EPISODE 054 | Are Ascension Models a Load of Crap?

Today’s episode is an important one because we’re kicking off a series of tough conversations where I’m pulling back the curtain on some of the things I’ve been learning on this journey into the dark side of the online business world.

My goal with these types of episodes is two-fold: 

1. I want to lead by example in being a service-based online business owner that’s practicing with integrity, helping more OT entrepreneurs to follow suit.
2. I want to help more OTs who are navigating the online space to use their critical thinking when signing up for programs, products and services. 

Leading to the focus of today's episode, ascension models. 

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER: 

• What exactly is an ascension model and how it's commonly referenced as THE way of positioning your various offers 
• Why it's important to think critically about the business advice you're going to follow
• The challenge with low ticket offers being resource intensive
• How to reconnect to your reason for helping people as a business owner

As always, I'm happy to continue the conversation via DM or email! If you have any feedback or thoughts that you want to share with me, take a quick screenshot and share with me on IG, tag me @otsgonerogue.com. You can also connect with me through our Facebook page  @otsgonerogue or by going to our contact form, https://www.otsgonerogue.com/podcast-contact. 

Transcript

Melissa LaPointe  0:06  
You're listening to the OTs Gone Rogue Podcast, where we inspire therapists to think outside the box and do things differently. I'm your host, Melissa LaPointe. My passion is in helping ot entrepreneurs have a bigger impact on the world while building a life they love and doing transformative work that lights them up. On each episode of the show, I'm going to share tools and tricks to help you flex your entrepreneurial muscles and grow your business from the inside out. I want to see more OTS step up as visionary leaders, change makers and influential CEOs. So let's get started.

Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the OTs Gone Rogue Podcast. Today's episode is an important one, because we're about to kick off a series of tough conversations on the podcast, I want to spend more of our time this year talking about some of the shady practices in the online space. Now in the ideal world, I would have this as an official series on the podcast where we would have several episodes in a row covering a number of different topics related to this subject. So when I first had this idea that we were going to go deep with some of the inner workings of the online space, that's how it was in my head was in a six part series. But then it came time to do the work. And truth be told, preparing for these episodes, doing the research, writing the outlines, recording the content, you guys, this has been really hard work. And it's the kind of work that inspires me and drives me and motivates me, but also hurts my head. And it hurts my heart. So let me explain. I've been in the online space since 2015. So that was when I created my first online course. So in 2015, and the early part of 2016, I had invested in several smaller products and programs for course creators. It wasn't until late 2016 That I invested in what I thought was my first business coaching program. It was a program that was referred to me. There were two coaches, and it had been sold to me as a coaching program. But it wasn't, it was one of those programs that was very much they over promised and under delivered. It was all self paced, pre recorded content, very generic, very prescriptive. And you had the opportunity to submit questions, but there wasn't a lot of coaching that was going on. And it was geared specifically to healthcare professionals who wanted to grow in the online space. So that left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, but also left me hungry for more, because I could see the potential. I just knew I didn't invest in quite the right program, perhaps I was little bit naive. So in 2017, I tried again, I invested in an even bigger business development program. It didn't have as much of a so it wasn't a bigger price tag per se, but it was a membership community. So it was for online business owners. And at the time, it was summer 2017 When all the shit started to hit the fan for me. And it was a membership that included content coaching. And community I think was about 75 bucks a month at the time. But I think there was 75 us, which for Canadians, you know, it's a little bit higher than I think, let's say 90 bucks. So off I went with that. And again, lots of content, really big community, two very well known entrepreneurs in the online space. And I did learn a lot from them. Absolutely. In 2018. So in September of 2018, I attended my first in person event. So it was for this membership community. So online business owners and we all came together. There were about 80 of us. It was amazing. It was included. No it wasn't included in our membership. I had to pay separately for it and was really excited. I actually was one of the first people to buy my ticket to so I got a free coaching call out of that. And the event itself to be able to connect with people in person who spoke my language, the connections, the friendships, the genuine interactions. I truly felt like I had found my people. And it was at that event that the two community leaders announced that they were closing it down, they were closing down the membership, they were making a major pivot in their business and stepping away. So a few months after that, still on a high from that in person event, I found myself once again dipping into my savings to sign up for yet another $3,000 program. I took the extended payment plan. And every month for 12 months, I paid. And then some because it's one of those payment plans that it's not just $3,000 divided by 12. It's $3,000 divided by 12 with a 20% increase the poor tax, right. So here I was a year later, in October of 2019. And I attended the live event for this $3,000 program. It was amazing. There were like 600 people that time and again, live events. This is their forte, this is they are skilled. This was a live event like nothing I had ever experienced before. And once again, I got caught up in the hype. And I found myself climbing up the next rung of this particular entrepreneurs ascension model. So before I knew it, I was part of a very large 12 month group coaching program, swimming in a sea of resources and getting lost in the crowd, while my credit card took a major hit each month, because once again, I went with the extended payment program. So that payment program with the additional tax. Even though I felt a disconnect from that program in so many ways, I had vowed to not renew, I had an accountability buddy, if she's listening to this, she'll be smiling. She'll remember that Voxer message when I said please, when it's time to renew, please tell me remind me of this message that I am sending to you hold my feet to the flames do not let me renew for this program. The person who runs this particular program, he is a master salesman. And when it came time to renew, he sweeten the deal. And he made an offer that I honestly felt like I couldn't refuse. He has this magical way of offering free trainings. So we had our end of the year three day retreat, he over delivered on so much great content. And then he had a last minute bonus in the offer. And then there was another way that he sweeten the pot. So if you signed up for yet another year, it was another $1,000 off your enrollment fees. And I felt like I couldn't refuse. So I signed up for yet another year. It wasn't until March 2022 That I confidently stepped away from this program. And in full disclosure, it was actually more like December or January. So the last few months, I had a really hard time engaging with the content, I have learned a lot 100% I have learned a lot I had learned a lot about what I wanted in my programs. So I've been running a group program for years at this point. I learned a lot in terms of how many people I wanted in my program, how I would scale my program. At that point, we had guest coaches coming into my program and guest mentors, I learned so much in terms of how to structure it in terms of how to support the guest coaches, the guest mentors, our leadership team, the payment structure, the operations behind the scenes, I don't have any regrets. But there were a lot of tough learning curves here. So I was meant to attend a three day retreat, but I listened to my gut. And as much as I was looking forward to being in a warmer place, I cancelled both my accommodations and my flight. There were some red flags for me in the coaching in the coaching certification that was being promoted in some of the sales tactics in some of the different ways of building your audience that I couldn't stop ignoring. So since then, first I took a step back and really took some time to clear my head. And then I started to do a really deep dive into the dark side of the online business space. This includes the marketing tactics, the pricing structure, the practice of using neuro linguistic programming on sales calls, the $25,000 masterminds, the overpriced coaches, who have no training as coaches. The inflated payment plans, the sales pages with hidden pricing, the group coaching programs that often include very little coaching the pyramid schemes Get Rich, quick promotional materials, I could go on and on and on. And part of the reason why recording these podcast episodes is such hard work is that in hindsight, even though a lot of this goes against my moral compass, I can still see how some of these trainings and some of these teachings are intertwined and ingrained in my own business. That's a hard pill to swallow. I have tried for years to keep my business client centered with a focus on a humanized sales process, and an emphasis on relationship marketing. But in some ways, I was also a naive student.

