Solopreneurships are tricky. But free workshops with actionable advice are more so. A lot of advice out there, but let’s be honest, it’s general. Business coaches often keep this specific advisement from you. It’s a strategy they use as they gauge how much you know in a sales call. But the Quiz Funnel that Brad Long created to prepare you for this workshop and his personalized results were more than another horoscope of business advice.
Long’s quiz left me with four questions I couldn’t answer about my business. You may be there with the same Evinrude motor running in your ski boat waiting for your answers.
Here they are:
- Have you picked a viable niche to serve?
- Where are the clients with money in this niche?
- How can you find a $10K problem to solve for a niche business?
- How can you find a future problem to solve from that same business?
- I was stumped. I felt like the promises for this free live workshop were a step in that direction.
How did the workshop deliver?
Here are 13 takeaways.
But before you get to those…
Who is Brad Long of bradlong.co?
Brad Long is a burned-out software employee who started a side hustle getting people out of debt. But this business when he started scaling it to videos and workbooks didn’t catch on. This is where Long talks about learning from these mistakes to his 11K audience YouTube channel and social media followers.
Now back to the Raw Entrepreneur 13 Takeaways
Let’s review the stakes and claims of the bradlongco. free training.
Long’s first topic: Your business brainstorm
Long’s help with a brainstorm on your business ideas?
This wasn’t what you’d expect.
Yes. Long had a worksheet with 101 keywords that could be put into Google Trends.
But you didn’t have access to this pdf. It was promised at the end of Long’s presentation. (Turns out it’s only yours with purchase of his next product).
Was there any one-on-one help? Nope. Did he tie it to your personal life and give you a chance to brainstorm with prompts? Negative.
Any suggestions? Yes. The keyword, Pilates tested in Google Trends as searched for in too large a market. And Pilate exercise balls were tested for search frequency.
These words too showed up to be searched for in too small a market.
Takeaway #1
Long shared 7 characteristics of a profitable business, and some of them were eye-opening.
He suggested viewers decide on a business market that was evergreen. That wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before. But then he mentioned entry into an enthusiast, evergreen market. That perked my eyebrows.
Evergreen-Enthusiast Market?
Evergreen, meaning not seasonal. Not tax refunds. Not Christmas trees. Not fireworks. I got it.
But Enthusiast?
Now, an enthusiast market is one that is not only not seasonal, but also established with at least a few competitors. Long gave examples such as businesses who sell to guitar players, Lego builders, yoga students. Markets that have products or services, you’ll receive, use up, and need more of.
Takeaway #2
Long advised you to follow the enthusiast and not a problem-solving route.
His reasoning was simple. Repeat customers vs. Pipeline customer lines. Which one of these is going to cost you less money in time, energy, and money?
Validating your market
This is Long’s service and product’s big selling point. “No one out there is offering this information right now,” Long explained, when asked about differentiation in his later Q and A session.
Long introduced you to two free tools. The first one? Google Trends. This site would help you verify if you chose a profitable market. The strategy was one of looking at the frequency of Google keyword searches.
The second way Long taught you to find the level of your business’s competition was through the Amazon site itself.
Take away #3
This is Long’s signature differentiation piece and although he is going to tell you about it, his graphic was too blurry to make out.
So, expect to pay for the specifics of this tool’s use.
I exchanged messages with Long about this topic on social media.
Those are pieces of research that I paid A LOT of money to ascertain and have no intention of just “giving away” during a free webinar.
So the omission of the resources without paying for the intensive is entirely intentional.
Brad Long, President bradlong.co
Google Trend for keywords
This test was easy enough. You type in the keywords and look for them to fall into a certain metric range. About the middle of your bar graph.
There are more hints from Long’s email.
- STEP #1: Choose the “worldwide” option, and the “past 5 years” option.
- STEP #2: Enter the “Target” Keywords
- STEP #3: Enter the keyword that you want to check (up to 5)
Take away #4
Good luck in knowing what the keywords are without Long’s pdf bonus.
How do you interpret if where they fall on the graph is where you want them to fall for your business best growth chance?
