Turn Competitors Into Collaborators: How a Digital Magazine Makes Your Marketing Pay You | Jill Burk

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Welcome everyone to Doing Business with a Service Heart Podcast. I'm your host, Stephen Ronan. I am thrilled to have you join us today. This podcast is dedicated to exploring the idea of doing business in life with a purpose, serving others, and yes, achieving success. We believe that when we approach our work and our lives with a service heart, we can truly make a difference. Key word is your world. Let's change that first. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a community leader, or simply someone looking to more purpose in your daily life, this podcast is here to support you. So while you're listening to my most incredible guest, you're gonna love her, get your pad and paper up, take notes. I want you to think about how you're gonna serve today and what impact that will create. Don't wait till tomorrow. Let's serve somebody today. I guarantee you're gonna love doing that. Today's episode is brought to you by our amazing sponsor, Pantheon Alliance. Picture yourself joining a leaked community of thriving business owners for a variety of industries, from a variety of industries, all working together to create a powerful referral marketplace. It's an incredible opportunity to expand your network and elevate your business to new higher. With that being said, impact. Impact, impact, impact. You know, you talk about impact, but we need it more than ever in this world because you know what? It's a crazy world out there. But if we can impact people in a positive way, game changer. That's what this guest is doing, and you're gonna learn more about her right now. Jill, welcome to the show. Steve, I'm happy to be here. Let's jump right into it. Servant's heart, all that. What's an impact of a digital magazine for an entrepreneur or a business owner?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

When you talk about connecting and how when you are connected to your audience and you're serving your audience, magazines do that in a really profound way. When you are when you are connecting with your same audience every two months or however often you put out the magazine, some of our publishers put them out every month. Mine is going to be every two months. It gives you a chance to first of all communicate information that people are looking for, which helps them make better decisions, live their best life, feel like they are getting information that moves them forward. And by publishing a magazine and being available, you've got your masthead, they've got your email address. We like to encourage our publishers to send surveys to their audience so that we're really communicating what people want to know. But the thing I love most, I think, about the whole thing is the way it takes competitors and turns them into collaborators. So you're as a business owner, when you're in a niche, so you're in podcasting, other people are so if you're going to do a podcasting, for instance, magazine, the first people you're going to reach out to are the people that are already doing great podcasts. And so that person who might feel like a competitor in one way, then becomes not just a collaborator, but a friend. And you're you're able to use the people in your space, use this the wrong word. And and they win too, because you know, you do your magazine, you're talking to this, and all the people that are interested, not only they get exposed to people that they may not have been exposed to before. And it really builds industries, it builds teamwork in a way that I just think is magical.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

I I love that you jumped in the competition and taking working with your competition. That's what a servant heart does. Audience, that's why she's on here. How powerful is that? And I talk about it's always collaboration, it's never competition, you know.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Never competition. I mean, a little bit of competition is good. And I I think it it keeps us sharp and it keeps us engaged. And like, you know, we all we all compete. I compete a little bit with my husband on various things, I compete with my kids a little bit. Competition is good as long as it's not the only thing, right? Like, and and anytime competition leads to like negative emotions about the people you're commit competing with, you're doing yourself damage. Nobody else cares. You're just doing yourself damage. But by pulling people in, and and actually pulling people in is a thought that I've been really resonating with. And magazines do that too. And it and they pull in your competitors, they pull in your friends. I just I love I love that idea of pulling people to you instead of trying to push out your message and interrupt somebody's dinner by calling them, you know, old cold calls. Magazines are are such a pull energy, they just they allow you to build your brand, build your business, build your network in a way that I think is like podcasting.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Yeah, no, I think it's powerful and it's educational, it's not salesy. I've seen some of your magazines very good on education, which is the focus of it. Yeah. Yeah. So you know, I've talked to people about what you do, and you know, we've I introduced to some people. One guy had a very interesting question. What's the difference between a newsletter and a and a digital magazine?

