Most businesses do not have a product problem. They have a messaging problem.
This Hot Seat session dives into why focusing on features and deliverables is costing you sales and what to do instead. Lori breaks down how to connect your offer to emotion, rethink pricing, and build a growth strategy that actually creates momentum.
If your numbers are not where you want them to be, this is where to start.
What You’ll Learn:
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Why emotional connection matters more than what you are selling
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How to rethink pricing without undercutting your value
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Simple growth strategies using podcast guesting and social media
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Resources:
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Apply for a “Hot Seat” coaching session to work through your business challenges live:
0:00:11 Introductions & Susan’s Story
0:03:24 Vision, Goals & Current Numbers
0:06:57 Messaging — Selling the Emotion, Not the Envelope
0:16:06 Building Community & Pricing Strategy
0:25:14 Growth Strategy — Podcast Guesting & Social Media
0:26:50 Biggest Aha & Wrap-Up
Chapter 1: Introductions & Susan’s Story
[00:00:11]
Lori: Hi there, and welcome to the Midlife Business Academy. Today, we have a hot seat coaching episode, and I am so excited about our guest in the hot seat today. Welcome, Susan McMullen from Posts from the Garden.
Susan: Thank you. I’m delighted to be here. Thank you so much for having me today. So I’m very excited.
Lori: Yes, I am so excited ’cause you’re different and you’re different.
Susan: Well, I’m different.
Lori: But, and— That’s what I say. I always, first of all, we’re gonna laugh a lot because we do. And Susan and I met a couple of years ago because I actually bought some plants from her. I went over to her house, bought plants. And it was just like we sat there and talked for 30, like we’d known each other forever. So we’ve stayed in touch. She’s very close to me and we stayed in touch and we kind of followed each other. And then, I don’t know, about a month ago from this recording, we went and spent the day together and went and bought plants. And it was like she was talking to me about what she was doing. And I was like, all right, you need to come on and let’s be on the episode. So having given the background, let’s dive.
Susan: Alrighty.
Lori: Do it. Tell me, tell me what you’re doing.
Susan: Okay. So I started a snail mail letter club, and as we were driving to the, to go buy plants, you and I, you said, tell me what you’re doing. And I said, that tells you right there that my messaging is not good. So there’s a snail mail letter club. It’s called Post in the Gardens. And, um, I love being in the garden. I’m midlife, I just turned 65, probably past midlife, just turned 65. And I’m a retired nurse. And I find great peace and solace in the garden. Love being in there. And lots of stories have come out of the garden because my favorite thing to do is to weed, if you know me at all. I just weed and weed and get great thoughts. It’s kind of like taking a shower. So many stories have come from just weeding in the garden.
So I started the Snail Mail Club because I wanted it to be a more intentional thing. The world is crazy right now. Sometimes days it feels like it’s just falling apart. And I want to be able to, people to be able to receive something once a month. Go to the mailbox, it not be a flyer or a bill, but actually get a letter and maybe a colored envelope that sticks out, has an actual stamp on it, and you’re excited to open it and grab a cup of tea, a cup of coffee, and just cup of squat somewhere, sit down and read the letter and savor it. And have some little extra things inside. And I also am a self-taught watercolor colorist, I guess is the word. And I’ve been doing that for several years. And so it includes a print of mine and includes some stickers that I’ve made, usually something I’ve painted from the garden and then a little surprise in there. So it’s, the purpose though was really to slow down in this crazy world and enjoy a moment of calm. And so that’s where it came from.
Chapter 2: Vision, Goals & Current Numbers
[00:03:24]
Lori: Perfect, perfect. So close your eyes. Figuratively, not literally, although you can’t literally, and think about where you would like for this business to be in 6 months. What do you see?
Susan: You know, I think one of the biggest things was to build community, because I think people, people miss people. They miss tangible things. We’re inundated with AI and things of the such. So my goal really was to build a community of people who wanted to receive the letters. We could all share the same story. And I would love to see it at, you know, 1000, 2000, 3000 letters. And that is a lofty goal because I stuff every letter. So it is a very lofty goal. But that is where I’d like to see it, because I’d like to see the community build to that and be able to touch that many people.