So in the last six months, I shared an email with if you're on my email list, you would have received an email about this, where I've been slowly tearing down my business from the inside out, and rebuilding it in a way that feels true to my heart. I am not perfect by any means. And I still have a lot to undo. And to figure out our refund policies, our terms and conditions, our pricing structure, our payment plans, the way we write our copy the way we write our sales pages, what we want included and funnels, moving from a sales page with and we were never big on high pressure tactics, but all these little things that I just didn't realize could be harmful and discovering them. Some of them like Oh, my goodness, I completely forgot that was even there and changing it up. It's been a lot of work. But we're getting there, step by step, we are making progress. So today, we are going to kick off one of many episodes where I'm pulling back the curtain on some of the things that I've been learning, or rather some of the things I'm working on, on learning on this journey into the dark side of the online business world. So my goal with these episodes is twofold. First, I want to lead by example, I want to be an example, you know, I am in a leadership position. And I want to lead by example. And being a service based online business owner that's practicing with integrity, helping more ot entrepreneurs to follow suit, I am more than willing to admit where I screwed up and the mistakes that I made. If it means we can all look at this as a teachable moment and commit to doing better. The second goal with these episodes, I want to help more OTS who are navigating the online space, whether you are a course creator, whether you are a coach, whether you are an OT looking to include a digital product, perhaps you have a hybrid model with your service based business. I know a lot of you are working on Done For You businesses or excuse me done for you services. Wherever you are in this space, my goal is for you to use your critical thinking when signing up for programs, products and services. Leading to the focus of today's episode, we're going to talk all about ascension models. More specifically, our ascension models a load of crap. So let's start by explaining what exactly an ascension model is. An ascension model is a business model that's shaped like a triangle. So I want you to have this visual. So imagine a triangle. And it's positioned with the base at the bottom and the apex of the triangle at the top. Now, how wide is that base? Or how narrow is that base? That depends. That is up to you as the business owner to decide. So how many people and I'm going to explain in a moment what that bottom of the base is, is or represents. And then how many people that's how wide that base is going to be. So the premise here is that the base of the triangle represents a free offer, or a very low ticket offer where you reach more people. And as you work your way up to different levels of the triangle. Essentially, the idea is that you're serving fewer people, the higher up you go, where they get more access to you and the price point incrementally increases, meaning the free offer or the low ticket offer at the bottom. This is what gets your people in the door. You then nurture them, you support them, you coach them to the sale of the next product that's higher up on your ascension model. So this means that each service or each program that you're offering, it's designed to help your clients take the next Step in their journey. It also means that theoretically, instead of having these one off clients, instead of having to find new clients constantly, you can spend less time on lead generation and improve the overall lifetime client value. So a common ascension model might be a podcast or a blog at the bottom, then you may have so from that podcast or from that blog, you may have a lead magnet where they're able to opt in and give you their email, then you may be promoting a $29 a month membership community, or perhaps it's a 197 course. So that's the next rung up the ladder, then from there, maybe you're offering them and 997 group coaching program. If you are a coach, or if you have done for you services, perhaps then it's a $2,000 VIP day. And then maybe at the very top, you have a $10,000 mastermind, or at the very, very top, you have an elite invite only $25,000 mastermind with in person five star retreats every quarter. So one of the keys to an ascension model. So I hope you have some different, you know, there are different ideas or excuse me, there are definitely different examples that I can give to you. But that's essentially with an ascension model, you know, you work your way up. And one of the keys to an ascension model is that you want to create services that aren't competing with each other, but are actually building on top of each other. Now, in full disclosure, I still teach people about ascension models. So it's not that they're wrong. Ascension models are a helpful way to help people understand how to be strategic with their offers. So sales funnels or the customer journey, understanding that customer journey, that in and of itself, is not necessarily unethical or wrong. Okay. That's why the title was our ascension models a load of crap not ascension models are a load of crap, exclamation. Okay. So there is a time and a place and I am not denying that. But what I no longer do is tell my students that ascension models are the end all be all and the only way to position their products, I have heard that emphasize you need an ascension model, everyone needs an ascension model. And that is not true. I want you to be able to think critically about this. Because it's not always the right way of doing business for everyone. There may be times where after someone finishes. A you know, let's say they work with you for three months in a one on one coaching capacity. And then at the end of your time together, they go into perhaps you have a membership only for people who completed or graduated from one on one coaching with you as a way to retain them and to continue to provide some level of support to your alumni to your graduates. And it was say 1250 to work with you for for the three months. But now the membership for alumni is 29 a month. If you've been trained to always be focusing on your ascension model, you may question that in terms of oh, if they graduate and don't renew for another one on one package, but instead go down to my membership model. Does that mean I failed? Semi and I'm doing things incorrectly? Does that mean I am not a good entrepreneur? No means you're being creative and how you're caring and supporting for your people. Okay, so, again, an ascension model is not the end all be all. And I want us to be able to think of other ways of doing business. All right. I also want to talk about some of the reasons why there is a strong disconnect for a lot of Ota entrepreneurs when it comes to ascension models. So let's start by taking a closer look at these low ticket offers. So these low ticket offers that are at the bottom of the ascension model. This could be a $9 product, it could be a $12 product, it could be a $29 product. Another way to look at these low ticket offers is as loss leaders, so a marketing term so the same way. You think of a grocery store the same way that there's a big sale on bread or grapes or butter and that's designed to get you into the grocery store where the grocery store owner knows very well that you're going to end up buying much more than butter. Right or a clothing store where they're having a sale L on, you know, this crazy sale on playing tank tops. Knowing that once you get into the store, there's a good chance that you're going to end up spending more money than just the plain tank top. Okay, so these offers are designed to get you into the sales funnel. So with that being said, Where's the disconnect? Well,

