Professional Babe, Author at Professional Babe

THE SHOOT: The new era of Professional Babe

// THE NEW ITERATION

The OG version of Professional Babe launched in 2014 as a creative outlet — a beauty and lifestyle editorial brand. It was rebranded and I launched the new iteration of Professional Babe and my first offering, a monthly business membership, right before ‘Rona hit.

In this time, I worked with clients who were made redundant to create their own businesses, and so, solidifying my confidence that I absolutely can do this as a business and I have finally found my thing.

My goal for all business owners is to help them build a fuqing rock solid, profitable, streamlined business through expert strategy and consulting. Free from cookie cutter approaches, BEIGE, shoulds, and fast fashion-style business trends.

I believe shit gets really good when we can expand your beliefs on what’s possible and see the true big picture of your vision. Combine that with a strategy-based roadmap and me as your hype coach? Just imagine.

// THE VISION

In July of 2021, I began to wrangle a team to bring together my vision. Having been in lockdown for most of this new business, I was convinced we would be out soon and I was ready to release something incredible and show up as this new version of myself—my brand—and really show the business world that Professional Babe was here to fuq shit up in a very major way.

Despite being the analytical and structurally-minded Virgo that fondles their clients business, it’s a little different when it’s your own. Introducing the visionary founder (moi) who went into this rebrand like it was the September Issue.

From working with moodboards based on colours and vibes, to feeling-based statements and, “okay, just visualise this whilst I set a scene for you”, my team certainly delivered.

My goal was to bring an editorial flair to the business world and meet my goal of being the Violet Grey of the business world. I wanted to showcase my future self. I wanted to be bold, unique, but most importantly, 100% my authentic self.

// THE SHOOT

Our September Issue shoot happened when everyone was dropping like flies from the spicy cough. Shops were closed. Transit times were cooked. And sourcing clothes and a location in this time was like an Olympic-sport level extreme sport.

The shoot team was a lean team comprised of Oli Sansom and myself. Oli taking the photos, ensuring the vibe was right, acting as my therapist, co-creative director, and all round amazing human. And myself as the gal in the photos, and also the… stylist, hair and makeup person, location scouter, co-creative director and the most important task — being in charge of the tune. See what I mean about shoots being an extreme sport?

The shoot ended at 10pm and I blew a load many times seeing the back of the camera and my vision coming to life. People weren’t going to get it, but the ones that would, would froth HARD.

There were three main looks — three items of clothing in my wardrobe that are the epitome of ‘The Average Tuesday Morning Fantasy’—more on that to come—and felt very true to Professional Babe. We shot in the room and the the hallway of The Ovolo South Yarra. The team there were INCREDIBLE to deal with, and so a professional partnership was formed so all PB guests will stay at The Ovolo for an end to end, rockstar experience.

The organising of it took weeks to plan and is also a unit within Wet Patch Content FYI.

// THE TUNES

This is the exact playlist we shot to. Listen to it and browse this site — it’s a fuqing delight.

// THE TEAM

Lethal Digital has been my ride or die since 2010. Lee brought my online fitness vision to life. This iteration started in a very messy Google Doc and Lee and his team transformed it into something better than I could have ever imagined.

Oli Sansom, I am obsessed with you. This is my favourite shoot to date. Oli understood my vision and well and truly delivered. Considering the saga of the shoot day and Oli being thrust into taking the lead with me pre-anxiety attack—“Um… she’s in the… shower”—Oli and I created something that is September issue-worthy.

Flying Art Studios. Cool, calm, and collected energy. I spotted David on the street less than a week out from the shoot and we decided to wing and produce something in the short hours I had the room for the next day. The videos look like something from a 1970s commercial — they delivered.

The Ovolo South Yarra for being absolutely accommodating legends. It was the best hotel experience I’ve ever had. The attention to detail is something I have NEVER seen from anywhere I’ve ever stayed. Every corner of the room there was something. 11/10 wish-I-could-live-there kind of an experience.

And to my PB team, Sharon and Alice, thank you for being there for the meltdowns, my disorganisation, the DM pep talks, and everything we did to get to this point.

This is just the tip of it all.

PB Xx

want to create content like this?

Start messy

Ever feel like you sit down to start something… and you can’t find that perfect first sentence?

