Launch Your Way To Success (No More Feast & Famine!) with Sigrun | 044

Is your architecture practice stuck in a cycle of feast

and famine either having too much or not enough worker at any one time.

What if there was a simple way to get prospective clients to engage with

you on a Tshechu old regular basis.

So you could iron out your workload peaks and troughs and have a

steady, predictable pipeline of work without huge expense or hassle.

The good news is you can do this by utilizing launches as

part of your marketing strategy.

Today, I'm joined by world leading online business experts.

Sigrun to explain exactly how you can do.

This in your business.

On this episode of architecture business club, the weekly podcast for solo

and small firm architecture practice owners, just like you who want to build

a profitable future-proof architecture business that fits around their life.

I'm John Clayton, your host, if you're a small practice leader or

sole practitioner in architecture, struggling to find clarity or reach

your goals, consider working with me.

I offer personalized one-to-one support through coaching consulting and mentoring.

And this tailored approach helps you navigate your unique path to success.

Whether it's growing your practice, working few hours or building

your team, I've got you covered.

Just click the link in the show notes to book a call with me to

discuss your options or email John J O n@architecturebusinessclub.com.

For more information.

Now let's discuss launches.

Sigrun is an award winning business coach, best selling author, and

multiple seven figure entrepreneur.

She's on a mission to accelerate gender equality through female entrepreneurship.

She's been called the leading business mentor for online entrepreneurs in

Europe, is a TEDx speaker, and host of the top rated Sigrun Show podcast.

Sigrun's online business journey started shortly after finishing her

master's degree in architecture.

She's since been featured in Forbes and numerous leading media publications in

Europe and has won five Stevie Awards as the Hero of the Year, Entrepreneur

of the Year, Solo Entrepreneur of the Year, Manager of the Year and

Sales Achievement of the Year.

If you'd like to grab a free copy of Sigrun's book, kickstart your

online business by creating an online course and starting to make

sales, then head over to sigrun.

com forward slash architecture business club, Sigrun, welcome

to architecture business club.

Thank you for having me.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Oh, it's a pleasure to have you here.

Um, Sigrun, I know we share a love of, of crime fiction.

I was just wondering if you had any book recommendations for me.

Well, I am mainly reading the Icelandic authors, uh, today

and, uh, uh, I would say you should look out for Ragnar, R A

G N A R, that's his first name.

I don't remember people's last name because we don't use them in Iceland.

But, uh, Ragnar is a full time lawyer at a big real estate company, but in his

free time or in his, I guess, during his holiday, he will always write a book.

So there's a new book every year.

It's translated into multiple languages, French, English, Dutch, you name it.

Uh, he's, uh, and he is the fan of Agatha Christie and he

translated one of Agatha Christie's.

book when he was only 17 years old.

And I feel he's like the modern version.

Agatha Christie today feels a little bit too slow and too stiff.

And I was a super fan when I was like learning English.

I was 12 years old.

I could not understand all the long words when I was reading it

in the original English version.

Uh, but I read Agatha Christie for many, many years.

Uh, but today it feels a little bit like, you know, I guess it's

just the speed of everything today.

Some of the Icelandic authors who have, uh, a little bit, what do you call

a darker side, noir, they call it.

I love that.

The that's potentially just opened up a whole new world of crime

fiction authors for me to explore.

Thank you for that.

I will definitely go and check that out.

We're going to talk today about how architects could use launches

to scale and grow their business.

But before we dig into that, can you tell me a little bit about your experience

of studying to become an architect?

Well, I was one of the few children, I think, that, uh, felt I had

to decide earlier what I wanted to be.

I guess you, you always ask children, what do you want to be?

And you know, they say fireman or teacher or doctor or something.

And I, I, I was going to be an author.

I was six years old and, uh, I hadn't fallen in love with crime fiction

yet, but I love to tell stories.

And I would tell stories every day to whoever wanted to listen.