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Oh, well, so length, so the how big it is, is one. A newsletter tends to be one, maybe two subjects. Or and often people's newsletters have uh bursts of sales pitches, right? Like here's this, here's this. Whereas a magazine, first of all, the pictures are beautiful, the marketing is done much more subtly, and it's it's quite a bit bigger. So you're talking about 200 pages instead of you know two pages or one page. And and most of those pages are filled with beautiful images or useful, you know, marketing. Because magazines are, you know, toothpaste commercials as much as they are about, you know, reaching out to people and having a healthy relationship. Or in my case, I'm talking about Savor Europe is a magazine about living in Europe. So not short-term travels, but if you're gonna go and you're gonna rent a house, you're gonna be somewhere for three, four, or five months. And so, you know, our pictures are gonna be obviously better than anybody else's pitches because Europe is stunning. But the information is is different and it's it's it can be it can build on itself, right? Like a may a newsletter just tends to be this is what I'm doing today, this is why you need to know, and this is what you should buy for me. Whereas a magazine is these are the possibilities that you have in your life.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Yeah, and and I'm gonna throw that out there. I think both would be just two great ways to market your business and brand.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Of course, of course. And there's no, like a lot of our publishers send out newsletters, like a lot of our publishers have courses or programs that they sell. We have a great magazine called Calligraphy Crush, and they they teach calligraphy workshops. So obviously they talk about that in their magazine, but they can they also send out newsletters in between that say, here's an upcoming, you know, course and how to, I don't know. I'm not that into calligraphy at this moment, but they have huge response from both their newsletters and their magazines.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

And a cool thing about magazines, I'm 63. I remember as a five-year-old walking to grocery store magazines. I just went to the grocery store last week, and I was thinking about you. This all those magazines are still there. What's the difference? One, it's you're not gonna start a people magazine, let's say it's grow. But what's the difference from that when I'm holding to the digital one that you guys have?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

So you're not gonna start a people. I mean, people would be insane to start for one thing because it's like a weekly magazine. Yeah, uh, that's a lot of work for one person. Um but on a honestly, on an iPad, which everybody many, many, many people have an iPad or other device, when you're flipping through, it looks very similar to what it would look like if you're flipping through people on your on your thing. In fact, I would say it looks almost almost hard to tell the difference. The the best magazines on our platform are done are so professional and so polished. And if anybody wants to send me an email or reach out to me, I'll get Steve to put my email there. Um, I will send you a copy of one of those magazines. If you just want to look at what they look like and see what is possible, I'm happy to have a conversation or send you an example.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Now, there's magazine publishing, digital magazine publishing, allow you to connect your customers uh for an existing business. I know you talked about a little bit. Talk more about that, how it's gonna ROI of a business. That's the big elephant always in the room. Hey, I'm gonna start something. What's the ROI?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yeah, so boy, like it can be kind of unlimited. For somebody who's so our magazines are really meant for somebody who's got zero publishing experience, and we take them through that whole uh arc from zero to how to build your network, how to build your mailing list, how you're gonna get information, how you're gonna find your contributors, all of that stuff. So that even though your first issue, so um a yearly membership is three thousand dollars, and there's a few other little it's and bits, very little, like you have to pay $25 to the Google Play Store and $100 to Apple to get an app, those kind of little things. And those are pretty minor. So you're basically looking at let's call it three and a half all in to get your first issue out the door, and you can put out as many issues as you want for that $3,000. So you can put out an issue every week if you want. So return on investment for a business owner would depend on a couple of things. What are you selling out of that? What is your connection to your customer? How are they going to to to how are they going to communicate with you on an ongoing basis? So in the case of Calligraphy Crush, their biggest monetization for that is the courses that they sell. And so they do these online programs and courses. And I think they're about $500 each, but you get 50 people in one of those, you've got a really good month. Some of our magazines, we've got um one called Acquisition, Afficienado is what it's called. So they monetize in in maybe a few different ways. They they people pay to be presented in the magazine, they pay to be on the front cover. So each individual niche will have a whole different kind of a basket of ways to monetize. And depending on what your how good you are at that, your return on investment should be before your first magazine comes out. Because you're gonna pre-sell your first magazine, and and before you've even launched, even with a pretty small email list, you're gonna see a return on investment. And and you know, with a good partner in the Philippines or somewhere that can help do some of the repetitive stuff, we have publishers who put out an issue, and it takes them, you know, down the road, let's say their third, fourth issue, probably somewhere between eight and 30 hours to put out an issue. And if your return on investment for that is somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 an issue, depending on what your niche is, that's a pretty good return on investment. And it is a completely sellable asset. So you can do it for a couple years and then you can sell it off. We don't control any of that. You own the magazine, you have all the rights. It it's pretty, it's it's a pretty good way to and it builds connections, and and even connections are so hard to because people are hard to put a number on.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yeah, yeah. RLP, yeah, and then that's okay because as I tell people, you're a people asset. The more people you meet, it's just natural than its numbers game. You meet 100 people, there are more chance you're gonna make money than you meet five. Just yeah, it's as simple as that. That's the ROI with people. Now, do people get analytics? Because I know some people are very analytically like that analytics of their of their absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

