User Spotlight - How Allie Duzett Uses MV

In this gorgeous interview with Allie Duzett from 'allieduzettclasses'... We chat about how she has created a profitable business by using the "Pay By Donation" business model on MV.

This episode includes extra sound effects from a puppy barking and a baby babbling, this is #mumsatwork Enjoy!

Do you prefer to listen? Pop over to Apple podcasts // Spotify // or listen on anchor below.



TRANSCRIPT:

Remi Oduyemi  
Hello everybody. Welcome back for another user spotlight. My name is Remi, I'm the user success Lead here at MemberVault.
And the user spotlights, we get to speak to some of our lovely gorgeous members all about their MemberVault and what they're using member vote for and how they're using it. Because we believe by sharing this sort of stuff, it really helps you get ideas and inspirations about things that you should be doing inside of your MemberVault account. Now, today, we are joined by my puppy, and my guest baby may make an appearance as well. So lots going on. This is moms at work today. So So enjoy this episode. I want to welcome my guest today. Ali does that. How are you, Ali?

Allie Duzett  
Oh, I am great. Thank you for having me. 

Remi Oduyemi  
Absolute pleasure. It's so lovely to meet you. So can you tell us how long have you been using MemberVault Allie?

Allie Duzett  
I believe I signed up for MemberVault in 2020. So I guess it's been about two years.

Remi Oduyemi  
And was you using anything before member? Or was it your first platform? Or did you come from somewhere else?

Allie Duzett  
You know, this is like so terrible. But before MemberVault I really just was. I mean, I tried Kajabi I tried some of these other big ones. And I didn't love any of them. And I really was just kind of when people would buy from me. I would send them a video basically on like YouTube unlisted or something stupid, like, very bad. It was like, very horrible. I changed everything and made me look legit.

Remi Oduyemi  
Yeah, made me look legit as well, once I was like, Oh, my goodness, this makes me look like an actual business. Rather than like hodgepodge in bits and pieces together. So I totally get you on that. So can you tell us a little bit about the work that you do?

Allie Duzett  
Yeah, so I'm a medical intuitive and astrologer. And basically, some years ago, about eight years ago, while my brother was dying, I was suddenly able to see like auras and chakras and stuff like that, and do a lot of medical, intuitive healing work. And so my work now I do a lot of sessions, and I do a lot of teaching. And that is what I really use my MemberVault for is to host my classes and my sessions for large groups. I found that doing one on one work, I love it a lot, but it I don't know, I mean, you can only help one person at a time, and there's only so many hours in the day. And so I focused on group sessions that can get a lot of work done for a lot of people at once. And MemberVault is the perfect.

Remi Oduyemi  
Yeah. Um, he's, he's, you're sort of fine. He's coming to these group sessions with you.

Allie Duzett  
Yeah, my client base is currently about 85%. Female. But it's, it's really a wide, you know, basically, any people that realize that they have a problem that they think that intuitive healing might solve, they end up finding me. And so I have kind of a very varied base. There's just people that are open to this kind of work and interested in it. And because a lot of my work is by donation that really has opened up the thresholds of who can afford it, like pretty much everybody can. So so they have a pretty wide customer base.

Remi Oduyemi  
Lovely. I'm I can't wait to dig into the donation side of things with you in just a minute. But before we get to that, can you tell me about any tech tools that you use alongside member vote to support your business?

Allie Duzett  
Yeah, so. So my number one thing is Aweber. And I just picked a Weber it's an it's an email service, right? And so that's how I send out my emails, I would say my email list is the crux of my marketing is the crux of my business. That's how I keep in touch with all of my people. And I direct them to MemberVault, but it's all through Aweber. I love that member about integrates with AWeber when I first sent member about that. And then it had that little drop down menu and it was like, Do you want them to put put your clients that sign up for this product on an email list? And I was like, yes. Aweber was right there was right at the top and it's alphabetized the best thing I felt like it was this divine sign. It's so easy for my whole structure to continue and grow. I love so I love it. I haven't tried other email services, there's probably some that are better that I just don't know about, but

Remi Oduyemi  
find what works for you. Right and if it works, it works. So you know

Allie Duzett  
it's true and it does work for me. Other than that, I use Zoom a lot to record live videos of me doing my sessions and my classes and then I put them up on Vimeo and then I They put them up on MemberVault. And so I ran, I ran a pretty lean machine. That's pretty much all that I've got going on as far as overhead is AWeber, Zoom Vimeo

Remi Oduyemi  
perfects, and it works. And you've got lots and lots of clients. Right? And you also have quite a lot of products too, don't you?