And I felt this was going to be my path forward, but my parents were

not so keen on me becoming an author back then you couldn't live from it.

Uh, and even today we don't know so many authors that are do it full time and can

live from it properly, except those few that I mentioned before, uh, although

he's a lawyer full time, so I don't know.

Could you live from it?

I guess so.

But, um, yeah, so they strongly encouraged me to find some other idea what I could

become when I became a grown up, uh, and I, Said I would become a teacher

and an author because back then teachers had four months in the summer off.

Uh, this has changed today because now summer vacation is, uh, shorter, but,

uh, summer holiday was quite long.

In the early days, because the kids were helping out at the farms.

It was like an old fashioned way, like, Hey, the kids come back to the farm

and they have to help with everything.

And now nobody's really into farming anymore.

Uh, so the kids can actually stay longer, uh, longer at school and they can

finish earlier because we were a little bit behind the European curriculum.

Uh, so yeah, teacher and author, I thought I had figured out then my teacher.

My main teacher in school, uh, was telling us why teachers wanted to go on strike.

Uh, and he put his salary on the board.

And even though I was not like, Oh, I'm going to be rich or anything like that.

I was not into really making money, but I knew that this number was low.

And I was like, I don't know if, if teacher is such a good idea.

Um, so I was desperate to find something new, uh, that I wanted to become.

And I loved drawing and I loved looking at houses.

Um, my parents would often drive around to new neighborhoods on Sundays.

To my, my mom is totally into design interior and exterior design.

And so with ice cream in my hand, you know, I would look at new

buildings and new neighborhoods.

And I was like, maybe I should become an architect.

I was 11 years old when I decided to That this is what I was going to do.

I put the author and teacher idea aside for a moment.

Um, and so, yeah, it took me 9 years to finally start to study,

but it was, I was determined.

Uh, I thought it was the perfect combination of art and science.

And you couldn't study architecture in Iceland, so I had to go abroad.

So during our summer holiday, when I was 11 years old, we

were in Freiburg, Germany.

And I said to myself, I'm going to come back here and study

because this is a pretty city.

Uh, I didn't know you couldn't study architecture in that particular

city, but I did go to South of Germany and study their architecture.

So that's how, um, I decided to become an architect.

That's so cool.

And the fact that you decided at such a young age that that

was what you're going to do.

I think for a lot of children and teenagers, often they just have

no idea what they're going to do.

So yeah, that's really quite interesting that you decided at such a young age, 11,

that that was what you're going to do.

And, You did, you did your master's degree in architecture in Germany,

and you then pivoted into this other world of online business.

I'd love to hear what led to that pivot.

Well, I think it was already clear two years before graduation that

I was not going to become architect.

And it was the fact it was the emergence of the internet.

You know, I was studying in the nineties and we got an email address and, uh, we

learned about virtual reality modeling.

Uh, I learned AutoCAD and I already asked.

During my studies, like I did all the courses that architects could

do that had anything to do with computers or it or virtual reality.

And my final thesis, my master's was a 3D multi user campus where

you could actually walk around.

It's quite unbelievable because this is now 30 years ago.

Uh, you could actually walk around with your avatar and you could

create seminar rooms on the fly.

You fill out a little form.

Do you want a whiteboard?

What do you want for how many people is the seminar room?

And I programmed this all myself.

Uh, and the computers were so, uh, bad that often when I was showing

my master's project, it would crash.

So I had to have quite powerful computers, but yeah, so it was

pretty clear to me that I was, I was heading direction, IT, uh, Internet.

Uh, and so when I graduated, I did not apply at any

architecture office for a job.

I went straight for software companies.

And it was not very practical to work as someone who is designing virtual reality.

Uh, I was.

Ahead of the game, we were not many people in the world doing this.

And there were very few companies, uh, actually doing something around 3d.

And even today, uh, we're not there yet either.

