Do you have an idea or something you’ve been sitting on in your business, not putting it out there, because you feel blocked? Maybe you feel like you’re not ready, you’re missing a step, or maybe, it’s just out of fear. That was exactly the case for my guest today, Anna Holtzman. Anna is a member of my various programs and was a 1;1 client of mine as well. Just last week, Anna hit a big goal and milestone in her business…all because she moved past her fears, got unstuck, and put her work out into the world. Today, we’re going to break down what Anna did to make it all happen. Let’s dive in.
“You don’t have to do all the things… you can pick a few things and do them really well, continuously show up and it works.” – Shawn Mynar
“When you allow things to flow, that’s when the good ideas come.” – Shawn Mynar
“The knowledge is very important but the empathy and cheerleading just go a thousand million miles.” – Anna Holtzman
“Most business requires us to push ourselves. None of this is super comfortable at all… Once you realize while Im already out of my comfort zone, why not take it one step further.” – Shawn Mynar
FULL PODCAST TRANSCRIPT BELOW (transcript is auto-generated so expect errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling)
Shawn Mynar 0:00
Do you have an idea or something you’ve been sitting on in your business? Not putting it out there yet, because you feel kind of blocked. Like, maybe you feel you’re not ready, you’re missing a step. Or maybe it’s just out of fear. That was exactly the case for my guest today, Anna Holtzman. Anna is a member of my various programs and was a one-on-one client of mine as well. And just last week, Anna hit a big goal and milestone in her business, all because she moved past her fears, got unstuck, and put her work out into the world. Today, we’re going to break down what Anna did to make it all happen. Let’s dive in.
Hey, hey there, friends. Welcome back to unstuck entrepreneur. So, so happy to have you all here. For a very special episode. It’s not often that I bring guests on the show. Because there’s, there’s a lot that needs to happen, I need to feel a connection with that person, I need to know that person. I need to really think that it’s a good fit for the audience. There’s a lot that goes into it. And quite honestly, not that many people match that criteria. This person definitely does. This is a former client of mine, Anna Holtzman. She just did something incredible in her business that I really wanted to share with you all here, of course, to celebrate and really show what’s possible, but even more so to show the process of what Anna had to go through to get here.
And not just from the strategy perspective, but from the inner work to the fears that she had, and the blocks that were showing up that she had to move through in order to make it happen. And yes, she also has some amazing strategy going on behind the scenes, things that she’s doing to market herself, and her business. And now her course, before the doors ever even opened. And it all just works so seamlessly together. These are things we talk about here on the show a lot. We’ll continue to talk about here on the show a lot. But I think really being able to see it in action, and hear how someone was really able to take that knowledge, apply it, put it into place, and have it all actually work. It’s really powerful to be able to hear these other stories. And what I really want you to take away from what Anna is doing is how simplified it is. She’s not on all the platforms. She’s not doing all the things. She’s doing a few things really well. She has taken the time to set things up to be run automatically behind the scenes. And so there’s really not that much to continue to work through and to work on for Anna at this point. But she has made a really good system of what she does still do on a daily and weekly basis. And what is really working for her. And so I really want you to take that away from this episode. How simple it really can be. You can find Anna at Anna holtzman.com and on Instagram at Anna Holtzman. All right, without further ado, let’s hear from Anna
Shawn Mynar 0:04
Anna, thank you so much for coming on the unstuck entrepreneur podcast today.
Anna Holtzman 0:09
Thank you so much for having me, Sean, I’m super psyched to be here with you.
Shawn Mynar 0:13
This is a very, very special interview for both of us for so many reasons. But I guess we’ll just get it out of the way right now to let people know that you are a client of mine, we did some one on one coaching together, we had a great time. And some really great things came out of all of that. And just your whole journey of where you were from where you are now. And just everything that has happened in between is so cool. And it’s such a mix for such a good picture of what really actually needs to happen to create this business that you want. And it doesn’t have to be hard or overcomplicated. Let’s put it that way. And you created a really awesome simplified system that I want to talk about today. But first, let’s introduce you to everyone listening. Tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do. Yes,
Anna Holtzman 1:07
my name is Anna Holtzman. I am a chronic pain recovery therapist and coach. I’m based in New York City. But I work with people all over through the beautiful internet. And I live here with my partner and our three or orange cats who are a big part of our lives.
