
473 episodes

The SIGRUN Show SIGRUN
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- Business
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5.0 • 49 Ratings
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"Sigrun is like the FEMALE James Bond of Online Marketing! ...a True INTERNATIONAL Woman of Mystery...and Inspiration!" - James Wedmore, host of the Mind Your Business podcast.
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Discover through inspiring stories, case studies, and interviews how you can create your own lifestyle business. Sigrun shares the ‘7 Stages of a Profitable Online Business’ and other proven strategies that help you turn your passion into profits. Her featured experts include entrepreneurs like James Wedmore, Kimra Luna, Denise Duffield-Thomas, Jasmine Star, Rick Mulready, Jill Stanton, Zach Spuckler, Kate Erickson, Natalie Sisson, Mark Schaefer and many more. Learn from Sigrun and her experts how to master your mindset, uplevel your marketing, and succeed with masterminds.
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Sigrun holds four Master’s degrees; in architecture, computer aided architectural design, computer science and an MBA from London Business School, in addition to having been certified as a Dale Carnegie trainer. She was CEO in technology companies for a decade before she decided to become a lifestyle entrepreneur after a chronic illness. Today she lives in Iceland and Switzerland while also traveling the world and working on her multi-million dollar lifestyle business. Sigrun is the creator of SOMBA, the MBA program for online entrepreneurs, and runs Mastermind Days and Retreats in Iceland and Switzerland, in addition to her signature Mastermind Groups, SOMBA Momentum & VIP Mastermind.
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[Best of] Failed Launch? Here's What You Can Do to Save Your Launch and Improve the Next One
Are you building your online business using launches to sell your programs? Then sooner or later, this will happen to you: A launch just doesn’t go your way.
You might have launched successfully before, or maybe you’re just starting out. But that launch you carefully prepared and planned? It’s just not taking off.
I’ve been there, and in this episode, I share all my tips on what you can do to save your launch, and how you can improve your next launch.
Whether you’re in the middle of a launch right now, or preparing for the next one, or just had a failed launch — this episode is for you.
In this Episode of The Sigrun Show:
My first real launch – and what I did to turn it around (1:54) Creating a hot list and how to reach out to people (7:04) Shifting your messaging in the middle of a launch (13:28) Typical reasons for people not to buy and how to tackle them (16:12) Sharing success stories (18:59) Interview and tag people who already bought (23:20) Introduce bonuses (25:53) Offering discovery calls (31:40) The key points to saving your launch, and how to make it better next time (35:40)
[Recording with image]
[Link to transcript]
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5 Ways to Save Your Launch
Are you in the middle of a launch and it’s just not going as planned? Don’t panic — there are ways you can save your launch. Trust me, I’ve done it. Having launched for several years, I’ve learned many valuable lessons, and here, I’m sharing 5 selected strategies on how you can turn around your launch (and improve your next one!).
If you want to dive deeper and hear ALL my tips and strategies on saving your launch, listen to the podcast episode here.
Talk to people
This is something you ideally do before you go into a launch: Ask people what they want. Survey your audience. What is their biggest challenge? Once you know, you understand how to speak to them and which products to create.
If you’re in a launch and you don’t know what’s going on in your ideal client’s head, figure it out as soon as possible. Reach out and talk to them — via email, Instagram, Messenger, whatever fits you and your audience. Your number one priority should be to understand what’s holding them back.
Let your bonuses answer objections
Get clear on the objections of your ideal client and then introduce bonuses in the middle of your launch that address these objections. Objections are opportunities for you to create bonuses that offer your audience help with what keeps them from joining your program.
Let past and current clients share their success stories
Ideally, have a database ready with success stories of your clients you can share during the launch. Make sure to include stories of people with different backgrounds. They will resonate with a broader spectrum of people.
You can also ask your existing clients to share their experience live in your launch Facebook group. Past or existing clients can be really helpful in your launch — when they share their experience, people who are interested in buying your program see what’s possible for them, too.
Ask people who just joined to share why they joined
If a lot of people haven’t made up their mind yet and they don’t see any action in your group, they might assume no one is buying. Do live interviews with people who just joined your program and ask them why they joined. If you let people share why they bought and what made them sign up, it helps others make the decision.
Celebrate new clients by tagging them on a welcome post. Showing that people are joining your program boosts conversion.
Offer discovery calls
Discovery calls aren’t free breakthrough sessions. They’re for people who are still on the fence and need confirmation that this is the right program for them. It’s not about pressuring them, it’s about assessing if they’re a good fit. Intr -
[Best of] My Origin Story: The Path to 8 Figures
This is a very special episode of The Sigrun Show. For the first time ever, I switched seats and instead of being the interviewer, I’m the one being interviewed.