You won’t be able to tell your target metric range unless you move up his trip wire sales funnel to his first upsell product. (This is opening to the public for $97 sometime Monday, August 1st.)
Take away #5
The Amazon site test has the potential to answer your market profitability question fast.
Amazon Test? What you will find out.
“Querying the number of sponsored informational products under your keyword.” Now, are those educational? Meaning books. If they are. That’s a healthy sign.
Long’s Amazon rule of thumb. “You want to set yourself up to be a category of one, but not a market of one.”
Are there a lot of sponsored ads or products coming up when you type in your search word?
Take away #6
You’ll be confused if you try the Amazon test without Long’s help.
You’ll have these questions:
- How do you figure out what sponsors you are looking for?
- Where on the page are the sponsors are you’re looking for?
- How many sponsors should you hope to find on your category’s page?
Long points to the sponsors on the screen’s top row. But there are also sponsors in your scroll. Are those considered sponsored in your tally to know if you have too many competitors in your space?
Funnel construction for your business’s lifetime lifeline
Long sells his workshop on value ladder/funnel. And this is where you’ll find he delivers big time.
He shows you what copywriter, Sam Woods, in 10X Funnels calls, the minimum viable funnel. Long does a great job of explaining funnels as a “cadence of messaging” your leads see before they find your offer.
Since Long released this information on LinkedIn…you’ll see it up and personal.
This item was worth the….
- Video buffering from 44:01-55:29 that I had to endure
- The blank screen Long taught from as he reviewed a slide you never saw
Takeaway #7
(Take it away, Mr. Brad Long)
“There IS solid method for starting and building… Here’s what it looks like…
SO, if you’re just starting…
Your value ladder/funnel…
Will probably look more like this…
Version 1: Solopreneur Blueprint
- ✅ 1 : Verified Market – Non-negotiable (using the Market Clarity Method)
- ✅ 1 : Lead Generator – Your Content + a PDF guide
- ✅ 1 : Lead Converter – A 1:1 Discovery Call
- ✅ 1 : Product – A Coaching/Consulting Program
As you build and grow the next version might look like this…
Version 2: Solopreneur Blueprint
- ✅ 1 : Verified Market – Non-negotiable (using the Market Clarity Method)
- ✅ 1 : Lead Generator – Your Content + A Mini-Workshop
- ✅ 1 : Lead Converter – A Sales Page
- ✅ 1 : Product – A Digital Course
And here’s my current one…
Version Brad 3.0: Solopreneur Blueprint
- ✅ 1 : Verified Market – Non-negotiable (using the Market Clarity Method)
- ✅ 1 : Lead Generator – Content + A Quiz Funnel
- ✅ 1 : Lead Converter – High-Impact Workshop
- ✅ 1 : Product – A Deep-Dive Intensive Training
And when you get to the super advanced level, your blueprint can look like this…
Version Bravo Solopreneur Blueprint for LinkedIn Influencer 400,000 followers
- ✅ 1 : Verified Market – Happy Accident (not recommended)
- ✅ 1 : Lead Generator – Content + Newsletter
- ✅ 1 : Lead Converter – Soft Digital Course Pitch In Newsletter Emails
- ✅ 1 : Product – Low-Ticket Digital Courses”
Takeaway #8
Not everything in your business is scalable in the beginning.
Your Business Scalability
Scalable?
What will you find that means?
- Products created once
- Products used over and over
- Products that continue selling without major changes
Long’s advice? We all must do tasks up front that aren’t scalable like:
“Number 1? Lots of 1:1 calls to connect with our audience and ask them deep questions…
Number 2? Lots of follow up and asking for feedback, testimonials, and case studies…
But THAT’S the stuff that grows your following and your traffic, fast!”
Take away #9
Quiz Funnel praise. Long has found a funnel that works best. After all, he’s been building them for 5 years.
And taking his quiz you’ll see his thousands of hours of practice. Long is so good on camera on this quiz.
And his theory of using the quiz to create a new diagnosis and build trust is from the playbook of copywriter legend, Ryan Schwartz of Copyhackers in 10X Emails.