Shawn Mynar 1:24
Okay, love it. That’s amazing. So paint the picture of where you were at in your business as much as you remember back when we first met.
Anna Holtzman 1:33
Yes. And it’s funny that you said as much as you remember, because like a lot of it feels like a blur. So much happened so much more quickly than I ever expected it to. So when I first reached out to you and took your program, I was in the progress of getting my hours toward licensure as a licensed mental health counselor, I’m actually going to be completing my hours this coming Monday. So yeah, thank you. And I’m and I had been working in the niche of chronic pain recovery as a therapist with one on one clients. But it’s already working on my plan, that as I was getting ready to complete my license, where I want to go next with it is to really go into the coaching field, because that’s a way I get to work with everyone everywhere and not be limited by geographic region. There’s such a huge need for chronic pain, recovery, help. And yeah, it’s just nice to be able to have Geographic Creative in that way. And I really, really wanted to have an online course. And I was already like, I’ve been working on it for a long, long time. But I was also kind of stuck at a particular point. And so I wanted to get unstuck and reaching out to you. And one of those pieces. I mean, it was really about like putting myself out there getting myself on camera to record videos for this course. For one thing. Also, I already started putting myself out there on social media through Instagram, but like getting my voice out there getting myself on video a little bit here and there. Like those are really intimidating things for me. And I had some ideas about how to start building an email list. Like I knew about lead magnets and I kind of had one it wasn’t that flashy, but I hadn’t actually put the pieces together and was just Yeah, I needed some guidance and also some cheerleading.
Shawn Mynar 3:52
Yes, absolutely. It’s always a combination of both when you are a coach for sure. So now let’s just spill the beans. Get it out of the way. Now tell everyone what has just happened in your business.
Anna Holtzman 4:05
Yeah, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to get this out smoothly because I’m still so so excited about it and
Shawn Mynar 4:12
should definitely be super Yeah, super proud. All the all the emotions will feel them with you along the way.
Anna Holtzman 4:19
Like riding those waves of adrenaline. So gosh, was it? I think it was just last week?
Shawn Mynar 4:26
I think it was Yeah,
Anna Holtzman 4:27
I think it was last week. It feels like a blur. So last Tuesday, I launched my it was my very very first in my life launch of my very first online course which is called Writing to release chronic pain. And I had planned with your like coaching during one of our coaching sessions I had planned I believe it was it was either a seven day or I think it was actually a 14 day email campaign. I A sales campaign it was going to be seven emails in two weeks that I would send out to my list to promote this course. And I was fully expecting that it would take that entire time, I was really, really hoping to sell 12 spots, because it’s a course that involves both self paced workshop, video workshop sessions, but also some live group coaching sessions. And I felt 12 was a number that I could handle for the first go round. And I was really, really hoping to fill it up. So here’s like the big drumroll. I can barely contain myself. So I I teased, like the pre launch for really like a couple days before, you know, I don’t know, a few days. And then I launched it on Tuesday morning, went into like a couple of clients sessions. And within four hours, it had actually oversold, and I had to shut the cart down. But like I couldn’t get it shut down fast enough to stick to my 12 person limit. So it’s 15 people in this first go round. The good to have. Yeah,
Shawn Mynar 6:08
yeah, I mean, that is just absolutely. Just incredible for hours. And you’re planning on it being two weeks and hoping you could get there. And all those emails that I don’t think you had written, right? I hadn’t written
Anna Holtzman 6:23
them yet. And I was feeling really bad about it. So I was like, oh, man, like, I really like to get things done ahead of time. I hate doing last minute on anything. But I didn’t need them. It turned out.
Shawn Mynar 6:34
Yeah, it was like the universe telling you, Hey, don’t worry about it actually need to do, it’s gonna sell out in four hours. That yeah, that is just amazing. And it is very much a testament to what you did leading up to the launch of this course and everything that you do on a very consistent basis. And that’s what I really want to dive into today. Because like I was saying, before we started recording, for my case, and for your case, and I know you are super special and amazing and absolutely awesome. But there’s nothing ultimately that special about us to make this happen that it couldn’t happen to anyone else. Right, like,
Anna Holtzman 7:16
yeah, I totally agree. Because like, I wasn’t making this happen, you know, four months before that, when I wasn’t like doing all the things that brought this all together?