Lori: Right. Very cool. Very cool. So yes, that is a lofty goal, especially with where you are right now. How many memberships do you have right now?
Susan: Well, I have, actually, I think I have 16.
Lori: Okay.
Susan: I am very grateful for every single one of them. I have, because I offer a subscription, which is a monthly letter. And then I also offer gifts. So for three months or six months or even a single letter gift. And so I can’t, off the top of my head, I don’t know exactly, but I think it’s 16 in total and maybe six of those are actual subscriptions once a month.
Lori: Okay.
Susan: So people who…
Lori: And you’ve only been doing this, what, like two months, a month?
Susan: I’m in second month. I’m getting ready to send out my second letter, 1st of May. Yes. Which, so like to me, that is huge. Like that is a lot of people all of a sudden.
Lori: Yes. I was going to, because you kind of laughed when I asked you.
Susan: I know.
Lori: But it’s like, you first month out, you got 16 paying people.
Susan: I know, right? 16 people who said, I want to read the story. I want to slow down. I want to be intentional. I want to see what you have to say. And that is amazing to me. And I am thrilled with every single one of those. I think like everyone else, the social media is in all of our faces, right? And so you know how the algorithm is. You put in one thing and suddenly you see hundreds of the same thing coming back at you. So I see lots and lots of snail mail clubs that are out there. And that comparison game can kill you, right? Comparison’s Thief of Joy. And you can look at it and you say, well, that person offers all this or this person offers this. And the reason I don’t offer all of that is because the purpose is to slow down a little bit. If I were offering, I’d be like a crazy person. And I don’t want to just scab somebody something to give them stuff. I want it to be purposeful and something they can enjoy and pass on to somebody else, if they really want to. And so, so yes, that is one, but talking about the numbers, some of these people, which good for them totally, but they start out with, 1050, they have a waiting list, they jump to 1000, then they have 5000. And then, and I’m like, I don’t think I can handle that if I grew that fast for one.
Lori: But.
Susan: Scrambled over my other. But it would be, it’d be fun, right? Like, it’d be like, wow, what are they doing that’s getting that? So I really have to stay, I have to stay grounded, really grounded in me and, and my purpose for doing it. And like that.
Chapter 3: Messaging — Selling the Emotion, Not the Envelope
[00:06:57]
Lori: All right. So let’s back up for just a second. Because how do you, I heard a lot of language in there that is really good when you describe this. So I’m brand new. I don’t know what you do. I don’t know what you’re offering. Right. Give me in 30 words or less. Tell me. All right, I’ll give you— You’re asking a lot there.
Susan: Okay.
Lori: I’ll give you 40. Tell me what you’re doing.
Susan: So I have, well, that counts as two words, right? I have— You have 10 left. I filled it with filler words, right? I have a snail mail club, which is a subscription, a once a month subscription for letters. You receive a letter once a month. It has a letter in it that is like a letter to a friend, tells a story. It has a couple of stickers in there. It has a watercolor, a print of a watercolor painting I have done, and it has a little surprise. And the purpose is to intentionally be able to receive something physically in your hand so you can slow down and be intentional and sit down and have a moment of calm in this crazy world.
Lori: All right. There you go.
Susan: That was a lot of words.
Lori: Yeah, I think you blew out the 40, but all right. But when we get, when you said at the very end, you said, so they can slow down in this crazy world. When somebody gets your letter in your envelope, what do they feel?
Susan: I’d like them to be able to feel like excitement for receiving it, wonderment for what the surprise is inside or what the story is, and a little bit of calm. Like they can disappear for a moment in the calm.
