Welcome to another episode of Made with MV! Today we'll hear from Carmen Reed-Gilkison and Deirdre Harter and they're going to dive into the transformative approach of asynchronous support in business coaching. Together they share invaluable insights on empowering entrepreneurs through strategic, high-touch support mechanisms that foster both client freedom and effectiveness. 

This episode promises to be a treasure trove of advice for any business owner looking to escalate their operations while maintaining a personal touch. Whether you're tackling member engagement or setting professional boundaries, Carmen and Deirdre guide you through making asynchronous support a powerful asset in your entrepreneurial toolkit.

Key Topics & Highlights

• Both hosts highlight their roles as co-founders of Encore Empire, focusing on B2B business owners who are over 40
• Importance of evolving from a default CEO to an empowered CEO
• Introduction to the topic of asynchronous support as inspired by a conversation in the MemberVault Collaborative Facebook group
• Benefits of using Membervault for real-time interaction and feedback
• Introduction of private chat channels and client groups for continuous support
• Upcoming shift to use Membervault’s new community feature for streamlined client interaction
• Importance of setting clear client expectations and personal boundaries in response times
• Examples of client interactions and their reactions to the asynchronous support model
  

Connect with Carmen and Deidre

Website
MV site
Facebook Page
Facebook Group
Encore Empire's LinkedIn
Carmen's LinkedIn
Deidre's LinkedIn

Access free resources here: Great Hall of Free Resources


Episode Full Transcript

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:00:00]:

Hey, I'm Carmen, a certified online business manager, and a whole-person coach.

Deidre Harter [00:00:04]:

And I'm Deidre, a CPA and business strategist. We're the co-founders of Encore Empire where we work with b two b business owners who are over 40.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:00:16]:

We dive deep with our clients in all aspects of business building to allow them to fully step into the role of CEO.

Deidre Harter [00:00:24]:

To summarize, we are sales and marketing strategists. Our clients gain clarity about what strategy works best for them and their business, and they have a business growth plan to follow that they understand how to implement for years to come.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:00:40]:

We like to take our clients from default CEOs to empowered CEOs. We know that when we start a business, we start out as a default CEO. But not many of us know how to be an empowered CEO. And that's where our program comes in. Now, today we're going to discuss something fun inside the membervault collaborative Facebook group. Erin started a conversation about asynchronous support and we are all about it. So we're excited to dive deep into this topic with you.

Deidre Harter [00:01:12]:

We believe in high-touch support for our clients and freedom for us. And asynchronous support helps us achieve both.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:01:23]:

That's right. One of the gaps in the market that we identified early on was access to the experts or lack thereof. We had some pretty dismal experiences with high-ticket programs where the face of the business sold us into the program only to never be seen again.

Deidre Harter [00:01:39]:

And because of that experience, we vowed to always be accessible to our clients and to provide that high-touch guidance that they need. Because we know that building a business can be lonely and at times completely overwhelming. Our clients tell us all the time how much they love having access to us and to our client community because this helps them work through all the ups and downs.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:02:07]:

That's right. When we first started Encore Empire, our first program was one-on-one coaching with a group component. And we have always used membervault. We love that we can support our clients as they work through their content by answering their questions or commenting on their progress right inside the platform. That is one of our favorite things that we shout it from the rooftops all the time. If you can use quiz questions for your clients and they answer, you're collecting such great data, you're understanding where their sticking points are, and then you can give them that guidance right there without them having to go somewhere else or email you or log into anywhere or download something. It's right there. So we love that.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:02:49]:

And so we supplemented that with one-on-one coaching for every client early.

