AP 1195: Where Are They Now? Rose Griffin

AP 1195: Where Are They Now? Rose Griffin

Pat Flynn:
What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to episode 1,195 of AskPat 2.0. And all this month, November of 2021, we're doing “Where are they now?” episodes. These are absolutely my favorite episodes to do, because what we do is we bring back people who have been coached here on the show before, and we talk to them about what they did, what they didn't do, what has happened since.

And so many amazing breakthroughs have happened. Sometimes people don't do the things that we talk about on the previous episode. And today we're talking with Rose Griffin, who has a business over at ABA Speech. She is a speech language pathologist, and she helps so many people, not just through her website at ABASpeech.org, but also through her podcast, Autism Outreach.

And some stuff has happened since the last time she was on the show. And some amazing things like things that we didn't even know were going to happen or were even possible has happened. I can't wait for you to listen to this. And plus, we talk about what's coming next, and she's talking about something that she's launching very, very soon here.

So as you can see, Rose isn't just an action taker. She's a planner. She's thinking about the future. And most of all, she's here to serve her community and her audience. And I hope this episode serves you. So here she is, Rose Griffin.

Rose, welcome back to AskPat. Thanks so much for joining us again.

Rose Griffin:
Thanks so much for having me.

Pat:
Right before I hit record, you told me that you listened to the previous episode that you were on, and I'd love to know what your thoughts were, where, like, what was your reaction hearing like the earlier version of yourself and all the things we were talking about?

Rose:
Well, I was really excited because you introduced me as an entrepreneur. So that made me feel really good because I don't always.

Pat:
You are one!

Rose:
Thank you. I don't always think of myself that way. And I was really excited because I took in a lot of the advice that you gave me and kind of made some gains towards what we talked about. And I'm excited to talk about that today.

Pat:
The big thing we talked about was launching your course.

And a little bit about the rhythm of that launch and the pricing of that launch. Remind people really quick, who are listening, what that course is and your brand. And I know you have a podcast as well, like let's share everybody and maybe bring people back to who you are first and then we'll get into what happened.

Rose:
Absolutely. I'm a speech therapist and I have a website called ABASpeech.org. And we have courses, I provide therapy, consultations products, and I have this really amazing signature course that is called “Help me find my voice.” It's all about helping school-age students with autism start communicating. And so I have launched this course successfully.

And so we were talking about putting it on evergreen. And I was also talking about pricing, and I never thought I had a mindset block with pricing, but being in a business mastermind, I also watched the—I'm in SPI pro, so Matt Gartland did a really intense talk about pricing, which I loved. And so, uh, I was like, you know what?

Yeah, let's charge $297 for this. So we raised the price from $99 to $297. And we put it into an evergreen funnel using Deadline Funnel and Easy Webinar. I have some tech support, so we have had that up and running. And so that has been going good. And actually this week I was really excited. We've had two sales, which for my company, that was pretty exciting, at the $297.

The other thing, Pat, that's been really cool is that I have two physical products. Therapy products that we sell: the action builder cards, which are for kids of all language levels. And then the double up gate, which is more life skills, middle school, high school. So what we did is once people purchase the course, we offer an upsell of these physical products as well.

So for me in my business to get a sale, that's like maybe $600 in one sale is like, really—

Pat:
That’s huge.

Rose:
Yeah. It makes me feel like very validated, like, yes, this is important information! And yes, my time is worth this, and yes, I've been working 20 years to accrue this knowledge and now I can serve others and share it in this way, but to also be financially rewarded for that feels really validating as well.

Pat:
Congratulations, Rose. I'm so happy for you. I know that the pricing thing was huge, and the fact that you were able to now even solve the problem of, well, how do I continually launch this and having two sales with really just because of the systems you put into place before. I mean, that's passive income.

That's amazing. Plus you're adding physical products on top of that. I'm curious, because I'm in the physical product space now with the SwitchPod, how are you fulfilling that? I'm curious, because that adds a little bit of sort of complication; it's not just a digital thing.

Rose:
We use distributors and I also sell on Amazon, but when somebody does an upsell through my website, I am still physically the one that ships those.

So, which is fine. Like, I feel like I'm getting to the point in the near future where I would probably change that. So it's a bit more automated. But you know, one of the things we saw pat, because I've had these physical products for about three or four years, that's why I started my company, is that with COVID we had a major decline in a sale of our physical products, but we had more people buying digital products because we also offer those. But now with kind of people going back to in-person, we're definitely seeing an uptick in people purchasing the physical products, which I'm always super excited when somebody buys the products.

But then I always think to myself because I have friends that are farther along in their businesses, and I know they've telling me, “You can't be doing this. You can't be shipping these out of your basement,” but that's what we're doing now.