Lori: All right, that’s what you’re selling. You’re not selling a snail mail membership or an envelope with a letter and goodies. You are selling the emotion of what this does. And I think that’s where some of your disconnect, you’re trying to describe what it is. Instead of selling the feeling. Because looking, and I went back and looked, you know, I get your social media. Right. And I’ve gone back and looked at a couple of them. And you’re really, really good at describing that calm and describing that feeling and that intentionality of what you’re trying to do. Where you’re falling short is on asking them to sign up for it. Say, you know, let me send, how would you like a letter? I’ll send you a letter. Instead of, I can send you this feeling every month. What is your happy place? What is, so that is where I’m seeing there’s a little bit of a disconnect in going in and just asking for the order because this is what I’m offering you. Not a very soft sell, not a, you know, if you feel like it, just come sign up. It’s a, I can send you this every month. This is how you get this happy feeling every month.
Susan: Ah, that is, that is, that is monumental because I am very, um, well, you know, you can, or if you don’t, whatever you want to, or.
Lori: I don’t want to push anybody.
Susan: Yeah, I don’t want to be pushy.
Lori: Sales are yucky.
Susan: Yeah.
Lori: Right.
Susan: But that is very, I love that.
Lori: Okay, good.
Susan: I love that. Good. And, and I know, I know that you’re, I know that in marketing you are really reaching for the feelings. I just know, I have a very hard time putting that into, into words and into social media.
Lori: All right. So I’m gonna disagree with you on that.
Susan: Okay.
Lori: You do a beautiful job of putting that into it. That’s what you do really, really well. What happens is in that last 20 seconds or so, when you’re doing the call to action or asking for the order, then it becomes like, oh, maybe I’ll send it to you. Because the rest of it is like spot on, Susan. It is, when I went back and I, because I’m thinking about it in terms of, you know, how can I help? What’s a good strategy? I’m like, you’re really good, really, really good at saying what the feeling is and what you’re, because a lot of it is your feeling. This is what you get in the garden. This is what comes out for you.
Now, another twist on that, and you talked about at the very beginning when I asked you, who is your ideal client? We did a little pre-talk before this. And you said, I don’t want to sell to everybody because it’s not for everybody. Right. But it’s not just for gardeners either. So here’s what I would suggest a little bit of your messaging. And it’s just a little bit of a twitch. The garden is my happy place. Here is what I feel when I’m in the garden. Here is my, you know, when I’m weeding, I’m, you know, my thoughts are running, are running like going crazy. It’s like, which I certainly don’t get that. And you still haven’t taken me up on my offer to come weed. I mean, just saying. To each his own. But it’s, where is your happy place? What is, where is your place that gives you that feeling and challenge? Say, let me know in the comments, what is your happy place? It could be sitting and listening to the waves by the ocean. It could be walking and listening to the birds in the mountain or taking a stroll. Because that way you’ll bring in more than just gardeners because everybody’s got a happy place. Your audience has a happy place.
Susan: Okay.
Lori: It may not be the garden. That’s how you relate is because this is my happy place.
Susan: I love that. Because I do the watercolor also. And sometimes I do use little bits of me painting. And everybody likes to paint either. There’s so many people are so varied out there and just have so many different things. And I do struggle with how do I talk to, I think we all could use a letter that makes us feel, takes us right back to that happy place. But I feel like I have to kind of like, in all my business coaching I’ve ever had before, it’s like, you have to narrow it down, narrow it down. And I feel like this is a little bit broader than that, but I feel like I have to stay within these confines, which drives me, you know, I’m an Aries. So I’m like, I don’t want a confine and don’t tell me about that.
Lori: Well, I’m not giving you permission to step outside of that.
Susan: And I’m loving that.
Lori: Because your ideal audience isn’t gardeners. It’s people who want a calmness around them.
Susan: Okay.
Lori: And that gives you a little bit of a bigger area to play in so that you’re not just limiting to gardens, because that is very, it’s a fine line between limiting and narrowing. And I think if you focus on the emotions of what you’re doing, the happy place, the calmness, the, yes, everybody, I think 98% of the world will tell you it’s a great, you know, it’s crazy and stressful and, you know, all this stuff. So this is this is the oasis of calm that you’re offering.
