You're listening to Kivuqual to CEO, episode 225. We don't have to wait for billionaires or for the government to make change. We can actually all make change together. Motivating words from today's guest, Paula Crossfield, avedic, astrology, and business strategists helping spirit-led entrepreneurs bankroll the change they want to see in the world. If it's been on your heart to give back to causes you care about, but you question your ability to donate enough to make a worthwhile difference, or you're worried about your company's financial stability, this case study was made for you. Because Paula intentionally builds giving into her business model, she's been able to donate a whopping $37,000 to various charities this year alone, all while still growing her revenue and profits year over year. In this episode, we'll go one by one through the five offers that contributed to the $37,000 in total donations and how they were structured and tactically executed to maximize both community impact and business sustainability. This episode will give you fresh ideas and inspiration to start giving back at any stage, whether through donated time and services or funds. Welcome to cubicle to CEO, the podcast. I'm your host, Ellen Yen.

I quit my job without a backup plan and bootstrapped my first $300 freelance project into $2 million in revenue by age 28. On this show, you'll hear weekly case study interviews with leading entrepreneurs and CEOs who share one specific strategy that successfully grew their business revenue. Skip the expensive and time-consuming learning curve of testing everything yourself by borrowing what actually works from the best and brightest mentors. You'll also get a front row seat to MyFoundersJourney through transparent income reports and behind the business solo episodes. Subscribe now so we can grow together every Monday.

Hey.

Friends, welcome back to the show. Today, I have Paula Crossfield here with me. Paula is avedic astrology, a business strategist. Her specialty is in MoneyKarma. And I'm really, really looking forward to our conversation today, Paula, because you are leading the way in utilizing business as a vehicle for charitable giving. I believe in this so strongly because at a local level, especially, I think so much of the change that we see in our communities is spearheaded by entrepreneurs, by small business, rather than policy or government, which is typically a much slower moving vehicle. I really love seeing how entrepreneurs like yourself are utilizing your business and the money earned through your business to really make an impact and change. We'll get into the details of your case study in just a moment. But first, as you know, because you listen to a lot of our episodes, I'd love to hear your own cubicle to CEO story. What was that catalyst that led you to becoming an entrepreneur in the first place?

First of all, thank you so much for having me. It's really an honor to be here. I just am such a huge fan of your show, so it's great to be on the other side of the mic. I was never in a cubicle. I'm a unicorn. I grew up with entrepreneur parents. My dad, especially even at seven or eight years old, was telling me about business deals, and I was a weird kid. I thought that was really interesting and cool. So Lucky you. I think that programmed me at an early age to think that that was a possibility. When I got out of college, I started freelancing as a journalist, and I was also working at NPR as a contractor, and then ended up founding a nonprofit that funded investigative reporting on food, agriculture, and environmental health. I was really in the food policy space. That work really involved marketing and writing. I had a spiritual awakening and a divorce at around age 31, and that really led me in a totally new direction where I was in India for a long time, and I ended up starting to build a business online for my main mentor, who is an Ayurvedic physician.

His name is Dr. Robert Zwaboda. Over the last 10 years, I've been able to experiment in his business, and I've had the freedom to just test all the ideas in marketing that I have. Anything that comes into my mind, he's very open. Through building his brand, I learned what I now teach and apply in my own business. That's my story.

That's incredible. I love hearing from people who grew up around entrepreneurship. It makes me think about if I had children in the future, how their worldviewyou might be completely different than what I grew up with. Because to your point, when you're not exposed to something, it's hard to imagine that possibility. But for you, it was so ingrained, it was so normalized that it was just as normal as anybody else's path would be to take the traditional career track for you. It's like, why wouldn't you be a business owner? Why wouldn't you be an entrepreneur? I really love your unique perspective that you bring on that subject. I'd also love to hear, because I know that your childhood and just your life experiences have shaped a lot of why you believe so strongly and giving back. I'd love to hear, based on your background, based on where you've lived and what you've experienced, what inspired you to make giving a focal point, I guess, of your business?

I love this question. I call myself a Spirit-led business owner, and that's who I help. What I mean by that is that my spiritual practice is really at the center of what I do. From the perspective of both India and Native American traditions, service is really one of the main things we're here to do, is to help others. The way I see that is we're helping both our clients, but we're also trying to help the larger community. It was never a question for me that was going to be embedded somehow in my business. I know because I have lots of colleagues, myself, who've made a lot of money online, we have this potential to earn really well. For me, the thing that motivates me is not writing in first class. There's no shame in that if that's what people are into. I would much rather have extra cash to give away. I live on a farm, I have expenses. I've retired my husband. But I'm really motivated by what that change looks like. There's so many places where I have personal relationships now where I'm giving and I get to see what that money is doing.

For children at a school in Baranasi, for example, they just built a whole new building and I watched them do that and my money helped them do that. That fills my cup. That really inspires me and it makes me excited to get up and do my business in the morning.