Pat:
And that's okay to start too, and plus with the individuals who are purchasing, you could probably go, “Wow, this is going to a real person who is a real child who needs help. And this is like, my hands are in this and now it's for them.” And that like, there's something special with that. I think over time, you'll find that you'll find systems. You seem to be somebody who can figure out those systems quite easily.

I'd love to ask you about when you changed that price point, and what was it like before you got that sale? That first sale at $297 where, what was going through your head?

Rose:
It just felt really scary. You know, I've had friends who are farther along in their business saying like, “You need to be charging more for your course.” And some of the people that helped me with my launches say, you know, some people think, you know, “If your course is $99 and you're giving so much information, What's wrong with your course versus somebody else who has a course, that's $497.” And you mentioned that last time too.

So, you know, I guess I never thought I had a mindset block around money, but you know, now that I'm dealing with people who have a course that's a thousand dollars and you know, all these people who are doing all these other things, it felt scary to change the price. It did. It felt really scary, but it's been going okay. You know, the one thing we've just been tinkering with is, you know, how to market it. Like, the first time we launched it inevergreen, I have this amazing Facebook ads manager, but he's $2,000 a month. So if you do that, plus you're spending at least $3,000 on ad spend, then it gets really, really expensive. Right?

So we're still kind of toying with that. And I really hate Facebook Ads manager. It just causes me a lot of anxiety, but, you know, I have a really organized virtual assistant. So I think I'm just going to have her kind of help out with it because now my Facebook Ads manager is all set up right with all the audiences.

And my ads manager did a great job of that, getting, and we were getting like 50 leads a day, people, which for my company, that's like really just adding so much to my email list, which felt so very exciting.

Pat:
That’s really great. When you began to make this evergreen, I mean, that's such a huge undertaking, right? With technically how to do that. How did you figure it out?

Rose:
Well, I have a really great tech team that helps me. So I've probably been launching with this team about two years now. So they do all my registration pages and Zapier and my ConvertKit and all that.

Pat:
So did you just say, like, “I want this to be evergreen. Go.”? Or did you give them like—

Rose:
Yeah, I basically said that. I said, “I want this to be evergreen. Go.” Because they've helped me launch the course, probably two or three times now. So they really know the information and yeah, we just went with it. They knew what to do and I just okayed everything. And we launched it. It was cool.

Pat:
So for everybody listening, there's a case for yes, for hiring out and obtaining really knowledgeable people in your business. So you can focus on what you want to focus on, what you think is amazing.

What are you, what are you focusing on right now? What's next on your plate? What is the big focus for you and your team?

Rose:
Well, one of the things that was really exciting that I wanted to mention. So I took Power-Up Podcasting almost a year ago. It was a year ago.

It was last fall. I started the Autism Outreach podcast almost a year ago, and it's a weekly show about autism and communication. I tape it actually in my walk-in closet because I just think the sound quality is really good there. I actually had a company that approached me a couple months ago, and it's the biggest CEU provider in the speech therapy space. And they said, “We'd like to purchase 10 episodes, and we'd like to offer them on our website for continuing education.”

Pat:
Wow.

Rose:
Yes, “Wow” is right. And you know, you were really helpful as far as I attend your weekly office hours on Thursday. Sorry. And like Jay Clouse and people like that from SPI Pro and my business mastermind, just helping me once again with pricing. Like, I think I sent the number to you through office hours.

I was like, “This is what my business masterminds suggest that I charge per episode because I really didn't even know where to go with that.” You were like, “Yeah, that sounds right. Like, these people probably have set aside money for things like that.”

And I put that number out there, and it was a very large number for me and for my company. This was a humongous deal financially, professionally, and just setting me up even more as an expert in this area and yeah. So that launched a couple of months ago, and I'll tell you what, it is—

Pat:
So they said yes?

Rose:
Yeah, they said, “Yes, we've got all the 10 episodes.” Yes. And they actually just emailed me this week, the reviews. And I said, “Hey, you know, we'd love to do more episodes. It's a weekly show. We've had some great guests.” And she said, “Yeah, we're putting together our 2022 calendar. And we would love to do the same.” So I'm like, oh my goodness, this is amazing.

Pat:
That's legit. That’s like legit-legit. Yeah. How does that feel? Like, that's so amazing.

Rose:
Yeah. I mean, it feels amazing. Because I remember I've been a guest on so many podcasts in my niche, and I remember I was like, “That's it, like, I'm starting a podcast.” I took your course. I remember my kids had a snow day last December, and it was just like me in my walk-in closet. And I do a lot of presentations, but like I was absolutely terrified. I was absolutely terrified to turn record on. I have a podcast manager and everything. I knew from the beginning, like this has to be automated, and I was so nervous, but I just absolutely love connecting with people.