My dear friend Selena Soo agreed to help me tell my story from a different angle: By asking me questions you always wanted to know the answers to.
My biggest struggles, setbacks and low points, but also my most powerful epiphanies, lessons and wins — we’re going over a lot I’ve never shared publicly before. Not just to tell you an entertaining story, but to provide value and inspiration for everyone who finds themselves on the rocky road of entrepreneurship. Here’s my path to 8 figures.
In this Episode of The Sigrun Show:
How not everyone is born a natural entrepreneur (2:36) My starting fears (3:40) My very first business idea (5:05) How I pivoted to the business I have now (9:04) The throwing-spaghetti-against-the-wall-phase(11:27) The strategy behind my webinars (14:05) How my business changed once I started working with a coach (16:03) My thoughts on starting an online business today (18:01) The top 2 things that brought my business to where it is today (21:01) How my ascension model works (23:12) My high-level mastermind to bring my clients to 7 figures (28:49) Why I’m no longer scared to raise my rates (31:50) How I handle people who aren’t a fit for my programs (34:58) The qualities of my most successful clients (38:34) How I structure my team (41:21) What I do to recharge my energy (44:36) My biggest wish (46:51) The moment I decided to never let a man stop me from achieving my dreams and how that affected my relationships (48:56) My relationship advice for strong, independent women (58:38) My final message for YOU (1:04:46)
12 Days of Masterclasses for FREE!
Ho ho ho! I have a gift for you! Not just one but 12 gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas. I’m inviting you to join our annual tradition, 12 Days of Masterclasses for free. The masterclasses are on a variety of topics in online business everything from mindset to marketing and sales and how to scale your online business to 6 and 7 figures. Now go ahead and grab your gifts by going to www.sigrun.com/12gifts -
[Best of] Why Only 2% of Female Entrepreneurs Achieve 7 Figures
Only 2% of all female led businesses achieve a 7-figure annual revenue. 90% don’t even make 6 figures. Why?
I’ve worked with over 3500 women in the last 7 years and made almost $10M in total revenue. During this time, I got a deep insight into why women don’t make more money.
In this episode, I share the main reasons why women tend to play it small, and what we can do to bring change.
“Those who take a break in the summer don’t just lose the three months they take that break — they lose a lot more.” - Sigrun
In this Episode of The Sigrun Show:
Some shocking facts and figures (1:50) Treating a business as a hobby (3:13) Not investing enough in personal growth (4:50) Being risk averse (6:55) Using family as an excuse (7:55) Stopping the business growth (10:25) Taking a break in the summer (13:42) My solution (19:40)
6 Reasons Why Women Don’t Make More Money
Almost 90% of all women-owned businesses generate less than $100K yearly, and out of all women-led companies, only 2% generate more than $1M. I constantly ask myself, why?
Accelerating gender equality is the driving force behind what I do. But we’ll never achieve gender equality if women keep playing it small.
I’ve worked with thousands of women over the past 7 years, and got a deep insight into why women don’t make more money.
Here are the 6 main reasons why women tend to play it small, and what we can do to bring change.
Too many women treat their business as a hobby
It makes my hair stand up, but too many women don’t take their business seriously. I haven’t met a man who doesn’t take his business seriously. So what is really going on here?
My guess is that these women are wannapreneurs. A wannapreneur is someone who likes to call themselves an entrepreneur but isn't willing to do the work. Maybe they have a rich spouse and therefore don’t see a need to take their business seriously, or they aren’t driven to be financially independent. Maybe they just like to have a hobby business so they can call themselves a business owner. My take: If you want to be an entrepreneur, take your business seriously. Otherwise, don’t do it at all.
Women don’t invest enough in their personal and business growth
Nobody is born a CEO or entrepreneur. We all have to learn the skill of running a company and scaling it to six and seven figures. If I hadn’t invested in myself, I would probably still be stuck making less than six figures a year.
I continuously invest in personal and business growth. I see that people who do invest in themselves skyrocket their business within a few years. Those who don’t get stuck.
You should always invest forward if you want to grow. Not investing is having a scarcity mindset or a fixed mindset. Someone who has a growth mindset knows they can grow and change and therefore they are willing to invest. With a scarcity or a fixed mindset you cannot grow.
Women tend to be more risk averse than men
Investing forward is risky because you need to bet on yourself or on what you are investing in. I’ve seen a lot of women shy away from investing into paid advertising. That kind of thinking keeps you stuck. Investing forward is actually not risky — not investing is! But you aren’t going to have that insight unless you actually invest and see a return.
Women use family as an excuse
Women often use their children and/or spouse as an excuse for not being able to build their business, while men use their family as a reason. While this is slowly changing, I still hear way too many women use their children as an excuse.