What an inspiring legacy, especially to see something so tangible, like you said, a school being built and to know that the impact doesn't just stop at one generation. You're impacting the legacy of many, many families for potentially hundreds of years, right? Each person changed has the potential or the increased capacity, I think, to change other people as well. Let's just, real quick, give our listeners a high-level view of today's case study, and then I do want to zoom into the details. But high-level for everyone listening. In 2023, Paula's company, Weave Your Bliss, has given back $37,200 to causes that Paula cares about, mostly from smaller ticket offerings, which is also, I think, a really attractive piece of your case study. You don't have to necessarily be playing in the high-ticket world for your money to have an impact. These are smaller ticket offerings like a Summit, like a bundle of low-ticket courses, digital products, et cetera. What's really impressive to me as well is that Paula has doubled her giving from the previous year in 2022, and the total amount that has been donated or given so far, that 37,000, that's on track to be about 5% of your gross revenue, your gross sales from 2023 based on the $700,000 in sales that you have projected for this year.

I think hearing these numbers, some of the first thoughts that come to mind is there may be listeners who have given sporadically or maybe have never given at all, but this idea is really appealing to them. But maybe they're intimidated, let's say, by the amount and not sure what that looks realistically for them in their own business at whatever stage they may be. I'm just curious, prior to 2023 and then even prior to 2022, what was the first year you ever consciously gave in your business? And at that time, what was your business doing in terms of revenue?

Thanks for that question. My business really changed pretty dramatically in 2020. Before that, I was giving back 5% of sales when I would do a sale, but it would be me trading dollars for hours at that time. I didn't have a higher ticket offering or really a stack of offerings that would keep people in my ecosystem, which I think is so important to point out is when you have a model that allows you to make sure that those lower ticket offerings are giving back 100%. That really energizes your people, gets them excited. It fuels customer loyalty. It makes people excited to be a part of your world, and then they stick around. And if you have offerings that lead them into next, that allows you to then fill your cup and have enough to fund your business, et cetera. At that time, it wasn't that much. I had a lot of barriers to get over, and I can talk about some of those, but there were some really key things that I had to do to work on my mindset and how my business was structured in order to make this so easeful that it was not even a second thought.

But me of 2020, even thinking about giving $37,000 back would have been shocking. It would have been like, Are you kidding me? Because I think I told you in the case study that in 2018, I made less than $37,000. How I went from there to here really is about intention, but it's also about some very practical things. I think one thing that really holds people up is that they don't actually see how giving can actually fuel sales in a tangible way. I actually, as a marketer, that's one of the main hats that I wear, I like to think about how this specifically can help you because it tells a story. Marketing is really a lot about stories. The causes you support, there's a story there. There's a story about why you support those causes. We are hardwired to connect through stories. It also allows you to share your point of view about what you'd like to see change or improve in the world. I think the point of view is really a part of your niche because it's your differentiator. It's why somebody buys with you versus someone else who maybe has a similar offering.

It also infuses your personality into your work, so it helps your audience get to know you and it makes it personal, and it builds community and connection. I also see my clients, they want to invest in things where there's a give back because we're doing it together and it's like giving them a dopamine hit, you know what I mean? That really helped me understand how this is actually leading to sales. There's other things too, just scarcity mindset. There's a fear that there's not enough to go around. There's a couple of ways that I deal with this. One is I actually build it into my business. The money that is going out to be givenin a way, is actually in a separate pool. It never actually enters the pool of money that's part of my business money. Psychologically, it isn't as if it's coming out of my pool. There's a really tangible way that I do that with an envelope system. I'm using YNAB as an envelope system so that everything is very clear. The other thing is, and this is part of my work and my point of view, is understanding money karma. From thevedic astrology point of view, our birth time, our exact moment we were born, cast the chart of our karma.

We can actually look at that and see how money is flowing in our chart, what our potential is for success, for savings, for earnings, right? But even without that, just the concept that when you're giving, you're expanding your karmic pool, so to speak. When money is going to these causes, there's a wider net. From my perspective, and this is getting a little woo woo, but from my perspective, that is showing the universe that you're a conduit and you're helping move that money outward. Whether that feels true for you or not, that mindset has been really helpful for me to stop feeling the fear that there's not enough. And as I've done the giving, I've seen an exponential growth in my business so that it feels like there's something that coordinates there.

That's really, really powerful, Paula. And I think the hot take that you shared your perspective that giving and give-backs actually fuel sales can be a channel for growth in your own business is really interesting as well. Because you're right, I think sometimes people view it as taking a cut of their own earnings and giving it away. But you mentioned a tool, Widenab, and just for our listeners who may not be familiar, I'm assuming that's the tool you need a budget, right? It's like a free app. Yes. Okay, exactly. I just wanted to make sure that was the right one. You can divvy out your finances both on the personal and, of course, if you want, on the business side as well. I will say, psychologically, I understand the power of being able to fully separate what is going as a giveback versus what is considered your business earnings. I remember even back in college when I was trying to pay off my student loans and graduate debt-free, there was one particular job where when that paycheck landed, it never hit my own bank account. It was in a separate bank account that would automatically get redirected towards loans.

I never even saw it. I basically lived off the money that I made as a waitress instead. I had one job that was for paying the bills and then one job that was totally focused on paying off my debt. I do remember that made it easier for me because it never... Like you said, it never felt like my money to begin with. It more felt like I was just being a steward to help guide the money to the next thing. The thing that you said, too, about expanding your karmic pool and being a conduit for money, I think that is also something I can really resonate with, there's this, analogy isn't the right word, but there's this story, and I don't know who shared this story originally, but it's always stuck with me, this idea of when you spend a dollar, let's say, in the local community, the life of the dollar exists so far beyond just yourself. You may spend that dollar at, let's say, the bakery, but then then that bakery uses that dollar to pay their employee, who then uses that dollar to buy gas, and that person then uses that dollar for...