Susan: Yes. So can I ask a question?
Lori: Absolutely.
Susan: So how do you create the marketing to be more of an invitation than just like marketing to that? So that it doesn’t sound so airy fairy. Sometimes I feel like I’m like, oh, yeah, well, blah, blah. Right. And I want to talk to those emotions, but I don’t want to be like, you know, I don’t know, just really like, and you can feel better if you just.
Lori: I would just put it at the end, say, this is my happy place. I have an offer. If you would like to know more about how to find your happy place, then my website is Post from the Garden, go to my website and there might be some tweaking a little bit of language on because the website is beautiful. So there might be a little bit of tweaking rather and go to emotion rather than features of what you get.
Susan: Okay.
Lori: Because you know what snail mail is. I know like most of us in midlife know what snail mail is, but as far as what you’re doing, a snail mail club doesn’t mean anything.
Susan: Okay.
Lori: It’s, okay, this is the method that you’re delivering it. Okay. But this is not what you’re selling. You’re selling that emotional free, you’re selling that calmness.
Chapter 4: Building Community & Pricing Strategy
[00:16:06]
Lori: The other thing I would suggest is you talked about wanting community. I would suggest for every single person that is part of your membership, that you create a Facebook group or a group in some way, shape or form. There are a couple of different ways to do it now. Facebook being the most obvious. Create a Facebook group that every person who gets your letter is automatically part of the Facebook group if they want to be. And you can go in and really work on that’s where you’re going to sell that community part of it. And there’s a couple of that we can talk about some of the different ways offline of places you can go to create the community. I’m going to use for today’s purposes Facebook group. Okay. Because it’s simple. It’s a simple way to create one. But you can go in there and you can start, you know, start asking some questions. You can do some live in there and start really. So then that becomes a benefit of your Posts from the Garden. You really are creating a community. Otherwise, with a community, there’s really not a way for them to talk with each other. And community is them talking together and talking to each other. They have this thing in common. Where is your happy place? For a lot of them, it’s going to be the garden. For some of it, it’s going to be sitting and watching birds or people watching at the square or whatever. So there can be a lot of happy places. So that, that would be something that I would do as an addition to what you’re doing, because then you can say, I’m building community.
Susan: Okay. Okay.
Lori: Because now you have a community to show them.
Susan: Right. I love that.
Lori: Okay. Yeah. Perfect. And, and that’s something that you can do without, without it costing more money. You know, you’re not, or adding more time into the envelope itself.
Susan: Okay.
Lori: The other thing I might suggest to you is offer for a certain limited time, a founder’s price. Because with what you’re charging now, I think you’re charging $11 a month at this time as of record. So if you’re listening to this in three years, it’s probably not going to be $11 a month. Okay. But I would hope not. So I would say offer that for a limited time. Give a sense of urgency for the 1st 50 that sign up. It’s this or whatever that number or timeframe is. And then after that, go to 19 a month. For one, you need to be profitable. Okay. You need to make it worth your time to do it, especially with what you’re doing. And you want to be able to grow. But also people under a certain price point, they tend not to think about it. It becomes a, okay, I’m getting value out of this. Wow, I’m only paying 19 months. I wanna keep on that because. Right. Look at what I’m getting for 19 a month.
Susan: Yeah.
Lori: You’re getting the—
Susan: That’s a great price.
Lori: Yeah.
Susan: You know, that’s so interesting. I’m a retired nurse, so you can just put two and two together, but I’m a retired nurse. And I think I found my very first offer. I was at the same place for 26 years and I found my letter of acceptance. And I think I was making, I was offered, I think it was 8.94 an hour as a nurse with a four year degree. And when I passed my board, it went up 25 cents. So I came from a background of, a very, you don’t charge a lot, you know, it’s, it is very hard for me to do that. And so I oftentimes take a loss rather than, you know, because postage is expensive, paperwork’s expensive, printing’s expensive. Even if you print at home, ink is expensive, paper is expensive. So it, um, it is, it is profitable, but it’s by the skin of my teeth, profitable. And something gets misprinted and it is not profitable. So, you know, I didn’t necessarily start—
Lori: Or postage goes up.
