James Patrick is an award winning photographer, best selling author, entrepreneur coach, podcast host and public speaker based in Phoenix, AZ.  He is the founder of FITposium, an annual conference guiding fitness entrepreneurs to grow their careers.  James has received a bevy of awards for his work as a photographer, marketer and entrepreneur.  Leveraging his diverse experience, James has presented on stages coast-to-coast in the United Sates and has been interviewed for numerous TV, radio, magazine, newspaper and podcast features.  James Patrick's mission is to create art and opportunities for others.

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[00:00:00] Michael King: Hey everybody, welcome to In the Trenches with Michael King where we talk with business owners, leaders, and executives about the lessons they've learned while fighting In the Trenches of the business battlefield. I am Michael King.

[00:00:22] Well, I think we are all pretty much In the Trenches right now. I know a lot of small business owners from coast to coast, operate the type of business where they get up every day, they leave the house, they go out and they provide a service. And in exchange for that service, they get paid. And with the quarantines, we're not, I mean, pretty much across the board.

[00:00:41] Now for many of us, that's impossible to do. We can't leave our house. And so we're kind of stuck here and that's put us in a big bind. And thankfully the government has recently signed into law the cares act, which is going to extend the runway. For some of us, and it's going to free up some, you know, much needed capital to keep our doors open and keep our employees paid.

[00:01:03] But, you know, the best case scenario is that it just extends our runway. It doesn't solve the revenue problem. So today I'm talking with my friend James Patrick, and we kind of bounce some ideas back and forth around how business owners who provide a service typically leave the house and they go and provide a service for people.

[00:01:23]We're going to talk about some ideas on how they can provide value for people from home. And so we're going to walk through a six step process to, kind of figure out how you can work from home and still provide value for your client base and maybe even expand your client base to some people you hadn't been able to serve before.

[00:01:42]  Additionally, if you're a business owner and you want to share your story about how you're handling the crisis that we're in right now and how you've pivoted your business, things that you've tried, things that are working, things that aren't working, or if you just want to brainstorm, kind of live on an episode, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].

[00:02:04] I would love to hear your story and share that story to hopefully help inspire others, or at least give them some ideas on what they can do differently. but for now it's a time to talk with my friend James Patrick. So without further ado, here is my interview. James. Thanks for joining me today. 

[00:02:25] James Patrick: Mike, so excited to chat. 

[00:02:27] Michael King: I think, when we had initially lined this interview up, we were on a little bit better terms. as it goes with society. We find ourselves in the middle of quarantines and a global pandemic. How have you been faring so far? 

[00:02:41] James Patrick:  You know, fortunately really well, and I stress the word fortunate.

[00:02:46] The world shifted on us and it shifted really fast. And we've seen the fabric of the landscape that so many of us have put ourselves on not just our businesses, but our lives have become. Really shaky and it's honestly, it's hard not to have that energy touch you in some way, shape, or form. It's, it's everything we see in the news.

[00:03:07] It's everything we see on social media now. It's gotten to the point where you see people, you know, starting to, to test positive for it. And there's no way to avoid it. But it's in how you choose to manage your day to day. Cause you can control your thoughts and you can control the actions that you take.

[00:03:24] Michael King:  What have you found personally to be a working best for you? 

[00:03:29] James Patrick:  So, from a personal standpoint, my background, I've been a photographer for over 20 years. And in that season of my life, it was honestly, it was the season of the hostel because my modality to get work was to just go out and just pound pavement and just get as many clients as I could.

[00:03:50] And it got to a point where I was just. Yeah. I had one year, I worked 500 individual jobs in 365 days, and that stat just blows my mind, but I mean, it was there, but I was physically just exhausted. If that were how I was running my business right now, I'd be in a lot of trouble. Because there'd be no way I cannot go out and make money right now going out and taking pictures.

[00:04:13] So the only way I made money was to go take pictures. The second shift I had was to start charging more to take pictures. So a lot of entrepreneurs will have that where it's just, okay, I'm going to get better clients and better clients just means clients who are going to invest more in me. That was the second modality, but even still, I ran into a capacity of how much time I had to serve, but I still wasn't building the business I wanted.

[00:04:38] So the third really shift that I had was to create income streams that did not exclusively tie my money. To them because, you know, as a freelancer, which I was as a photographer, if I get sick, I don't get paid. If I can't go into work, I don't get paid or where we're at right now. If I'm quarantined right now, I can't get paid.

[00:04:58] So over the last six, seven years, I've been able to build income streams, be it my coaching platform, all my events, events are on hold right now, understandably. But the event, my mastermind, my online digital downloads, like I'm able to have these things to sustain my income so that even though I can't take a photo now for, I don't know, four, six, seven weeks, you know, whatever, however long this spans out, I'm not going to struggle during this time.