And it's like the life of that dollar just goes on and on and on. I think when you think in that manner, I can see how it feels expansive to give money away rather than to hold on to it as a static thing or a static status symbol. Anyways, those are just my thoughts that came to mind as you were talking, so thank you for sparking those ideas for us. You did also mention that when you first started in this world of giving back, that 5 % was this number that you had utilized as, okay, like 5 % of all sales, I'm donating towards X, Y, Z. This year in 2023, as I just mentioned, your total giveback, 37,000 in some change ends up being 5% again of your gross sales. Is there something specific to this number? Do you intentionally set out to give back 5% of your gross revenue? Or is that more of a happenstance thing that it just turned out that way this year?

I think it's an interesting point that you're making, Helen, because I hadn't put those two things together. We gave a little less than 5% away last year. I think at the beginning of this year, I was just like, What if we doubled it? I literally had no idea how we were going to do that. It wasn't like a strategic plan that we were going to get to 5%. 5% feels good to me. I would love to even be giving back 10%, but I'm in a growth period in my business. Another thing that I think stops people is this idea that it's all or nothing. I do want people to be able to fill their cup and be able to grow their business. I'm in the first five years of my business, so I understand that I may not get to 10%, but that would be my ideal number. So 5%, I think it just feels really good. But at the beginning of the year, we just set the intention without really knowing. We were just getting curious. Okay, what would it be like if we doubled this? I had no idea literally how we were going to do it.

But then each time an opportunity would present itself. The unfortunate thing that happened in Maui, when the town of Lehainna burned down, we immediately just bundled some courses together and put them on sale for four days, and we made $8,100 to give to the people of Maui to help them in this time of need. We were able to just be smart on our feet. That was a bundle that literally it didn't cost us anything except for four days of marketing. We had already had it in the vault. We bundled it together and we sold it. It was like being fast on our feet and really thinking about ways that we could include a give back in the things we're doing. Another hot take for you, Ellen, is that I really don't believe that the lower ticket things that we sell are for us to make money. I see them as ways to get people in our ecosystem and get them excited about what we're doing. They have skin in the game. They've put some money in. They've gotten that dopamine hit from giving with us for the causes that maybe they share in common or they just feel moved by our stories that we tell around these then they're in our ecosystem.

And if we have a strategic business where there's other offerings, likely they're going to buy from us. We've really warmed them up by creating a good feeling. I like to talk about like we're sitting around a campfire together. It's not like they're my audience or my followers, like we're hanging out at a campfire. That giving piece creates that good feeling. For me, those lower ticket things are not about making money. I know there's a bunch of people out there making lots of money with digital products and stuff, but that's not really how I've designed my business. Those things are really about getting people to have skin in the game inside my business.

I appreciate your perspective on that. I would tend to agree with you that low-ticket offers are, first and foremost, whether or not there is profit on the backend. But first and foremost, I think the functionality they're designed to serve is to be an acquisition tool for your business. And if done well, ideally an acquisition tool that actually costs net zero for you. The amount that you maybe pour into acquiring those customers actually balances out with the sales that come in from the low ticket. So maybe it's just a break-even. We have certainly used low-ticket offers before in that way. I would also agree that someone purchasing from you just creates a totally different relationship off the bat than someone opting in for a freebie. I do think it is one of the fastest ways to nurture someone in your audience by having them shorten that cycle between casual viewer and buyer. And then, of course, like you said, if you have other strategic offers that can serve them in a bigger way, being able to make the bulk of your revenue from that, or profits, I should say, from those other offers. I have one last question on a more high-level view before we get down and dirty into the numbers, which you are so gracious to provide such specific details.

I'm really excited for our listeners to hear this. But my last bigger question is, how do you decide which offers in your business you actually attach a giveback component to? Especially because, like you said, you are approaching it from a curious point of view where you don't necessarily map it all out ahead of time. Does every offer have a giveback component? Is it just some? And if it's the latter, again, how do you decide which ones receive that versus not?

I love this question. I think it's two things. There are things like the Summit, for example, which I did with Marisa Corkran, was my coach, and she's the person who actually introduced me to your podcast because you had her on and everyone should go listen to her episode where she breaks down her model. What I love about Marisa is when I got on a sales call with her, she literally was saying part of the deal is if you're going to sign up and do this with me, is that half the individuals who are featured at your summit have to be people of color or LGBTQIA+ people, marginalized folks. And then the 100% of the money made on the upgrade has to be given to a cause. I was just like, You're awesome. I want to do this with you. This is exactly my philosophy of business. That just goes to show you that having that point of view is very strong and it's magnetizing. For me, things like the summit, that was a no-brainer. I have something that we may talk about my astrology guidebook, which is like my... It's not a freebie because it's $37 and 100% is given back to the school in Baranasi, India.

That's always a giveback. I've been doing that now for four years. There are certain things in my business that are like that. Then we're fast on our feet, like when I mentioned putting the bundle of courses together and selling that to raise money for Maui, that we are trying to be light on our feet and be able to insert things into our calendar for marketing purposes that we know are just purely as a giveback. My higher ticket stuff doesn't have a giveback component unless maybe in the future, if we are trying to get up to that 10%, we'll start to do that. But as of right now, we're able to give back in really big ways just using small ticket items.