Susan: Postage goes up, right? And I, you know, so I wanted to do it, but I also wanted to be able to scale it at some point. And that’s just a really, that’s always been a big bugaboo of mine. Yeah. And I would say it’s hard for me.
Lori: Yeah, at some point, Susan, you know, I can see it being $99 a month. Because you’re not selling, again, you’re not selling an envelope and a letter and stickers. You’re selling the community. You’re selling the feeling of peace that is going to come from this and an outlook and a way of thinking about things. You’re selling an emotion, not the physicality. And, you know, it’s transformational. When somebody, a sticker is not gonna transform them. Even though your watercolors are beautiful, that’s not what is gonna transform, is the message and the community and being able to say, Hey, this is a cool place where I can go and talk about something.
Susan: I love that. Yeah. Thank you.
Lori: You’re welcome. But everybody— That is awesome. You know, I’m a former teacher. My first month’s paycheck was $795.
Susan: Per month.
Lori: Per month. I know. So I totally get it. Totally get it.
Susan: I know. I know. Gosh. Yeah. And when I first stepped out of nursing, I was doing something else and somebody said I was doing some consulting and I was trying to put everything in that little hourly box, you know? Oh yeah. You are not doing that anymore. Stop. You have to decide what your time is worth to do this. And that was just, it took me years to kind of shift that, but I still, that is a big, that is, if you ask me what one of my biggest, the issues would be as being an entrepreneur or independent, I would tell you figuring out my prices. Oh, absolutely. Because I want to give it away. Like I want to give you all of it kind of thing. And you just can’t do that.
Lori: But I’ll tell you a little secret. You give it away or you lose money, you ain’t going to be in business for long.
Susan: No, you’re not. No, you’re not.
Lori: Unless you’re just a really good person. It’s funny. I remember years ago, I had an electrician who was fairly new in business and met him through a business networking group. And he came over and did some work for me. And I had in my mind roughly a price of what all this was going to be. And so I said, all right, give me a price. He said, well, I’m however, you know, $50 an hour or whatever it, whatever he priced it at. And it took him an hour and a half. So he gave me a bill for $75. In my mind, I was going to pay him over $200. And I told him, I said, listen, I said, I will, if you don’t mind a little bit of advice here. Quote me based on what you’re doing for me and the outcome I’m going to get. Don’t quote me per hour. You could have tripled what you charged me. Because I wouldn’t have cared at that point how long it took you. It could have taken you 5 minutes and I don’t care. What’s the joke about, it’s the 5 minutes I’m charging you for the 15 years that it took me to experience this.
Susan: Right.
Lori: So, you know, it’s how we think about it.
Susan: Which is a great point because in the letters, I would pay if my toilet is running. I came home one Sunday afternoon. My husband tried to do something, couldn’t cut the pipe and the water was flooding in the laundry room. And he said, I am not a blankety blank plumber. Call an emergency one right now and I’m never plumbing again. Okay. So it wouldn’t matter if that person would have charged me 1000 bucks. I needed that pipe.
Lori: Right.
Susan: And I would have paid anything. So when I do the letters, what you just brought up about people wanting to feel better in this world makes so much more sense because I’m thinking in my head, people do not just wake up and go, oh, I think I’d like to receive a letter today. I think I’ll sign up for that. Right.
Lori: But they wake up and they go, oh my gosh, my cortisol. I mean, that’s what all you see, or at least that’s all I see is cortisol.
Susan: That’s all I see too. But I wake up in my stomach’s in a knot and I’m like, I can’t wait to get in, cool to regulate that nervous system here. I’ve got, I don’t know what I was dreaming of, but I’m in a knot this morning, but I would love to calm down and just be able to like exhale calmly for once.
