheet won’t help you actually get up those next levels, but a, a real person would, can I ask you on your spreadsheet, do you, is that something that you visit on a certain cadence? Like are you looking at it every day or do you have a reminder that comes to you and is like, Oh, head over to the spreadsheet.

Tim Melanson: Well, right now I do it every day and you know, so days I don’t, but, uh, but I’m supposed to do it every day. Uh, and yeah, you can put a reminder in your phone or whatever it is to do it, but I, I tend to do it in the morning, every day and then again, right before I close everything down again. And yeah, I mean, if, if you, if you have even just, you know, like, cuz there’s always gonna be in every business I think.

A minimum amount of things you need to do. A minimum, you know, thing that you have to do. Like maybe you need to reach out to one new person every day for your sales. Right? Well, you know, you can put that in a spreadsheet and either it’s either a zero or a one. You either did or you didn’t. You know, but, uh, I find that like a lot of times, well, you know, in the books that I’ve read, like Atomic Habits, it’s all about the little things.

It’s, it’s that really matter. You know, people complicate things too much and go like, Well, I need to do this all. And then of course, you’re not gonna do any of that . But if you just break it down to what that, whatever that smallest little piece of whatever it is you need to do, whether it be, you know, in your health, it, maybe it’s.

Uh, maybe it’s exercising for 10 minutes. I don’t know. Maybe it’s meditating, whatever, whatever it happens to be. If it’s just a really small thing that you could put on a spreadsheet and you can either tick a one or a zero. It’s so much easier that way than either you did or you didn’t, and you know, there’s no judgment if you didn’t.

It’s just, it’s progress. If you don’t get the results you’re looking for, well then now you know why. Right?

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah, yeah. It’s that chance to get real with yourself and be like, Oh yeah. That’s been like three weeks in a row. I haven’t done that thing. Let’s, you know, why didn’t I do that thing? Do I need to change what that thing is?

Or how about this week I do that

Tim Melanson: thing. And that’s exactly, and that’s I think the most important thing that I think I’ve gotten out of it is that, Sometimes some of those things on that list are things that you are not doing because, uh, you don’t need to. Like Yeah. You know, there are some things you think you should be doing, but you just don’t need, you don’t really need to do it.

Mm-hmm. , you know, it’s not gonna get you any further. I mean, you could be still rocking your business and not doing that thing, thing’s , but then there’s other things that you’re not doing because you’ve got some sort of fear towards it. Yeah. And that’s really. Piece that I think you really benefit from is that you notice that something’s a zero for several days in a row or weeks in a row, and you’re kind of going like, But I do need to do it.

Okay, What’s holding me back? There’s something, then you can kind of dig deep and you know, that’s where the actual coach comes into play because now you actually need to talk about it and figure out, mm-hmm. , like, why is it that I’m not doing that? And maybe there’s somebody you can hire to do it.

Probably not. It’s probably something that you’re just scared to do, right? Yeah,

Sarah Guilliot: yeah, yeah. You just have that moment of like, what am I scared of? And, and why? Yeah. I

Tim Melanson: love that. And, and we’re, we’re filled, filled with terrible programming. It’s just, it is what it is. Mm-hmm. , and, I mean, we all kind of know it too, , but, uh, but in business, especially when you’re alone and you’re, you’re self-employed, There’s no boss that’s gonna tell you if you don’t do this, you’re gonna lose your job.

You just end up being broke, . And it happens gradually. Right?

Sarah Guilliot: Exactly.

Tim Melanson: Right on. So now let’s, uh, talk about your, about you. Actually, it’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business.

Sarah Guilliot: Yeah, well I was just, I was updating my homepage today That was exciting. Or yesterday. Uh, got some more tweaks to do on there, but just really honing in my offer.

So I have this v i p week structure now, um, where I can help people with their sales page copy. Over a week or copy and design for two weeks. Design, meaning using their existing branding like you talked about before. So I’m excited to put that out there. And I also added like a smaller, um, priced coaching session cuz sometimes people just are a little unclear.

So I was really excited to add that to my site and you know, that might change over time cause I’m, I’m really interested in productized services, so that’s something I wanna explore a little more over the year, but, I have this sales page challenge, which is a five day challenge that, um, you can get on my site if you want.

It’s it sarah design.com/challenge and, um, it helps you with. Like the sort of the minimum viable product for your minimum viable sales page. If you’re just starting out, you don’t know what should be on it. It’s talking through mostly the copy, a little bit of design tips. Um, it’s a five day challenge, but I’m all about the, like, I don’t wanna wait, I wanna binge all the things at once.

So you can get all five days at once or you can spread it out if you want to. And um, that’s been really fun to introduce on my site for people to have. To give it a try on their own first if they’re not ready to hire me or they just don’t want to at all. Um, to get those sections into their sales page that, um, that need to be there that people don’t know.

Like you said, there is a formula that you follow. Um, there are things that you need to have on, on your page for, or, you know, need, like it, it would help you with your conversions if you have all. Particular section. So, um, that was a fun freebie to add to my site. I’m really excited. Got like, probably have like 50 people through there so far.

So I’m excited to see that grow .

Tim Melanson: Right on. Well I can speak to the VIP days and how awesome they are cuz my partner uses them as well and it’s Oh yeah, it’s, yeah, they’re, they, uh, like I will say that in, especially in creative areas, getting on a role. Super important. Mm-hmm. and you can’t really get on a roll when you’re spreading it out, you know, a couple minutes every day.

Yeah. so, so like having a full day dedicated where you can both kind of, you know, client and, and designer can get together and actually work through these things. It really does work and. Especially if there’s a system in place, which there is that, that you’re following, right. To make sure that you have all the right pieces.

So, you know, I, I can’t say enough good things about how well that works. And then from the client perspective, you know, if you’re looking for somebody to do this, it’s fantastic cuz you’ve got it now it’s done. Mm-hmm. , you know, you know that that’s one of the things, you know, most people would like something to.

Built for them quicker, wouldn’t they? Than than taking longer. Exactly. So this is a way Exactly. Yeah. It’s a way to get that so quick now. So, uh, how do we, you mentioned Sarah designs.com right? That’s how we find out more about this. There,

Sarah Guilliot: there’s no, there’s no s at the end. It’s just Sarah design,

Tim Melanson: sarah design.com.

Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything else you wanna.

Sarah Guilliot: Um, yeah, I guess just if you wanna hang out with me or chat or whatever, I’m usually over on Instagram at Sarah Design Agency. Um, so I welcome messages and can come hang out over there. Sometimes I share, um, sales page tips and stuff on there in, in reels and whatnot.

So that’s, um, yeah, that’s a place we can connect. And I, I’d love to connect with your viewers.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Sarah. This has been a lot of fun.

Sarah Guilliot: Thanks, Tim. Yeah, I had lots of fun too.

Tim Melanson: Good. And to the listeners, be sure you subscribe right and comment, and we’ll see you next time with Work at Home Rockstar podcast.