And when I listened to your podcast and some other people that I really respect in the field, I'm like, “Oh my gosh”! Like I'm hitting episode 50 soon. Today I taped one. It was episode 46 this morning. And I'm like, wow. I mean, just the relationships that you build through podcasts. Like, I do a lot of speaking engagements, but I think those are going to absolutely double this year. Like after I talked to you today, I'm going to talk to somebody else that wants me to do, you know, a day-long talk, virtual, you know, which is so nice because I have three kids. So I want to stay at home.

It just opens up your world. It allows you to connect with people in a way that is so very special that you can't explain if you don't have a podcast. And I really love that connection with people. It's just really been amazing for my business.

Pat:
What's been your favorite episode you've done so far? Ooh.

Rose:
Ooh. I had somebody on, Dr. Kerry Magro. He was non-speaking when he was four and a half. He has autism, and now he has a PhD. He has done TED talks. He's been on the Today show. He's been a consultant for HBO. And you know what's so funny? We had a great talk, but I met him on TikToK. Because I have TikToK for my business for ABA Speech, and I just saw his videos and I reached out to him and had him on the podcast.

And it just, it was just a really powerful episode for anybody. Just anybody, you don't have to be in my niche area to appreciate it.

Pat:
Do you remember the episode number?

Rose:
Well, it hasn't come out yet, so it's before 50. Yeah. Yeah. I'm batching, you know, so it’s forty-something.

Pat:
That's what you need to do. Can I ask you about TikToK? How are you using TikTok to help you in your business?

Rose:
So TikTok, you know, about a year ago, Gary V, who I love, was like, “You should be on TikTok.” I listened to his podcast too. And so, you know, during COVID we started a family account and I was like, “Oh, this is kind of fun. You know, I'm bored, you know, whatever.”

And then I started one for my business. And it was kind of slow going, but actually in the past month I had a video that reached 60,000 people, which is a lot for me. And I absolutely doubled my amount of followers in just one week. In just one week, from one video, the amount of growth. And now I have my link up there, so it's clickable. I'm launching a new course next week. So I did a video about that.

So I think over time, but I mean, just like anybody says, like if TikTok goes away tomorrow, that's okay. Cause it's all about brand awareness, about getting these people on my email list, nurturing them, getting them to know how I can offer them and help serve them. So, and I, and I just like it. It helps me be—I feel like it's creative and I enjoy that.

Pat:
It's creative, but it's like just for a short period of time, which is just enough time we have for, which is really nice. That's why I like Instagram Reels. And, and TikTok. Tell me about this video. What are you doing in this video? Or what is this video about?

Rose:
So I started a series. Like on Instagram, I have about 20,000 followers, and I’m always very positive. Like, “You should do this in therapy, and this is helpful,” but the vibe on TikTok is more, I don't want to say negative, but people like to weigh in on stuff.

So I said, you know what, I'm going to scrap that positivity. And so I started a series and it was like, “This is things you should not be doing.” And so I had really short clips I edited. Over a year, right, I've gotten better. I just edit organically in my phone, but I feel comfortable with that. And so I said, “You know, when people are in an IEP meeting, if your kid qualifies for special education, as special educators, we shouldn't call people “Mom” and “Dad,” we should call people by their first name, you know, or Mr. Flynn or whatever it is.

And I'll tell you what, people weighed in. It was parents, it was special education, teachers, therapists; people were so opinionated about it. And so then I've made this a series. That's kind of the thing on TikTok. If you find something that's good, you kind of keep going with it. And so then two weeks later I made a video that was about an IEP goal that was just not a functional goal for a kid. It was kind of nonsense. And that's reached about 55,000 people.

Pat:
Wow. And like, the right people are finding you? It's like, it's not just like random people, but they're actually involved in this space and actually add to the conversation, if you will?

Rose:
They add so much to the conversation, and people just really like to weigh in, like either they agree, or they disagree, or they have something to share. I just love it because I'll be checking my phone and I’ll be like, “Oh, my gosh, there's five comments. There's 10 comments. There's 50,000 views. Now it's at 60,000,” and it just happens like this, like in a minute, in 10 minutes.

And, and as a creator, that is like very, very reinforcing. You're like, “I made this at my kitchen table on a whim. On a whim.”

Pat:
Right. And then you spend like 20 hours on this really amazing YouTube video that nobody sees. It's kind of disheartening sometimes, but that's, that's really awesome. I'm proud of you for that. And that's a great example of just, you gotta keep doing it until you find something that just seems to work. And then you, you find that thing that works and then you lean into it even more.