Allie Duzett  
I do. Yeah, right now, I think I probably have over 100 that are in there. Not all of them are visible, but but I have over 100 products. And I have, I have over 100 More from my past years of recording that I just haven't put up yet. But I love that I can like member votes as needed. So I can, and I can do it. I mean, it won't take me that long. I just have to sit down and actually get it done. Very exciting, you know,

Remi Oduyemi  
and you have a free resource area. And there's quite a lot in there, isn't there?

Allie Duzett  
Yeah, yes, I have an enormous amount of information for free. And, and I have a lot of things set up so that as people work through it, they will unlock more free material. You know, so I really love to reward my clients that take the time to take care of themselves, you know, so I just, I get a lot of emails from affiliates. Hey, oh, my gosh, oh, no. I logged in today. And I have new classes in my account, but I didn't earn them. Or like I didn't pay for them. How can I take care of this? I'm so sorry. I didn't mean, no, no, no, you are like, this is your gift. You took the time, like you did so much healing work for yourself. And now you have even more this is my thank you for taking care of yourself. So what other system that has enabled that, you know, like, yeah, I love I think memorable does a great job of taking care of its customers. And then its customers, and then it enables its customers to take this fantastic care of their customers. Remember, fall is the great like, Grandma of like, Oh, I really love and kids

Remi Oduyemi  
love that. And that is brilliant that like people can come in and get the free resources, right. But if they're doing the work, then you set it up so that it unlocks more goodness for them. Right and, and that's so rewarding for them as well that they're doing the work. They're healing themselves. And then you're like, Hey, I got more for you. So very cool. So let's talk about your donation based products. So tell me, why did you decide to do it this way? And how is that working for you sort of practically inside a member? Well,

Allie Duzett  
yeah, so what happened was during, so I was always just a one on one, like, I would work one on one. And then I would maybe do two or three big classes a year. And it would be I don't know, like, I just want to like marriage, heal your marriage, you know. And then I have these big marketing lead ups to it like a couple of weeks and then have the class and then I teach the class and I wouldn't really mess with my email list are trying to get new clients during that. And so it was kind of a little bit of feast or famine in my business. Because of that until COVID hit. And many of my clients were out of work, like nobody knew what was going on. Everybody was scared. And I thought, okay, I wish that I could just do something helpful that anybody could afford. And so I just decided to test. Sorry, that's my baby.

Remi Oduyemi  
That's okay, don't worry.

Allie Duzett  
I decided to test a by donation session, and I just kind of threw it together. And I said, the guys, on two days, in two days, I'm going to do this session, it's going to be by donation, it's probably going to take one or two hours, so just pay what you can. And I'll see you there. And I just gave them my Venmo handle and said like put your email address with your Venmo donation, and it can be any amount like and have at it and I was maybe expecting like $500 or something I made $5,000 No way on donations i for real I my lesson that we had maybe 700 people on it, like it was a pretty small list. So that was a lot of money for me to make. Not even charging anything. What and so I did that session. And then, you know about a month later, I was like, Okay, I'm ready for another one. And I did it. And it again made several $1,000 Pretty much overnight and I was like, How is this possible in such a small list? Yeah, it's because there's the people that are paying $1 And the people that are paying $100 And then it kind of evens out right? And then in August of 2020, I decided that I was going to try and have something for sale every single day of the month. And so I just decided to do these one off sessions every couple of days through the month of August. My goal was to make $35,000 Between August and December of 2020. I made $38,000 By September the second Oh my gosh. So the money just kept on, like rolling in, I was just doing I mean, my sessions are not usually super long. So it'd be like an hour or two hours every couple of days. That's not like an abundance of work, you know. But it was regular work. And it just absolutely proved that you can make a lot of money, even without setting a set price, if, you know you have a product that people want and value. And I mean, I mean, I do think that having my strong community really made the difference. Because I think if I was just a random person, I didn't trust saying, like, look, I have all this by donation stuff, then they would say, why is all your stuff like? That desperate, but they knew like, I charge a lot of money for our stuff, like my classes, my big classes, cause like a lot of money. Yeah. And so to put it up by donation, I'd earned that trust, they knew that it was trustworthy content, and like high quality content, they all know, they're getting hundreds of dollars worth of material for like a donation of $15. So like people are willing to pay it, because

Remi Oduyemi  
they know the value of it, they get it? Yeah.