[00:05:29] Michael King: That's awesome. I know that there's so many of us that are struggling right now because, you know, essentially we trade our time for money. You know, one for one or is there some version they're having? A couple episodes ago on my podcast, I talked to a buddy of mine about how as entrepreneurs, typically the way the business models work is we go from hourly work to project work to recurring revenue, right?

[00:05:54] That's kind of the normal progression. But what I'd love to talk to you about James, and we didn't really dive into this ahead of time, so this'll be a pretty impromptu discussion. If somebody finds themselves at home right now where a week ago they were doing work like let's say they were a photographer, right?

[00:06:13] They're out there taking pictures, or maybe they're a florist or a, you know, maybe they were a carpenter. I don't know. Something where they're out there and they're doing work where their compensation as a result of their time, how would they even. Think about transitioning to doing something online, or you mentioned you've got classes and courses and all kinds of digital work, but it feels like that might be overwhelming to somebody that hasn't done it.

[00:06:41] And quite frankly, I'm in the middle of that transition right now. I mean, I'm only a few months into it, so I can't speak as much of an expert. But you've got a couple of years under your belt. So lay out a three or four step process on how, the guy or gal at home right now that's freaking out because they can't take pictures.

[00:06:59] How do they get started? 

[00:07:01] James Patrick:  So first off, it's whatever they're feeling right now. That fear, that uncertainty, that stress, that anxiety validated, it's all real and it's fine to feel that way because like we kind of let off with everything changed, right? So it's okay to feel stressed. It is okay to feel nervous right now and it is completely normal.

[00:07:25] To be in a place where you don't feel very creative right now. I mean, think about like the hierarchy of needs, the baseline hierarchy of needs right now, our physiological needs. So like air, food, water, shelter, right? Well, you go to the grocery store and you just see it ransacked. So that's all I need. It cracked the second need off from their safety, personal safety, employment, resources, health.

[00:07:50] Hey, that one's been pretty obliterated. One up from there. Love and belonging. The ability to connect with others, a sense of connection. We're isolated in our houses.  So up from there is where we have our creative spaces, where we have those areas that we can. And we can put forth creative thought and what we can create and how we can show up.

[00:08:10] But all of these are on a foundation that has been cracked severely. So, you know, I, I start with this and realize that, you know, it's okay to not feel very creative right now. It's okay to be in a place where you just, sometimes you just need to give yourself that pause to allow yourself to heal a little bit.

[00:08:28] So, and I'll give a personal example. Yesterday morning I woke up and one of the, one of the times during this I woke up and I woke up with anxiety. I literally could feel it in my chest. I could feel it in my throat. And understandably why. Like I had just had lunch the day before where I was told that my mother-in-law has to cancel her wedding.

[00:08:48] So I'm hearing all that, and I spent so much time connecting with entrepreneurs who are unsure of what to do right now. So like, you're just really absorbing a lot of this energy. So I woke up feeling very stressed and I was like, I can't show up right now in this place. I can't even create in this place.

[00:09:04] There's no way, anything I think of will not work. So I had to spend my time getting myself right in order to show for that day. So that involved how I meditated that morning, the exercises that I went through going through a second meditation after that so that I could show up better. Okay. So I think part one is just acknowledging, you know, it's okay if you don't feel like your most creative self.

[00:09:26] If you need to give yourself that pause or that space, take it. Cause this is, there's two seasons as an entrepreneur, like we talked about the season, the hustle, the other season of an entrepreneur as a season of just space and pause. Just giving yourself that space where you can rest that space where you can heal.

[00:09:42] But then that space that after you've rested and after you've healed that, you can start to think. Creatively. And what's really cool in regards to what you can pivot to. My wife and I did a webinar about a week ago about this, and we had a bunch of people tune into the webinar who said, okay, this is great talking about online income, but I am blank.

[00:10:02] For my business and I don't know how I can make money online. And every person that came, we came up with an idea of what they can do. I like when someone says, well, I'm a makeup artist. What could I possibly do as a makeup artist right now? And the immediate answers, why aren't you teaching people to do makeup online right now?

[00:10:19] Why don't you create courses on how people, because guess what? Who? You have all these people trapped at home right now and a lot of people still probably want to feel really good and still want to feel like they look really good. Teach them how to do it themselves. Show up. Be a value right now as a photographer.

[00:10:34] Hey, okay, so you can't be a photographer right now. You have a couple of different options. Once again, look for what people need right now. I had a call from one of my magazine clients and they said, we're nervous about sending anyone out. What do you have that you've already created that you can just license and sell us?