And I’ve found that to be the case on TikTok as well, like these series. And I find myself getting into little rabbit holes. I was into one yesterday about, like, top dances at clubs. Number… I was like on number 70, and it was like “The Lawn Mower” and “The Sprinkler,” and I just kept going and going and going.

And it's just crazy. So, so you don't have to dance, number one.

Rose:
I have done in the past, and every once in a while I will with my kids. I think that's kind of fun. And I'll put those on Instagram. People really like that to see me as like a mom and, you know, so I kind of embed that. I know you do that a lot on your Instagram stories too. So I tried to show that side of me too.

Pat:
I love that. One more question on the TikTok thing is, when you create something quote–unquote polarizing like that, how are you mentally dealing with that? As somebody who's bringing something that could make people feel a certain way like that? I think a lot of people would be afraid to say something that could potentially, you know, ruffle a few feathers, if you will.

Rose:
It's not exactly doing anything negative, but I guess what I'm doing is putting ideas out there that I want to get people to dialogue about. That's what it is. Because on Instagram, you could be more like, “This is what I did in therapy, and this is the toy that I used, and this is the book,” and people eat that up on Instagram. But on TikTok, people aren't there for that reason. They don't want to take it in that way. They want to hear a little bit about what you have to say and they want to share their opinion. And so I just try to make sure I'm getting that kind of engagement. That's what works over there.

Pat:
You're not like putting your foot ground and saying like, “Hey, everybody who's thinks this way, you're wrong.” Right? You're just like, “Hey, this is a topic and let's discuss it more.”

Rose:
Yeah. Thought provoking, you could say.

Pat:
Got it. Thought provoking. I like that. “Thumb stopping,” as we say. This is so cool. So to finish up, you had mentioned that you're coming out with another course. Is this a, the secondary course? Tell me about it.

Rose:
Yeah. So this course is going to be about helping toddlers and preschool-aged students with autism. And so we're going to have more of a focus on parents and professionals. And so I'm launching that starting next week with some live webinars. So fingers crossed. This is the first time we're launching it and just getting it put all together on LearnDash and all the things. So I'm excited about that, to get that into the world. That was like my labor of love that I worked on this summer. So, excited about that.

Pat:
Good for you. And best of luck on that. ABASpeech.org. I see the “Join the waitlist” for that course. So anybody who's interested in that, ABASpeech.org. Where else should people connect with you?

Rose:
Yeah, well, I guess visit me on TikTok, if you're on TikToK: ABASpeech, or, you know, you can, uh, weigh in on some of the ideas we're talking about. And make sure you listen to the Autism Outreach podcast. It drops every single Tuesday with a new episode all about autism in communication.

Pat:
Rose, this has been just such a fantastic update. Thank you so much. And thank you for plugging the course and like, you know, what we at SPI do in SPI Pro. That means a lot. Because we, we truly care. We want results like this for everybody. And, and, uh, we're just so thankful for you for taking action more than anything. So well done.

Rose:
Thanks for having me, Pat. It was great to see you.

Pat:
All right. I hope you enjoyed that conversation and catch-up with Rose Griffin. Again, you can find her website, ABASpeech.org, and her podcast, Autism Outreach. And I'm just so grateful for all the kind words that she said about SPI Pro and the podcasting course. And as, as you can tell, podcasting creates such amazing opportunities.

And if you're interested in starting a podcast, obviously. Go to SmartPassiveIncome.com. We have a lot of resources for you. There’s specifically some podcasting “how to get started” information, as well as some cheat sheets and other things you can download too. You can find it on the website.

Of course, if you'd like to get coached here, just like Rose did today, and again, Rose, thank you so much for your time and your energy and taking action. It's just so inspiring. These are absolutely my favorite episodes to do because every time I finish the call, I just feel so inspired and ready to crank. So I hope you're ready to crank too.

And if you'd like me to help you crank, you could potentially get that help if you go to AskPat.com and fill out the application button on that page, because of course we may be reaching out to new people soon for the next season, if you will, of AskPat. So I'd love to help you out and see what we could do there. So, anyway, AskPat.com is where you want to go, and a thank you to Rose, and thank you for listening all the way through. Thank you for all the amazing, amazing reviews that have been coming in. I get them all sent to my inbox, in fact, and I am so grateful.

So let's finish the year strong. Make sure you hit subscribe, because we've got another great “Where are they now?” episode coming next week for you. Until then, as always, take care, peace out, and as always, Team Flynn for the win.

Thanks for listening to AskPat at AskPat.com. I'm your host, Pat Flynn. Our senior producer is Sara Jane Hess. Our series producer is David Grabowski, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. AskPat is a production of SPI Media. We'll catch you in the next session.