Val Selby [00:00:06]:
Hey, this is Val Selby and after over 20 years online, I can track where my mindset has blocked me. If procrastination, impostor syndrome and a lack of focus have been blocking your biz, then Val Full Volume is here to help you see choices you are making. Get ready to use your expertise to collaborate like a pro as you create the business of your dreams. Now is the time to make changes and live your best life. Let's get to it!   

Val Selby [00:00:36]:
Hello. Oh, my goodness. I took a couple of weeks off, not super purposefully. Hi, by the way. Hello. This is Val from Val Full Volume. I guess I should probably start with that before I just go right into I mean, my normal of just right into it. So I took I took a couple weeks off of recording. I went up to visit family, go to my annual general meeting up there at, Tsawwassen First Nation.

Val Selby [00:01:13]:
My auntie was there, spent a ton of time with her, and she ended up getting sick by the end of the weekend. And then by the time I got home on Tuesday, I had COVID. So I lost a week. I didn't lose a week. That's actually a whole another conversation because I used COVID this time. I used that motherfucker. And so then trying to catch up for that week, I was just like, okay. Recording can't be a top priority.

Val Selby [00:01:44]:
Right? So I missed a couple of weeks, and holy crap. Okay, I know a couple of things about myself. For one, once I build a habit up, once I stop doing that habit, I mean, sometimes even if it's just, like, a couple of days, let alone a couple of weeks, it's hard for me to build that habit back up. So it was much easier not to record. And it was much easier not to be like, I don't even know what I wanna talk about. Right? However, I'm - I mean, the last episode that you can see is that I've really, like, gone all in on Skool, and I have a couple of communities. I have my communities, and we'll definitely be getting into that.

Val Selby [00:02:30]:
That's another episode there. Anyways, but I have a revamp that's happening. That's a whole COVID conversation there. Squirrel. See, this is what happens when I don't record podcasts, then I've got too much ideas all wanting to get out at once, which was exactly what I was gonna say about being over at Skool. I'm over there, and I'm in conversations. And I'm starting conversations in some of my favorite groups that I know are safe, and I have full permission to just share. And then there's my emails, and they're getting longer and longer and longer.

Val Selby [00:03:10]:
And this is what happens when I don't record. It is. So what happens when I don't record. I just have so much information that I'm learning about myself or that I've been working with some other people and things are coming out and I just have to share. And my posts and my emails start getting a little bit wacky long. Like, I do not read super long emails. So when mine even get close to a point where I think that they're getting long, I am like, woah. Okay. Something's gotta change, Val.

Val Selby [00:03:48]:
And that changes. He gots to go record. And I was getting ranty about certain things. And it's that bottled up feeling. It's not even a bottled up feeling. It's that being bottled up. Like, I've got to get the ideas out. They must come out to help people.

Val Selby [00:04:07]:
So today, bring it all together. I do have a purpose for today. Today, I wanted to talk about Black Friday. And I know this is very late coming out, because let's see. This is gonna come out. I believe this one launches on October 29th, which means it's less than a month till. But it's also a really perfect time because you are probably in it and put things in place. I hope so.

Val Selby [00:04:39]:
We've put things in place, and now you can listen to this and just take a review. And I'm going to try not to come here with, like, the mom hat on going, oh, you should. Okay. I'm gonna really work on no shoulds. I'm going to come here from the perspective of a user, and I'm gonna work on not being ranty pants too. Because I don't want it to come out as, uhhhh, I'm like, if you are doing this, I hate you. Not the case. I want you to make the best decisions for your business, and especially based on what you know with your customers.

Val Selby [00:05:19]:
But I am coming here to warn you about something you might do during Black Friday that you don't even know is potentially happening. So Black Friday deals. Black Friday deals, if you want them to convert, when we think of Black Friday, we think of dirt freaking cheap. Like, we are getting an amazing deal. I will get my ass up. I will be at the store at 5 o'clock in the morning. I mean, this old school. You don't nobody does that.

Val Selby [00:05:51]:
I don't know who does that anymore. I mean, there's no inventory at our stores in Western Washington anymore. But back in the day when Black Friday was amazing fun, I'd go through the ads on Thanksgiving Day. That would - I mean, this was a huge thing. My kids were younger. There's always been a ton of really good deals on the toys. So for me, it was worth getting my ass out of bed, and I am not a morning girl, getting my ass out of bed because I could potentially save like 75% on all of the toys that I wanted to buy for the kids. It was worth it.