[00:10:50] And that was a big light. Well, for me, it's like. I could just license and so I have 20 years of photos. I could just go out and find clients to sell to them because they're too afraid to send someone out to make something new right now. Or I could just teach photography online. I could teach Photoshop tutorials online, or there's a lot of people who are taking their own photos right now because, hey, quarantine.

[00:11:11] All these influencers have taken their own photos right now. What if I just offered services to edit their photos for them? Okay. I think ideas are just there, but what you have to do is look to see what people need right now. What do they need right now? Once you see what they need right now, then you could start to align your services and see where that overlap is.

[00:11:31] and you just have to have your eyes opened up opportunity and give yourself that space to be creative because the ideas exist if you are willing to look for them. 

[00:11:42] Michael King: Okay, so just so far, you said right out of the gate, acknowledge the fear. The fear is very real. Be okay with that. Right. And what I called step one is if you're not in a creative place, if you're not in a creative mindset.

[00:11:57] Pause right there. Just kind of take a breather. Now I want to put my thoughts on that pause doesn't mean taking three months, right? Pause means take a couple of days, right? Like two or three and get your, get your head together. Get your head in the game, and then go. And then the next step is to look to see what people need right now.

[00:12:19] Think about your gifts and talents, and look for that overlap, but just keep your eyes open and see what's out there and be creative. To see how you might solve those problems, but I get that right. 

[00:12:29] James Patrick:  Oh, 100% and I liked that you brought up the pause thing. No, pause does not mean three months. Pause, pause.

[00:12:35] It's going to be subjective based on where you're at right now. For me, my pause was about two hours, but that's because I have a very aggressive habits schedule that I keep and I can implement my meditations, my journaling, my exercise. That can shift. My mindset so that I can move forward with my actions fast, but you know what?

[00:12:55] Every now and then I need a day where I do nothing but relax and nourish, nourish my mind with a good book. Good meditation's good. Podcast, maybe a good movie, whatever is. Yeah, I have those days too and you honor that because there's no point showing up. Any less than amazing. Right? But then the other part of it opens your eyes up to opportunities.

[00:13:19] And there, there are so many new opportunities that did not exist before. You just have to be willing to pay attention. Like, I mean, the ones that came up, like I am not going to be spending a lot of time licensing out photos. I don't really have time for that. But what a tremendous opportunity for every photographer who could ever tune into this episode to take years of collateral and churn it.

[00:13:42] Turn it into money. It's just sitting on your hard drive turning into money right now. Or, Hey, you spent 30 or 20 years learning this craft drum up a course right now. Teach others how to do exactly what you're doing because guess what? A lot of people have time and in a couple of weeks they're going to be itching to start to explore creatively themselves and you can teach them a new skill set or something they've never done before.

[00:14:03] That's obviously, you know, I wish I had time to learn XYZ. Well, you got nothing but time now.  

[00:14:08] Michael King:  I'm pulling up a post that I saw on social media this morning that really, really resonated with me. It kind of inspired me a little bit to be honest, and I want to get it right and it says, if you need motivation this week, think about this.

[00:14:23] What if this whole thing magically ended on Friday and you had to go back to work starting Monday? What would you wish you had done during this time? While you had the time. And I think it's just like with everything in life,  we don't know how long this is gonna last. So we've gotta be really, really deliberate about leveraging it to the best we can instead of playing the victim.

[00:14:47] You know, this happened to me. And so, you know, now I'm going to have a staycation. I'm going to binge Netflix, I'm going to feel really sorry for myself. I'm going to wait for that thousand dollar check to come from the government next week or next month. Right. Turning like you said, turning 

[00:15:02] This time into an opportunity to learn something new or to find new opportunities. I think you know what you said about the photographers as an example. You know, they've got, you know, potentially tens of thousands of dollars of product on their computer from photos they've taken over the years. You can get out and, and license those out and, so others can use them or are coming up with a course.

[00:15:24] You've done courses before, right? James, you've, you've created your own. 

[00:15:27] James Patrick:  Yeah, absolutely. I've created a number of courses I want to, I want to. Touch on something you said, cause I think it's so important. You said that the victim mentality of this happened to me. When you're in that modality, if you're saying this is happening to me, I can't believe this is happening.

[00:15:39] Oh, this is happening. What you've done is you've removed all your control of the situation. You remove all your control of the situation. There's nothing you can do. You've basically washed your hands of ever turning this around because you've said this had nothing to do with me. This happened to me. And that's a very dangerous place to be.

[00:15:57] If you can look at this instead of, well, this is what is, it did not happen to me. Maybe it happened for me, but I control my actions. I control my actors. I control what I do every day. That remains in your circle of control. And I get so frustrated when I hear individuals using that language of, Oh, I can't believe this happened, or Oh gosh, what am I going to do?

