Destinee Berman has been called the secret visionary behind today’s most widely recognized online schools in the intuitive arts and spiritual healing spaces. After 15 years in Silicon Valley managing accounts for Twitter, Oracle Marketing Cloud, IAC, Destinee left in 2014 and today is a launch strategist and manager behind many of the most successful programs in this industry including Ashley Turner, Sianna Sherman’s wildly successful Urban Priestess Mystery School, and Debra Silverman’s applied astrology online school – successes that have magnified their impact in the lives of thousands of women around the world. Thank you so much for being here.
In This Episode
Destinee Berman has been called the secret visionary behind today’s most widely recognized online schools in the intuitive arts and spiritual healing spaces. After leaving her successful career in Silicon Valley, she found her passion in normalizing the conversation around astrology, mediumship, and psychic ability. In this episode, she shares how she teaches modern marketing to her clients, helping them run successful six and seven figure launch campaigns.
Topic Timeline:
1:32 Product Launches: On the Ground, IRL
A six or seven figure launch takes three to four months of proper lead nurturing and engaging of both your pre-existing list and your newly generated leads.
2:53 An Outdated Launch Model
Two launches a year is great for an infusion of revenue, but it’s not the whole picture.
4:03 Getting Mentors for a Smoother Ride
Instead of waiting to hit certain targets before jumping into groups and mentoring networks, jump now to hit those targets faster.
5:01 From Talk to Action
Mentoring and mastermind groups are great, but turning that knowledge into actionable tools takes balance and prioritization.
6:51 Modern Marketing 101
Teaching marketing doesn’t start with segmentation or personalization. Get back to the basics with landing pages or email marketing.
8:10 From Facebook to Webinar to Email
Destinee generates new leads using Facebook and Instagram ads that lead to free webinars combined with an email nurturing campaign, but the majority of her clients come from referrals.
9:30 Looking Towards the Future
Launching new products to teach her clients modern marketing is on the horizon for Destinee Berman LLC.
10:47 A Six-Figure Launch
Going from marketing strategist to product launcher was made possible for Destinee by focusing on affiliates and utilizing her network.
12:01 What’s It All For?
As yoga and meditation become mainstream, Destinee hopes to normalize the conversation around astrology and mediumship through helping her clients find success.
13:17 The Importance of Passion
Caring about the outcome and having passion for what you’re doing is the key to making it through the hard parts of modern entrepreneurship.
– Destinee Berman
Show Transcript:
LR: Destinee Berman has been called the secret visionary behind today’s most widely recognized online schools in the intuitive arts and spiritual healing spaces. After 15 years in Silicon Valley managing accounts for Twitter, Oracle Marketing Cloud, IAC, Destinee left in 2014 and today is a launch strategist and manager behind many of the most successful programs in this industry including Ashley Turner, Sianna Sherman’s wildly successful Urban Priestess Mystery School, and Debra Silverman’s applied astrology online school – successes that have magnified their impact in the lives of thousands of women around the world. Thank you so much for being here.
DB: Happy to be here.
LR: Just to be clear, we were just talking about what it is that you do. You actually took this enterprise grade marketing education and brought it into this spiritual education space and are running launches for these women who have these online programs. Also, you have a program of your own teaching spiritual business owners how to run their own businesses. Is that about right?
DB: Yes. Yes, that’s right.
LR: Awesome. Tell me what it’s like. People hear about launches, and people want to talk about launches. And obviously people know where to go to buy product launch formula and stuff like that. On the ground, in real life, you’re running a big launch, what does that look like? What does that work entail?
DB: Well, there’s a lot of work. I would say, as an example, there’s hundreds, and hundreds of steps. Right? Typically, people think they can just put a sales page up and launch in two weeks. It’s really three to four months of proper lead building, nurturing, engaging your people, and then you open cart and you do that in a very specific way. I would say generally three to four months, if you’re looking at multiple six and seven figure launches.
LR: What are we talking about, lead nurturing of the existing list? Or, are you building leads? What is happening in those three or four months?
DB: Both. There is building new leads with ads, especially Facebook, Instagram. Then you’re nurturing with video webinars. They are just a great way to nurture people. You’re doing challenges, if that’s your thing. You’re driving traffic to a Facebook group, if that’s your thing. There’s a couple of key strategies you can use for every single launch. You focus on that, and then you open.
Now, I should also say that the multiple six and seven figures are for teachers who have established an audience and we’re really looking to open up the online education space to the people they’ve been working with.
LR: Now, tell me what you think about the launch model in general. It’s been around a while now – a lot of launches have happened. There are people who continue to run launches as a business model. There are also folks who are starting to feel like it’s not really sustainable. You actually need to have a business that can sell every single day. Somebody who runs some of the biggest launches. What is your thought on this right now?