Uh, so I'm glad I didn't pick that field because it turned out

to be a pretty hopeless field.

Um, we are not so keen on working, walking around this avatars all the time.

I don't know.

It just didn't take off.

Uh, at least not back then, but I, uh, for me, the practical path was to become

a project manager in a software company.

And that's what I did first.

Uh, and I was, I, I took an extra degree in Zurich, Switzerland, uh,

information architecture was my focus.

I kept on programming, displaying information.

Uh, we got special access.

I'm not sure this would be allowed today because of privacy, but

we got access to the emails.

We couldn't read the emails, but we could.

Send a code over all the emails that were sent out from the whole

university and detect if the language was positive or negative or neutral,

and then we would display different colors and different boards.

And we were all architects working on this.

It was quite advanced.

I was able to use a 3 D printer in 99 to print out a little,

uh, design that I had done.

Uh, we were a part of a project that went into a book on, uh,

displaying information in a new way.

Uh, 1 of my projects was.

To display where people, what websites they're visiting and which countries.

So if someone visited a website in Iceland, it would still a

little pin drop onto Iceland.

This is before long before Google maps.

Uh, it was a fantastic year, but I, I realized as a practical

person that this was all a game.

This is cool at the university, but what are you going to do in real life?

You know, how are you going to actually make money?

And, uh, that was not the way.

So I became a project manager in a software company.

I moved back to Iceland after being nine years abroad.

And, uh, from there, uh, it was in the dot com boom around 2000, where

companies were hiring too many IT people.

And most IT people didn't even know how to program.

And, uh, I eventually lost my job because they had hired too many people

and didn't have enough projects.

But 1 of the projects I did in my 1st job after studying was.

Creating maps for Lufthansa, you know, you know, city maps for Lufthansa,

because we also back then didn't have Google maps or anything, so they had

to be manually made for each city.

Pretty cool, pretty cool project.

Uh, but again, I'm a practical person.

I know not everything.

Uh, you know, you cannot do all of these things if you, of course,

have decided to live in Iceland.

Of course, if you live in Iceland.

Silicon Valley you can do all these fancy projects.

Yeah.

So I became a project manager and I worked, uh, I moved over to

a website company that just did regular websites for companies and

one day, uh, they, um, company sold.

And I get the crazy idea I could become the next CEO.

And it's just like, there was this idea that popped up in my head.

Uh, I had no business background, no business experience.

My parents had a business, but it was a dry cleaning.

So it's not like I knew so much about business.

Uh, but I just felt it was a relatively small company, only 15 people.

I had talked to all the clients.

I felt I knew the process.

The only thing I didn't know anything about was the bookkeeping

and the finances, but my dad's that, you'll figure that out.

Someone will teach you that.

And to make the long story short, I got the job because the new owner, he

loved the boldness of asking for the job without having all the qualifications.

And that's sadly, typically what men do more than women.

So I'm quite proud that I did this.

And that's why I share this story.

It's like, I picked up the phone and called the guy and said, I want the

job, uh, and then I had to present a project plan and finance plan.

And I did that and I got the job and that led to me working for this, uh,

man, uh, over a period of time, I was, uh, basically running online businesses,

but they were all pretty traditional.

This is before everyone went on social media.

This is before everyone created online courses.

So this is before that, but still, I've got my practical business

experience, uh, by being a CEO of small companies for, for 10 years.

Uh, and what led me to start the business I have today.

Is that I had met my husband in London and decided to move to Switzerland.

Uh, and there I started to get sick.

Uh, I had a job in a small company and I started to have neck pain and

headaches and pinching ear pain.

And 1st, I didn't associate it with my, but gradually that became

pretty clear that I was sitting at my desk too long, not taking breaks.

And in the evening, my hobby was photography, editing pictures.

So that didn't help either.

And I had a predisposition to, you know, not the best posture.

And when you're very ambitious, that doesn't help as well, you know?