A lot of people can relate including past Peta (moi), and my client, Casey.

Casey? An absolute legend. We spent last Tuesday working out an epic strategy for Casey’s business which includes writing emails. Eep.

Writing emails is is a huge block a lot of my clients have. You know you’ve got to do them, but you become the bottleneck because your time is spent wondering what to say and how to say it.

Casey had this exact problem. I told her we needed to get some shit out on paper — no matter how messy it was going to be.

We brainstormed content prompted by questions (Give Good Email is legendary for this) and we wrote it all down — even if it didn’t make sense or was just a couple of words.

One minute in, Casey hits me with, “How would it feel to be known as the best company to work for?”

“OMG! Casey! That’s the intro of your email. How amazing is that?”

We moved around the sentences we brainstormed, fleshed it out, and changed up words to be on-brand.

In less than five minutes, we had a draft of her first email. Casey was chuffed.

Casey got to see me work… and it’s not a perfect process. It’s a little… messy. And that’s okay. The most important thing of writing anything is just starting. Giving permission for it to be messy and not fabulous, but just starting.

The next day Casey mapped out two finished emails, re-wrote an entire sales page, created the opt-in form and embedded it on her website, created her discovery call links, planned her diary around getting our big to do list complete… and being an epic mum. In her words — “Clocked off at 3pm to exercise and relax before mum duty starts again”

How?

By allowing shit to be messy but to just be in motion. Friend, no one shoots perfect copy out of their fingertips, and sometimes we need to prioritise done over perfect, especially as business owners.

Some things for you to ponder —

⭐ Indecision and stalling things is okay… if you’re fine with the potential of it blocking income. Not done = potentially blocking cash flow
⭐ Can you set a timer and do B- work for halfa? I’m sure you’ll check your work a couple days later and be surprised how ace it is
⭐ Copy is like the first pancake, the first one is usually a dud. Accept the first paragraph — or page — as the first pancake
⭐ It doesn’t need to be as long as you think. Give yourself a 300 word maximum for your emails
⭐ Done is better than perfect, no?

Peta Xx

This originally appeared as newsletter content

A year’s revenue made in two weeks

I feel I’m in recovery mode for my latest launch. It was a big boi of a launch bringing in my entire 2020 revenue in a two-week period.

I’ll repeat that — every dollar made in 2020 I smashed out in two weeks.

Am I surprised? Nope. Is this what I teach in action? Absolutely. Am I going to unpack for you because you’re a subscriber? Abbbbsolllluteeeellly.

The stats and data

There’s a bit to unpack here, so I posted it all including screenshots to Instagram on this post. You’ll find out my conversion rates (ummm… 19% of the waitlist converted!) as well as other important stats like page views etc.

I think it’s important to share EVERYTHING, which is why I include the web stats. Is a launch a good launch if you have 10,000 page views and 1 sale? The sale could be $20,000, but if we look at the web stats it tells me the landing page need tweaking,

Having access — and knowing how to assess — the data can dramatically improve your launch. I know the copy and layout is converting, so I’ll easily replicate this for the March launch knowing it’s all converted. If it didn’t this is where I may invest in a copywriter or someone to help me with the layout to optimise conversions.

Conversion rates and content marketing

If there’s a theme I see in Give Good Email with my clients, it’s that there’s a desire to convert at 100%, 100% of the time. Friend, no one does this. No one! The average sales conversion sits at 1-2%. It also depends on a variety of factors.

I think one of the reasons GGE converted so well was the dedicated focus I have had on email for the last 12 months. Have a look at my content and notice it’s my favourite topic to talk about.

If you’re keen on our content, you’ll be keen on the course. Coincidence? Nope! This is content marketing. The same with all my funnels and automations — so so heavy on how email is going to change your business.

The reason the conversions were high is because the start for the subscriber will naturally lead them to the finish. That content piece they’re reading will spark curiosity and plan a seed for GGE. Doing that = better conversions in the long run.

Big list = big launch

Fam, pre-launch I had less than 500 people in my list. Big lists are the big dicks of the world — what truly matters is your skill in using it.

If I hear of someone having a big list but not making any money, straight away my brain goes to better subscriber experience, possibly segmentation, and a super tight strategy is needed.

Even a list of 100 people can yield a successful launch. Caveat = it needs to be built correctly from the start. See above with the content marketing stuff.

