Lessons from Frank Kern

Replace a vague business crisis with a specific problem you can investigate.

When I told Frank Kern I wanted to make a million dollars a year as a life coach, I thought it was an outrageous goal.

I had all kinds of thoughts about how much money that was and whether it was realistic. Frank reduced it to about $83,000 a month. When I told him that still seemed like an enormous amount, he thought it was a good start.

That moment changed my life. I had been struggling to believe something on my own, and here was someone who believed it so easily that he could move straight to the math.

That is one of the most important things I learned from Frank: There is the math of building a business, and then there is the drama we add to it.

Be the student who applies what she learns

I became Frank's client after watching a webinar he offered for coaches and consultants. He gave away so much useful content that I was completely riveted.

I went to a day-long event with him in San Diego. We talked about our businesses, our goals, how much money we wanted to make, and how we wanted to work. At the end, he offered a year of coaching for $36,000.

That was an enormous investment for me and Chris at the time. I called Chris, and we agreed that if I signed up, I would do what Frank taught me.

Frank showed me how to make the investment back in a month. I followed his instructions and did it. Within that year, I tripled my income. The next year, I doubled it, and the year after that, I more than doubled it again.

I wanted to be the best student I could be. Other people in that first group knew more about marketing and were making more money than I was. I decided I would be the most improved player.

A teacher does not create the effect in your life. You learn, you apply, and you create it.

One thing that served me was choosing one teacher to go all in with for a year. I watched other students question what Frank taught because another teacher was teaching something different. I decided he was my teacher, and I would apply his approach.

Think in math instead of drama

When I bring Frank a big dream, he makes it mathematical. What would we need to do to create that result?

That separates the work from all the thoughts I have about whether the goal is too big or whether I am capable of reaching it.

Watching him work with other people taught me to look at online business through five problems: target market, traffic, opt-ins, offers and selling, and scaling. This was what I drew from watching him teach, not a list he formally taught me.

If you do not have enough clients, which problem do you need to solve? Do the right people know about your work? Are they joining your list? Are you making offers?

Frank never turned a marketing problem into evidence that I was not good enough. He brought it back to something we could solve.

If a math problem does not come out correctly, you do not conclude that math does not work. You go back and find what needs to change. That is how I learned to look at my business.

Give people results ahead of time

Frank helped me understand why free content matters. It is not simply a way to show people how much you know.

You show them you can help by actually helping them.

You offer a webinar, a book, or a course that gives them something valuable before they have paid you. You care about the people receiving it and create content that helps them get results.

That is what my podcast and webinars do. People get to know my work, trust it, and experience a change before I make an offer.

I already had content, programs, and my voice established when I began working with Frank. Learning to advertise helped me bring more people to that work.

When a Facebook ad did not work initially, his belief helped me stay with it. We looked at the copy, the picture, and the offer instead of deciding that advertising did not work.

Selling can be open, honest, and fun

Frank taught me that I did not need a hard sell. I should never sell something to someone who would not benefit from it.

When you have the right target market, valuable work, and results ahead of time, you can make an offer you believe in. What he calls a collaborative close is an open, honest conversation.

If the person says no, that is fine. If they say yes, you get to work. You get to a yes or a no and move on.

He also taught me that buyers like to buy. Someone who has bought from you may want another offer. Making it is not automatically pushy.

Raising my prices was another huge lesson. I thought higher prices would make selling harder. Instead, I found that my students were more committed and engaged, and I raised the level of what I delivered.

I want to feel that I am overdelivering. Charging more encouraged me to create a product I was even more proud of.

Communicate without apology

Frank is an extraordinary copywriter. Watching his enthusiasm for studying and teaching copy helped me see how important that skill is. Good copy positions your work for your target market, and it is worth spending time on.

He also helped me become more willing to send emails. I had worried about bothering people. Then I thought about the teachers whose emails I love receiving. I open every one because I want to learn from them.

Those are the people I want in my world. People who do not want my emails can unsubscribe, and that is okay.

Watching Frank be himself also taught me to let people be wrong about me. People may make judgments without knowing me. I do not have to change who I am to correct every one.

He gave me permission to be a successful businesswoman without apologizing for making money.

Learning business helps you help more people

The biggest business lesson I learned from Frank was how to turn advertising into profit. I learned to create educational advertising that brings people to work that gives them results ahead of time.

Studying business and helping people are not in conflict.

The more people you reach, the more people you can help. The more money your business makes, the more you can advertise and bring that work to others.

If you are a coach who wants to help as many people as possible, learning how to market your business is part of making that contribution.

I will always be grateful to Frank for teaching me how to build an online business, how to market it, and how to do that without apology. But the learning only mattered because I showed up and applied it.