[00:16:22] I can't let this happen to me. It's like, no, you're removing your control of the situation. Never give up. That control is too important because you can control, and as I was saying, like we can control our mindset and we can control our actions. We get our mindset right first, then we can follow that with the right actions, the actions that we need to move in that direction.

[00:16:41] what a poignant thing of, if this went away Monday, what do you wish you would have done? And my immediate thought is, I'm doing it now, but am I doing it fast enough? All those things right. I'm like, Oh gosh, am I doing it enough? So it puts that positive pressure on, okay, double down your efforts even more.

[00:16:58] Which for me, that excites me. but yeah, we've created, we've gone through a number of different course creations. We've done everything from digital download courses to, we launched a membership platform, soft launch, a membership platform, late or last year. and we also do a lot of one-on-one and group coaching as well.

[00:17:18] Just all done virtually. 

[00:17:19] Michael King: So I think a lot of people may get hung up on this. It can be overwhelming figuring out, okay. So it's like, okay, I'm in the right mindset. The creative juices are flowing. I recognize that I'm going to teach people, I'll use me as an example, right? I'm going to teach people how to read financial statements.

[00:17:36] Okay? that's something that people put off. Like I don't ever have the time to sit down and figure it out. So I'm going to create a course on how to read financial statements. But where I think people might get hung up is what next. Right? Like there's a lot of technical platforms out there to do these.

[00:17:53] Some of them are free, some of them are really, really expensive. Where would you recommend somebody go to get started with this from a hosting, like a hosting and a technical perspective? I've got my opinions, but I'd love to hear what you think. 

[00:18:06] James Patrick:  So I'm going to give two parts to this answer. I'll actually answer the technical part, but I'll preface it by saying it doesn't matter.

[00:18:14] And the reason it doesn't matter is nothing is set in stone. Everything's cast in jello, which means anything can be changed at any point. There's nothing stopping you from updating, changing, revising, or completely shifting or even blowing something up. Should you choose, and I was, I was on a podcast earlier.

[00:18:31] We were joking about first launches, and I was telling a story like the first time I launched something online, it was an ebook and I didn't know how to launch an ebook. So what I did was I set up a PayPal button, but I never knew how to automate sending out the ebook. So every time I got an alert from PayPal, I would then write an email and manually attach the ebook every single time, and that I did that for a couple of hundred eBooks until I figured out, Oh, there's a system that does this automatically.

[00:18:59] Okay, I guess I'll use that. Then you can figure it out. Everything can be figured out. It's all really a matter of cost versus benefit and how much control you want and how much scalability wants. I'll give a couple of different examples. Let's just say we'll use the example of course creation online.

[00:19:16] Okay? You could use a third party hosting. Third party hosting would be, let's just say a Thinkific or teachable. Okay. Their price points are super low. They're very easy to use. You upload everything to those platforms and you just build your course there and you're charged that you want to charge, and then you're off to market.

[00:19:38] Right? Downsides. One downside is your customization of the user experience is severely limited. And I'll use Thinkific as an example. I believe on their sales page, you can have up to 140 characters to sell your program. That's it. You can have a Twitter link to post to try to sell your entire program.

[00:19:58] That doesn't work for me. I need a full page. I want a video sales letter. I want lots of information, lots of testimonials, like I want something to really Edify why people are going to make this investment. Okay, so you lose a little bit of design, aesthetics and user experience, but Hey, everything's plug and play and you just.

[00:20:15] You just white label your URL over it and you're off to go and it's done. You don't need to know any coding or design. You can just launch and create. Another downside would be everything is hosted within their container, which means should any of those websites be a Thinkific or teachable? Have any, let's just say server downtimes.

[00:20:35] Well, your membership sites are down, your courses are down. Okay. So realize that. So that's option A. Like if you wanted to do on demand, a parallel to that would be if you wanted to do like a massive digital download upside to that is probably, I think it's a little less expensive. You were to use a website, like let's say Shopify, you, you set up a Shopify account, you connect an app which allows for digital downloads and you allow people to.

[00:21:01] Download things. The downside is, is now people have to download, let's say, like I had a photo course on there. It was like it was almost a gig in size. While a lot of people don't want to download a full gig, some might, so, all right. Little bit of upside downside there, but much more customization of your sales page.

[00:21:22]much more benefit in sales tools. So it's really how do you want to deliver to your clients? So we've tested both and after testing both, subscription model or you know, on demand content where they just create a login versus digital downloads where they actually download a massive file. Like if it's a video course, it's 800, 900 megs, one, 1.5 gigs.