Allie Duzett  
I feel like that's the real secret with by donation with having successful the by donation model is you have to really build that trust and provide enormous amounts of value. So that it doesn't look cheap. And like, yeah, for it, you know, because they like and I think people can feel the vibe of when somebody is putting a donation by because like, sorry, like, No, I charge tons of money for my personal time, and I'm gifting this to you, because I want to serve you and I you know what I mean? I think it's

Remi Oduyemi  
totally I think you hit the nail on the head with that. Absolutely. And people can smell smell, they can smell they can smell a rat. Do you have a Facebook group as well, don't you? And so you've got a nurtured Facebook group of buyers really as well.

Allie Duzett  
Yes, that's true. And okay, so so as far as my, my client base, so I have kind of three home bases for them. And they're kind of different. So I have my email list. And right now it's not that big. One second, my baby is trapped.

Remi Oduyemi  
I'm a baby.

Allie Duzett  
So, oh, no, once again.

Remi Oduyemi  
We've got to rescue the baby.

Allie Duzett  
Yep. She found the xylophone. I like this. I'm

Remi Oduyemi  
loving all of your crystals and stuff behind you as well. I just love

Allie Duzett  
my crystal wall. Yeah. So I have. So I have these three different groups. So my email list has about 4500. Right now, it's not huge. But it does have a 50% open rate. And I love to message them and just educate them about everything weird and cool. And so

Remi Oduyemi  
you really get to you do you email every week.

Allie Duzett  
I do, I often will email four or five times a week. I try I tell all my people, they're my best friends because they are and like, all day long. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I have to tell my best friends about this. And I'm like reading my books. And like, I've got to tell my best friend. I'm like obsessed with my clients. And it's really funny because they all know me, because I'm talking about myself. I have my baby and my videos. And I like kind of don't know them. Because I have so many of them. But I like I feel like I do you know, and they

Remi Oduyemi  
let them into your world. And that builds trust. Does that know like and trust factor? You've let them in? Yeah,

Allie Duzett  
yes. And like they know I'm a mom. I just want to mention this because I know a lot of moms use MemberVault and they want to grow their businesses. It's been hard. I don't have a nanny right now but I have five kids, five of them. My oldest is 10 they are 10 863 and zero or she just turned one on Sunday. And so it's like busy town over here. And and I don't have a whole lot of support, but I just have my baby in my videos. One thing that I do in my Facebook group is I do laundry AMA's and when I have a big pile of laundry, I set up my Facebook life and I fold my laundry and I just take any questions that people have I love it and and so I just feel like actually being mom has and being open about it has made my life much more relatable and I think it's actually helped my business like yeah, it's not that I think you should like manipulate people know when your laundry while you do it. I have just so much laundry guys, but like I might as well multitask and like serve people. Yeah. And get my laundry done.

Remi Oduyemi  
I love that. I think that's brilliant. And it's so real world and it's so connecting you to people and I can see why people are just like yeah, she's putting stuff out. I'm gonna go back and it's By donation, you know, so I can pay what I want, you know, whatever is in my budget, I totally can see why you have so many buyers because it's about how we connect to people how we relate, relate to people and like you say, you're giving really good value as well. It's not like you're just putting out any Oh, now my dogs kicking off in the background. But it's not like you're giving that any old rubbish, right? You're offering value you're connecting with people you're building and nurturing these relationships. And you're and double check boxes for regularly emailing, I'm terrible ally, I need to slap myself on the wrist. But yeah, by regularly emailing your, you know, like you say they feel like your friends and like people that know you. That's so important. So, so important. And yeah, I think that's gonna inspire a lot of people as well. And it's certainly given me a little kick up the bum to keep emailing my list. Because I'm, I'm horrible at it. And I don't know what I've got a bit of an email block. I don't know, I don't know why

Allie Duzett  
I feel like if you just are in love with them, it's very easy. You know, that's true. I feel like, just fall in love with your clients. And so I just feel like I'm totally in love, you know? I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I'm just crazy for them, like,

Remi Oduyemi  
oh,

Allie Duzett  
that's gonna help them have a better day.

Remi Oduyemi  
Oh, I love that. See, I feel like that that my community, my Facebook group, like I'm there every day and I engage everyday, but with the email list. Yeah, I've just I'm not yet as in love with the bat ties.

Allie Duzett  
Yeah. And I have found that so. So I had, I started my Facebook group for real maybe 2014. But I didn't use it. And I just focused on building my email list. Because again, like, for people out there that have a Facebook presence, but not an email list presence. Facebook can change the algorithm, you have to collect their emails, so that you always have a list of your own clients, and you can contact them on your terms, no matter what's happening with social media. So that's why I really focused on building my list. But then when, when, in August of 2020, I started doing all this work hosting it through MemberVault, it started really taking off, you know, because people would tell their friends, they'd say, