Why Your Offers Aren’t Selling (and How to Fix It)

Your energy and how you show up in the world and how

you present your offer is one of the biggest like

differentiators, and the only way that you are going to

continually stay in that positive energy that you want to

bring to the world is for you to stay aligned.

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.

Hello. Welcome back to entrepreneur school. I am here

with Lori young, aka the offer magician, and she's here to help

you stop second guessing your offers and start selling with

clarity and confidence. With 15 plus years of experience and a

heart led strategic approach, Lori helps coaches and personal

development entrepreneurs craft offers that feel amazing to

deliver and irresistible to buy. Today, she's diving into how to

design a hole in one offer, as she calls it, aka the kind of

offer that hits the mark, lands with ease and lights you up

every time you deliver it. I'm really excited to get into this

topic with you, Lori, because it's one of the most important

parts of running a business is like, what do I sell? How do I

package myself up in a way that people actually want to buy what

I'm having to offer and work with me so I can make the impact

that I want to make

100% it's like one of the biggest foundations of a

business. I always say, I talked to someone yesterday that it was

a health educator and researcher, and she just wanted

to speak. And I was like, Well, what are you? What's your offer?

And it was like, Yeah, I haven't decided yet. I know I need to

have an offer. And I was like, yes, if you want to generate

income in your business, and you want to make an impact in

people's lives, you definitely need to have an offer.

Yeah, exactly. And that that is like when you

start putting yourself out there, trying to figure out,

like, what is exactly the way to to do this, so that I can

actually work with people and help them, right? So let's dive

into some of the key aspects that you see when in your

process with working with people. Oh, what I was gonna say

first, though too, is like, I'm always talking about visibility

on this podcast, right? And it is like, visibility for what

this conversation is, the for what? This is what we're

actually talking about, what the what is the purpose? What is the

end game? Visibility, about creating leads so that you can

make sales you are selling. What your offer? So let's talk about

like, why don't we go here? You're the biggest mistake that

you see entrepreneurs making when it comes to offer

development

the biggest mistake, wow. Okay, I would say it's not

getting specialized enough, being too general, being too

broad, and thus being unclear. So one of the first things that

I do when I am working with someone on crafting their offer,

it's having them pick their lane or plant their flag in the area

of specialty that they want to be known for. And you talked a

lot in the beginning, when you were introducing me about the

importance of the offer lighting you up. And there is no better

way to have an offer that lights you up in to be in complete

alignment. So many times we're trying to craft offers that, you

know, people have told us, well, this is popular, you know, this

will sell. And we're forgetting the piece of like being

completely aligned, not only within ourselves, but also

aligned with a market need. So one of the first things I.

Always do is help people plant a flag. It is so, so common for

people to want to do everything for everyone, and in this

competitive business climate, it's just not as effective. I

mean, I will tell you, just from my own personal experience I

have in the past, like offered business operations, branding,

marketing, website development, all of the things. And I thought

that by being that one size, you know, that one stop shop, yeah,

right for everyone, that I would be more attractive to clients,

and nothing could be further than the truth. It actually

confused people, like they really didn't know, like what I

did, and they would go hire a branding specialist, or they

would go hire a social media manager, or they would go hire a

website designer, and that's like, well, I could do all of

that for you. Oh, well, they didn't know that, right?

Yes, I love that you're bringing this up. And we

talk about this a lot on the show too, because it is a huge

resistance. A lot of people have to the idea of niching down, or

whatever you want to call it. I love the idea of planting a

flag, but that is a sign, right? If you see other people around

you like going and hiring people who do what you think that you

do, because they don't know that you do that, right? What a what

an obvious like, I'm saying this. I'm reflecting this to

you, because I feel like just yesterday, I was in a, like, a

common space in a coffee shop. I know the owner of this coffee

shop, and on she knows what I do. I mean, I've worked with her

before, right? I see her having a meeting with other people who

are, like, branding and marketing. And I was like, what?

Why didn't you call me? And then I was like, oh, wait a minute,

it's the radio station. It's advertising. It's okay, but, but

that was like the signal where I thought, Hmm, this is it, right?