DB: Okay. So, launches are great. I think that they’re always going to have a market for launches. Let’s say your doing two launches a year of your flagship program. That’s great. But, you want to look at it as a whole business. And you have Evergreen Products. Right? So, maybe lower price point products, sustainable products that you are building funnels on over time. You have higher end ticket items that are generally more profitable, especially if you build a bigger audience to convert. You want to upsell, you want to cross sell, but you can always have your strategic two launches per year. You just don’t want to always and only rely on those two launches, because it’s a roller coaster; it’s high pressure. It’s great for an infusion of revenue, but you also want to add in other products over time.
LR: Yeah. Now, let’s talk about your business. You started off just a few years ago, we’re in 2018. Right? So, four years ago-ish?
DB: Yes.
LR: You built a consulting business. If you could go back and give yourself some tips now about how to make that process smoother, what would you tell yourself?
DB: I would get mentors a lot sooner in the process. What I kind of found was I was playing this game with myself like, “If I can get my business to this certain level, then I can join that mastermind, I can join that group coaching, I’d be good enough.” What I realized pretty quickly, about two years in, was if I can put all that aside, and I joined the right groups and get surrounded by the right mentors who can get me to the next level, I can accelerate five to ten times faster. But, you’ve got to work through a lot of things when it comes to that. Right? Whether it be, being humble, accepting guidance and trusting other people. I would recommend that for anyone who is starting their business.
LR: Get help sooner.
DB: Yes.
LR: Get yourself surrounded by the right people. One of the things I found, because I’ve certainly been in the groups and done the stuff, I found that a lot of people join the groups and there’s so much tips and advice and this new strategy and why aren’t you using mini-chat and blah, blah, blah, and coming home after two or three days and distilling that into some shit you’re actually going to do, can be like so overwhelming that often times it just doesn’t even happen. How do you turn that experience into actionable plan?
DB: One of my strengths is really focusing, so I can figure out what to prioritize based on resources, priorities, results, like that. That’s something that comes up for all my clients and my students. It’s like how do I pick the top two or three strategies to really focus on? A lot of that is just getting clear in your values, getting on, “Okay, I have two people who are going to work on this project? Where can I focus on that can move the lever the most to get to the next result, and then build and reinvest from there?”
If you try to do too much, that’s not going to help. If you try to do too little, that’s not going to help. It does take time, but I do believe that’s doable over time. But, it’s really getting real with where you’re at and then picking the two or three things to really focus on.
LR: Yeah. My next question is usually what is your unique skill set? You just said it’s about prioritizing. Do you feel like there’s something else I missed?
DB: I’m good at focusing and I’m good at shifting perspective. I feel like that’s where it’s really helped me tap into this market. Because I’m essentially translating marketing automation language for a group of people, healers and teachers, who maybe traditionally haven’t even understood marketing, much less modern marketing.
LR: Yeah.
DB: So, I would say shifting perspective from being able to translate is really one of my strengths. Then focusing is right below that.
LR: Right. Let’s just say that it’s not going to be a likely story to teach the high priestesses Eloqua, but maybe figuring out to teach him how to focus and prioritize is possible. How do you do that? How do you teach somebody to figure out what’s most important?
DB: Well, I would say that it is possible to teach priestesses around the world modern marketing 101. Maybe you don’t start with crazy segmentation, but you start with a landing page that converts. You start with email campaigns that are one call to action instead of a newsletter with 10 different things. So that’s one. And that ties directly to focusing and prioritizing. Right? Because you are asking people to do one thing, instead of sending out ten million different things. You’re asking people to focus on watching one video, reading one blog. So, ironically it actually ties together. And in the beginning it’s a little crazy for some people. They are not even used to using Google Drive, much less using LeadPages and then Ontraport integration. But, over time, it is doable. I have seen amazing ritual and ceremony brought on Zoom Web, like on Zoom webinar, that previously wasn’t thought possible. But, it’s a step-by-step process.
LR: Yeah. Got it. In terms of growing your own business, what’s working to get yourself new clients today?
DB:That’s a good question. Lots of ads. So, I do spend a good amount of money on Facebook and Instagram ads. Then we nurture those ads.
LR: Facebook and Instagram.
DB: Yes. Yes.
LR: What do those ads say?
DB: They’ll drive to a free webinar. They’ll drive to a lead magnet. Or, they’ll drive to my Waitlist Page that I’ve re-targeted new people on. A couple of different entry points. Then I nurture them with a weekly email that typically drives to a short video. So, we build all that up. Most of my private clients come through referrals. I take very good care of my clients. And that generates a lot of referrals as well.
LR: For the high end stuff?
DB: Correct. Exactly.
LR: But for the rest of the business, it’s ads. Instagram ads.
DB: Instagram ads work well.
LR: How is that working for you?
DB: It’s great. The targeting is layered in with Facebook, yes. A lot of the spiritual business owners, they love Instagram and, in fact, it seems less clutter-y than Facebook itself.
LR: Because it is.
