How to Run Your Best Black Friday Campaign EVER

Gemma Bonham-Carter: People throw around seven figure. I mean, some people even throw around eight figure. The other thing that is important to remember is like, what is it that you want? Like, don't be building someone else's dream business if it doesn't line up with what you want.

This is the Entrepreneur School podcast where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you, the emerging or early stage Entrepreneur on your journey from solopreneur to CEO, while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair, and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under three. I'm a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short to waste doing things that burn you out. On this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to entrepreneur school.

I cannot wait for you to listen to this episode of the entrepreneur school podcast with Gemma Bonham Carter. She is a mentor of mine, and she didn't even know it, because I've been following her online for probably a couple of years. I'm on her email list. She writes really great emails, so definitely make sure that you subscribe through one of the links that are in the show notes here. And let me just give you a little background. If you haven't yet met Gemma bottom Carter, you don't know who she is. She is a trusted voice for personal brand entrepreneurs who want to build a lifestyle first business. I mean, she just took a sabbatical for a whole year in France with her kids and her husband, and had built a sustainable seven figure business that could run in the background while she was there, which is amazing. She's renowned for her expertise in online courses and email marketing, as well as AI and sales funnels and Gemma empowers entrepreneurs to create profitable, streamlined businesses that serve their life goals. We have so many shared values. We had such a great conversation on this episode from everything from like, how to set up the systems to grow a business in this way, what that business model looks like, and in particular, how to use black Friday to boost your revenue, as well as to create your business plan for next year. So I'm excited for you to dive into this episode. Oh my gosh. Gemma Bonham Carter is on the entrepreneur school podcast. Let me just have a little fangirl moment for a second about that. I'm thank you so much for being here.

Gemma Bonham-Carter: I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, we met in Dallas at an event A while ago, and I did the thing I do, where I awkwardly ask people in person to do things that they would have an easier time saying no to if I sent them an email.

Gemma Bonham-Carter: Don't worry, I would have said yes. Still on email. It was just, I am just coming out of a season of when we were we lived in France for a year, for those who might not know me or know my story, and that year in France, I said no to everything, like I didn't do a podcast interview, I didn't have people on my show. Frankly, I stopped producing my show during that time, like I said no to everything. So right now, it feels like I'm in a bit of a season of Yes. So I'm glad you asked me when you did.

Yes, that's amazing, and we're going to talk a little bit about that, because you I think it's really amazing that you did take a sabbatical year with your whole family and your kids, and you went to France, and your business allowed you to do that. And if we can, like, dig into what structure created that, and then specifically, what we're going to talk about today is Black Friday coming up, which is side note funny, because we're both Canadian, yet we've all just like, jumped into Black Friday the thing now here too,

Gemma Bonham-Carter: join them, right?

Yeah, totally so you are. Your business is based on courses and digital products and selling things that are very like, I guess, from your perspective, less of you and more like you create, and then you can sell them like at scale, which is a super awesome concept. So maybe just like, dive into the, you know, reason for that and why that's amazing and who that's a good fit for, too.

Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for shining the light on the fact that it wasn't just like four months and now I'm going to France and because I still think we have a lot of misconceptions out there on the internet about the speed at which you should be able to achieve six seven figures in your business. And so thank you. I appreciate like, the realness of that, especially as someone who's like, been at it for seven years, not necessarily in the digital space for that long. But still, it can feel frustrating if it's like, well, how come it hasn't turned into what I wanted to turn into yet, right?

Gemma Bonham-Carter: Yeah, for sure. And the other thing, I think, is like, we people throw around seven figure. I mean, some people are even throwing around eight figure. The other thing that is important to remember is, like, what is it that you want? Like, don't be building someone else's dream business if it doesn't line up with what you want. And when you see behind the scenes of some of those, you know, businesses that maybe you look up to, it's probably not all like green grass and roses over there, you know. So I think it's really important to be have the vision of what it is that you want for yourself. And actually, before we hit record on this episode, Kelly and I were chatting about like, our human design and how that plays into like, the way in which we put offers out there and run our businesses and come up with products and services. And that is just another example of like it has to line up with what works for you and what your vision is. Because I don't know if you've noticed this. But like, a lot of people go and build these giant businesses, and then they burn them down. And the reason is because they were building someone else's dream. They were building someone else's vision of what they thought they wanted, and then they got there, and it wasn't, it didn't solve all the problems.

Yeah, that is so true. And at the same time too, like, I talk about this with so many different people, and I've had like helicopter owners on this podcast before, so people who make a lot of money, who have also talked about how important it is to be able to stay present and satisfied in the now, versus always just chasing those bigger numbers, those quote, unquote success markers that we are societally, you know, brainwashed, basically, to believe so totally.