Like just picking something to be more specific about really

helps one people remember what you do, so that they can know

when they need you. And two, even referring you to other

people, right,

right? And you know, I know is that you know you're a

marketing strategist, and I'm sure you have like, all kinds of

marketing tactics and marketing strategies and marketing things

that you can do, but honestly, like, I reached out to you

because you were an AI visibility expert. It's very

specific. It's you're all about visibility, and it's a very

known and specific problem that entrepreneurs deal with. How do

I become more visible? So you're, you're solving a very

specific problem, and that's what I see often, is

entrepreneurs are trying to solve too many problems, and it

just gets muddled. And I know for myself when I, like,

literally leaned into a core specialty, like offer strategy,

the world, like, opened up for me, like it was like, all of a

sudden, my content was getting noticed. People were no longer

confused. People knew, Oh, Lori offers, it's this person right

here, right like you said, you become known for that one

particular thing. And so I always say when we're starting,

you have to pick something that you are super passionate about,

that lights you up on fire, that you are very experienced at and

or naturally gifted at, and that it's solving a very clear and

specific problem for your audience.

I think that's such a key that last point,

because we can be passionate about so many things, yes,

right? And feel like, like you said, even the even the

category, like shifting from branding and marketing, for me,

into visibility like that felt like a nice, narrower space, but

it still feels very big, right? Like, visibility still is big,

but, like you just said, having, I didn't even kind of know this,

that I did it, but I don't know if I did it as intentionally as

you probably would think, to add the AI piece to it, like, where

we're marrying this particular tool, and it's, it's something

that is allowing me to now speak to people who are, you know,

really wanting to save time leverage technology. It kind of

plays back into the bigger picture. Of clients that I want

to work with are the kinds of entrepreneurs who want to build

a life first business, and not give up all of their time just

to build a business. And grow a successful business around them,

right, right? So, but you said problem solving, and this is

something like, I feel like, you know, business school 101, is

like, you can't sell something if people aren't willing to pay

for it, right? And it has to solve a problem. So maybe, can

you walk through how to like, filter that and really address

that your offer is, is solving a problem rather than just like, I

want to get visible, right? Because you can use me as a case

study if you want. I'm happy for you to like, pick this apart in

any way. Or if you have examples from clients that feel like a

better fit,

I want to just give you an example from someone that

I spoke to yesterday, and I kind of briefly mentioned her. She's

the a PhD, like health educator and researcher, did her

dissertation on endometriosis, and she, right now is kind of in

a space where she's like, I just want to help everyone. I just

want to help I want to help the people that are curious. I want

to help the people that don't know what their issue is, that

don't know what their problem is. And I want to help them,

like, figure out, like, what it is. And I said, Okay, I get

that. I love the heart of someone that wants to help

anyone and everyone that they can, that she's obviously an

educator, so she wants to open the minds of people and bring

awareness to people that might not have it. The issue with that

is when a person doesn't know that they have a problem.

They're not searching for a solution, right? So it has to be

a known problem. And I would say the biggest and easiest way is

you know, once you've identified like, what you're really good at

and what you're really passionate about, like, what,

like, what problems do you really want to solve? You've got

to go into market research mode, like you either have to, you

know, use the deep research function in AI on Chachi PT.

You've got to dive into, like, Amazon books. Are people writing

about this problem is, Are people googling about this

particular problem that you're wanting to solve? But I would

say that the best market research is to actually get into

phone calls with your ideal audience and talk to them about

what's keeping you up at night. What are you complaining about

every day to your spouse or to your friends? That's the problem

that people want solved.