[00:21:46] We prefer the login just because also a lot of people on their phones, they don't want to be downloading a gig to their phone and pull up their phone. So out of those two I go course route versus download route. From there, another option or layer of courses that you could do is you could use something like

[00:22:05] gateway tool would be, probably a good industry standard would be access ally access. Ally plugs into your WordPress. So you have a website on WordPress, you connect access ally to it. This is the coding, which allows members to create their usernames and passwords, connects with Stripe to process the credit card payments and manages your client profiles.

[00:22:29] Okay, so it's basically your membership hub. You'd use access ally and you would host your videos on a third party hosting platform, be it Vimeo or YouTube benefit. There is much less risk of downtime using Vimeo or YouTube just because they will have the server bandwidth. That would, I would trust their server bandwidth a lot more than I would trust.

[00:22:49] Like, let's say Thinkific or, teachable. 

[00:22:52] Michael King:  I think what you said earlier is the key. Just get started. Don't spend a lot of time going through and you know, gosh, do I want this one and or do I want that one? And well, this one's one 49. This one's one 99. Just get started, right? Just find something in and get started with it.

[00:23:10]so often we get. Paralyzed by decision making. but you're absolutely right. Just get started with, with something. 

[00:23:16] James Patrick:  So here's the thing. A lot of people will delay a launch because they want it to be perfect. I'm just gonna tool this a little more. It's almost perfect. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna tweak it a little more.

[00:23:25] It's, it's almost there and we've all been guilty of it. I've been guilty of it. I delayed that, that ebook launch that came out a year later than it needed to. There are so many things that I've sat on and there are things that I sat on so long. Someone else launched it first. And they're the ones that took on the paycheck.

[00:23:42] Right. Done is better than perfect and honors the reality that it's going to be messy at first. My first ebook was a train wreck. My first podcast, not good. My first time speaking on stage, probably not that great either. My first photo shoot, probably not a home run. The idea is that everything can be adjusted over time.

[00:24:04] You don't like how it's serving you fine. You adjusted over time and what's great if you launch it before you think it's perfect. Let's say you launch that, you know what's the ideology launch at 80% what this does is it gives you the opportunity for feedback. Feedback will guide you how to ascend and mature your coast, your course, your platform, whatever it is over time, because your audience will tell you what they like, what they don't like, and what they want to see next.

[00:24:33] So you could spend hours. Hours like  forever on something and then realize that, Oh, they didn't even want that. That's not even what they wanted. I was talking to a friend of mine, he launched a hat company a couple of years ago, and the hack company quickly scaled to seven figures, and I asked him what would, what advice would you give you yourself if you had to go back to when you started, what advice would you give yourself?

[00:24:56] You said we would have launched a year sooner. I said, well, what do you mean by that? He said, we sat on our website redesign yet. For 12 months we sat redesigning our website, trying to make it perfect, and assuming that once it got to a certain level of perfect, all right, the launch would just be unbelievable.

[00:25:14] I said, okay, so what happened when you launch? You said we had to redesign the website anyway. 

[00:25:17] Michael King:  It's amazing. You assume you know what your potential clients need and what they want. You assume you know where they're at but nothing validates that. Like taking something to market and just seeing if people buy it or not.

[00:25:33] James Patrick:  People will tell you where they want to go with it. And if you allow people to be a part of the experience in where this goes, they're going to feel more attached to it. They're going to feel a little bit more ownership with whatever the brand or the creation is, and they're going to be along for the ride.

[00:25:49] And that could be a really cool way to also increase the engagement you have with your audience by making them feel like they're a part of whatever it is that you choose to spend your time on.  

[00:26:00] Michael King:  So, all right. Just to recap so far, we've got, you know, step one a is be okay with the fear. It's real.

[00:26:05] Acknowledge it. B is a pause if you need to, just to kind of get back into a creative space, but kind of keep that to a few days, not a few weeks or a few months. Look around and see what people need right now. there's a lot of new opportunities out there because people are in unique situations.

[00:26:21] So look to see what people are asking for right now or what they need, and then look for overlaps with your skillset. Third step is to set up a technical platform. number four is be mindful that, perfect, shouldn't be the enemy of good enough. Get something kind of 80% of the way there. and then what would you say is next in this journey to take something, new to market?

[00:26:42] James Patrick:  The next step is relentless engagement. Showing up constantly. The number of times I see people launch something and they're disappointed that in the first 48 hours that they announced it, no one took action. It's like, well. Okay. If this is new, if you're doing something new right now that no one has ever expected you to do, and you came out of left field as launch, you didn't build it up at all.

[00:27:04] You didn't create any conversations about it beforehand. Yeah. People are going to be a little hesitant because when we're, I'll use social media as an example. We're on Instagram. We are not on Instagram holding our credit cards. We're not on Facebook ready to make a purchase. We're on there to be entertained.