let's be honest here. There are a lot of OTS that don't have a well executed sales funnel, first of all, and for good reason. It's not that they're not capable of figuring out a sales funnel, it's that a lot of the OTS I work with aren't looking to serve the masses without knowing their people. So they're completing these different programs or these trainings, or they're signing up for these different types of software that I will not name that, you know, the intention is to set you up with these funnels, and they're not resonating with it. So they're not using it, they're not using these different programs, these different software's to the extent of their capabilities, because it doesn't feel good. I used to think that this was a weakness of mine. That because I wanted to know my people, I didn't want a really big email list, there was some resistance there. Every time my Facebook groups would grow past 2000 people, I've had that happen three times now, where my Facebook group would grow, grow, grow to the point where I didn't know people in there, and it no longer felt like a fun place for me to hang out. And I used to think this meant I wasn't cut out for working in the online space, there was a lot of imposter syndrome there. Until one day, I had a call with a business mentor. And she helped me to see that this is one of my strengths. I am a small town girl, I love kitchen parties. I love getting to know everyone in the room, everyone in the house, taking the time to ask about your work and your family and get to know you as a person. And this is not a weakness. It's one of the ways that sets me apart. And it helps my people to feel like they're not just a number. Another important thing to note about low ticket offers is that they're very resource intensive. There is way more to setting up these small products than people think. Meaning low ticket offers are not an easy way to make money. I had a colleague the other day make reference to something being a load, you know, oh, it's $39. So it's an easy sell, because it's $39. It's not an easy sell. It's a very busy, flooded market, you're competing with a lot of people in terms of their attention and their resources. So before you take on a low ticket offer, I want you to make sure you take the time to do the math. What is it going to cost to create this offer? For a lot of people, it's more labor intensive to create these low ticket offers than it is to create something like a coaching program. What's it going to take in terms of marketing and selling your potential offer. A lot of times with these low ticket offers, you need to be consistently adding people to your list, you need to be investing in tools needed to create and host these low ticket offers, and deliver. So for each offer that you have. So we come back to that ascension model. For each rung of the ladder for each offer that you have. You need to build out three separate systems. You need a sales system, you need a marketing system, and you need a delivery system. So if you go into this thinking, you need an ascension model with three or four different offers, including a low ticket offer, that's nine to 12 systems that you need to build out in your business, you need to run effectively. And eventually you need to train your team on nine to 12 systems. You guys, that's a lot of systems. Again, there may be many of you listening to this thinking millesime positive at one point, you had six offers. And again I did. I was learning from people who had full time teams of eight, you know eight full time members on their team and they were training me and here I am trying to grow an online business with a toddler small child under foot and not you know, oh my goodness. No wonder I was a little bit manic for a while because I thought that's what I had to do in order to succeed. Those were the types of programs I was in. So that's what I tried to mimic can tell you You Now it didn't work. But something, you know, it really is like the iceberg. The longer you're in business, the more you see how much there is behind the scenes. And as I've said before, this year, my 10th year in business, it's finally clicking, I am all about systems and consistency and leaning into our operations. We are in the process right now, of significantly simplifying our offer, stay tuned, because we're up to something pretty darn cool. And that's a big piece of it. I don't want 12 systems in my business, I am discovering how time intensive it is to have six systems in a business. So that's what we're going for two offers six systems. And again, most of the OTS that I'm working with, we don't have huge teams, many of us are solopreneurs with a part time virtual assistant at best. There's a place for low cost offers in the market that many times, especially for service based providers, there's a simpler offer that will make us more money in a shorter amount of time. All right, now let's talk about the intentions behind why you went into business in the first place. And yes, I want you to be profitable. But for many of us, as health professionals, we're also in business to help people. I'm not saying you can't have both. But again, why are you in business. And if it's to help people, as part of our sales process, we have to build that know, like and trust factor, trust is a big one, there has to be a trusting relationship component to the work that you're doing. So doing online business is appealing in a lot of ways, or rather, I should say doing business online, is appealing in a lot of ways. And one of them is one of those reasons, one of those ways of being appealing is that you're able to reach people anywhere in the world. So for myself as a rural practitioner in this small little town, doing business online is amazing. But just because you're doing business using digital marketing doesn't mean that you don't need to build trusted relationships. So we need to find ways to support our potential customers and our current customers, even if that's hard to scale, even if it means selling less, and making less money. Again, please do not misinterpret what I'm saying it is still important to be profitable. If you are not generating a profit, you are not in business, you have a very expensive hobby that's not sustainable in the long run. So if you are selling less, which may mean making less money, it simply means you have to be strategic, you have to know your numbers, you have to know your overhead expenses. And you have to price yourself without giving away the farm. Now that is an episode for another day. But knowing your numbers at the end of the day, you can't claim to be in business. Or rather, you can't claim to be in the business of helping people and then treat them like a number in the sales process. All right, before we wrap this up, I have one more point I want to make. So I want to touch on one more thing that has come to my attention in terms of ascension models. When business coaches and leaders and influencers in the online space, are teaching us that ascension models are the way to do things. I want to encourage you to pay attention to who they're connected to. The online business space is very incestual. There are a lot of people who compare the online business space to a multilevel marketing pyramid scheme. And for good reason. There are essentially a few handfuls of people at the top of the food chain, making seven and eight figures a year. And a lot of them are affiliates for one another is what it is. And guess what, in order for them to enlist more people into their $3,000 self paced programs, their $10,000 group coaching programs and their 25 to $35,000 masterminds. Guess what they have to do. They have to empower more of their clients, more business owners and their ecosystem to structure their business in a way that they also have these high ticket offers these ascension models because how else are they going to be able to afford the he's overly inflated programs. But there are a lot of people who are falling victim to these pricing structures to these high pressure sales tactics, to this way of doing being to this way of doing business. Not everyone is meant to do business this way. And for good reason.