Segments and 40 launch emails.

Yup, I sent 40 emails. And it didn’t take as long as you think it would.

Some of the emails were almost duplicates, what changed is the language in them as they were sent to completely different segments.

Think of segmentation as a way of organising your database. It adds a post-it note of information to give that subscriber a better experience. Think about when you go to the hair salon, they don’t ask you every time what you did last time and how you like your hair coloured, they write that shit down.

The emails were a mix of things sent to the waitlist, the challenge (more below), my general list, and then sales emails for GGE cart closing.

Each email had a particular purpose, also with the consideration that I knew not every person would see every email given my email benchmarks for open rates and clicks.

The challenge

Consider the pain points for your customer. Also consider the objections as to why they don’t purchase your offer. For a program, it’s usually the commitment and how fire the content is. No one wants to waste $2000 on a limp cucumber.

I played into my strength of being an engaging presenter and ran a five-day event. My goal was to get people to realise they can commit to things they enjoy, and see how email can change their business. So many people on day four and five said they purchased because the training showed them they could commit to something.

I also solved a problem on day one (I basically gave them the whole content piece inside of GGE) of choosing their software. No more getting halfway through and still having that problem. It was solved on day one.

The challenge was a success and I’ll be duplicating that for March. Yep, I’ll run the same event.

Cart open

If you’re new to launching, the cart open period is… interesting. It brings up a lot. You’ll probably snap and cry. It’s like having the worst PMS of your life teamed with your best moods. What will you feel from 2-3pm on day three of your launch? Who knows! It’a a surprise.

We had the public cart open for just over a week with the challenge goers getting early access.

It’s normal for all training to have a slump. With the challenge being so successful, my slump was actually the start of public cart open.

We had three days with no sales (again, normal) and then most sales for the ENTIRE launch came in the last two days. Never give up on your launch, and just like a race, when you see the finish line is when you need to run HARD.

Next time

We’ve got so much validated content from this round that March will be a lot smoother. I’ll rinse and repeat stuff (my fun Christmas holiday task!) and create new content to meet objections/questions I saw in the Challenge.

The focus now needs to dramatically be on lead gen. A big mistake I see people make in business is constantly using their audience to sell to without getting in front of more people. With 15% of my list now owning GGE, my brain goes straight to ‘we need more peeps’. As I know 100% of people on this list will never convert, and I also know some people might in two years time.

After an expansive launch with a high intake, you need to pump your list/audience full of new people. I plan to double down on my strategy and also invest in paid ads to help with audience growth.

Woo. That was long, but you got through it! Good to know that GGE is now evergreen which means you can purchase RIGHT NOW!!! So make sure you check it out below as I’d love to have you in the GGE community.

Peta Xx

Give me deets on this course, lady!!!

Why fuqboys are the ultimate at repurposing content

Fuqboys are content marketing geniuses.

They know they’re on to a good thing and the more time they spend on being unique, the more it hinders their ability to get down to business.

They do it with their dates — the Ultimate First Date Scaffold — a walk, takeaway coffee (they bought a spare keepcup for you ‘cause they want you brag about how ‘conscious’ they are) that ends in a D&M at their favourite cafe they only take special people to.

Special, meaning, 27 different peeps before you.

And even their tried-and-tested Tinder message — “Hey, *reference something on your profile*. I’d love to talk about this over a drink. Tonight??“

They’re the ultimate when it comes to tweaking what’s already working, a.k.a, repurposing content and we can take some inspo from them —

Planning your content calendar with one to four key ideas each month

Step one — what are your content pillars or content themes you post about each week and month?

If you’re not familiar with these are or are unsure about how to work them out, I would recommend checking out this content piece and this content piece here to help you work that out.

Once you’ve got your content pillars, it can be a good idea to ask if they’re all relevant for the month. What I mean by this is, just say you’re launching, you might niche down a little for the month and your content will change. When I launch Give Good Email, you’ll notice that all the content being produced is very email marketing specific.

Ask yourself — what is it relevant I focus on this month?

Step two — Brainstorm all potential content ideas for the month.

It could be what Brooke Castillo does with her Life Coach School Program and they have a theme for the month, like ‘Relationships’ or it could be related to something seasonal, for example, let’s say you’re a naturopath and want to focus on ‘Winter Wellness’.