Gemma Bonham-Carter: I think it's so, yeah, so important to celebrate every milestone along the way. Because if you're not, like, what a I don't know it sounds sad, you know, like, yeah, stop for a minute and enjoy it. And. And, and, yeah, like, I actually can think back on some of my earliest kind of wins. I feel like I was more excited back then than I have been other times when I might hit that, like six figure launch that people sort of dream about, right? The satisfaction was far greater. I remember the first time I launched a course, and I think I made, like, $8,000 and I felt like I hit the jackpot, like it was like, This is amazing. I was on such a high. So the thing is, like, enjoy that, you know,

Yes, but let's celebrate you for a moment, because there's a reason why we're gonna talk about Black Friday, and that's because you have mastered it and and you've been able to create some incredibly successful Black Friday campaigns for your business, and you've now turned this into a, like, mini program. I have it so I can endorse that for sure, on how to set up your own Black Friday campaign and figure out, like, how you're using it differently, not just for sales, but even just for even for, like, research around what you might want to expand into or add on to in your business this year. So looking at it from that perspective, let's chat Black Friday, five days of deals. The Gemma Bonham Carter way.

Wow, that's amazing. Okay, I want to ask a couple of, like, detailed questions, because I'm going to have a confession. So I bought it, I did it, I tried it. It was fun. The process, I am going to do it again, yep, and I didn't have a record breaking testimonial to give you as far as like, the income went, but I think it to be curious about why, right, and and so what I want to know from you and like, in terms of, like, how to prepare your audience, how to, like, get even if you don't have a huge list, because I don't think that you necessarily have to have, like, super high quantity of people, but this is a piece that I know that you do really well, and it's partly making sure that you don't just, like, start having a sale without anybody knowing that it's coming, that it's aligned with things that you've already been talking about. So maybe, like, share some strategy and and insights around how to really set it up for success, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely that. I mean, my background is in PR, which is so interesting when applied to this, like marketing kind of strategy, when you can get somebody to think differently about something, that's the ultimate win for both sides. Exactly. So, okay, so email list nurturing, totally top priority. We know. I mean, I know this about you, that this is, like, what you preach more than anything else, yeah, that we build a relationship. What are some of the things like? What are, what is your email list size? Just for context,

Yeah, yeah, you know what I'm I'm going to ask you for your like, top like, one or two suggestions for how to what to kind of think about. We've got the AI tool that you talked about. I also know that you put on a podcast episode. I was listening to it last week with like, really good ideas. So I'll link that below too, so people can go get a deeper dive. But like, what do you think performs best? Or what's like, the most exciting thing that you suggest to people to think about in terms of when they figure out what their product is going to be.

Totally and actually, I'm hearing this differently when you're saying this right now. So I want to, like, share my interpretation, which is interesting. When you're thinking about your audience, what the way I'm interpreting this is, like, I'm thinking about, what have they even seen from me? What have they maybe already been offered or know about in terms of their awareness of something that I do whether it's a particular product, and in my case, the program that I was selling for, like the last year has been retired and turned into something else, but it still has a very similar, like outcome. So that's what I'm thinking about. Like, how many people have actually seen that offer who might actually be interested in. Now, like you said, and they have actually been thinking about it, low key to some degree, for months, if not even a year. And I think this is an interesting conversation to just expand a little bit into the whole buyer journey these days. And like sometimes, maybe we're frustrated as business owners who are selling programs online, because it's taking a lot longer to get people to jump into things. So I love this mix of like, low key, easy, yes, like products, programs, whatever, and like the stuff that you've been kind of breadcrumbing or sharing in different ways, even if it's been an evolution over time, and then like the top access level stuff too. Yeah, it sounds fun to deliver as like as the person making the sale, too.

Gemma Bonham-Carter: I totally agree. I it. Actually. I find every year this like re energizes me about my business and about my offer suite. And it couldn't come at a better time, because, you know, you want to kind of do that thinking and that reflection before going into the new year. So you kind of go into the new year with, like, the vision of, okay, this is what I want to offer. You know, this is feeling really good for me at this time in my in my business, and this is just kind of like the six weeks before, right? So you can, like, set things up and get things rolling. And in the case of pre selling something or filling slots for some more high level work that you might be offering, like, what a great way to start the year off with a bang. You know.

Yes, yes. That's so, so good and a really important point. And I totally agree it's interesting. Like, every black friday I have sold a planning workshop, like the next year planning, and I also, I sell it now, because I do believe you have to, you know, use your brain on this before you, like, turn into a chocolate, like a cookie over the Christmas solidly,

Gemma Bonham-Carter: is really good. Reality. We all turn into cookies.