Val Selby [00:06:31]:
I had plan, action plan of, okay, I have to hit this place, this place first, you know, and based on my priority, I mean, it was fun. It was so fun, but here's why it was fun. I knew that I was gonna be dead tired. Right? Especially after eating all that food the day before. Dead tired that day is wiped out tired but I was gonna save so much freaking money that it was absolutely worth it to not do anything on that day except for the shopping in the morning. And I would be done. And Christmas would be just like, woah. Look at - I mean, when you're saving like 75% on so much of the stuff, that means that you can just like bring the Christmas of your childhood dreams to your kids.

Val Selby [00:07:24]:
Right? So I'm saying that because that's still the expectation is Black Friday, we are getting a dirt cheap deal. We are getting that hell yes, I have to buy it right now deal. Insanely low deal. Expectation for Black Friday sales. Now as a user for online stuff, this is where I have my little rant. Yeah.

Val Selby [00:07:59]:
I'm gonna say it. It almost popped out and I thought it better of it. But now I'm gonna pop it out just the way that it just went through my head. Don't fuck over your current clients with your Black Friday offer. It's really that simple. That is my message right there. With your Black Friday offer, don't fuck over your current clients. And what do I mean by that? I mean that I have signed up for yearly offers from companies, and then, potentially, it could have been just, like, a couple months later.

Val Selby [00:08:35]:
But even if it wasn't, it was sometime within that year that I have bought a year plan from these. And I'm specifically right now thinking of software platforms. Right? Things that I absolutely love, I'm all in. I am getting the yearly deal, and then comes Black Friday. And they offer an absolutely screaming deal to come in on a yearly. And it's not offered to current people. And do you get the feeling that I'm talking about right now? I have left platforms and software programs that I absolutely love because they have done this, because it felt like a big fuck you. Like, I have spent this much money because I saw the value in this, and now you're offering this crazy low offer to new people.

Val Selby [00:09:32]:
And I feel like you just kicked me in the vajayjay for real. I feel absolutely like you don't care. And it's multiple platforms that I have actually left because I was just, like, total ranty pants. I'm like, okay, well, that's an asshole move. And if that's the kind of moves you wanna make, I will go find somebody else because we all know that there are other places that do exactly what you do. So the ranty pants are there. Right? Because I just felt like, obviously, they don't care.

Val Selby [00:10:10]:
Obviously. Because why didn't I get some kind of deal? Why didn't I get some kind of bonus? Like, I mean, the easy thing would be to come out and tell your yearly subscribers, hey, we're coming out with this killer deal. It's only for new people, but we have this bonus that we're gonna offer you because thank you. And, also, how many people would be like, okay, you know what? I use and love this. I'm not even getting affiliate commission, but, hey. Go grab this because I wish I could get this deal.

Val Selby [00:10:42]:
Because then they've made us happy customers. And that's the really the big thing about not fucking over your customers. Keep them happy. And when you've come in with this killer Black Friday special on something that they have already purchased, and especially if they've purchased full price, and you come in, think about it from you being the user. Think about it from that perspective. How do you feel? How is it gonna make you feel? I mean, if you're coming in and it's an expensive workshop, like, you know, and expensive to me still is a $197 is an expensive workshop to me, especially when I'm not a 100% sure of what I'm gonna get out of it, before, because I'm very skeptical now of spending the money and knowing, oh, gosh. Am I gonna maybe know more? I don't know. Okay.

Val Selby [00:11:36]:
We're going in with positive. Going in with a positive. What can I learn no matter what from this? But a $197 for a workshop is still a lot in my head. It is. And so if there's this workshop that I bought, it doesn't matter if I got a lot of information from it or not. If all of the sudden, I'm seeing it for sale on Black Friday for, I mean, even half price or less than half price, my brain's gonna remember that. My brain is gonna be the, oh, hmmm. So there's that. So I've got 2 points because there's a second point just popped in.

Val Selby [00:12:16]:
So there's that. Be careful about who you are potentially screwing over that is already paying full price or has, you know, bought it for a significant different amount that you could be making you feel bad. And when I say, keep that in mind, again, I'm not saying don't do that. I'm saying, keep in mind that there are those amazing people that have already paid a different price for it. And how can you keep them happy? How can you keep them feeling good and not putting some negative connotation on it? Because it's really that simple. Even if you came up with one super cool bonus that you could offer, and it's just like, okay, these are the different Black Friday specials that I'm gonna be doing. So I'm going into my list, and anybody that has purchased those already, they're getting this bonus.