Oh, thank you for bringing that up, because

market research is a beast, right? And it feels like, oh,

that's gonna be hard. So instead speaking from personal

experience. I'll skip that step and I'll just make a thing,

because I can make offers. I'll make a digital product to make a

program, I'll make a whatever, and I'll be like, ta da, do you

want it? And they'll be like, No, I didn't ask you for that,

right? You know what? You're not alone. I like,

honestly, I have been guilty of it myself, like, of crafting

offers. I think about, like, my first business that that I had

as a life coach, um, oh, my God, I was like the queen of like

offers. I did all kinds of different like, this is in the

beginning of like, when digital products were just, like,

starting right? And I was so into like crafting offers I

would make, you know, an offer on guilt free parenting and an

offer called the energy equation, how to manage your,

you know, your energy and all these things. And what I would

notice, you know, I would go to speak and I would start to

notice, oh, wow, like this guilt free parenting thing. This is a

huge one, right? People are buying this. People are

interested in this, but I did it backwards. Then I was just like,

oh, okay, I'm a mom, like, what am I struggling with? Right? Oh,

I'm struggling with guilt not being a good enough Mom. Let me

just do something on that. But and we all do it, and that's the

problem. We have to we build backwards instead of like you

said, you build an offer and put it out into the world, and then

you get disappointed because people aren't buying, you know?

And here's the thing you can do, like you can take that

information as market research, right? And say, okay, like,

something about this offer is, is not working. But then you

have to go back and figure out, like, why? Like, even with my

own offer right now, the aligned offer accelerator, I'm learning,

as I'm working with people, that the. The program is great, but a

lot of people are leaning into AI and like dy eyeing it,

thinking, Oh, I can just use chat GPT to crack my offer.

They're missing a lot of the elements. But for me, I'm like,

I'm paying attention. I'm thinking, all right, fine. You

want to use chat GPT. Let me create an AI version of my

program to assist you. Let it be an experience. You want to lean

into AI. I'll meet you where you are, right? And so, yeah, the

market research piece is huge. You got to get into phone calls

with people. You have to, like, a lot of people are afraid of

feedback, right? A lot of people are afraid of, like, what they

might hear be, especially if we're passionate about something

and like, we really feel like, I really want to bring this to the

world. The world needs this so badly. But then you start

talking to people, and you see people really aren't interested

in that. It kind of like, feels like it's killing your dreams,

right, or or killing your ideas. Yeah,

exactly. Because, well, there's a whole

bunch of steps here that can that need to happen, right? Like

you need to build an audience in order to have an audience to

sell to. But do you build the thing first and then find the

people for it? Do you find people? And how are you finding

those people? And then how do you tap into who they are and

what they actually want? And you talked a little bit about, like,

this co creation process. Do you want to expand on that,

yeah, for me, the co creative process is creating

with your audience. It's creating with your ideal clients

by being in phone calls, by being in like, in the mix, like

in networking meetings in like, all different places where you

can show up and asking the right questions to get the information

that you need. Like, for me, like I knew that offers was a

problem that needed to be solved because I've been in the

industry for a really long time, and I have been behind the

scenes of hundreds of launches, offer launches, and I see the

struggles, right? I was able to see like, what people are

struggling with. So that was part of my co creative process.

But sometimes we are in a position, if we're new, for

instance, where, like, we don't have that information to draw

from, and so we literally have to kind of actively seek out

that information. One thing that you can do is beta test. I had a

client that wanted to, she wanted to do a course called

manifest more money, right? And it, she was super passionate

about it, but she had no idea, like, if it was, if it's

something that people wanted, if it was going to sell. And she

was nervous about, like, pouring all of her time and her energy

into creating this product, this course, and then people not

buying. So instead, what she did is she emailed her list, and

wasn't like a huge list, and said, Hey, this is what I'm

thinking about creating. This is what it will be about. This is a

pre sell price. I haven't created it yet, but if you want

in on it. You can pre buy it. Like, now, six people bought it.

She hadn't even created it yet. Like, that's a good indicator

that if she were really to start building her audience and start

leaning into this offer and really like launching it in the

right way, it's definitely something that people wanted.