Awesome. That's really helpful to hear that it's a split between impromptu decisions like the Maui giveback versus actually intentionally building into your foundational offer, something like the Astrology guidebook that's always on as a channel for collecting funds for your giveback. Speaking of these offers, let's get into the actual offers that made up this $37,200 that you've given so far this year. We'll break it down by offer, the amount that was given from each offer, and then the strategy around how you implemented or sold it to your community. Let's start with the one that has contributed the most towards that $37,000 amount. That is your astrology guidebook that you mentioned you've been selling for four years. In 2023 alone, just so our listeners know, this guidebook has generated $12,500 in funds that Paula has used as a giveback. You already mentioned it's a $37 product. How do you sell this? Where do people find out about it? Is it an automated funnel? Is it part of some evergreen nurture sequence? Talk us through the marketing side of this.

Sure. It comes out every year in October. We just released our most recent one five weeks ago, which is what gave us a bump. I told you just before yesterday, I was like, Hey, the numbers are a little higher, and I sent it to you. We've had a little bump. This is something people have come to wait for, literally. They start emailing me at the beginning of October. When is it coming out? So I can put it on my calendar, which is so awesome and it's so touching. What this astrology guidebook is, it's all of the major transits from the Fedic astrology perspective. Like I was sharing with you, it's a little bit different than Western astrology. It's an Indian astrology system, so it's just slightly different. There's some other nuance things that relate to India. There's the full and new moons, their placement in lunar constellations. And there's my hand-picked, auspicious days for launching, selling, signing contracts, and then my hand-picked days for when you should not be selling, when you should be resting. And so people wait for this thing. They get really excited about it. It's in my signature. Whenever I talk about the new and full-moon, which I do every month, that's the CTA.

Every email I send out, it's in the bottom of the email. Anytime somebody comes in contact with me, they see that and they see the give-back because I write that right there. I think it's an easy yes for people. Another thing that's great about this offering is that it's a calendar that you can drop into your Google Calendar. Then people are following along with it throughout the year, so it keeps me top of mind. Then they're staying on my email list because I am threading in the information that's in there into my emails. It works really well for me. That's why the give back going completely to charity feels so good, because it's not that I need the money, it's actually helping me fuel my business, and that's the most important job it can have. And just as a side, it raised $1,200 this year.

That's incredible. And I really love what you said about how it's an anticipatory experience. You've built this habit of people anticipating, expecting, and planning to purchase this year after year after year. I think that's brilliant, actually. I'm thinking of another past podcast guest, different angle. It's not a give-back on her end for this offer, but will link that episode. And then also earlier you mentioned Marisa Corker and who I love. Any episodes mentioned, we'll make sure to link in the show notes for you guys if you haven't tuned into those yet. But Celina does something similar where every year she releases this publicity calendar that maps out the big dates in the media space, some topics to think about, some prompts that you can use for pitches. It's really helpful. People look forward to it every year. I can see, based on what you've shared about your offer, how other entrepreneurs are could be thinking about like, Okay, what is a calendar-esque? Or something that's recurring in nature that I could offer people. It's brilliant, by the way, that it's actually synced to their Google Calendar or whatever calendar system they use so that, like you said, it's literally front of mind all the time throughout the year.

I would love to know, and this might be hard to pull off the top of your head, so it's okay if you don't know the numbers, but just an estimate, how many people do you think enter your ecosystem as a brand new customer through this specific offer? It could either be an actual number if you know off the top of your head, or a percentage you think of your new customer acquisition. What role do you think this product plays in the growth of your actual community?

I don't know if I have those numbers. It is growing each year, so I know that there are more people buying it each year. Probably maybe 30% growth, I would say, of new people buying it. Yeah, but I'm not sure if those are people that have been in my ecosystem and just realized that I'm selling this thing. It would be hard for me to imagine that they don't hear about it because if they're on my email list, they're hearing about it. But yeah, I'm talking about it a lot. I'm not sure if they're new to me or if they're just new to the guidebook this year.

Okay. No, that's still really helpful just to hear year-over-year how that pool of buyers has increased. I feel like I would also be very remiss not to ask you, Paula, that our listeners, like yourself also, love the tactical implementation side. Would you be willing to pull up one of your email signatures or one of your PS sections where you said you seed this guidebook all throughout the year and any communication someone receives from you? Could you actually read word for word how you present it and how you talk about the giveback aspect so people get an idea of how they could communicate something similar?

My signature says, get the 2024 Astrology guidebook. 100% of profits go to a school for underprivileged kids in India. That's literally all it says in my signature.

Super simple. Okay, I love that. That actually makes it even easier, I think, for people to implement. And you're saying that's your signature, whether it's a mass marketing email or whether you're having a one-on-one communication with someone.

Is that correct? It's always there. There's a super signature at the bottom of everything that has my programs, all the places I show up on social media, and then it's got the guidebook right there.

That's awesome. Love to hear that. The next offer then is this $8,100 offer in terms of largest contributor to your overall giveback this year. That was the bundle of courses that you sold to fundraise for Maui Relief. This was a bundle of courses that you sold as a package for $25 total. You shared prior to our interview that this happened over five emails. You did some stories on Instagram. You did a post to Facebook, and this was across about a week's worth of time. Can you share with us anything else that went into this particular campaign that you think would be helpful for our listeners to pull and potentially apply to something of their own if they come across an opportunity where, like you said, they can be light on their feet, quick on their feet, and pull together something quite quickly?