Like an email series, the quiz funnel lets you as a lead go back to your problem solution stage of your buyer’s journey. Only this time, you’re with the new expert (Long) along for the ride. Together, (even virtually) you find a new diagnosis to solve your problem of knowing where you’ve picked a profitable business niche.
The crazy thing is what if you weren’t in your Quiz Funnel debrief? And you were given the same advice? To get a six figure business going, you’ll need….
(You name) a business in your funnel with a $10K problem and a future problem to meet your goal.
You’d probably be inclined to be put off. But Long is promising you, he can help you find that situation…if you pick the right business niche. And that help and that new information of needing to validate your market is powerful psychology at work.
Take away #10
The market with no competition is a dead market, not a thriving one soon to be.
Solopreneur myth busting
Long does a great job of unveiling the myth in the solopreneur’s belief that he/she wants to be a pioneer in his/her industry. He does it fast too. Disrupts the greenfield fantasy. And all with a universal analogy:
Pioneers get shot; settlers get rich.
-Ryan Levesque, on #funnelhacker Radio Podcast Episode#332 (5/16/2019)
Hearing this analogy echoed deep with my experience. As I fell into this trap, when I did my market study for my podcast, Teach Your Son for parents of autistic sons. I was sure I filled a need because I belonged to a Facebook group of guys hungry for this guidance.
But I had no audience (and the Facebook group wouldn’t let me self-promote) for my helpful content. Well, I had to put that podcast project on-hold as I finish my Copyhackers copywriting school.
It was a ‘pioneer’ lesson learned.
And you’ll get the sense in Long’s workshop, he was resonating with many in his presentation. Especially those who had a market study in their back pocket.
Take away #11
Serve your leads and customers chocolate covered broccoli?
Beta Brad
This analogy of broccoli means create the program you believe will meet your prospect’s needs. But don’t stop there. Release it as a beta version. In return for feedback, case studies, reviews, deliver that product in a live setting.
And then, use the information gathered to make the product or service you’re offering that much better.
This beta test angle will help you get not only a better result later, but also will give you the language your customers speak in. (Commonly referred to as Voice of Customer data in Copyschool) Plus, this cleaned up version of your taped workshop, can later be sold as a course unto itself.
Take away #12
Don’t over think customer or lead feedback.
Feedback and Feel back Exchange
You need only to ask your leads things like:
- When it comes to your problem you want solved, what is your single most challenge right now?
- What is your single biggest roadblock?
These types of questions are the key to speaking the language of your lead or customer or even client. That’s because these are powerful questions that dig into the destiny of your prospect.
As legend copywriter, Joanna Wiebe says in 10X Webcopy, I don’t care about what they need, I want to get to what they want. When you get to these ‘wants’, you’re close to their ideal version of themselves. Their true self-image and the nesting place of their deepest hopes, dreams, and highest aspirations.
#13 Takeaway
Stop Speaking into the Void
Another phrase where Long hit home with the solopreneur journey is what he calls speaking into the void. This is where you’re on social media speaking to an audience of crickets. It’s hard to do for Long and myself included and others.
- You want to know your content is making connections
- Verify that you’re speaking the language of your prospects
- Know for sure you’re helping solve the problems of the people you chose to serve?
“JDIL or Just Do It Live,” Long explained, then, ask them for feedback in your ‘beta version’.
#14 Takeaway
Q and A session not as in-depth as promised.
Blame the Audience not the Solopreneur
The question-and-answer session was hyped up during the course of Long’s presentation as something that you don’t want to miss.
However, the questions and answers felt scripted.
- 63 registered
- 31 people reportedly attendees
In this event, however I saw the names of maybe three that I could verify on Long’s screen. Not to say that people weren’t texting in questions. But again, not to say that Long wasn’t prioritizing them to be offer-specific either.
(See below for Long’s rebuttal to these perceptions of mine at the time the post was written)
The first 4 or so questions?
The who, what, where, when, how of the offer.
But what needed to be addressed were questions about:
- The faded screen graphics you couldn’t see
- The instructional takeaway of the paid offer (Too good to be true?)