I love the the beta approach. It feels a little

bit less pressure, right for the Creator, as well as and to me

and correct me if you have a different opinion, it's about

like, if I feel like I'm doing this right now, I'm actually

creating a new program currently, type called visible

AF, but I just know that whenever people come into it, I

trust myself that I will deliver a great result for them. How we

get there, I'm not entirely sure yet, right? Like is, it is three

calls. Enough calls is like, Boxer access, helpful. What

other tools am I creating? Like, it's kind of vague, yes, and

that's, I'm okay, I'm confident enough to, like, speak to it

that way. But there is a trust that's needed, right? So if a

client, when clients come on board, they're like, Okay, yeah,

whatever. We're doing, we're doing it like I did the first

call with a client the other day, and I gave her the plan.

She's like, yes to everything. Like, I don't know, let's just

do it. And I'm like, perfect. All we needed was like, you

know, your desire to create the result that I'm speaking about,

with respect to visibility and trust that I will lead you

through this process, which is a big ask, but it feels a little

bit, I guess, softer from my perspective, what I'm like, I'm

just gonna lean in and give you everything at the best price

possible, right now, right? We're gonna figure it out.

Yeah, 100% and you know what I really like about

the way you're approaching it is that you're going into it with a

kind of, like a market research like, mindset, yeah, right. It's

like you're going in with the attitude of, I'm not exactly

sure what is going to land for everyone, but I'm willing to

learn, I'm willing to find out, I'm willing to try different

things and listen to what my clients and our audience are

saying. Yeah, instead of having the attitude of like, I know

what they need, and this is how they're going to get this

result, and it's going to follow my framework. When the audience

is like, that's not really working for me.

I think that's so important to acknowledge,

right? Like, one of this is kind of ties back into, like you said

about market research, and I know my own experience has been

like, create something, put it out there, and it's not, I'm not

getting feedback. I need a space to be able to get feedback, and

so whatever that container looks like for to actually be able to

work with people, I can now go, Okay, well, this person was

either brand new or had this experience, or had done these

things, or likes the scenes, and then I can compare them. And I'm

just, I'm coming at it way more analytically, about like, the

process is just, I know we can do something and it will be

effective, and then I'll be able to extract kind of those

learnings to see how it goes moving forward. And so maybe,

maybe we could go into a little bit of a conversation now about

the elements of an offer. Like, when we say words in the

coaching industry, we say container. We say like, calls

and Voxer. And is there an online course? Are there tools?

Are there, like, what are the other pieces? How do you what

are some of those little magic pieces that you put together?

Okay, well, first, what I feel like you're talking

about is the structure of the offer, right? And so the most

important piece and the foundation of the structure of

the offer is, how are we going to move our clients from point A

to point B, and what is the shortest possible route and

simplest possible route to get them there? You know, does that

look like a 30 day container? Does that look like a three

month container? I always advise, when you're testing out

a new problem that you want to solve and you're coming out with

a new offer, come up with the shortest like somewhere in the

four to six or four to eight week timeframe, because right

now, everyone's busy. They want results fast, right? So that's

the most important part, point A to point B. Secondly, it's like

you do have to decide what is the container in which you're

going to deliver this? Is is this going to be in one on one

format? A lot of times, I always recommend, if it's a new offer,

start with one on one, because that's how you're going to get

your best feedback. Now, if you're maxed out with one on

one, right, and you've been solving a particular problem for

a while, and you now know it's time to create a new offer that

enables you to scale. And now it's time for group, right then,

you know? So you we have to look at what is our audience needing

and wanting? Do they crave community? Are they wanting that

one on one, customized individual support? Are they d,

y, I, ers, and they like, you know, to learn on their own,

like, who is our audience? And again, back to market research,

what do they want? The other thing that we have to look at is

our own style, right? Our own like energy, the way we like to

deliver like what makes it simplest and most enjoyable for

us to deliver that offer I have worked with a business coach is

that she created this offer that was like a year long. Wow. And

it had like, Oh, my God. It had so many like components to it.

And that's another thing I want to just briefly mention.