Ask yourself — building on the above, what could be some good content pieces to focus on this month? Select one to four ideas.

Step three — Take stock of everywhere you’re currently sharing content.

Ask yourself — where am I sharing content? Make a big list and get clear of everything so it can all be scheduled in.

Step four — See if you have a ‘hero’ content piece that should kick this all off.

Sometimes we have a hero content piece. It could be your blog, a YouTube channel, or a podcast. And for some of us, Instagram is where we put out main (and the most content out on). Rather look at everything as separate, we want to see how all of our content can work together.

Some of us mightn’t have a hero content piece (that’s usually me!) but it still doesn’t mean that content shouldn’t all work together.

Here’s how it could look —

One blog article turns into… 7 content pieces

Write a long-form article on your blog >> create three IG posts from the article to promote on Instagram >> create two pull-out quotes and tweetables to share on Twitter and via a quote on an Instagram tile >> craft two newsletters to your list on a case study/accompanying resources/additional add-on.

One blog article turns into… 7 content pieces

Write a long-form article on your blog >> chunk this into a 3-part series on your Instagram feed >> share this to your stories and ask questions/polls to get audience feedback/experience >> turn these answers into more Instagram content >> turn this into a case study that’s emailed to email subscribers >> repurpose this in one month into a part two of the initial blog article.

One Instagram post turns into… 8 content pieces

Look for an older Instagram post that got a bucket load of Interest >> create an opt-in by expanding the content into a training >> send the freebie to your existing list >> put three posts on Instagram up getting people to opt into your list to receive it >> gather testimonials from people who went into the training and post these as testimonials + a case study on your socials >> publish the case study as a blog post.

Repurposing older content

Congratulations! If you’ve been posting content for more than one month, you’ve got older content you can repurpose. If that figure is 6+ months of consistent posting, you’ve got enough ideas to bounce off for the next year. It’s a good day for you, so let’s discuss this, shall we? If you’ve already posted something once — a blog post, Instagram post, IGTV, you get the idea — you can…

1 // Turn it into a five-part training on Instagram
2 // Turn it into an opt-in email series that’s an evergreen sequence that sells an offer 3 // Do an IG live where you ask people questions
4 // Turn the IG live into an IGTV
5 // Talk about it on a podcast
6 // Turn it into an eBook downloadable to help you list build
7 // Create a content round-up about it of similar content you’ve done
8 // Create tweetables
9 // Do up a comparison post
10 // Show a case study
11 // Share testimonials against the original post
12 // Share a client story
13 // Turn it into an infographic
14 // Gather some data or science to back up your point
15 // Create a round-up of other people who have created similar posts/content pieces 16 // Do a round-up of your peers/other business owners and their take on it
17 // Turn it into a workbook
18 // Write up some FAQs about it
19 // Create pull-out quotes to make it sharable
20 // Share the content, then ask people follow-up questions and answer it in a post.

Head to your blog, podcast, or Instagram and find a piece of content. How can you create 10 more pieces using the list above inspired from this content piece? Turn the page to see it in action with a scaffold to help.

Peta Xx

If you loved this, you’ll LOVE this

Categories

THE SHOOT: The new era of Professional Babe

// THE NEW ITERATION

// THE VISION

// THE SHOOT

// THE TUNES

// THE TEAM

Start messy

Casey got to see me work… and it’s not a perfect process. It’s a little… messy. And that’s okay. The most important thing of writing anything is just starting. Giving permission for it to be messy and not fabulous, but just starting.

Some things for you to ponder —

A year’s revenue made in two weeks

The stats and data

Conversion rates and content marketing

Big list = big launch

Segments and 40 launch emails.

The challenge

Cart open

Next time

Why fuqboys are the ultimate at repurposing content

Fuqboys are content marketing geniuses.

Planning your content calendar with one to four key ideas each month

Step one — what are your content pillars or content themes you post about each week and month?

Step two — Brainstorm all potential content ideas for the month.

Step three — Take stock of everywhere you’re currently sharing content.

Step four — See if you have a ‘hero’ content piece that should kick this all off.

One blog article turns into… 7 content pieces

One blog article turns into… 7 content pieces

One Instagram post turns into… 8 content pieces

Repurposing older content

Before you go…

I give good email.