Shawn Mynar 7:26
Absolutely, yeah. So really, what I noticed in you is you really started being intentional with what you were sharing, when you were sharing, you started being consistent, especially with your emails, and you already were consistent somewhat on social media, but that really took everything up a notch. So we’re gonna get into that, and I want to talk about it all. But first, I want you to share a little bit about those fears that you had, because every session that we had, we had to start the session by talking about the blocks that you were having, because there was always something that is the case for everybody. You’re doing new things, you’re doing things you never have before you’re doing things you don’t necessarily want to do or feel comfortable doing. And it brings up all these emotions, right. So can you talk a little bit about what you had to get through like those sticking points that you had?
Anna Holtzman 8:16
Oh my gosh, yes. And even just like talking about it, like I can feel it in my body right now. And it’s like there’s even like some of the same fears are present right now. Because we’re on a podcast together. And it’s being recorded. And like that was the big thing for me. And it’s not like, I mean, I think it’s important actually, it’s not like those fears have totally disappeared. And now I’m like, I have no problem being recorded. Like no, not at all. I still get nervous, I get a little tingly. Like I get a little bit of brain fog. But when I started getting coaching with you, I like it was I wasn’t even getting to that stage. I wasn’t getting to the now I’m being recorded and I feel nervous stage. It was just like full on freeze up just mental block. And I knew, like I was like, I need to get coaching because I was like I’ve been journaling about this plan for probably over a year. And yet, it’s like I haven’t put it into motion. So something is going on here. And when Yeah, just like thinking about recording myself on a video for the course. It just completely just made me want to pass out. And I remember like one of the things that was so so helpful for me to hear from you. And it’s just like in hindsight, it’s just the freaking simplest thing in the world. You were like well, you don’t have to be on video if you don’t want to you could do it all audio and I was like, right, like but but the perfectionist part of me says that you have to not only be on video but like have it be a beautiful video and professionally shot and all this And, you know, and then that was like helping me blocked myself because I’m like, Well, I don’t know if I want to put money into professional video. I mean, you can hear me like doing the things. Oh, yeah,
Shawn Mynar 10:09
making all the excuses. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then once I said, Well, you don’t even have to do that if you don’t want to, if that’s what’s keeping you stuck, then just don’t do it. Just, yeah, put yourself on video, record the audio, make some slides, and just get the thing out there. And I know that it was like a big relief for you and really released something, but yet, you still showed up on video. So I did happen?
Anna Holtzman 10:33
Yeah, yeah, it’s funny. Well, I still I was, like, you know, I think I can push myself, I mean, recording myself at all was already pushing me way out of my comfort zone. And I’m like, if I’m gonna be feeling really uncomfortable, and I did, like, I may as well capsure capture some video while I’m at it. But I use one of your other tips, because you kind of like helped me with a menu of different options. So I was like, alright, having just like full on video, like, that’s good, just make me want to puke. But you told me about this option of using loom where it’s this app or whatever it is, where you can record your screen. So you’re recording, like your slideshow. And then there’s just a tiny little circle of video of you in the corner. So you know, it’s like, Alright, no one’s gonna scrutinize my every little eyeblink with my image, just this tiny little circle in the corner. So you think I can handle that for the intro portion. At least that’ll give, you know, students or participants some sense of my presence, and I think there’s value to that. But then it’ll just be for the intro. And then for like, the actual workshop modules, then I’ll just go to audio so that I don’t have to tax my nervous system that much by being on video for that long.
Shawn Mynar 11:58
Yeah, and that’s such a good combination of the two. Because in reality, once people are in that place, where they are fully learning, they are taking action, they are doing the things within your course, no one cares if they’re your face is there or not, you know, but like to have that intro, it’s like, okay, there’s a real person here, that voice that I’m going to hear through the rest of this is that face, you know, putting a face to a to a name a face to a voice kind of situation. That’s really all people need to feel that connection and to understand that and then also just, you are you recognize you’re already pushing yourself. So what’s one more notch. And most of business requires us to push ourselves. Like none of this is like super comfortable, really, at all, especially when you’re first getting started and you’re trying new things. And so once you realize, well, I’m already out of my comfort zone, like here. And now why not take one more step and do even more because now you were able to, I’m assuming and we can talk more about this. You kind of were able to squash that fear a little bit. So you’ve been on video, since I’ve seen you on Instagram lives I’ve played you’re doing other things. So you were able to kind of like, calm that fear a little bit and open yourself up to more opportunities because of it.