Deidre Harter [00:02:53]:

On, what we discovered later on is that the high ticket nature and cost of our one on one coaching, it was excluding a lot of entrepreneurs who really wanted and needed our help. And we kept hearing how they wanted to work with us, but they just couldn't swing the cost. So enter asynchronous support for the win. We set up a new offer that didn't include the one-on-one but still offered that high-touch guidance that we know is critical to building a business.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:03:31]:

We provide each of our clients with a private chat channel as well as a private client group. And this allows us to make sure that they are never stuck. Right. If they come across something, be it in MemberVault or something else that they're working on with us, or that we're working on with them, and they have a question, they can get an answer to that question right away and that's exciting. So we're able to guide them through what they're working on asynchronously, saving them time and frustration.

Deidre Harter [00:04:02]:

Yeah, it's been, it's just been amazing. And they tell us all the time, they're like, it's like you're right there with us. And so we like to say that we're kind of coaching in their back pockets, so to speak. Now, one thing we did notice though, through this process is that having multiple logins, because they were logging into MemberVault on the one hand, and then they were also having to log into a different program for their private chat channel and community, that that wasn't very efficient and it can be confusing for clients. They're not exactly sure where they are supposed to be going. So with Membervault's new community feature, we're super excited about it and we plan to move our private client channels and the group over to membervault. And that's going to help us streamline the process and it's going to help us keep all the support in one place.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:04:54]:

Yeah, anything that we can do to simplify for ourselves and for our clients, we are all about that. It makes it easier, it stops, it eliminates that resistance to moving forward. If you keep coming up to things that are difficult or, oh, now I have to go find that other login. That just makes things difficult. So membervault is just such a well-rounded platform and we are so excited to use the community feature in this way and to make things easier for our client. Now, something to consider when offering asynchronous support is that you've got to set expectations for clients and boundaries for yourself. A minute ago I said one of the great things about asynchronous support is they can get their answers right away. Well, that's true and not true.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:05:37]:

So we want to make sure that our clients know that we check their work in our program once per week, and that's the work that they do inside the program, the quiz questions, and all of that. And then we also let them know that they can post as many questions as they want and at any time that works best for them in their chat channel. But we will be responding Monday through Friday only and usually once per day. We make it clear that they should not expect a response two minutes after they post. Right. Sometimes if we're online and that's the time that we're working in there, sure, they might get a response right away, but we've set some pretty good boundaries. And it's really something that when you're considering asynchronous support if you're not already offering it, that's the best way to set expectations ahead of time. Right.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:06:26]:

And it depends also on what kind of things you are offering support on. For instance, some of the things that we do for our clients is we'll review copy emails, landing pages, workshop and webinar scripts, that kind of thing. So that, again, is something that if you've got several clients submitting these long-form copy things to you for review, well, we need to really set some expectations. So feel free to, as you work with clients, if you start getting inundated, let them know. Okay, I've got these two things ahead of you. I'll be able to get back to you on this by, you know, the end of the week or whatever it is, so that they know and, you know, and that alleviates that feeling that you have to always be jumping anytime someone posts.

Deidre Harter [00:07:16]:

Yeah. One thing I noticed that we have our weekend warriors, right? Our clients are like, they are putting stuff in there on Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. And so it's like, that is not a time that I want to be even thinking about anything other than going to bed. But one comment I got from a client, and this just proves that when you set those expectations, it's really powerful. Like, I actually responded to someone on a Saturday morning, which is not typical. I do not usually do that. And then she wrote back, she goes, oh, my goodness, I heard from you on a Saturday. It's like, amazing.

Deidre Harter [00:07:51]:

So it's like a big, you know, it's like a big bonus, but then that, but they don't expect it, you know, they just know that that's something that's just like bonus time, that that's not usually going to happen.

Carmen Reed-Gilkison [00:08:01]:

Well, that's right. It's so important.

Deidre Harter [00:08:04]:

We'd love to keep the conversation going because we love this topic and we love how this works so well for us in our business. So share in the Membervault Collaborative at membervault.co/collab with your takeaways from listening and let us know if you're going to give it a try yourself. And if you want to connect, we would love to, and you can find us at encoreempire.com.