Yes. In this case, this was a bundle of courses. I managed my teacher, like I mentioned, Dr. Roberts Wabota's business under the housing of my business. He has a really strong connection to Maui and this particular place that was very devastating for him. We really leveraged story as a way to help people understand why this mattered. The bundled courses that we offered are usually around $100 to buy all three of them. This was a really good deal. We just were like, this is a flash sale. We offered a deep discount. It was just like a no-brainer. They heard his story. They were like, Okay, I can get $25. I get three courses that are normally $100, and it was just like an easy yes. I think that was the key is leveraging story and then making it really a no-brainer.

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When.

You say leverage story, in what way were you telling this story? Was it written format in the emails? Did you have any video of him speaking face-to-camera that you were embedding in these emails?

Anything in particular? Both. Okay. Yeah, both. We had stories, if I'm telling the audience face-to-camera. Then we also had emails that were written about experiences in Maui and why this mattered to him. I think that moved people to feel like, Oh, I can also do this, give back, and get something at the same time.

Yeah, absolutely. I wonder, this is a question that just popped in my brain, do you tend to see a bigger rally in your community when you are presenting offers that the charitable component makes up basically 100% of proceeds are going towards whatever cause you've chosen compared to, let's say, an offer where it's like a portion of the proceeds are going to a worthwhile cause? Do you see any difference in reaction, whether it's number of sales or even in people's actual responses to you, like sending replies to your emails, maybe sending you a DM in reply to a story? I'm just curious if you've noticed anything in that arena.

Yeah, that's so interesting because there's no way to tell, really, because there's not an example where I'm not doing it with the same offering. But I will say with the summit and with the Maui Give Back and with the Astrology Guidebook, I get a lot of people showing up on sales calls who are like, I want to build a business like yours where I can give 100% back of something like that. People get really excited about it. I know for me, as a consumer, when I see something is 100% giveback, and I know that the person has a business model where that's sustainable. Because if they don't, I'm like, come over, let me help you build that. Because a lot of spirit-led entrepreneurs like myself, they really want to help. And I totally understand that, but we have to have a sustainable business model so that the helping doesn't come out of our cup so that our cup is full. This is something I'm always emphasizing with my people. But I know that when I see 100% give back, I am like, Oh, hell, yeah. I don't even know what the thing is, and I'm buying it.

You know what I mean? I'm like, Where is my credit card? I'm rushing to help. What moves me is that somebody is really trying to make a big impact. I don't know if that extends to, if I can say in any concrete way that there has been a difference, but I really enjoy giving 100 % back. When it's a partial amount, then I have to do more math as well, Ellen. And so it's just easier.

The lazy marketer in all of us. He likes to keep things simple, right? No, I totally get that. I appreciate, too, your reminder that it actually will hold you back in terms of how much you can give if you're not strategic about making sure that the 100% givebacks don't interfere with your ability to sustain your business. Because to your point, if you are so focused on trying to give back every cent you make that you put yourself or your team in survival mode, then it doesn't actually really help anybody, right? If your business folds and you're no longer able to support anyone, including yourself, or if you put yourself in a place where that scarcity or that desperation really comes into play. I love that reminder. I know it's not a black and white answer that you can definitively say, This is when your business is in a sustainable place to be able to do givebacks, because it's so unique to every single person and situation. But do you have any general guidelines that you could impart on our listeners in terms of, These are some of the things that you should look out for to know when you're ready to be able to offer something like a 100% giveback without crushing your own stability, essentially?

I think going back to this feeling that it's all or nothing. I always am working with people at the level of, let's get you to $10,000 a month in earnings in general, but I don't think you have to wait that long before you start to give. One thing I like to tell people is just talking about causes that you care about is giving, right? Because you're bringing attention to them and you have a platform, no matter how big or small your audience is, you can start by just talking about the things that are important to you and you can give a certain amount. I have a web designer who created my website, and she reached out and was trying to fundraise in her community and raise $300 as a give back for girls in Rwanda, at a school in Rwanda. I was like, hell, yeah. I'll add to that pile. But $300, it's really not a big deal. I think you can start wherever you're at. I actually have a pledge that's called the 2K for Change pledge, which is asking online entrepreneurs to sign up to give back $2,000 or more in kind, like in services or in cash in 2024.

I've had people all over the spectrum, Ellen, sign this. I've had people who don't even know how they're going to do that yet. They're new to entrepreneurship, and they are determined. That intention that you've set that you want to do that is also important. Like I said at the beginning of this year, I didn't know how I was going to double it, but I had that strong intention, and I just let that lead me and let my curiosity lead me. That's what I would say to people who are newer to starting out and maybe feel a little intimidated is just get curious. Start by talking about the causes that matter to you and allow that to be part of your point of view and allow that to be part of your marketing to tell that story? Then give back some small amount, whatever feels doable for you.