Anna Holtzman 13:23
Yeah. And you know, it’s interesting, because the instant Yeah, I have been doing a weekly Instagram live with this awesome person who I met through Instagram, you know, we found each other that way. And it’s like a similar thing to, you know, when you, you know, quote, unquote, gave me permission to do this in a way that, you know, was a little bit less scary to me. It was like, the relationship. You know, my trust in you was a huge part of what helped me feel safe enough to do it. You know, I was like, I trust Sean. I like Shawn, and she said, It’s okay, so like, that gives me some feeling of safety here. And it’s similar with this Instagram Live I’ve been doing I’m like, I’m doing it with someone that I like and that I trust and feel safe with. So that brings in a little bit more safety to an experience that otherwise was feeling like wildly unsafe to my lizard brain.
Shawn Mynar 14:16
Yes, absolutely. Anytime you have another person you trust in that situation with you, kind of holding you in that space with you. It helps so much, especially on things like Instagram lives. It’s so fun to do it with somebody you can’t even forget that you’re on video in front of people live, you know that are watching. So that is a really good point. So before we move on anything else, like thinking back to where you were before we started working together, anything else that you could see now was a block for you that you’ve been able to kind of move past because I know you were in that place where you had this idea for a course you had actually a lot of ideas. You had a lot of stuff that you wanted to do. But getting to that point where you were putting it out there and taking action was something you weren’t doing as well. So was there anything else there? Yeah,
Anna Holtzman 15:11
I mean, it was all just like, there were so many different flavors of fear, I could probably go on for hours and hours about how many different forms my fear took, like, because another form that it took was, oh, I don’t know if the course material is good enough, which was like, pretty ridiculous, not because like, I’m so great. And therefore, of course, it’s going to be great. But because the course the online course, was actually based on material aid already developed and run through in a live workshop, three times that had gone really, really well. So I knew the material was good. But you know, still those fear voices managed to twist it up and say, Well, sure it worked in the live workshop, but maybe it’s no good as an online course.
Shawn Mynar 15:59
Yeah, that kind of like impostor syndrome, kind of fear creeping in. And again, something super normal that probably most people go through, especially when they’re putting out new material, or, you know, something in a different capacity, like you were doing, and are still doing one on one sessions, but had never done, or you did it live, but not in this recorded format. So it was still something really new to you, and how was that all gonna go. So you’re stepping outside your comfort zone again. And that always comes with some fear. But I’m so glad that you, you really are someone that takes action. And that was really cool to see. Because fear will always be there. It can be something that is very freezing, like it freezes you in your tracks. But it can also be something that in a way is motivating. You know, like if I can just take one little step. And then once you take that one little step, well, I already took this step. So maybe I’ll take one more step. And that is what I noticed happening with you. And it was really cool to witness. So super proud of you for that. So let’s get into some of the practical strategy type things that you have been doing to prepare for this launch and this course, and to really get to the point where it’s sold out in four hours, because I can 100% credit, everything that you have been doing up until now for gosh, probably I don’t know, you’ll have to tell me the exact timeline, but it was six months, maybe even.
Anna Holtzman 17:35
Yeah, it was I have like some dates are in down here. But yeah, it was about six months.
Shawn Mynar 17:40
Yeah. So six months out, you’re already preparing for this to happen. So let’s start from the beginning. What I remember noticing about you right away, was that you were very specific, you have a very specific niche. And you only talk about that niche. So you are very good at posting to social media. And every single post refers to chronic pain. And, you know, like the mind body connection for chronic pain, like very specific. And that is something that people have a really hard time doing, first of all getting that specific. And then you know, for fear of like, well, then what if someone needs my help? And they’re not experiencing chronic pain? Yeah, you know, they, they don’t know that. So then they don’t follow me. Because they don’t know that that’s what’s going on, or they’re not ready for me or what I do. There’s a lot of that that can come up of like, Am I too specific? From the beginning? It felt to me like you were very comfortable and confident in being within your specific territory and staying there.