[00:27:19] Formed or inspired one of those three things or a combination of those three things, right. So when I say show up, I say show up in one of those three areas. When I worked in my marketing job, I had a VP at that company and he poked his head in my wall or in my office cause he knew I was building something on the side.

[00:27:37] He knew I was getting ready to leave the company and start my own thing. And he says, Hey, got a little bit of vice-versa. What I said, be seen, be heard, be read. And that was that. Be seen, be heard, be read. That's showing up. Be seen.  Be ubiquitous beyond the Knippa tent. Get your face, your brand, your message in front of everyone who matters, not just everyone, everyone who matters, your client avatar.

[00:28:01] They need to know you. They need to know you exist. They need to know why you're doing what you're doing. And they need to know why it matters in the context of their lives. Not just look at me. This is why it matters in the context of your lives. So that's to be seen. So you're. Networking. You're involved, you're engaging your DM and you're commenting, you're starting conversations, be heard.

[00:28:23] You're not just in the back of the room cause you bought a ticket to a networking event. You're on the stage, you're presenting, you're on the podcast, Mike, you're the one putting the message out there to serve others and then be read. It's still that value driven. Our job right now is to create such an overwhelming.

[00:28:43] Supply a value that our audience, the people that tune into us, the people that we've earned their attention feel in depth to us. They feel so in debt to us that they're willing to take that next step. And that's why one of the things that we're talking about is, you know, if, if this all ended on Monday.

[00:29:02] What do you wish you would have done more of? And one, one great answer that is, I wish I would have given more value away. I wish I would've just shown up more. Be seen, be heard, be read. Because when you do that enough, and we do that with enough persistence, that's what starts to entrench. Into the mind of your ideal prospect.

[00:29:22] That's what starts this conversation's happening is by being present for those conversations to happen, and it will start to turn, but I don't, I don't believe, nor do I really adopt that ideology of the perfect launch and you know, Oh, you earn seven figures in over a weekend. Okay. If, if. If you did, great, but my guess is you spend a lot of time building engagement and relationship equity.

[00:29:45] This is not overnight success. This is 279 days to overnight success. 

[00:29:50] Michael King: I think most of the people listening to this right now, the, the people that this resonates with, they're there. I mean, the seven figure launch sounds great, but they'd probably just like to earn an extra 500 bucks to make sure they can.

[00:30:03] Pay their rent this month or put food on the table. And so, you know, it's like you don't have to be perfect. Just get something out there and, and, and do something that generates, you know, just a little bit of extra income. And, you know, hopefully it takes off for you. But I think right now we'd all just be, or most of us would be just, just happy to sell something, to, to help ends.

[00:30:23] James Patrick:  So what I would do in this, in this instance right now is I would focus on two paths. One would be free value. Build trust and engagement. Okay. So I would map out my calendar for the next four weeks and how I'm going to show up on social platforms, how I'm going to show up on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, whatever, the on my podcast, while my blog, whatever the platform is.

[00:30:48] Then I'm going to write out all the . Points that I need to hit upon. What are the solutions that I'm offering to my audience? What are their concerns right now and how can I show up to be a value to them? Well, I just now put together my entire editorial calendar for the next four weeks. Okay. Then I'm going to just batch create that content so that way it's done.

[00:31:08] Alright. That's a good use of a day or two. Then from there. I'm going to create whatever my offer is, realizing that there are going to be people nervous to invest in a full offer. So what I might do is I might create a reduced version of this offer. So for example, you can't do a, and I'll just give a personal saying, okay, you can't do my six month coaching.

[00:31:32] Tell you what, I'm going to do one off coaching sessions. At. 40% off. Okay. Because you can't, like, it's too scary to invest in one off coaching. Oh, let's do 40% off a one off coaching session. It's not offered any time during this year. I have another one of my clients who, she did a reduced price seven day.

[00:31:52]incubation period for her clients are for new clients. So it's a way to get people in for seven days, just provide massive value at a low ticket investment. And then the value is so great that she can upsell them after seven days. We have people, I've seen some of my clients. Do 30 day or 14 day.

[00:32:10]I have clients who like it just serendipitously, we're working on online launches for online courses over the past year, and it just happened to hit right now. And they are, they're just in quote unquote perfect timing to absolutely be so well positioned for what people need right now. So I would focus on those two things.

[00:32:28] One is how can I show up and give immense value. To build trust and engagement. And then two is what offer can I have that is. Low ticket. That is a no brainer in how much it solves people's problems that gets them into my ecosystem that I can then ascend them up after once this all ends, they're going to want to set up and who are they going to want to set up with the people who are serving them the most throughout this entire time.

[00:32:59] Michael King:  I love that. So free value to build trust and engagement, four week calendar and write out all the points that you want to hit on over the next four weeks. 