So you will so your analytics would look like so you would get analytics from Apple, so you would be able to see what was happening with the Apple store. You would get Apple or from the Google Play Store, and then the third way to for people to purchase a magazine is through the Magcast app. So all of that, and then you would get you would so let's say I was gonna do an article for you in my podcast, and we're gonna talk about podcasts. I can link that, I can actually include the video of this podcast right in the magazine with a QR code or whatever, which you can't do with people magazine that buy at the drugstore. And and then, you know, when you program that, you can get all your analytics like figured out through that. So you so you can you can get more information than you possibly need.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

What brings joy in your life?

SPEAKER_01 14:58

What brings so I didn't tell you this in the pre-thing, but I'll tell you what brings the most joy today. Yes, is I have a new grandbaby.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Congratulations, that's awesome, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:09

So it's my second one. His name is Jack, and uh he was born on Monday, so in Canada Canada Day, it because I'm in Canada, so there will always be fireworks for his birthday. And uh I'm going to meet him tonight. I'm on my way there. As soon as we're done this conversation, I'm gonna get in a car, and so that some family obviously brings joy. Obviously, like and and bless me, I've had a fantastic, I have fantastic family. Um travel brings me joy, good conversations with people like strangers. We were we were in Bulgaria last week, and we were at a wine festival, and I nobody hardly anybody spoke English. My husband was doing his thing, he was off somewhere, and I was going around tasting with all these strangers that didn't speak English, right? And so I didn't speak Bulgarian, they didn't speak English. We were just having the best time, and I I just love meeting people and being in a space with people. I love being in a space where there's other languages. It makes my brain work in a way that I think is good. Um, but I I really love just meeting with people and spending time talking about what makes people tick.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

What brings you joy in the magazine business?

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Uh, just that feeling of possibility, right? Every time you start to put a story together and you're thinking about how people are going to connect to that story and to the writer of that story, who's usually a blogger and they've got lots of things going on. I that that really excites me. And watching, I have a couple pretty good friends that are are getting magazines ready, either first-time magazines or their next issue, and watching them put it tell a story in a way that really brings what they're trying to do in their life or what they are doing, whether whatever that might be, to life is really exciting.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

I like that. I like that a lot. Um one thing we didn't talk about, which I think is very important, people are gonna pay a fee for this this magazine. So that's where some of the monetation comes in as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Right, yeah, yeah. So people pay like my magazine's a little bit more expensive. I've got a a you know, um a different kind of audience. So uh uh mine is $23.99, but some of them are $10, $6, whatever they are. But the longer your list is, and we teach them how to develop develop a list. But the more people you're talking to, the more people you're sending out your newsletter saying the next magazine's coming, the the more subscriptions you get. And of course, subscriptions help you pay the bills.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Yeah, no, that's good. That's something I want to make sure people knew about. Because that's another one.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