Anna Holtzman 19:00
Yeah, and you know, and that’s because that’s not because like, that was just easy for me. That’s because that’s a piece of the journey that I already went through a few years prior. Because I certainly did experience that phase some years ago of like, oh, I don’t want to niche down because I don’t want to exclude anybody, like what if they’re someone amazing I want to work with and like they have something completely different going on. I definitely spent a while in that place. And it was a, you know, a whole struggle to for me to commit to a niche. But when I did what I learned was like, that’s when my one on one client roster just like filled up and I had no problem getting clients. So I was like, Oh, that’s nice. And what I also discovered was that I still get a very, very diverse array of clients with a diverse array of things going on that you know, and then chronic pain happens to be like one of them.
Shawn Mynar 19:59
Yeah, absolutely. Literally, and what it does for people that don’t know you for that might be scrolling on social media, or doing some Googling, or whatever is that it really puts you in a spotlight of like, oh, this person gets me you have a story yourself about chronic pain and what you did to move through that, that is very enticing to the person that is also there right now or has been there, and you openly share about that, which is amazing. But it’s just, when you see someone that is so focused on one topic, it makes it very easy to grow. Yes. And you experienced that, especially in social media, I think, right?
Anna Holtzman 20:46
Definitely. And it’s not only, you know, potential clients that have found me that way. Because like, no one’s on there searching for a jack of all trades they’re searching for, like someone who’s speaking to their pain point. So clients, you know, potential clients, or potential people who want to buy my course have found me that way. But I would say maybe even more, so a lot of other practitioners in similar or complementary fields have found me that way, and have wanted to collaborate with me, have me on their podcast, just, you know, get to know each other and then refer to each other. So that’s been a really productive thing
Shawn Mynar 21:25
to. Yeah, that is another great aspect that I don’t think a lot of people consider when they first think of social media that like, well, I just gotta get followers or people that want to buy this thing from me, eventually, I need to get clients. But what’s even more exciting, and can be way more powerful for your business, is to use that as a place to start collaborations with other people can get in front of their audiences, that’s when things really take off. And again, you can’t do that or you won’t get the right eyes and the right interest if you aren’t really specific, because then they won’t see you as an expert in that one thing that they want to talk about or connect with. And so you really set yourself up really well in that regard. And I noticed that right away. So kudos to you for that. But then you mentioned that you did have a freebie you were kind of doing an email list thing, but it wasn’t really going super well. And your freebie wasn’t all that great. What was the case with that? Yeah, so
Anna Holtzman 22:29
like, like I said, I knew about I had learned years ago about the whole Lead Magnet System. So I knew, like I should set one up. And but I, it, whatever, I just hadn’t put a lot of bandwidth into it yet. So the freebie that I had, it’s all wasn’t, it wasn’t that bad. It I still have it up. And people still do download it. Sometimes it’s a list of the six, the six mind body healing resources that have helped me most on my own journey of healing from chronic migraines. And so I had that linked in my bio on my Instagram. And I would mention it now and again, in a post or two. I wasn’t that excited to promote it because I didn’t think it was such a flashy lead magnet or freebie. But yeah, that’s what I had.
Shawn Mynar 23:18
Okay, and then we did some work to figure out what else we could do to make that a little bit more enticing and get these people that were super interested in your work from social media, like you have a very engaged following. You’re following was growing, you’re getting invited to be on other people’s shows and things like that. So how could we really capitalize on that? Because it’s not enough to just have people following you on social media? It’s great. Sure, but it’s not enough. So what did you come up with? And how is it going?
Anna Holtzman 23:51
Yes. So yeah, this is another funny part, because I already had this kind of built out when I met you. So I had, you know, binge Marketing podcast. So I had heard a lot about quizzes, and like, what a high converting freebie they are. And I love taking quizzes. So I had already begun building out a quiz. But I just like, was a little bit blocked on getting it to completion and getting it out there. And I remember us kind of game planning about it and talking about, like, what’s the title going to be because no one’s going to take this quiz if it doesn’t have a grabby title. And I was a little bit shy to say because I’m coming from a background of like working as a therapist, and you’re supposed to sound very professional. But I really wanted to go into the more info in formal coaching realm. And I was thinking I kind of want to call this quiz. Why the EFF am I still in pain? Because that’s what I was freaking asking myself when, you know, I was further you know, earlier in my journey, but I was like a little shy to say it and when I said it to you, you’re like Yeah, that’s what it’s gonna be. Yeah, I’ve since changed it to why the bleep am I still in pain because Instagrams not crazy about allusions to curse words?