It’s 2021, and we shouldn’t still be discussing this. Many of my most successful clients have very young children and some were even pregnant while doing my programs. Having children actually fueled their growth.
Not working on your business because of your family sends the wrong message to your child -
[Best of] How to Ask Better Questions to Improve Your Life and Business
We all have one question that we ask ourselves all the time. This one question has a huge influence on our lives and businesses.
If you ask yourself a good question it will improve your life and business. If you ask yourself a bad question it will deteriorate your life and business.
In this episode of The Sigrun Show, I explain what a primary question is and how to figure out which one is best for you. I also share how to ask better questions that will help change your life for the better. Finding, asking, and answering my primary question has had a positive impact on both my business and my life.
In this Episode of The Sigrun Show:
What is a primary question and how to figure out yours (2:00) The question I like and why it’s a great question to ask yourself (6:06) How this question led to my buying my dream penthouse apartment (6:24) Another question to ask yourself to improve your life and business (14:25) The life-changing phone call I made when I asked myself this question (15:27) The empowering question that led to my getting an MBA in London (18:15) The question that helped me get to the million dollar mark (22:30) The question to ask when you’re stuck or overwhelmed, not sure what to do next (25:47) My devastating breakup after an 8-year relationship and the question that got me through the first few weeks (18) What question to ask when you want to do something new you haven’t done before and possibly been procrastinating (28:28) The project I’m most embarrassed about not doing and what I did to finally get started (29:20) Who do you want to be? The vision I created (31:28) The story of my TEDx Talk (32:18) Other examples of questions you can ask yourself (34:46) 12 Days of MasterClasses for FREE!
Ho ho ho! I have a gift for you! Not just one but 12 gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas. I’m inviting you to join our annual tradition, 12 Days of Masterclasses for free. The masterclasses are on a variety of topics in online business everything from mindset to marketing and sales and how to scale your online business to 6 and 7 figures. Now go ahead and grab your gifts by going to www.sigrun.com/12gifts -
[Best of] Selling Between Launches: 9 Simple Promotion Strategies That Sell
Even if you love launching, you can’t launch all the time. It would not only exhaust you, but also your email list. So how can you sell between launches?
In this episode, I’m sharing 9 simple promotion strategies you can apply to sell between launches.
“You should always be seeding – as soon as you finish one launch, you should prepare for the next one.” - Sigrun
If you’re more of a reader, scroll down to read my 9 promotion strategies that sell.
In this Episode of The Sigrun Show:
Why you need to launch in the first place (1:45) Having a program that people can buy anytime (5:07) The P.S. promo (7:30) The video promo (9:18) Social selling (10:33) The 9 word email (13:14) Mini launch (15:31) Affiliate marketing (18:05) Offer on your freebie thank you page (19:46) Automated webinar funnel (21:50) Pocket product funnel (23:01) 9 Promotion Strategies That Sell Between Launches
The P.S. Promo
For every newsletter you send out, add a “P.S.” at the bottom and list the ways people can work with you, free and paid.
Here’s an example from a “P.S” I use in my emails:
P.S. When you’re ready to grow your online business, here are two ways I can help you…
Follow me on Instagram and DM me your biggest business challenge and I’ll give you a tip on what to do – Click here. Step up and scale your online business to $10K-$20K months inside our SOMBA Momentum program – Book a free call here. It doesn’t cost anything to add a P.S and let people know – start trying it out in your own emails and see the results it can bring.
The Video Promo
Create a short video around a pressing problem that you know your audience is struggling with and send the video out to your email list. Only those who click to watch the video get an offer.
Here’s an example for a video promo:
I create a video on how to sell between launches. I email my list that I have created this new video and I tag those who click on the link to watch the video. The next day I follow up with an offer that shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who watched the video, for example an online course for $297 on how to sell between launches with all the templates and scripts.
The promo lasts 3-4 days and the rest of the email list does not get any emails and there is no social media about the promo.
Social Selling
Post on your personal profile and your business profile and invite the right people to send you a direct message. This is one of the best ways to promote without launching.
Here’s an example for social selling:
I want to offer a 6 day retreat in Iceland and before I go off and create the sales page and book everything, I write a post on social media. The post is 200-300 words long, contains a nice image and highlights all the feelings about this magical retreat (but not too many facts!). At the end, I ask people who are interested to PM me.
Those who PM me are my “launch list” and I can follow up with them and possibly sell the retreat even without a sales page if I did a good job on the social media post.
The 9 word email
The 9-word email was developed by Dean Jackson, a successful real estate entrepreneur and online marketer, in an effort to re-engage lost prospects. Jackson’s claim was that a subject line displaying the recipient’s name only, and a body with a one-line (originally 9-word) question is all you need to engage.
