#135: Letting Go of the VIP Everything Era
In this short ‘n’ sweet solo episode of the Quiet Rebels® Podcast, I’m sharing why I’m now in the season of letting go of my VIP-ing everything era.
In <13 minutes, I share:
- The deep down struggles with using VIP language as a whole
- How I proactively chose *not* to have a “Standard” vs “VIP” tiers for my digital event
- Changes I’m making to my signature service moving forward
Links mentioned in this episode:
TRANSCRIPT:
Do you know what? Now I’m in the season of letting go of the VIP era. Over the last couple of years, a very popularised idea of providing a service has been through VIP days, VIP weeks, and there have been so many variations of this. This is something that I 100% have done in the past, and it’s not something that I think people should necessarily stop either.
But the reason why I’m choosing to kind of unsubscribe, close this chapter of the VIP era, is because of a couple of things. Deep down, I always felt a bit ugh when I heard the language VIP. Like of course on the receiving end It feels great to be treated like with that extra attention to detail, and I think that’s what’s so appealing about it because people want that kind of service, they want that kind of treatment that experience where they feel important, right?
Hence, VIP. And, the thing is, I don’t want that to go away. I think, for me, the reason why I always felt slightly off is because in contrast to VIP would be standard. Basic. And that’s typically the contrasting words I would find when I see the difference on an event page, for example. I see standard.
and VIP. And I get it, it’s meant to be an anchor thing, right? That we see what’s great about the upgrade. I understand all of that. And yet I can’t deny that a part of me always felt uncomfortable with it. So when it came to actually running my own event, the Sustainable Visibility Not Quite A Summit thingamabob, which I ran in the first week of February 2024, I knew I didn’t want to have that language anywhere near my event page.
And so, here’s what I did instead. Instead of thinking about what I would call them, instead I wanted it to be an experience where people who were considering joining this event and buying a ticket, they were the ones who got to choose the level of support they want. So in this case, there are two ticket types.
Both of them were paid, and one of them was the content ticket. Which I also dubbed the No Peopling Please Ticket. And this was for the folks who wanted the content. They wanted the mini workshops, they wanted the mini keynotes from me and my guests. And they didn’t want the community aspect. And instead of using language just like, Oh, I don’t want to connect with people right now, and, you know, that kind of like, subtle, shamey, underlying vibe under it.
Instead, it was, I made it clear in the FAQ section, what are the key differences between the two. I wrote for those who wanted the no peopling police ticket. Like, this is for those of you who are at capacity right now. And as much as you would love to connect with like minded, like hearted people, you’re just not in that season right now.
And you know that visibility is important to you, and you just want to, like, have your head down and do the work. That’s how it was written. And then the other tier, instead of it being VIP, it was called the live community ticket. And I, you know, shared the different ways that they were able to interact with fellow members who also were in a position and in the season where they wanted that community aspect.
And I laid it all down, right? So that was one example of how I really wanted to emit that VIP language, that VIP vibe outside of my Venn. And then I started thinking about, okay, where else in my business have I really tried to lean on this VIP ness? And I think it really hit home for me when I was working with a client, and actually, you know, at the time of this recording, I’m still working with a client for one of my top packages.
And right now, as of how it was sold, it was called the VIP Spotlight Experience. I didn’t call it a day, because I used to do it in a day, and I remember how burnt out I used to feel, despite loving the work, despite loving my clients. And I hated feeling that pressure to do it all in a day, and then that’s why I expanded it across a week or so, hence why I called it an experience, right?
And I was still set a time frame of when folks can expect deliverables from me, etc, etc. But I think it really hit home actually when I was working. with my client because when I asked, you know, what is the real deadline and That was because I started feeling unwell and I always always always Want to deliver my utmost best to my clients and they were like, okay First of all health is the most important thing you do you I’m in no rush, right?
And for me, I never ever Want to take advantage of a client’s generosity with that and then they really emphasized to me that look honestly, I’m in no rush I just want the work done when you feel it’s your best. That’s what they said and So something about that that just stuck with me So for the next couple of days which has led into this point now as I’m recording this episode I started really unpacking why it stuck with me.
A lot of the format around the VIP day, the VIP week kind of way of doing things, of delivering a service, often about prioritisation and speed. And the prioritisation part, that’s always there for me, for my clients. 100%. But then I really had to get honest with myself and say, do you know what? I don’t do my best work when I feel pressured to do it within someone else’s time frame, or even if it’s a time frame I’ve put on myself.
And then I really had to get honest and admit, do you know what? I do my best work when I’m at peace, when I really have room to percolate. and do the work with the best quality I could provide.
And that’s when I realized, ah, this is what it is.
The reason why the whole VIP language in terms, in this context, for the service of doing it in a day or doing it in a week is because that is very much centering the speed in which it’s done. And I realise now that’s actually very out of alignment with me because I would much rather do something of utmost quality instead of doing something quickly, potentially compromising that quality.
So that brings me to today. I think that I am ready to close this chapter of the VIP era. And I’m hoping that it’s going to call in the clients who know that they want support around podcast guesting, but they’re not in that rush where it needs to be done tomorrow, but they want to do that deep work. So this is something that can really serve them for the long haul.
So here’s an action step that I’m taking. I have called this service the VIP Spotlight Experience for the last couple of years, and now its new name, with processes that are essentially the same, but I’m just changing up the time frame a little bit, I’m going to call it the Podcast Guesting Partner Service.
And this is for you if you want to get heard and hired for your work in the world. by taking a human first approach to podcast guesting. Here’s an insight as to what it’s like to work with me, where I listen to you, I interview you about your story for up to two hours, right? All of those details that you often have to skip for the sake of time in an interview, I want to hear them, because a lot of the times, those details are actually the hidden gems that uniquely inform your expertise.
Which brings me to step two. Step two, I interview you about your expertise. You don’t have to do any of the work. I will ask for a little kind of raw brainstorm of what you think you want to talk about and what you might want to kind of go into a bit more. But the actual time we spend together, I’m spent, I’m spending it interviewing you.
So I can really understand where your passion is, where your frameworks are, how it all kind of intersects and really supports your offers. And then from there, you get to sit back and relax while I go out and find 12 aligned podcasts for you. And when I say aligned, I don’t just mean in terms of messaging and industry, but I also mean in terms of values.
Me and my team will find those podcasts for you, and I’m going to be writing 12 ready to send pictures so that sending them out is just a matter of a click of a button. That is what I’m providing in this podcast guesting partner service. So if you’re interested in checking out more about those details, I’ll pop the link in the show notes.
And the thing is, my lovely, I wanted to record this episode for you today, because if you ever felt like you had to kind of jump on this VIP train and it actually doesn’t feel particularly aligned for you, maybe this could be your starting point to assess whether it’s something that you want to continue carrying forward with you.
Or if you’re also ready to consciously close this chapter in favour of an era of your service based business where you can really do your best work with the best clients. I really hope that sharing this behind the scenes thought process with you was helpful. If it was, please do reach out to me on Instagram and or LinkedIn because now I’m getting slightly more active on LinkedIn at the time of this recording.
And I would love to hear from you. What are your thoughts? Do you offer a VIP service? How do you feel about it? What’s going on? I would love to hear all of the things and how this episode landed for you because it’s relatively short and sweet compared to my guest episodes. So I look forward to hearing from you either way.
So I’ll pop all the links in the show notes about how to learn about how to work with me and how to connect with me if you are so interested. Either way, thank you so, so much for listening to this episode of the Quiet Rebels podcast, and I shall see you next time. Bye for now.
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