Shawn Mynar 25:10
Understandable, which is still equally as effective. And really, you know, grabby like you said, and that’s what you need when it comes to a quiz. And especially one where it could be, you know, potentially dry or, you know, just not exactly what you want to hear or whatever. But to really understand what what are these people asking like, what what is going on in their head right now you caught it. And you’ve got it so perfectly, that it became irresistible, this quiz that you had on the backburner? Most of it was already completed, which was so cool. And all you had to do was think of a way to get people in Tyst to take it and and put it out there. And so you got to that point, put it out there. How did it go?
Anna Holtzman 25:59
Yeah, so I and then I was like, way more excited to promote my freebie once it was a fun quiz. Because yeah, I was like, This is really fun. And I can’t wait to for people to take it. And in I promoted it on Instagram, that was my main way. And like at that point, I’d been posting regularly every single day in a very niche way for a while. So a bunch of people seem to be really excited to jump on this quiz when I promoted it. So I got like a huge spike. When I initially posted it, I got I can tell you numbers because I was started out with 67 leads when I first met you. And the first month that I posted the quiz, I added 55 new leads. The second month, I added 61 new leads. So there was a big spike in the initial posting of it, because people had been warmed up already from my daily posts.
Shawn Mynar 26:57
Yeah, that is amazing. And they were warmed up. And it was like, so intriguing. They wanted to know the answer to that question. And they knew that you were someone that could have that information for them. And now they get to take a quiz to find out like, how could you not want to take it that is so exciting.
Anna Holtzman 27:18
Yeah, and an interesting like, aspect to the research that, you know, the the data that I got when I posted it was when I posted it on my personal feed. Like I said, These people had been warmed up already by my daily posts, so they jumped on it. I then tried as an experiment, posting the quiz as a paid ad. And very few people bid at it. And I think it’s because like they hadn’t built up the familiarity and trust with me to think that this quiz might be worth taking.
Shawn Mynar 27:53
Yeah, absolutely. That’s part of it is building that relationship and getting to people to the point where they see you as the expert that you are and trust you enough to go that route. And it is more than just taking a quiz, they also have to provide their email address, which at this point is a pretty big exchange of energy. So you know, it’s almost like paying for something at this point, because no one wants to just give their email address our way. So it has to be a trust worthy connection to do that in a lot of cases. But also the there’s a lot of nuances to running paid ads, and so much that I’ve learned over the past, like year and a half I think about what works and what doesn’t. So it may even just need some tweaks to your ad to so that’s definitely
Anna Holtzman 28:39
because I didn’t do any research in that area. So for sure.
Shawn Mynar 28:44
Yeah. So but still, you had some great return on the people that you already had that were trusting you already. Now what about or how have you been able to continue getting people to take the quiz? Do you talk about it regularly? Do you post about it regularly? What do you do?
Anna Holtzman 29:05
Yeah, um, I probably like should amp it up. But what I’ve been doing is I will pretty often I’ll mention it at the end of one of my Instagram posts, like I write very verbose captions to my posts and at the very end, I’ll say something like, If you want more support with anxiety and chronic pain, Take the quiz and I tell them where to find it in my Lincoln bio. And that brings in like a steady trickle I also at your encouragement, I started to like once a week, turn one of my long Instagram posts into a blog post and I’ll put the call to action for the quiz at the end of those. And then, when I when I’ve gotten like Other jumps or spikes in in new leads has been when I’ve been on podcasts too.
Shawn Mynar 30:06
Yeah. So from other people’s audiences. Yeah. When people take this quiz, first of all, they find out why the bleep they’re still in pain, which is great. And then what happens? So you also have some things that happen when someone is on your email list.
Anna Holtzman 30:25
Yes. Well, before I started working with you, nothing happened.
Shawn Mynar 30:30
Yeah, that’s, that’s a big problem that a lot of people do. That is not great.
Anna Holtzman 30:36
Yeah, there was crickets. Oh, well, I got some good guidance in that area. And yeah, now what happens is they get I believe it’s a five email, welcome sequence. And it’s paste so that they they get, I think it’s five emails in the space of, let’s say, two weeks or something like that. So they’re getting, you know, a semi frequent email so that they don’t forget who the heck I am. And then once that email sequence is done, then they’re plopped into my weekly newsletter list. And so they’ll get an email from me every Friday, and it’s chock full of useful support for chronic pain recovery. And people are reading those, those weekly emails. And it starts to develop a relationship. And I and some of them will write to me and you know, we get into communication. And yeah, it builds from there.