[00:33:10] Michael King: Batch process, all that  am I catching it? Am I grabbing all this? And then spend the next couple of days putting together your, the actual content that you want to sell.

[00:33:21] James Patrick: Exactly. And, and start, and you can even nurture, tease that out too. Like let's say you release something absolutely free. Let's say it's a free guide and you can put together your email nurture sequence. It starts teasing out what you are going to offer. And then, Hey, right now I know times are tight right now, but I know this is the solution you need.

[00:33:40] You know, this is the solution you need for this seven day. Trial period. You can get in for this. Whatever it is that makes it that no-brainer. Okay, you know what? I'm going to do this because I believe this investment is in my best interest. 

[00:33:55] Michael King: What's the thing that's keeping you up at night? Right now in the middle of the coronavirus in the self quarantine from a business perspective, what's the thing that scared the shit out of you 

[00:34:06] James Patrick: Right now? I'm not nervous about anything right now. I would say the thing that is giving me anxiety is. That I have not found enough time to give as much as I want to give, and that's not to sound totally altruistic or anything like that.

[00:34:28] There's, there's a benefit to me to give. There's a benefit for me to create my educational videos. There is a benefit to me to create free resources for entrepreneurs. There was a benefit for me because I will sell. Once this starts to turn and I will be front of mind. So there's a benefit, but the anxiety is I wish I had more time to create more stuff.

[00:34:52] I wish I had more time to connect with more people to build more relationships in a bill mortgage payment, because right now, such a tremendous opportunity to be doing this. There's never been a better opportunity to be doing this. And when I see that, Oh my God, I can't believe it's already three o'clock today or four o'clock today, where did the day go?

[00:35:10] I wish I would've talked to 20 more people. Okay. I guess I gotta start over tomorrow. And that, that right there is, was what's been kind of churning my anxiety is that, I don't know. I feel like I've done enough during this time. 

[00:35:23] Michael King:  I can definitely relate to that. I had a team meeting on Friday and I said, I need you guys focused on the client stuff because I'm going to be dedicating most of my time to doing exactly what you just talked about.

[00:35:36] I've started doing daily IG videos. To kind of help people, you know, working from home and thinking through business, financial decisions and I'm still slow if that, it's embarrassingly slow. I've gotten better.  You know, pro tip for all of you out there that want to get into this stuff.

[00:35:54] Reps matter.  I think I'm slower than the average bear. Like it's taken me a lot more reps than I ever imagined. It was the same thing with the podcast though. When I first started with the podcast, I was so nervous. And, just tons of anxiety and my heart rate went up and I'd sweat a little bit.

[00:36:10] I mean, it felt a little bit like your first date, you know, back in high school for me every single time I turn the mic on and, you know, it's a little bit like that with the camera. Now, as soon as the camera comes on, I freeze up and I tense up and, but it's getting a little bit better. So, there's, my pro tip for the group is, do reps, reps, reps, you will get better and it may take longer than you think.

[00:36:31] James Patrick:  My videographer encourages me to do this, and I've gotten better at it. There was a time where I wouldn't say I struggled on camera, but the time that I wasn't polished on camera, and his encouragement to me and his encouragement to all of our clients is it's really more of a challenge. Hey, actually, just post your first take.

[00:36:51] Just allow your first take to be messy because guess what? It makes it real. It makes it authentic. It allows people to kind of see through the polishing and just connect with who you are and how you show up, and it just reduces that stress. That we have when we see that red light go on and we immediately forget every single thing that we are planning to say.

[00:37:15] Michael King:  That's funny. I wish you had told me that like a month ago, James, because, I just started that three videos again, I think it was, yeah, it was Friday and I said, F it, I'm just going to do whatever it comes out. And I said, so. However, the post goes and however the content is in, if I stutter or whatever, that's just going to be what it is.

[00:37:35] And you know, sure enough, it actually didn't go that bad. I've struggled with, for some reason, my videos upload to Instagram upside down. It's so, I struggled with that. And, here's another approach that for everybody listening, if you use a really large file. For your IG. If you upload a large file, Instagram gets screwed up.

[00:37:55] So keep your files to like 500 megs or less. I don't know if that's the magic number, but I found success with them not going upside down when they're 500 megs or less. 

[00:38:04] James Patrick:  Well, I had no idea it would do that. I made the mistake, as I was batch recording content of, Oh, I'll just start recording IGT V content on my pro level gear.

[00:38:16] And yeah, once again, the file sizes were so big that I was just like, Oh, this is gonna crash my editing app right now. Cause I was trying to edit it on my phone with files I had recorded on my camera. I'm like, you know what? This iPhone 11 pro has some hesitant chairman. I think I'm just, the camera's amazing.