I'm going to end this by reminding you, you know, there, there were a lot of things that we talked about today. And if you're like me, if you may realize you're doing something because you assumed it was the right way. But there is a niggling you know, something didn't quite feel right. I encourage you to move forward with compassion. You don't know what you don't know. That is not a defense. But that is the reality. So, in today's conversation, I hope that it gave you some food for thought, I hope it didn't make you feel bad. I want you to move forward with integrity. I want you to move forward with self compassion. And with a better understanding of why you're doing the things that you're doing. Don't just set up your business or your pricing or your program. Because a mentor or coach told you that's what you should do. If it doesn't feel right. If something feels off to you. Want you to slow down and give this some thought. And you're welcome to reach out. Right you know how to reach me at this point. You can reach me via email hello@otsgonerogue.com. Go to our website otsgonerogue.com/contact or you'll see the Contact Us button. You can find me on Instagram, at otsgonerogue. If you have any feedback if you have any aha moments that you want to share with me, you can reach out via DM. Better yet take a quick screenshot posted to your stories. Let's have a bigger conversation about this. Let's stop putting our heads in the sand. All right, let's connect and let me know your thoughts. For the latest show notes and full episodes, make sure you head over to https://www.otsgonerogue.com/podcast.  If you don't want to miss any future episodes, including upcoming episodes in this series. Make sure you are subscribed to the OTs Gone Rogue Podcast on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts. All right. Thank you so much, you guys for listening to this week's episode as I do some soul searching in the online space. Take care and I will see you next week on the podcast.