Shawn Mynar 31:40
And that, it’s really all it takes. I mean, when I hear that, and I know what you’ve been doing, it is absolutely no surprise to me whatsoever that you sold out in four hours, no surprise, because people trust you, they have been communicating with you for a while they feel comfortable with the knowledge that you provide them and the help that you can give them and they are very specifically for the work that you do. You are not getting people on your email list that are not in chronic pain. True. So when you have something to offer, they are ready. And I know you mentioned you kind of gave them just like a sneak peek of the sales page. And then it when they clicked on purchase it went to like a thing that says it’s not available yet. Yeah, coming soon. And people were already clicking on it ready to buy before it was even open before was even a thing. And that just shows that people want to pay for your work. People are ready and willing for all of us. Yes, Anna, but for all of us people want to pay to get our services to get our help. And it is actually a disservice to not offer them anything.
Anna Holtzman 32:58
Yeah, it’s It’s wild. Like I went from, you know, before the launch, just worrying like, you know, it feels like you’re throwing a birthday party and you’re like, is anybody going to come to my party likes me. And then you know, and then when I had to shut the cart down, and there were still people trying to get in, I got a few emails like still after that. And then and also my waitlist, I’ve got, like over 20 people on my waitlist now. And I felt bad I was like, oh me on next time I do this, I want to make sure I can offer more spaces because like more people wanted to come to the party, and I hate turning people away.
Shawn Mynar 33:37
Yeah, especially but I think it’s great that you kept it to what you feel comfortable doing for your first round. It is a beta launch, you’re gonna learn a bunch of stuff. And it is important to make sure you feel comfortable doing that. And like you said, you immediately started getting people on your waitlist, you already have basically people primed and ready to buy the next time you launch this thing and it will be at an increased rate because it won’t be your beta launch anymore. But people still will be more than happy to pay to work with you because you’ve done the work to build that know like and trust factor that we talk about so much that there’s it’s just a no brainer decision for them. The decision is already made before they even know the price, which is so amazing. So I want to know, if you feel like what you did to prep for this, and what you are still doing to continue to build your business. Do you feel like it’s a lot? Do you feel like it’s hard? Like how do you feel? Yeah,
Anna Holtzman 34:40
I would say yes and no to that. On the yes side like yes, it is a lot like I can’t lie It’s a lot of it’s a lot of emotional energy. And I would say that’s maybe actually the biggest expenditure expenditure is the emotional energy like the highs and lows of feeling hopeful and excited and then feeling like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? I feel so exposed. That takes a huge amount of energy. And I can only imagine if it’s similar to other things that have been new at one point in my life that that’ll kind of like, you know, get more gentle over time. And then, yeah, it’s like there, there are more to dues and my week than there were before I had a weekly email newsletter to keep up with. But on the No, it’s not a lot of work side. And then you really, like helped me strategize with this, you know, I initially thought like, oh, gosh, I didn’t create a weekly email. And it’s got to be interesting and good. And like, like coming up with a whole new blog post each week. But then I realized, like, wait a minute, I’m making these daily Instagram posts, each one of them is usually long enough to be its own blog. So what I wind up doing is I just, I, I see which one, you know, seems to get a lot of love. And I turn that one into the weekly newsletter, you know, I have to do a tiny little bit of tweaking to make it into a letter. And then after it’s the newsletter, I turn it into the blog post. So it’s a lot of recycling. Gosh,
Shawn Mynar 36:18
that is so amazing. I do wonder, because a lot of people struggle with this, and you have never at least in since I’ve known you had a problem with this posting to social media regularly, you’re very good at it. And they’re really, really good posts. How do you do that? Or what’s your system to make that happen?