Val Selby [00:13:13]:
You know? It could be that. It could be that easy. It could be, seriously, it could be that easy. It just makes the user believe that you give a shit and that you care and you're thankful. Right? And I should have written down my other point. Damn it. I know better. So there was the user.

Val Selby [00:13:34]:
Oh, this is when I love having somebody else in a conversation with me because they can usually remember where I was going. Oh, good grief. It's gonna come to me and then I'm gonna be like, damn it. I didn't get that on there. So Black Friday - I'm just gonna start talking again and then maybe it'll pop back up. Black Friday. I just want you to be aware of your current people, of your current list, of your current per buyers. I just want you to make them feel special.

Val Selby [00:14:07]:
Oh, that was the other thing. That was the other thing. Also, if you are consistently doing a huge Black Friday offer, it trains people to not buy during the year. And especially if you are prone to doing, you know, a huge deal on a big workshop or signature program or something like that. There have been and, honestly, it hasn't been quite as much that case for the last, probably the last two. But previous to that, the Black Friday specials around were so good. I'm usually talking about the software programs that are out there, the platforms that are out there. And often if I didn't feel like this was actually absolutely gonna be a biz changer, and I gotta get this right now, if it wasn't something that I felt like I needed immediately, I would even wait to see what their offer was gonna be on Black Friday, which is not good for their business.

Val Selby [00:15:07]:
Right? Because if their offer wasn't good enough, I didn't buy because I was already used to not having it. So there's that other aspect of if you have a Black Friday offer, are you kicking yourself because you've got people that are going to wait for it? And I'll throw it out as an example. We have our $47 membership here at Bundle Bash, And, see, this would be the third Black Friday. I think we actually did launch it on Black Friday 2022, of the membership. And we launched it with a super amazing, really low offer. And then last year, I did it again. I upped it so it wasn't as low because that was a launch price and Black Friday as well. So I wasn't pissing anybody off, but it was a one time pay for the year in advance.

Val Selby [00:15:59]:
And this year, just so you know, I won't be doing that. I won't be doing that because this is a membership that people are paid monthly for, and it feels icky to me to be potentially ticking people off. Does it mean that I'm gonna lose out on some sales for that membership? It does. Which means that I just have to sit and figure out, okay, well, how do I get them? You know? It just changes that way. I'm gonna have a different Black Friday offer that's gonna be amazing, but it's not gonna be that usual. And it is because I want to make sure that that membership has the value. I don't want people joining it just because it's such a crazy good deal that they have to buy it.

Val Selby [00:16:48]:
And, again, that's another thing to think about with your Black Friday offer. If you offer something for so super duper low, how many people are actually going to use it? In my case, I have learned that the people that have signed up for that really crazy low offer on the second year, first year was different, second year when they signed up for it, they weren't as interested in partaking. And so I'm just, I'm taking that information in and it's like, you know, that's not the environment I wanna create. So, nope. That's not the Black Friday offer this year. It's not. I got plenty of other stuff that I can put out there, but takeaway. Let's do the takeaway.

Val Selby [00:17:32]:
At all costs, when you are thinking of what you're gonna do for Black Friday, take into consideration your current clients, your current customers. How are they gonna feel when they see that offer? And how can you make them feel better about it? So again, I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying, make sure that the people that have already bought it are feeling great. That they are left feeling awesome. That they aren't feeling like, oh, all they care about is that next sale and not me. Right? Make them feel special. And you can make them feel special with some super small things. It just means that you thought of me and you cared.

Val Selby [00:18:17]:
Right? So Black Friday, let's take advantage of it. And let's just remember, Black Friday is a great time to get those sales. We just wanna make sure that we're not pissing off those people that have been following us the whole rest of the year and buying from us. Alright? Keep those people on their gold level status. They are amazing. Right? They are amazing. So let's make them feel special. And how can we do that? Even leave comments, reach out, reply to any of my emails.

Val Selby [00:18:51]:
Let's reach out. Let's figure out how can we make our current people feel super special. And I'm gonna write that down email right now. How can I make them feel special for Black Friday? It doesn't even have to have anything to do with the special that's out there. How can I make them feel special? What can I do? Alright. I am looking forward to being back so that I didn't bottle up a bunch of stuff, and then have a absolute word vomit that you have to keep track of. I will definitely be talking to you next week, and go get your Black Friday mapped out, or just pay attention that you're not gonna do it. It can be that easy too.

Val Selby [00:19:35]:
You don't have to partake. Alright. Chat at you next week.