- Audiences were told it would be the same format as this workshop. (But how exactly?)
- The subject of business market viability solved in two tests for every attendee? (?????)
Personalized Attention Offer Upcoming? (Upsell #2?)
But what if it is personal attention someone needs?
And that may indeed be the need that leads to Long’s upsell 2.
As the ticking counter was pulled up for the buyers who take action, i.e. spontaneous spenders….
Long explained how he liked those people who take action now. And Cialdini’s principle of liking was taking effect.
There was a 3 round description of the bonuses for signing up that day in his presentation. And it wasn’t that the bonuses weren’t set up to solve real problems. It was the inflated values of the bonus items.
- $250 value for a pdf?
- Pomodoro method planner? ($250 value)
- Marketing Intensive Workbook to take notes in? ($250 value)
(On Amazon as eBooks, these values seem unlikely. Videos and pdfs combined, sure. But pdfs?)
Plus, Long was skilled at sale and price anchoring. He was great at sweetening the bonuses as the countdown ticked down.
The offer’s cherry on top if you bought it live? A one-on-one consult with Long himself.
But if you know anything about marketing, you’re going to feel Marketing 101 watching this replay.
Take away #15
Long is a skilled marketer and instructor who’s got his pitch near perfect.
(However, Long, when contacted, stands behind the sticker price of value behind these pdfs. He feels they’re mini-courses in pdf form.)
Wrap it Up!
You might think that the next upcoming paid offer isn’t worth it, because of the questions raised in the workshop. But then again, you might still want those burning questions of your business’s profitability answered in those two tests.
At the time of this writing, Long’s email subscribers received an offer asking for $47 to attend his next digital workshop.
Has Long delivered value in his workshop? (Yes. And he did it in a way that was unexpected.)
His presentation was bite-sized chunks of chocolate broccoli to a starving crowd.
But the question is can Long deliver assurance of your business niche profitability in two free tests?
Long’s Response to this Review
Above all, Long’s criticisms of the review revolve around these two key takeaways.
- This is a free workshop
- 90 minutes worth of material given away for free
In addition Long points to the mini-workshop’s ability to:
- Close some of those open loops created by my quiz
- Offer more insights as to how my processes/systems close those gaps
- Offer a “sneak peak” of the “how to” of those solutions
- Allow the prospect to determine whether or not I am worthy to be engaged in one of my paid offers
- Offer 1:1 or customized support of any kind in the context of the workshop
- But the workshop purpose is to not “give away the farm” revealing all of my trade secrets
Long also points out discrepancies in the reporting of the numbers of participants above….
“There is also an inaccuracy where you state: “79 people reportedly attended this event, however I saw the names of maybe three that I could verify on Long’s screen.” Those numbers are “registrations” from the previous month’s version of this webinar. “Show up” rate for registered attendees is usually 50%.”
Brad Long, President of bradlong.co
So that particular webinar cited above in the LinkedIn post in had…
- 79 registrations
- 41 attendees
(16 conversions to the paid intensive)
The webinar I referenced above taking place in the end of July, 2023 had…
- 63 registrations
- 31 attendees
- 3 conversions (so far)
(Special thanks to Long for contacting me to clear up any misunderstandings of figures and motivations of the purpose of the workshop.)
Small Price Large Payoff
- Is the clarity of your market worth under $50 to find out? (Plus, lifetime access to recordings for additional $27)
- Will Long shortcut this process of finding market profitability too?
- Will Long’s 5 years of teaching others how to launch side hustle businesses and escape debt pay off for you?
Only Google Trends, Amazon, and bradlong.co’s presentation, bonuses, and promises of more to come will answer that question. Trust is all you have to fall back on.
If you felt this post was helpful, sign up for more alerts when I publish again. And don’t forget to get your own free Ultimate YouTube Channel Set Up Guide eBook or other freebies floating around this website. Until next time, be your top-shelf you.
(P.S. Although, I don’t endorse anything I wouldn’t pay for myself, the Copyhackers links above are affiliate links. Please click on those and especially if you on your way to level up your skills with Copyhackers. They’d love to help you.)