Anna Holtzman 36:40
Yeah, well, two aspects. One is that I used to, like, you know, write and post them once a day. And that was exhausting. So I took a tip from the podcasts, and you know what other people are doing, and I batch them now. So the way my I’ve organized my schedule, is that I have very few or no clients on Tuesdays and Fridays, and those are the days that I do the other parts of my business. So I do have the weeks, I do all my posts and scheduled the amount in advance and I do, I cannot sit down and do a full week’s worth of posts in one day, that energetically that doesn’t work for me. So I do half of them on Tuesday, half of them on Friday. And I have it scheduled out far enough in advance that I have never like oh my gosh, I need to do like tomorrow’s post today. Because that just stresses me out. So that that’s how I do that part of it and then coming up with them. I mean, that part that has a lot to do with like the actual work that I’m doing as a practitioner. So my like what I have done for my own healing journey from chronic pain, and what I am also doing and like this course that I’ve put out there, it’s writing to release chronic pain. So I have a daily journaling practice. Now that I don’t get migraines anymore, I don’t actually do this every single day. But I do it like a lot of the days is that I have a morning, journaling session. And that just invites a lot of ideas to come up that I had no idea we’re gonna come out of me when you’re free, right? And stuff tends to come out it just like, juices up those muscles. And so I do that I journal in the morning. And I also almost every day, go on a walk. And stuff comes to me when I’m on my walks and listening to podcasts, I’m getting ideas. And I might like the Notes app on my phone is just like an epic novel of things that could be turned into Instagram posts. So that’s where I pull from,
Shawn Mynar 38:51
yeah, all of my best content for pretty much anything comes on a hike. When I am not even I’m not near a computer, I’m not even thinking about work. I’m just in the zone. With my dogs, we’re in nature, and all of a sudden, like, Oh, that would be a great podcast episode or Instagram posts or whatever. It’s so true. When you allow it to flow and you’re not like okay, I have to think of 10 topics right now, then that feels really forced and it’s you’re going to be blocking yourself. But when you allow it to just flow like you say the free writing, just write some stuff down and just see if anything comes up that would help the people that are following you or that you want to help. That’s when the really good ideas come is when you just allow them to show up instead of forcing it to happen when it needs to happen in this like specific chunk of time. And then when you do have the time, then you can turn it’s very easy to have those chunks where you’re doing three or four posts at a time to turn what you already have as an idea into a graphic, you know, it becomes a lot easier to do it that way. I love that that’s so great and it’s obviously working for you. If you want Um, just as an example of what Anna does on her Instagram, because it is very great. It’s just like really, like I always read them. I don’t even have chronic pain, but I always read them, just because I’m just super interested in your work. And it that was very intriguing. You can head to her social media, and we’ll make sure to link all of that in the show notes. But where can people find you?
Anna Holtzman 40:24
They can find me at on my website, Anna holtzman.com. It’s an NA h o l tzmn.com. And also on Instagram. And it’s Anna underscore Holtzman
Shawn Mynar 40:36
got it. So easy. And one last question. What do you think is next for you? And your business? What are your plans?
Anna Holtzman 40:44
Yeah, I in the works, but I want to expand, I want to stick with the course that I’ve just launched in expand it, you know, make it says all to more people. And I’m in the midst of strategizing how that will happen.
Shawn Mynar 41:00
That’s so amazing. And will you continue to do one on one? Sessions?
Anna Holtzman 41:05
Yes, definitely. I will continue. Well, my I should say my one on one practice is full right now. And I’m going to continue with those current clients. But I do plan to add on a one on one feature to this writing to release chronic pain program.
Shawn Mynar 41:24
Yeah, that’s a really great example of you don’t have to choose one or the other, you can have both and do both. And that gives you another income stream that is more passive and isn’t reliant on your time, which is so amazing and really necessary if you do want to continue taking one on one clients, and you want to make more money because you only have so much time to take clients. But yeah, that is great. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next launch. When are you planning on doing it again,
Anna Holtzman 41:52
I don’t have the date set yet i want it i like or the first group coaching session for this round hasn’t happened yet. And I kind of want to like get my feet into what that feels like before I put them on the calendar. Yeah.
Shawn Mynar 42:05
Okay, good. I cannot wait, keep me posted. Keep us all posted. And thank you so much for being here and sharing your journey and being open about what it was like and some of the blocks that you had. And you are just really a testament to what can happen. When you just put yourself out there a little bit. You don’t have to do all the things you don’t have to be on YouTube and Tiktok and podcasting and all the things you can pick a few things and do them really well and continuously show up. And it works. So you are proof.
Anna Holtzman 42:40
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me on Sean and thank you so much for your coaching. I feel like what’s been honestly most potent for me is the same thing for my clients. It’s like the knowledge is very important, but it’s like the empathy and the cheerleading just go 1000 million miles.
Shawn Mynar 42:55
Thank you so much and we will keep everyone posted on what goes on with your next launch. Take care
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