So I had all the perfect ingredients to develop, um, these conditions of

muscle pain, and so I was sick for seven months, unable to work, that gives you a

wake up Like, how can I design my life?

So that I'm not sick or that I can at least avoid getting sick again.

And that's where also I was in Switzerland and I was like, yeah, 20 days of holiday.

How am I going to go as often as I want to Iceland?

My parents are aging.

Uh, my siblings have children.

And when am I going to see them?

If I spend all the four weeks in Iceland, I cannot also go to other places.

Like.

This is not the life I envisioned.

I envisioned more flexibility, freedom.

Uh, so I started to design my life first.

Before I decided what kind of business it was, so I didn't know that online business

doing online courses would be my path.

It was just like, what do I not want?

And what is the opposite?

Like, I want freedom, flexibility.

I want to take a break in the middle of the day.

Can I go for a walk?

Can I work from anywhere in the world?

Uh, and that led me gradually to like, okay.

Should I be a, should I, should I be a business coach?

Like, should I take my 10 years of being a CEO and teach

people how to run a business?

And I can do that through online programs where we don't have to meet in person.

I don't need an office and I can have a team that also doesn't need an office.

Everybody works from home and it started to become this

concept of, of online business.

And that's over 10 years ago.

That's so cool.

It's such an inspiring story.

I love the thing you mentioned about that role at the company where there

was the job of the CEO and you just like, okay, like I don't, maybe on paper

I don't have all the qualifications, but you had that confidence and

self belief to just go for it.

And, um, so there's definitely a lesson that a lot of us could learn there that

particularly sometimes you see these, um, You see job descriptions and it's like

these employers are looking for a unicorn.

There's a list of things a mile long, but actually a lot of the best

qualities of somebody for the role can be the things that, the things

you can't teach anyway, you know.

So I think that's so cool.

And the fact that you then, you went through that life changing experience

and recognize that you, you could design a business around your life.

And that there was another option for you, which has led you down, the road

that you've been on ever since and, um, the amazing achievements that you've

had along the way, which is really cool, should be very proud of yourself.

Which leads us on to something specific we were going to talk about today, which

is around the concept of launching.

So this is something that you, you're an expert in online business, but in

particular, one of your areas of expertise is this concept of launching things.

And I think this concept is, it's probably alien to a lot of architects out there.

Could you tell us simply.

What do we mean when we're talking about launching?

Could you just explain that in simple terms, just in case anyone's

thinking like, how does this relate to me as a average architect?

Remember.

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Now, back to the show.

Yeah, think of a movie.

Let's think of, uh, Star Wars.

Uh, when they bring out a new movie, uh, they, they have a perfect launch

strategy, or you could call it a marketing campaign for the movie.

So one year before the premiere, there's a trailer released

and it leaves a few clues.

But doesn't show too much.

So it leaves you excited, questioning.

You want to know more than they might drop another trailer, maybe

three months after the first one.

Then interviews with the actors start to appear in different magazines and

on TV, uh, and on YouTube, of course, you know, now we have so many different

channels, social media and everything.

So we just say generally media.

And we manage, we, we, we, we mean everything.

You just start to see these things and whether you are a lot online or,

or not, it's going to be unavoidable.

You are going to know that there's a new Star Wars movie coming,

whether you are a fan or not, and you're going to be curious.

Like I'm not a super fan of Star Wars.

I do tend to go to the movies because my husband is a fan.

Uh, and he will always send me the trailer when it comes out.

So that is a launch.

They, when you have a, uh, let's say a big movie premiere in the U S it's all about

how much, uh, money, or let's say how many tickets they sell the first weekend.

The 1st weekend determines is this going to be a big movie

or is this going to be a flop?

So they do everything in their power to make it so exciting for

you to go that premiere weekend, because it goes on the news.

That this latest Star Wars movie box office weekend revenue was

whatever, a hundred million.

And you're like, Oh, I need to see this movie.