Here’s an example of a 9-word email:
Email subject line: Sigrun
Email body: Are you still looking to grow your online business?
Be cautious when applying this strategy. It’s meant to re-engage those who have already shown interest, and not to sell to a new person who has no idea what you’re talking about
Mini Launch
Instead of going into a full launch, my team and I sometimes offer a paid workshop where only the people who join the workshop are presented with an offer. This promotion h -
[Best of] Launch Lessons from a 7 Figure Launch
My clients call me the launch queen. I love launching, and I love teaching my clients how to launch.
In January 2021, I finally achieved my launch goal of $1M, and in this episode, I want to share with you what I did and specifically what I did differently from the other launches that I’ve done in the past seven years, which have made me over $8M in revenue.
“A small plane needs a short runway, a big plane a long runway – if you want your launches to grow and become bigger, you need to have a longer runway.” - Sigrun
If you’re more of a reader, scroll down to read my 12 launch lessons from a 7 figure launch.
In this Episode of The Sigrun Show:
Launching: A mix between art and science (2:22) My first launches (4:00) The 7 figure launch that didn’t happen (9:40) Having a long launch runway (11:59) Having a VIP notification list (13:42) Creating a desire for another program (15:11) Social selling (16:44) Mixing free and paid offers (19:17) Getting your leads in early (20:42) Getting people to sign up twice (22:19) The importance of FB ads (23:29) Sending lots of emails (25:07) Using Facebook groups (26:26) Offering sales calls (28:26) Working with affiliate partners (30:06)
12 Launch Lessons from a 7 Figure Launch
#1 A long launch runway
A small plane needs a short runway, a big plane a long runway. If you want your launches to grow and become bigger, you need to have a longer runway. This means having more time with your ideal client and creating multiple touchpoints. These can be free content (podcast episodes, blog posts), free training where you might not sell anything or sell something different, or paid training. Having people sign up with you again and again or click through to valuable content creates a bigger connection to you.
During your runway, you’ll be talking about your program, but you’re not selling it – you’re seeding it, creating a desire for it, so that when you open cart, your ideal clients are ready and want to buy it.
#2 Having a VIP notification list
Instead of calling your waitlist “waitlist”, give it an exciting name. I called it “VIP notification list”. “Waitlist” sounds like you’re waiting for something and then you have to buy it. People aren’t very eager to sign up for it. But if you call it a VIP list and tell them that by signing up they’ll be the first to know when you open up the program, plus they’ll get a bonus, it’s much more exciting for them.
#3 Selling multiple offers during your launch runway
You can sell multiple offers during your launch runway – as long as you’re not selling the offer you eventually want to sell during open cart. When someone isn’t interested in the program you’re launching, they might be interested in another program you’re offering.
#4 Social selling
Social selling is building a 1-1 relationship and being a valued partner when the doors open to your program. A lot of people have experienced a sleazy way of social selling – a friend request on Facebook or LinkedIn perhaps, that is immediately followed by a message with a link to sign up or buy something. That’s not what you should do. I’m talking about asking the participants in your launch training to send you a message. If they do that, they have essentially opened up the door and you can start to have a conversation. If people no longer respond to your messages, you just stop. It’s about creating back-and-forth interaction.
# 5 Mixing free and paid offers
By offering free and paid training, you create more opportunities for your ideal client to experience how it is to work with you, and to express their interest in what you can offer. You will get closer to your ideal client, and they can get ready to buy once you open up the door to your program.
# 6 Get your leads in early
You typically grow your leads during your launch runway and you’ll have most of your email
Customer Reviews
How to Get Clear on Your Ideal Client with Ann-Katrin Kossendey-Kosh
Great listen!
I needed to hear this because changes do happen along the way. They are part of life and I’ve always believed that change promotes growth but for me, there is always this feeling of not wanting to let people down, which can stop me from moving forward, both professionally and personally.
I will disappoint people along the way because of my changes and that’s ok. This is what I needed to remember because it’s so true, we can’t please everyone and leaving people behind is sometimes the best thing you can do for everyone. Thanks for the reminder…
Podcast No. 212 - Niching Your Services Down
Great navigation right there! Great tips and helps me sort out my ideas better. Thank You!
Niching Your Services Down to Attract Your Ideal Client # 212
This episode helped me see how clear one’s word choice AND goals need to be, to be found. Framing the business goal through the pain points of a client searching for solutions with the microscope of GOOGLE was particularly important to me, as I find this aspect of marketing extremely hard. The SEO of my current website is not healthy and the importance of correcting it has moved up significantly in priority. Thank You!