[00:38:31] But yeah, but it's things that we've learned in the process and the only way to figure it out is by figuring it out. And that's what it's like, we talked to people who struggle with sales and they're like, Oh, I'm not good at selling. I'm like, the only way you're going to figure out how to sell is to pick up the phone and try to make a sale.

[00:38:49] It's the only way. 

[00:38:51] Michael King: And you can go into my IGTV now and you can see the upside down videos and the photos and you get, and I've just started kind of making fun of myself through the process. So, but because what you said is absolutely right, I get more engagement with those dorked up ones than I do with the ones that I feel like are more on the

[00:39:08] perfect end of the spectrum. You know, people like seeing that other people have problems and they have technical issues and they're not the only one. So yeah, just do, I love the first take. It takes so much less time to, you know, just knock the first take out, put it up there and be done. So I'm actually thinking the, the podcasts, I may start just using first take, you know, without any edits, without taking out the uhs and ums.

[00:39:32] I might just start cranking them out a little bit more organically in seeing how people respond to them. 

[00:39:37] James Patrick: This parallels what I do as a photographer and how everyone has treated social media. When I show a portfolio and people see my images, you know, maybe they go to my website, or if they look at one of my photo books and like, you know what?

[00:39:53] This is a really great collection of work. I said, thank you. And they'll say, you know, God, this is, I can't take clothes like this. I'm like, yeah, but what you're not seeing are the hundred thousand bad photos I had to take to get these 20 good photos. You're not seeing that cause I'm not showing it to you.

[00:40:08] Those are in negatives or they're saved on a hard drive somewhere. I'm not publishing those. I'm publishing the best. You only see the greatest hits, like being a photographer. It's like being the rolling stones and just coming out the new greatest hits album every, every year. Okay. I don't show you the rejects, but we've treated social media like this.

[00:40:27] We've treated social media as a way to only show the greatest hits of our lives and our businesses. And this has given a misperception of what success is and a misperception really of what life is or fulfillment is. Because we think, well, I don't have this, or I don't look like this, or whatever it is.

[00:40:44] So that's why, like we've almost in the 300 or so podcasts that I've recorded, I think we've edited. Two or three. And that was because the guest's phone rang in the middle of it, and I just didn't want to upset my listeners. I think that's a mod as much as we've done in editing, because I'd rather just be messy, but at least be transparent in that.

[00:41:07] Michael King: Well, James, I know you've got a lot going on later this year. what, where can people find you and what exciting things do you have going up once the pandemic has subsided? 

[00:41:17] James Patrick:  So, the best way to connect with me is Instagram at J Patrick photo. My website is Jamespatrick.com. And my podcast is Beyond the Image.

[00:41:27]the big thing that we have coming up is we have our annual symposium conference. First weekend of October. we are not sure when we're going to open up the cart for the passes. with everything that has been happening. We have shelved the cart for about 30 days, and we'll re-examine probably beginning of may to see if, if the climate is right to open up cars for an in person event.

[00:41:52] But it is our event that we bring together health, fitness and wellness entrepreneurs to connect, to learn, and to leverage opportunities to grow their career.

[00:42:02] Michael King: Awesome, hopefully I can attend this year. 

[00:42:03] James Patrick:  I would love for you to be there, buddy. 

[00:42:05] Michael King:  Okay, well let's figure it out then. I think that'd be a good time.

[00:42:08] Is that going to be in Phoenix? 

[00:42:10] James Patrick:  Yes. Every year in Phoenix, Arizona. It is such a high energy place to be, but our mission is, you can go anywhere for inspiration. We're not going to inspire you. We're going to equip you. We're going to equip you with tools. Resources and strategy and actionable steps that you're going to take and move forward immediately in your business.

[00:42:31] You can get inspiration from a YouTube video. Let's actually get to work. 

[00:42:35] Michael King:  James, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for sharing the kind of steps that our listeners can take to get a course, or you know, something like that off the ground while they've got all this free time on their hands.

[00:42:47] And I look forward to joining you for fit Posey IOM in October

[00:42:50] James Patrick:  Oh, I appreciate you and I just want to, I just want to Edify you because of what you're doing and how you're showing up to help people navigate, not just in this time, but help people navigate the financial landscape. This is a conversation you and I've talked to us for.

[00:43:04] These are conversations we need to be having more of, and I'm glad that you're the person that's showing up to have these conversations. 

[00:43:10] Michael King: Absolutely. I'm glad I can serve that way. All right. We'll be in touch. Have a great rest of your day, sir.

[00:43:23] James Patrick:  Thanks 

[00:43:23] Michael King: Thanks for joining us today. Please don't forget to subscribe to In the Trenches with Michael King on your favorite podcast platform like Apple, Google, or Spotify. Once again, I'm Michael King with KFE solutions. We'll see you again next week.