That's such a beautiful way to respond to that question. I definitely want to circle back to the 2K for change pledge that you just referenced at the end of our time together because I think it's so important. I think everyone listening to this episode should go sign the pledge, should take part in it. I know I am planning to do that. We'll get back to that in just a moment. But I did want to piggyback off of some of the ideas that you shared around how it doesn't have to be 100% give-back. It could be something simple, it could be an end kind. Just to give our listeners a few more tangible examples of how we've implemented that in our business, an example would be my own speaking services, let's say, or MCAP services. These are typically things that I charge for. It's part of my package of services that people can hire me for. But for certain nonprofits, or for certain worthy causes, I'm willing to perform those services free of charge, and that can be an example of a giveback of an in-kind service that you would normally charge for. Or I'm thinking of even upcoming in our local community, there's a charity gala for a really important organization that services children who have been in harmful situations and are coming out of that system and trying to be placed in good homes.

They asked for donations from different businesses that can be auctioned off. As a media company, we don't have a lot of tangible products that we can offer. But one of the ideas that came to mind that we decided to move forward with was providing a certificate that essentially whoever bids on this package of items and wins, they would receive a complementary ad spot and ad run on our podcast. Again, that's advertising packages that we normally charge businesses for, but we're giving that away as a way to help this organization raise funds. I think things can be a lot more simple than people may imagine. I'm even thinking over this past week, when I was scrolling on Instagram, on Giving Tuesday, an example that really stood out that I love, my friend, Amynterfield, she had made this post sharing a cause that was very personal to her. She basically said, Whoever is the first person that wants to make a $5,000 donation to this organization and send me the receipt, you will receive a two-hour strategy call with me, which I don't think Amy even offers one-on-one coaching ever. It's a special thing that you normally can buy.

And also the value of her time and her expertise is worth probably far more than 5,000, honestly, for the two hours. It's a great way to involve someone to give a big contribution, but it's only a couple of hours of your time. I just wanted to add those additional ideas for our listeners in case something sparks for you all. But I love this conversation. Is there anything you wanted to.

Add to that, Paula? Yeah, I love that. That's so great because I think sometimes we don't realize that we are giving back in a lot of ways. I have a program that is a $5,000 investment, and I had somebody reach out who's working at a nonprofit in India, and that was a lot of money for her nonprofit to sponsor her for. I gave her a position and 50% off. That already qualifies me for the 2K for change pledge was just giving my time and allowing her to come in at 50% off.

It's a scholarship.

I think there's a lot of ways that we don't even think about that we're giving back already.

Yeah, that's such a great reminder. There's so many ideas. This is why I love talking with people like you, because I think when you get in these rooms and you start hearing what other people are doing, you can't help but think of all these creative ways that you can make a contribution to. Anyways, thank you for taking that tangent with me, Paula. Getting back to the list of offers that have helped contribute towards your total fundraising amount this year. The one that comes in at third in terms of largest contribution is $8,000 that came from donating a percentage of your program sales. You said you added this to the sales page as a giveback component. You also mentioned it in one of your sales emails during the launch. Can you share with us what this program was? What percentage did you decide to allocate towards this giveback, and how did you execute that?

Yes. This, again, comes from the business of Dr. Roberts Fabotas, who's my business manager. He doesn't have a lot of smaller ticket items to give back, but giving is a really big part of what he stands for as well because we come from the same spiritual background, and we knew that if we were going to build a business that we wanted to include giving back. This is his signature program, which is called the Satsanga, which it basically means community in Sanskrit. But essentially, this is access to all of his programs for a year and then regular or Q&A's. And so we have a really loyal group of people that join every year. And then new people join. It's about $35 a month or $350 a year. And this is just a straight percentage of what we sold. So it's like 5% of what we sold during our initial sale. So we ended up doing a second sale in September because there were a lot of people who were trying to get in. It's not an evergreen product, but this was just a straight 5% of that.

And how did you word that on the sales page or in that sales email? Also curious why you chose to mention in just one sales email versus in every sales email. Was there any specific reason for that, or is that just how it happened to turn out?

In this case, we usually do a launch where we have a series of emails that we introduce people to the product because he's always acquiring new people to his list, and so we just start from scratch. We're introducing the product. Why is this so useful? Here's some testimonials. Then there's one email in the sequence during the sale that is just about the giveback. It's about the cause that we're choosing. It's why this cause is important to us, how this money helps. It's just one email. We do mention that, I think, in stories as well. I'm pretty sure that we talk about it more on Instagram. We've done Instagram Lives in the past with the places that we've given back so that somebody who runs the program will do a live with Dr. Roberts Vota, and then that will bring attention to their cause. Maybe people will decide to give to them even if they don't sign up. But then we mentioned that this is for sale and that they can join. We've tried different things like that and those have been successful.

That's really cool that you're bringing it full circle too for the people who have donated to see their money and action and what it's going towards. Okay, that makes sense from the perspective of basically centering an entire email around the giveback component. I thought you meant it was just like a mention embedded somewhere in a regular sales email, so that makes a lot of sense. The next offer is one that you've already mentioned, The Signature Summit, and that one brought in about $6,100. I love that you followed Marisa's model. Marisa's episode, by the way, like Paula mentioned, is so awesome, so tactical. Again, it will be linked in the show notes if you haven't listened yet. But just a quick recap for anyone who hasn't listened, the case study in Marisa's episode is all about how to utilize a virtual summit to grow your email list by 500 to 2,000 leads in one week. Now, of course, that's the attraction of utilizing a summit in your business as a marketing strategy. But the really awesome aspect that Paula is centering in on here is the giveback portion where the summit is free to attend. But if you want to keep access to the replays or if you want to get some other bonuses, there's an upsell option where you can buy that VIP bundle is usually how it's positioned.