So those who didn't go that first week and they go the next week and so forth.

And then there's more news.

Oh, it has crossed a billion dollars.

Wow.

I got to see it if I haven't seen it yet.

This is a launch, uh, and I think everyone can understand when

you explain it with a movie.

Now you can take this for anything in life.

I can see that you're into guitars.

You can launch a new guitar.

Even if you think like, oh, development in guitars is not so like, there's

not going to be life changing things, even if I get a new guitar.

But what if it is a guitar that is made with a special band?

Maybe the band has signed the guitar.

It's going to come in a specific color.

There's going to be a limited edition.

There's only going to be a hundred of them.

And you are a super fan of that band.

And well, you don't need another guitar, but you're going to get it anyway,

because that's what you do as a superfan.

That's a launch too.

Then we even have vacuum cleaners, you know, um, maybe the excitement is a

little bit less with vacuum cleaners because we're not going to run around

like, Oh, I need a new vacuum cleaner.

But what if Dyson has a brand new vacuum cleaner that somehow detect

that you need to clean today?

Okay.

You know, and yesterday it was still clean.

And, but today you need to go and hoover over it because it has some magic sensors.

They launch it, they go in the news, they run marketing campaigns, they run ads.

They make sure that you see it.

And if you've bought anything from Dyson before, obviously you're going to get

a newsletter, that's again, a launch.

So all of these are very practical examples.

I think everyone can relate to one of these to understand that a launch is a

marketing campaign, where do you create excitement for the product or the service?

Ideally ahead of time so that when it's available for purchase that they

can make a lot of sales in less time.

And this is what people do in online business.

Uh, we use launches to sell programs, online programs, online courses,

uh, anything we sell really.

Because if you don't launch, you know, if something is available

all the time and you don't announce to people what's special about it,

or there's no limited edition or, or there's no sense of urgency.

Well, then you're going to think to yourself, I can buy it tomorrow.

I can buy it next week.

I can buy it next year.

And you forget about it.

You don't buy it.

And the

same thing, what, what Sara or these fast fashion labels do, let's say

you go into a Sara store and you see something you like, you know, if you

don't buy it right now, you need to go into the store after a week or two.

It's going to be gone.

They use the same principle in the fast fashion.

Yeah.

got it.

That makes sense.

You've used some really great analogies there that I'm sure that everyone

that's listening and we'll, we'll, we'll understand the concept now.

I think that, there might be a few skeptical service business owners

that are listening in and are like, well, well, come on though.

Like, why do I need to launch anything?

Can't I, can't I just promote and sell the same thing all year round?

I mean, I think you've, you've kind of answered that though.

There isn't any urgency, is there?

If you are selling the same thing all year round, what is going to draw

somebody to, to engage your services?

Tomorrow or next week, like what's going to be the thing that's

going to get them over the line.

And I think for a lot of, um, particularly smaller service business owners, they

do have natural scarcity because often they only have a limited amount of a size

of the team or resources to devote to a given number of projects in any year.

And often that's something that isn't communicated by those

architecture practice owners.

So they're really missing out.

They're missing an opportunity here, aren't they?

Yeah.

So let's say you have an interested buyer, but since you're not communicating

that you're only going to work with 10 clients this year or this month,

there is no sense of urgency for them.

And then they knock on your door and you're fully booked.

And then they're like, Oh, and they need to go somewhere else.

So by communicating that you have the limited spot.

Or limited projects actually, it's going to help you sell more

and you'd rather be sold out.

And again, it's very smart to communicate that you're sold out.

We're fully booked for the summer.

Uh, we're taking on new projects as of 1st of October.

You want to get on the wait list?

That brings another, uh, you know, influx of clients because they're like, Oh, I'm

not going to miss out on that opportunity because if I don't register here,

maybe I have to wait until next year.

And I don't want to wait until next year.

So it absolutely works in service based industry a lot as well.