Lori: And so wouldn’t it be cool if that exhale was reading your letter over and over again? Because once you get that letter and you go, well, because I read the letter, it is very soothing and very calming. It’s almost, you know, years ago, Discover TV used to have these garden shows on that play this beautiful music and it was so calm and soothing and it was kind of like that. I could hear the pretty music playing, like going and getting a massage and having the massage music, the meditation that you’re playing. That’s kind of what I hear. So, hey, I’m stressed. Let me go read the letter again because I felt that made me feel good.
Chapter 5: Growth Strategy — Podcast Guesting & Social Media
[00:25:14]
Lori: All right. So I’m going to switch gears for just a second. I love that you. And let’s talk about how you’re going to get more clients. Right? Because you’re doing a really good job with social media. But social media only goes out to who you’re connected to. So I’m going to make a suggestion to you because you’re really good at talking and conversing and you’re not, you’re not shy. I’m going to say.
Susan: My elementary teachers would have agreed with that, but whatever.
Lori: She’s very social. I got that a little bit too. She’s a social person. Meaning as a teacher, that’s code for she won’t shut up. She won’t shut up. So I’m going to suggest to you, these are easy things to do, is looking at some of the lifestyle podcasts and become a guest on the lifestyle podcast. Because you can talk about, there again, you’re talking about your calmness and your soothing. And I’ve got some talking points that I’ll send to you after this, because we’re kind of running a little bit out of time. So I’ll send you some of the talking points that you can, how you can pull this into messaging and say, then your call to action is go to Post from My Garden, you know, be happy to send you. And, you know, that way you’ve got a call to action with your website. You’re talking about the benefits of receiving the letters, the calmness that they’re going to feel, and who wouldn’t want that in today’s world. And I keep using conversations.
Susan: That is beautiful. What a, I love that. Thank you.
Lori: You’re welcome. You’re welcome. You’re welcome.
Chapter 6: Biggest Aha & Wrap-Up
[00:26:50]
Lori: All right, so what is your biggest aha from today? I gave you a bunch of ’em, so.
Susan: The biggest one is that I am not, I’m not trying to sell a letter. I’m selling an emotion. That is like.
Lori: Cool. To me. That’s the very top thing. She’s selling emotion.
Susan: That is very cool. That is, yeah, that is a big thing to me because in my mind, I’m like, the letters are nice. I hope my stories are fun. I try to make them fun, but the letters are nice. You just don’t wake up and go, I think I want a letter today. But you do wake up and go, oh God, I think I just need to shut the world away for a moment.
Lori: And you’re a good person to connect to. You’re very connectable. You know, you’re very relatable. You’re very like, oh, I want to hang out in her garden. So, you know, yeah. So there’s that. There is. Yeah.
Susan: How delightful. Yes.
Lori: Yes. And we, I also want to add an addendum to that is work on your closing, work on the, the ask. And making sure that, making sure that it’s purposeful and specific. This is, here’s the next step. Cause people want to be told what to do. How do they get in touch? They don’t want to go have to search for you. They want to be told.
Susan: Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. What a great hot seat. What a great hot seat.
Lori: I love it. It has been fun. I was excited about doing this because it’s a little different from, it’s a product, a little different from what we do. You know, I’ve been doing hot seat with coaches. And so when you said you would do this, it was like, this will be fun.
Susan: Besides that, I’m kind of afraid. I don’t know what you’re going to tell me because I feel like I don’t have my act together a lot of times. So this was awesome. That was amazing. Thank you.
Lori: Good. You’re very, very welcome. So if you would like to be in the hot seat, which is really isn’t so hot sometimes, if you would like to be in the hot seat, go to MyCoachLori.com and sign up. I do these once a month, have a waiting list, but you are welcome to go and sign up and, you know, pick a time that works for you. And remember, for coaches, midlife business owners, it’s never too late to build the business of your dreams. We’ll see you next time.