And 100 % of the sales from that go towards whatever cause has been designated for that summit. I know Marisa has done many, many seasons of her copy chat. That's her signature summit. Then another recent guest on the podcast is Brenna McGowen, who her episode, I can't remember, I think either airs right before yours, Paula, or right after. Depending on when you're listening to this, it may or may not be out. But if it is, we'll link it in the show notes. Brenna also modeled one of her summits, her boxer-based summits, actually audio-based summits, after Marisa's as well and did a giveback component. It's cool to see this common thread weaving throughout several different individuals in our community. But I'd love for you to break down a little bit how you specifically implemented this. That upsell component, from what I understand, the price changed throughout the summit. Can you talk a little bit about that? Then you also said you gave people an option to just straight-up donate a certain amount outside of actually buying the VIP upgrade. Can you also share a little bit more insight on that?

Yeah. Our featured charity for this event was Sole Fire Farm, which empowers Black and Indigenous farmers. They're located in upstate New York, but they do a lot for the larger community of Black farmers, especially around the country. They're somebody that I had known and worked with when I was in journalism, so I was very familiar with their work and I've seen them grow. I was really excited to feature them. My summit's topic as well is called the Cosmic Business Salon. We're going to be doing that again next year. Essentially, it's about building what I call a cosmic business. This is a business that has values at the center. It's centered around your purpose. It's burnout-proof, so it's focused on your health, being centered in your business. It's all about collaboration. Those are the four pillars of the Cosmic Business Model. Basically, I'm teaching that to people, and Giving Back is in the title I talk about, so you can bankroll the change you want to see, right? That's one of my catchphrases. That's all built in. I think people were excited about the concept and then the fact that we were actually doing what we were saying.

This was the first time we'd done the summit. We brought in 1,200 leads and we had $27 upsell. We were selling right upfront after they signed up for free, so they'd have access during the window of time that week for free. But then they could, like you said, buy the upgrade, get access to the recordings and some other bonus recordings and workshops. We actually put in the checkout that they had the option to pay $100 and it would still be 100% giveback. It was crazy. So many people did it. That was just an idea that I had. It was like a hairbrain idea. I was like, Well, I don't know if I was offered that, I would probably do it because I see it's going to this cool charity. We just put it on there and it blew up. I can't remember exactly how many people we had Convert, but we ended up with $6,100 to give to the charity. I would say maybe 5% or something. Maybe not that much. Maybe 2% gave $100. I was surprised that anybody did it, though. I was just like, wow this is cool.

Yeah, that is such an interesting test of human behavior, human psychology. We actually, not from a charitable perspective necessarily, although I guess you could maybe position it that way if you were looking at it as providing a scholarship to our community. But the most recent round of Pay to Create, which is our three-day live challenge for course creators, we decided to do a Pay What You Want model. It was part experiment, part celebration and give back because it was our 10th cohort and we wanted to give everyone the ability to participate and make the financial investment a non-issue. It was really interesting because the minimum investment for that was $10, but there were many people who chose, I can't remember the exact percentage either off the top of my head, but there were many people who chose to give far beyond that. I think there were even some who chose to invest hundreds of dollars when they could have theoretically paid just 10. I love hearing stories like that because I think sometimes the stories that get attention are the ones of sometimes the darker side of human behavior. But I think it's also really cool to highlight that when people are given a choice to do more than the bare minimum, there are many, many people who step up to do so.

I think that's really powerful. I know you just said that you don't remember exactly the percentage of people or number of people who actually the free registrants, the 1,200, how many of those people actually bought the upsell? But do you even have a vague ballpark of like, is it less than half, more.

Than half? I think it was between 10 and 20 % that actually paid for the upgrade of those 1,200. But a lot of them are still on my list. It's not like we lost a whole bunch of people after that event was over. I think we lost maybe 20 % at this point have dropped off, but that's totally normal, I think.

Absolutely. Super, super powerful. I'm excited for those of you who are just coming across this concept of the summit for the first time to dive even deeper based on Paula's own testimony of how she's been able to do it, but then also listening to Marisa's episode where we break down that strategy in a lot more depth. All right, our last offer that contributed to your $37,200 this year, Paula, is your Black Friday sales donation of $2,500. This was a sale of one workshop, 100% proceeds, and then you also did 5% of sales on another course. Can you expand on what this campaign looks like?

Yes. Inside my company, we had five different sales that went on during that period. In the Dr. Roberts-fabota category, we had one offer that was on sale. It was one bundle of courses that were about iRVeta and the microbiome. It's excellent content, by the way, if you're looking to help yourself with your health and really find good strategies for making yourself have a happy microbiome, which is the cutting edge science mixed with Ayurveda. Anyway, that we did 5% giveback. Then one of my offers, so I had four separate offers within Weaver, Bliss's offerings, and one of them we donated 100%Lend. That was a lower ticket workshop. It was only on sale for one day, and we raised a little bit over $700 in that one sale. Then we were able to give that back to The Living, Dying Project, which is a project that helps people at the end of life have a conscious experience of dying, but also helps to allow people to live consciously through spiritual practice. It's a really cool cause. It was just something that I decided at the last minute. I was like, we're just going to do a gift back on this smaller course because this course is really powerful and it's going to get people into my world and they're going to have an experience with me and then maybe they'll buy from me later.