Brilliant.

So I'm glad we've been able to quash that myth that, there's a valid reason that

service based business owners that are maybe previously been trying to sell the

same thing all year round, they really should consider utilizing launches.

As part of their strategy.

Are there any other common myths or misconceptions around launches?

Well, I think, uh, when you want to launch something, you, you need, you

need to create some sort of, uh, event and I think that's what's what service

based business owners often do not do.

They will just send out an email and say, I have 2 spots available.

That's not really a launch yet.

It creates sense of urgency.

So definitely do that.

But a launch thing means you have some sort of event.

You invite people to a master class to a webinar.

Okay.

And you teach them something.

Let's say you're an expert in zero energy buildings and your

clients are curious about it.

They don't know what exactly that means.

So how about it's just inviting them to a Zoom call and you explain what it is.

And how it looks like the process, the benefits and so forth.

And then whoever's interested can sign up on a wait list or interest list.

That is kind of a launching.

And then again, you can say limited number of spots we're taking on these clients.

And, you know, some people are not ready yet, but you know, they're interested.

So you can communicate with them differently and you can always reach

out to them and say, are you ready now for your zero energy project?

I love that.

Yeah.

That's such a simple idea that somebody that's, that you could

implement that without needing huge amounts of tech or anything like that.

And by creating an event, it does create more of a sense of Urgency

to get people to come along.

If it's like we're running this next week or the next month,

it's a really, really good idea.

What are the typical stages of a, of a launch?

Is there kind of like different stages to it?

Like what would normally happen in like the sort of pre launch?

Is the things that happen post launch as well from the before

and after the date of the event?

Yeah, let's say the zero energy example again.

So if you come out of the blue with a zero energy webinar, it may work, but

the better way is to actually write about it first, you know, maybe if you're

blogging or if you're doing a video or in your case, podcasting, like talk about.

expertise, your area of expertise, talk about it before you suddenly,

it's like dating a little bit, you know, let's first start with a coffee

before we go all the way to dinner.

Uh, and so that's how you can really think of a launch.

Is this, it's, uh, you're building a relationship and, uh, first, if

people don't know what you're known for or what you're good at, you need

to tell them that you're expert in it.

So you talk about the subject and then, uh, then you would have a launch event.

Tell people about it multiple times, not just one invite.

You need one, two, three, four invites, maybe.

So you need to give people maybe a two weeks lead time where you are

continuously inviting them to that event and reminding them of your expertise

and why they need this, uh, information.

And then there is a period of what we call open cart.

Now, open cart could be signing up for interlist or book a

call, book a free call with us.

You know, we're taking free calls this week, next week, not.

So that's kind of the open card period.

Something needs to happen and there's a deadline because that's

how you create the sense of urgency.

And you can repeat this multiple times a year and it doesn't have

to just, just to be for services.

You know, as a, as an architect, you can create online courses and that could

be great supplemental income as well.

I love that.

So there's a couple of great things there.

So just to, to dig into the idea of the event.

So we're using the example of a webinar.

In this case, we've mentioned about, uh, a practice that perhaps specializes

in low energy, zero carbon buildings, that sort of thing that they could

choose to run a series of events.

They could do it multiple times across the year.

Depending on their, uh, how many clients that they're looking for.

Mm

And you mentioned that when they choose a date for this event, that

they need to allow a leading period pre launch in order to start talking about

it and to build some excitement and you mentioned that they could maybe write

some blog articles, maybe they could be talking about it in their social media

channels to, uh, help get interest.

To help get people to raise their hand that are interested in this event.

And then afterwards, you mentioned about there's a period where we can either

invite people to, we could invite them to a one to one call if the attendees

have come along and want to learn more about working with our practice.

And you mentioned that.

You could have this open cart period where we say the next week or a day,

this day, we're doing these calls, but then after that, we're not because we're

going to be busy serving our clients.

And this opportunity is not going to come around again for say,

three months, something like that.