DB: Right. Exactly. And it drives more engagement. It does work, as long as you’re nurturing people, and you’re getting exposure that way. Then also affiliates. Some of my best clients will share about me to their lists and their audience. There’s a level of trust that just comes from that.
LR: Yeah. That’s something that you just build up over time.
DB: Exactly.
LR: Yeah. Good. What’s next for you? What are you learning? What’s the cutting edge for you?
DB: What am I learning? Well, currently I’m reading the book called Sacred Success by Barbara Stanny. It’s really diving into expanding our power to earn and to grow. That book’s been really valuable. Then launching new products. I’m launching a suite of new products for spiritual business owners to really learn modern marketing in a more accessible and foundational way.
LR: But, you’ve done that a bunch of times? Right? You’ve launched products like left and right. You feel like it’s much different doing it for yourself than it is for your customers?
DB: It is very different?
LR: Why?
DB: My first launch, I went through my own initiatory process. It was really intense, because it’s your name on the front.
LR: Yeah. It’s interesting.
DB: And when it’s someone else’s, there’s always some reason it didn’t work, or could have worked better. When it’s you, it’s like all out.
LR: Yeah. How did you deal with that?
DB: I have a great team. I have a therapist. I have my own special teachers. I have my business coaches. That’s kind of what it is. You move through that, because I was really committed to the vision. And that’s what I tell my clients. I need to walk my own walk. It was a couple of really intense days for my first cart, but we did a six figure launch and it was great.
LR: Congratulations.
DB: Thank you.
LR: Awesome. Let’s see, can I ask this and if you don’t want to answer, that’s fine. But I’m just curious. You did a six figure launch. You’re, in terms of as an educator yourself, you’re relatively unknown, right? Because you’re known as a high end launch manager, but as a product owner …
DB: I just launched in February. Right.
LR: So, you’re coming out of the gate fresh as a newborn lamb, and you just did a six figure launch. So, you spent three, four months in advance of that generating leads to what, landing pages and videos, is that right?
DB: I don’t know if all of this is going to make it, but for my first launch, I focused on affiliates.
LR: Okay. Because you had your friends?
DB: Yes, because I knew that was going to build the quickest amount of trust.
LR: Sure.
DB: I did it by leads, of course. I did my webinars. I did all of that. But, I had a big focus on affiliates that had…people watched their work the last three years, and they knew what they launched.
LR: Yeah.
DB: All they had to say was that I was their secret weapon, and it was all true. Then that drove a lot of the conversions.
LR: There’s something about actually having produced results that makes things work a lot easier?
DB: Yes. Exactly. That’s right.
LR: Okay. Awesome. What’s it all for? What would you like your legacy to be years from now when you look back on what you spent your career doing?
DB: Two things. One, I would love for the conversation around astrology and psychic and mediumship to be normalized. Right. So, yoga and meditation have become mainstream. And there is a whole world of the intuitive and the mystical arts that can really be normalized and used in day to day life.
LR: Wow.
DB: Then two, really enabling all these business owners, who maybe weren’t charging what they really can be charging and believing that they can venture into this space. Many of my clients didn’t believe they could have an astrology school that’s so successful or oracle cards and it’s really amazing to see. More of that.
LR: Yeah. Awesome. I interviewed someone the other day who said, “I want to live in a world with more women leaders.” There’s something super powerful about that. I’m not an astrology guy, as you can probably guess, but just having that vision, where, “I want to live in a world where people take astrology seriously,” it’s like there’s some kind of like funk to that, that you go like, “Oh, I get what this is all about.” There’s a lot of people doing a lot of businesses that may not have that heart connection with the ultimate big result. How important do you think that is to being successful?
DB: So important. I mean, to be fair, I was very successful in my previous life, in the previous career, but I left, because I wanted to do something that was more personally meaningful to me. Right. So, that was a great world, and I learned a lot. I translated that, but I think it’s so important. Especially, because having your own business, it’s a roller coaster ride. Right? You’re growing every day. My spiritual growth has never been so expanded, when I stepped into my own business, and I thought I had a challenging job before.
LR: Yeah. Yeah. I totally hear you. So, there is something about really having the outcome matter that helps you get through the dips?
DB: Yes.
LR: Yeah. I totally hear it. What does it mean to be a modern entrepreneur?
DB: To me, it’s pretty much everything online, because that’s been in my world from day one.
LR: Yeah.
DB: Using only marketing, segmentation, personalization, clean, intuitive experience. I can’t really get away from any of that.
LR: You think the defining experience of being an entrepreneur today is about the internet?
DB: Yes. I believe that.
LR: And about experience?
DB: That’s right.
LR: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate your time.
DB: Thank you.
LR: That was awesome. Would you sign our wall?
DB: Yes.
LR: Thank you.
Want more Modern Ontrapreneur Podcast?
Check out the previous episode featuring business leader Dina Lynch-Eisenberg.