So cool. I feel like this conversation is incredibly inspiring, Paula, because someone listening in, even what you just shared, you last-minute decided, Hey, I'll add in this workshop, and it raised $700. I feel like the key takeaway here, as you're listening to this conversation today is even if you can't give yet at the level that Paula has expressed today, any one of these ideas or campaigns that we covered, and I think what we covered, five different offers today or five different separate campaigns that contributed towards that $37,000 and give back, if you implemented even one or even a fraction of one, like Paula just shared, you're still able to do something. My hope for you all listening is that you've heard something today that sparks an idea for you that you can implement in 2024, which really leads directly to Paula's 2k for change pledge and how you can participate and get involved. So, Paula, I know you gave us a high level of what it is. I know you have a really ambitious, but I think also very realistic goal of getting 5,000 business owners to come on, which just so you all know, I was so excited about the number that you have on your landing page for this.

If 5,000 business owners commit to giving back 2,000 in either cash or in-kind donations, that's $10 million that we, as small business owners, as a community, can come together and do. I think that's so mind-blowing because sometimes we think and we read about in the news like, Oh, someone made a $15 million donation to so and so, and we think to ourselves, Oh, my gosh, how are we ever going to be able to do that? But the power of that old adage, like many hands make light work, I think 2,000 feels very realistic. Anyways, I will be quiet now and let you take the stage on why this is so important and where people can go to participate.

Thank you so much, Ellen. For me, $10 million felt like a really significant amount of money, and it got me really excited. When I think about the people in our world who have a ton of money, they're actually like as a percentage of their income, they're not giving back that much. We have the potential. We don't have to wait for billionaires or for the government to make change. We can actually all make change together. For me, I've been sitting with this for a long time before creating this pledge, and 2000 felt like a real sweet spot. It felt like a place that was a little challenging, but it's an amount that you actually may be already giving that back and you don't realize it, like we've been talking about today. Then I just did the math and I was like, Wow, only if 5,000 people signed that, it would be $10 million. That's a huge amount of change. We can all sit around and say things aren't going well in the world. It's not hard to find an example of that. But when you're actually making change, even if it's a small way, one thing I found is that most people who are giving back, it's personal.

It's something that has touched their life, or it's something that's meaningful to them, or it's a cause that's in their local community. It's very personal. We can see the impact we're making, and that actually can change the way that we feel about what's happening in the world. It can really change our lives. My invitation is to join me in signing this pledge so that you can be a part of this movement. Because I really do believe as online business owners, we can have a movement to really change the world with our work. That's our legacy. We're building a legacy. We're building businesses that live beyond us and that have an impact beyond us. You can go to bit. Ly, B-I-T. Ly/2k for change, and you'll get all the details there. Literally, you just sign your name and you're added to a list. You're not added to my personal list. Don't worry, it's just a list that we're gathering of folks who signed it. Then when we get to 5,000, which I am pretty sure we will because I'm excited about it and I keep talking about it, hopefully we will get to 5,000, I will send out one email letting everyone know, Hey, we got to 5,000.

Please do sign it. That's so cool.

I'm so excited to sign it. You all should take a moment to sign it. We'll make sure the link is below, but just for you audio listeners who are typing away as we go. 2k, as in the digit, two, not spelled out. Two, right? Yeah. Okay, the number two. Okay, perfect. I'm so excited. I really believe it is within reach, and I can't wait to receive that email. Also, it would be really cool to receive emails on how people have chosen to give their 2k highlighting different entrepreneurs, because even with this conversation, I think the more ideas we see out there in the world, the more we're like, Oh, I didn't even think to do something like that. That's actually really simple. I can totally implement that right now with the resources I have.

I'm really glad you said that, Ellen, because I actually do have a survey as well that people can fill out because I was curious. If people are already giving $37,000 back, we may get to that $10 million number earlier. There's also a survey and I can provide the link for you as well. That just talks about where is your growing edge around this, where are you giving back already? Then I can gather some data and share that with everybody.

That would be absolutely incredible to see that data and really see tangibly. Well, I love data. So to really see that impact-driven work, I'm very inspired. I've said that many times today, Paul, but I'm very inspired. And this conversation very much filled my cup. So thank you for coming on today. Thank you for sharing so transparently your own numbers and how you've implemented this strategy in your business. And where else can people connect with you just to follow your work and to say hi?

Sure. Yeah, I'm on Instagram. I hang out there. It's @weaveyourbliss. Weaveyourbliss. Com is my website. Feel free to send me an email, say hi, send me a DM, say hi. I'd love to hear from you. I also have a podcast called The Cosmic Business Podcast where I interview people. Hopefully, I'll have you on and we can talk. I interview people who are doing things to build what I called earlier, Cosmic Business, that have values at the center that are really about collaboration and all these different pieces. You'll get interviews there and also my astrology insights.

Awesome. Well, I can't wait to be a guest on your show. When I am, I will make sure to link back that published episode in the show notes as well. If you're finding this conversation months down the line, you might be in luck, check the show notes if it's there. Thank you again, Paula, for joining me today.

Thank you so much.

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