I love that.

That's such a great concept that like any of the practices that are listening

could use that without having to invest.

It's quite a simple tweak that could have a really great impact, but without

them having to invest lots of time and money in a really complicated,

uh, strategy or system, and actually the tech could be really relatively

simple for that as well, which I really

Absolutely.

Just need zoom and send out your emails.

The other thing you mentioned there is about the idea of, um,

having product like a digital product.

So there's also this opportunity for practice owners and architects to

create maybe an online course or.

Other sorts of digital products that I've seen have been things

like eBooks or guides, downloads.

It could be a, a masterclass, a video series.

There's, there's a number of different things that they could

offer as a digital product.

Um, so that's another great way that they could make some additional income.

Yeah, I think, uh, the fact that I'm an architect, I do attract

some architects into my online business.

Many of them are switching over to some other topics.

Because interests may be changed over time, but I do have at the moment,

uh, uh, an architect out of Poland that, uh, I just love her story.

Uh, and the reason I picked zero energy buildings is because that's her topic.

Ah,

And she and her husband had been running their architecture office

for many years and, uh, decided to focus on zero energy buildings and kind

of leave the traditional ones aside.

But with COVID and everything, it was kind of the business had stalled

and even declined a little bit.

Uh, and they were really thinking, how do we move forward?

And so, uh, in the beginning of 2023, they decided we're

going to try online business.

And they, uh, joined one of my programs where I teach people how to create an

online course and start to make sales.

And they have been able in one year to create a six figure online business

and it increased their offline business as well as a side benefit.

So now they have this business where they are making almost, uh, yeah,

they're still making more with the offline business, but the online

business is becoming, uh, it will surpass the offline business very soon.

And, uh, it's been such a great way to, you know, once you recorded a course,

of course you have to run it and give some time to it, but you have put

your knowledge into, uh, Recordings, then, uh, you save a lot of time and

the cool thing about doing an online course, and you can also do it with

ebook, but typically you earn a much more with online courses and ebooks.

That's why I recommend online courses.

Is they have attracted other architects that feed them now as experts in this

topic, and they are attracting the homeowners that also see them as experts

because they are the ones talking about it much more than anyone else.

So now they have these 2 audiences.

Attracted by their campaigns.

So that's maybe the biggest challenge they have.

Every time they launch something, they attract both audiences and then they

have to, you know, segment and email different messages to different audiences.

But it's been a beautiful way of their expertise was exclusive for homeowners.

And therefore not enough homeowners knew about that by actually saying, Hey,

abundance mindset thinking, we're going to teach other architects what we know.

They are attracting the architects and homeowners, you know, and I

think that mindset is off, not there.

Like, Oh, I have this expertise.

I'm not going to tell anyone about it.

The fact that they're sharing it and they have free trainings.

And of course they have paid courses.

Now they've started a membership.

Um, is that more people know about them overall?

Uh, and they have really been, uh, been able to put like a stake in the

ground and say, we are experts in this.

Uh, and that attracts more and more clients.

that's awesome.

Again, that's another, another thing that.

A lot of folks might not have considered that actually in that they've got

skills and expertise that they can offer and monetize and sell, particularly

through something like an online course that could be for their peers

as well as for their typical customers.

And you mentioned that it's got this multiplier effect that

they're attracting more of both.

So in terms of like what that's going to bring to the table, Due to their bottom

line to their numbers in their business, then there's going to be an absolute game

changer from, from where they were before.

Yeah.

And now they say to me, actually, we only have time for 10

projects, offline projects a year.

But the fact that they are teaching their peers.

They can even benefit from the, you know, the extra work that's coming

in and they can start to recommend.

So it becomes like a whole ecosystem.

That's so cool.

I love that.

This has been, this has been really interesting today.

I'm, I'm glad that you were able to find the time to come on the show and

share your expertise around launching in particular, what would be the main

thing that you'd like everyone to take away from our conversation today?