We are going to turn into cookies and eggnog, or whatever we like to consume. And we need to think about our business strategically before, and even being able to back it up to pre Black Friday if we're doing these Black Friday sales, and thinking about what that looks like and and as you said that, I just realized that I have been doing that thinking for myself. So it feels even better to think about jumping into creating a five days of deals campaign. So do you want to talk a little bit about Black Friday in a box, too? And what's what people get access to when they jump in on that? Because there will be,

Oh my gosh. Well, I can't wait to go back and look at it again. Now I'm putting Black Friday planning on my list for next week. Perfect, as I knew we were having this conversation and that I get excited about it again too. This has been an amazing conversation. Is there any like bigger picture? Final piece of advice that you want to give to the entrepreneurs who are listening to this, who are like my listeners, they're growing various businesses in various industries, generally, like service providers, coaches, consultants and, course, creators as well.

Gemma Bonham-Carter: Yeah, I think the thing is, one of the biggest things is like just to stick with it. I think one of the reasons why I've been able to grow my business to the level it's at is that I just never let myself I never thought once that it wouldn't work out. So I just have always gone into it with the mindset that this will work, this will be successful. Maybe not every step I take is the right step, but ultimately, I am going down the path that I'm going to end up with the vision of what I hope to build, and that vision can change over time. When I think back to, like, my early days of like, what I used to write on I didn't really journal, but I had this jar, this, like mason jar, and I would write on little pieces of paper, like goals that I really or like things that I really wanted to have come to fruition, and I put them in the jar, and then every day I'd, like, pull one out and read it and be like, okay, like, I hope that happens, you know, and put it back in the jar, and I can sit here now, like, I don't know, six years later, and like, all of those things have happened now. And so I think that's the biggest thing, is to just keep going believe in yourself. Like, have that it's okay if you don't always feel confident. But like, the deep confidence in you that you can figure it out and you can make it work, I think, is so important for you know, being a business owner and and building, what it is that you hope to build and then also be like, nimble to the pivot when the pivot makes sense, you know? Because sometimes people can also, like, try the same thing over and over for a really long time, and at some point, sometimes you need to realize that you need to make a shift somewhere, and then everything clicks into place, and you're like, Oh, this is what I should have been doing the whole time. Or, oh, okay, this is the better path for me. So sometimes people can hold on a little too long.

Oh, that's all such good advice and great like, repeat that. Listen to that again. Okay, out of nowhere. I'm sure you get to ask this all the time. I Are you related to Helena Bobby Carter?

Gemma Bonham-Carter: I knew you were gonna ask that. I could just, I can always tell when it's, like, leading up to that, yes, she is my dad's, like, second cousin. So yes, we are related. Sadly, I have no, like, great stories of, like, hanging out with Johnny Depp or anything to report back. But she's pretty Yeah, she's pretty quirky, she's pretty cool. She makes good movies. And yes, yeah, we're related.

That is funny. I didn't know that I was like, but then also, it's such a unique last name, so of course, yeah,

Gemma Bonham-Carter: Yeah. I know if any of your listeners, like, ever meet another Bonham Carter, like, we're all related. It was like something like 13 generations ago where the Bonham and the Carters came together. It was like a land thing. So we've been Bonham Carter for a long time. So yeah, we're related. And you know what's funny, Kelly is like, definitely you are not the only one to obviously, I get asked in my personal life all the time, but like, even from a business perspective, it's so funny when I got my reports from Google of how people have found me, or, like, what the search terms are that people are searching with my name always in the top five is Gemma bottom Carter, related to Helena Bonham Carter always. I mean, I just need to, like, write a blog post about it or something and embed it into my site, because I'd get great SEO. Oh, there you go.

That's hilarious and amazing. And thank you so much for. Sharing all of your wisdom and your strategies and like we covered so much in this short podcast episode. So I hope that everyone is listening. Please go and connect with Gemma on her podcast and Instagram. Tell everyone where to come and hang out with you.

Gemma Bonham-Carter: Yeah, if you are into like, if you're a podcast listener and want to subscribe to a new show. It's called the course creator show. You can find it on whatever listener to listener you're using right now, and then come say hey on Instagram. I'm at Gemma.bonhamCarter, and as we talked about, I'll make sure that Kelly has the link for that free AI assistant, if you want to play with that too. And you know what? I'll also make sure you have the link for one of my hottest like freebies is a set of swipe emails from one of my six for your launches, so I'll make sure that's you've got that link too.

That's excellent. Thank you so much. Gemma!

Gemma Bonham-Carter: Thanks, Kelly.

You did it. You just listened to another episode of theEntrepreneur School podcast. It's like you just went to business school while you folded your laundry, prepped dinner, or picked up your kids at school. Thank you so much for being here. I want to personally celebrate your commitment to growing your business. You can imagine I'm throwing confetti for you right now. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review. Make sure you're subscribed and let us know you're listening by screenshotting this episode and tagging us on Instagram. Head to entrepreneurschool.ca. For tons of tools and resources to help you grow your business while keeping your family a priority. You can subscribe to our email list and join our community and until next time, go out there and do the thing.