Oftentimes, we overpack our offers, and it becomes too

overwhelming for our clients. And that's kind of what also for

the person who's delivering. You know, she had like, monthly

guest experts, like weekly calls, course materials, like

all of this stuff. Like, packed in and, like, by about month 810

she was exhausted. Like, exhausted. She's just, like,

this is just too much like I just can't, I just can't deliver

this anymore. Number one, she was not aligned with her real,

true passion. She had set up an offer that people wanted, but

she didn't really feel aligned with it. They were for

entrepreneurs that wanted to grow their business, and she had

a background in PR and marketing, and thought, sure, I

can help you, right? But it's not where her zone of genius

was, and it's not where her passion was. So she burned out

really easily because it was too long, too many components, and

it wasn't aligned with her passion. So going back to that

alignment piece when we pick our container in which we deliver

it, it needs to be aligned with how we like like to show up. I

worked with a health coach that worked one on one with clients

and was just completely burnt out by one on one work, she just

didn't get energized by one on one work. It drained her. She

would be excited for about 30 days, but if the engagement went

past 30 days, she just started to, like, check out, and she's

like, I really want to be like, you know, leading retreats, or I

really want to be in like groups, where I have community,

and I have the energy of a group, and it's like, okay,

that's important knowledge to know that you have to, you know,

lean into that. Again. The other thing we have to look at, when

we look at the format, is whether or not our business is

set up for that particular format, like a lot of people

want to go straight into a group program, for instance, and they

have a really small or non existent email list, yeah. So

their visibility is really small. It's really hard to fill

a group program when you're at the beginning stages of your

business. So there's so many factors that come into play when

you're deciding the container or the structure. But I also say,

want to say about the structure of point A to point B, what's

the like? I always say, like, let's figure out, like, what are

like the three to five steps, like the three to five

milestones that we're going to take our clients through to get

them the result if we're saying, Okay, well, there's 12 steps

that we have to do to get you here. People eventually are

going to get overwhelmed, and you run the risk of them

checking out.

right? And then there's no success in that

debate. The whole point, right? I feel like to summarize this,

what we're talking about, really, is, is a new offer, or,

like, a shift in what you're creating, right? So we're

talking about building a new offer. So that's an important

thing, which means that there is a very key thing that you're

bringing up here, which is testing, testing what it looks

like in execution, who it's really for, how to position it,

how we can strip it back to the bare minimum of steps, how often

one on one is a good place to test something, even if we're

going to think about how it can be a group offer. And in the

end, I think there's this, like, misconception out there. We

think, as a business owner, the first thing we think about is

like, Okay, I'm gonna have to be able to scale so I I'm never

gonna do one on one, because you can't scale one on one, right,

right? So then we're like, Well, I have to do groups. I have to

do digital products, I have to do those kinds of things where,

and I've recently kind of gone back to some basic training

stuff in the startup entrepreneur space. The biggest

takeaway I've had recently is when you're starting up, you are

not scaling. You are not thinking about scaling. You are

not filtering decisions through ability to scale. You are doing

the unscalable at first, until you can package it in a way,

until you've got clarity on that product, market fit, who the

ideal client is, the messaging, the positioning, and then you

build the marketing strategy, and then you're scaling. So

like. Don't start there 100%

and here's the other thing I wanna mention, because

there are a lot of seasoned business owners who have had

offers for a while that have worked well, that they've scaled

with, and things have shifted. Their audience has shifted. The

market has shifted. They have evolved. Entrepreneurship, to

me, is just like a constant evolution. And so there are

times when you're a seasoned business owner and you have to

go back to the basics, because what you've had that worked for

so long is no longer working anymore with your audience, or

what you sold for so long that you used to love you're no

longer passionate about it, you have become a different business

owner, and you now have to adapt to that pivot and craft new

offers. And sometimes, you know, it's not always about just, you

know, brand new startups, right? There's times where, like you,

like we talked about, you're ready to scale like you've been

doing a one on one for a really long time, and now, you know,

it's time to scale into something else. How are we going

to craft the next offer that's going to enable us to to scale

and to reach more with less time. So there's really various

stages that we start building offers?

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's such

a really important point to underscore. Yes, there's you're

coming in at a different place, depending on your own experience

and delivering this if you're fully fresh, if you have an

audience, if you don't have an audience, have an audience, if

you've done it before, if you haven't done it before, lots of

factors to consider, but I feel like there's so many good

takeaways from this conversation Lori that really can help people

to, like, hone in on kind of what the first step is When it

comes to crafting something new. Is there anything that you want

to just tie a bow around before we wrap up today?

You know, I think what I want to talk about just

briefly, because this is one of the common questions that I get

is, How do I make my offer stand out. Yeah, right. And, you know,

I work with coaches, there's a sea of coaches like, let's just

count the number of leadership coaches that there are, the

number of, you know, relationship coaches or

whatever, right? There's tons of people, and a lot of them are

solving the same problem, right? And so how do we make our offer

stand out? We like you as the deliverer, as the coach, are the

biggest differentiator in your offer. And so there's like

several ways, and I'm just want to briefly touch on them. And

this starts to get into kind of, how are we talking about our

offer online, like, what does our content look like?

Storytelling is a big factor that, like, sets you apart.

You've got to get away from, like, AI driven like information

content and lean into stories, you've got to be be willing to

express your values, to take a stand in your values and your

beliefs, your thought leadership, back to the

structure, your framework, the way you deliver your offer, the

way you get your person from Point A to Point B can be a big

differentiator. So yeah, like, I was just, here's the another

thing, and I'll, I'm gonna leave it at this, because I think this

ties it all back up. And that is your energy, your energy, and

how you show up in the world, and how you present your offer

is one of the biggest like differentiators, and the only

way that you are going to continually stay in that

positive energy that you want to bring to the world is for you to

stay aligned. For you to stay aligned in all areas of your

life, in all areas of your business, like any time you feel

yourself like out of alignment, that's your check to put

yourself back in alignment so that you can stay like,

connected, like energetically, with like who you really are.

Are inside. So that's how I want to wrap it up, because I think

that that's like the biggest takeaway. It's, I definitely

know it's something that I have struggled with and I actively

work on. It's like, okay, when I start feeling like I'm not

aligned, like something feels transactional and not real and

not authentic. Yeah, it's my cue to get back into alignment.

Yeah, when you're questioning what you're

doing this for, like, what is the point like when this self

fulfilling prophecy comes in of like, well, I'll just put that

out there, and then it turns out to be a flop, and you're like,

Oh, well, I wonder why it's such a huge part. I am so glad that

you keep bringing it back to that and, you know, I feel like

this is why you and I connected, too, because that it's so true.

This is the brand in my mind. This is the brand piece. But

authenticity is about knowing who you are, who you're for, why

it matters, and staying in that, that is a lane that you can

drive in yourself, right? It's uncomfortable sometimes to Yes,

to stick there and be okay with people not choosing you because

of that, but it also means that you're going to find amazing

people who come to you in the most unexpected ways that that

just feel like such a great match. Yes? So collaboration

wise, client wise, all of the things like this is a really

important core to be like radiating from.

Yeah, my spouse always says, and I love this.

She always says, you know, I'm not for everyone. And the other

thing that she says is, there's a hat for every head.

Oh, I like that. So there you go, exactly, and

own it, which I have, own it 100% not to

own your hat.

Own it, yes, because that's the kind of world

that I want to live into, you know, where we can all just

really be stepping into our own unique power, our own

Yes, our own brilliance,

yeah, and being able to, like, live a life

that's aligned, authentic, connected, passionate, all of

those things, they all and there's, there's the business

application of this, there's the Personal life application of

this, everything, right? Yeah, 100% such a good conversation.

Lori, please share your any resources and where you want

people to connect with you, and we'll make sure those are all in

the show notes as well.

Okay, so to connect with me, you can go to my

website, www.onamissionbrands.com, and if

you're in the middle of like, crafting an offer and you're

second guessing, like, Is this good enough? I have an AI

powered offer confidence checklist that is a really fun

experience. It kind of walks you through 10 really critical

questions that you need to be asking yourself, helps you spot

any gaps in your offer, and offers you a little mini action

plan that you can start today to optimize your offer. Oh, well,

that sounds like you can find out on my homepage.

Fabulous. Thank you so much for being here.

I appreciate you having me.

Lori, thank you.