I would love everyone to learn about launching.

I think it's been, for me, the biggest, uh, game changer, if you want to call it.

It's such a popular word right now.

We're going to get bored of the game changer word, but it was a

true game changer when I learned launching about 11 years ago.

And I think it's relevant in any type of, uh, field also, also even

on a personal level, I've benefited from launching and it's how, how to

sell, how to sell with excitement.

Uh, and how to package your offer in a way that lands with your ideal

client, that makes it exciting for them to become your customer.

So, um, whatever you do, then learn about the concepts of launching.

There are books out there.

Uh, there are episodes on my podcast.

There are many ways to learn about launching.

Uh, and I think.

It should be everyone's toolbox if they want to make more sales.

Absolutely.

I completely agree.

Was there anything else you wanted to add that we haven't covered?

Well, I just want to mention my book again.

Um, I created a course, uh, 2018 anyone who wants to start

online and I call it kickstart.

Makes sense.

Uh, and it's really, uh, a program that takes you through creating an online

course from scratch, even if you've never created a course before, how to

build your email list, how to create basically raving fans on your email

list, and then how to make an offer.

I put it all in a book.

So, uh, and since I'm here with you, I want to give this book for free.

So, uh, that's what you can do.

You can go to sydn.

com for slash architecture business club, one word, uh, and grab that free copy.

Otherwise you can also go and buy the book on Amazon, but you shouldn't do that.

You should just grab the free copy.

That's awesome.

I will make sure that that link, uh, is in the show notes as well.

So people can go and, and grab that.

What a great opportunity to get that for free.

Sigrid, there's another thing that I wanted to ask you.

It's not about the main topic, but it's just a question I like to

ask all of the guests on the show.

I love to travel and to discover new places.

And I know you do too.

I was wondering if you could just tell me just one of your favorite

places and what you love about it.

And this can be.

It can be somewhere near or far where comes to mind.

My favorite place is in Iceland.

I am biased, Icelandic.

Um, I travel around Iceland every year and I look at different, uh, areas of

the country, but there are places where I go to again and again and again.

And one of them is the Glacier Lagoon in the South of Iceland.

It is a lagoon where the glacier is coming into the lagoon and the ice breaks off.

And so it's full of little icebergs and you can go on a boat and say,

you know, go between the icebergs.

There are also sometimes seals to be seen there and close by is something

what we call a diamond beach.

Not because there are diamonds, but there are little icebergs there.

You can sometimes sit on them.

They're big enough to sit on or they're tiny so you can hold them.

It's a magical place and I think it's quite unique in Europe.

That sounds absolutely amazing.

I, I had the, the pleasure of visiting Iceland many, many years ago.

It was bizarrely, it was just for a day.

I don't know how this came about, but my, my dad's, um, we, we got this

deal at the travel agents or something to just take a day trip to Iceland.

We had a great time, but I felt like I only got to see

like the tiniest little bit.

Of it, you know, obviously you can't really get to see a place in just a

day, but we got to visit Reykjavik and, uh, visit a few places nearby.

And I always thought one day, one day I will go back and visit again and

get to see the rest of the country because I know it's a beautiful place.

Sigrun, thanks again so much for your time today.

I really appreciate you coming on the show and sharing your expertise.

Could you just remind everybody again, where is the best place

to connect with you online?

My website is sigrun.

com and I'm sigrun.

com, one word, on all social media channels, mostly on

Facebook and Instagram.

These are my favorite places, but I'm also on LinkedIn.

Cool.

Brilliant.

Well, thanks again.

It's been a pleasure to have you on the show.

Thank you for having me.

It's great to talk to another architect.

Next time I'll be talking about customer relationship management

systems or otherwise known as a CRM.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of architecture business club.

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Remember.

Running your architecture business.

Doesn't have to be hard and you don't need to do it alone.

This is architecture business club.