And here's the fun thing about it it changes your marketing. So everybody who's got a business has to market. Like you have to go out and you do Facebook ads, you do whatever you're gonna do. Instead of marketing costing you money, it's a profit center in your business. So instead of having to pay every month to do all your ads, people are paying you to read your ads, they're paying you to communicate with them. It's a very it flips the script in a way that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Yeah, I like that. That's a what makes it unique. Uh opportunity to market. That's what it really is, a marketing tool. Um, when is the time to completely change your life? Sorry, what was that question? When is it time to completely change your life?

SPEAKER_01 18:48

When is it time to? When you're bored. Didn't expect that. Anytime you're bored, change something up. I I yeah, I think anytime you're bored, something needs to change.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Well, we're on a Friday night. What does Jill do on a Friday night?

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Well, this Friday night, I'm going to go meet my grandbaby. But normally on Friday night, I would either go out for a glass of wine with my sister-in-law and my daughter, who are also the people I spend the most time with, or I would go for a nice long walk in the park and read a book. So either I'm out with, you know, or I'm I'm hermiting one or the other.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Hermiting or people.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

I do like to hermit as well.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Yeah. You do like the people too, and I like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

I know, but but if you're gonna like the people, I think you also have to hermit because you you know you gotta have time for yourself.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

I totally agree that. Yeah. So I'm gonna ask you a great question. It's I asked all my guests now. Uh you weren't prepped, so I don't do this purposely. So we're at a restaurant, there's a table of four.

unknown 19:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

You're sitting at one of the seats, so there's three empty seats. Who would sit in those seats, dead or alive, and why? But most importantly, what food would you order?

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Oh, okay. Well, Colette, who's a French author, would be for sure one of them. She's my writing idol. Oh, this is a hard question.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Good.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Um you know, I think I'd I'd like writers like Alden Nolan, who's a great Canadian poet, who has a really interesting kind of way of looking at at things. And maybe Ruperi Korr, like who's a Canadian poet, who uh modern Canadian poet, who I just love the way she writes, and she does little illustrations in her book, books that are that are just really pulley in. I think I mean that would be a great table. May not be the table I choose every day, but it's a table today. And because Colette's there, it would have to be some French wine, so like a sincer, something lovely. She grew up in Burgundy, so maybe a you know, burgundy, like a a ha French food, French wine, good conversation, a cake at the end.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

You're the first French food that I've had. So this is a good one.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

You're you're different than most, which is great. That's why I asked the question. Again, people get to learn a little bit about you. Food and people are always a great uh description of what people are about, what their spirit and their what they're right. So um people are listening on. I want to know more about this magazine. How can they find you, Joe?

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Um, they can send an email to publisher at saver europe.com. Or they can join find me on LinkedIn, find me on Facebook. Oh I just lost you there.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Uh you're still here. Oh good. You're still here.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Um yeah, so Facebook, LinkedIn, probably not Facebook because I don't actually take Facebook requests from strangers. LinkedIn is the best way. Find me on LinkedIn, send me a little message that says you saw this podcast, and uh, and I'll send you a copy of the magazine.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

There you go. I love a servant heart. She's giving away and talking about competition. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Yeah, just send me a message and I will send you a copy of the magazine.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

It's beautiful. I love it. You can see she's a servant's heart with a unique way of marketing your business. So reach out, talk to her. Um, don't forget my TV show is actually Friday uh 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern. So it'll be today at two o'clock. But you won't hear this because you'll get this probably on Monday. Uh but more importantly. But next Friday. Next Friday, come and listen and watch and learn and have some fun. See this big old head on your 70-inch TV. That's what I love to hear. So, with that being said, me and Jill, thank you so much for watching and listening to this podcast. Thank you again.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Thank you for everybody for watching. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Yeah, we'll see you all in the next episode of Doing Business where the servants are. See y'all.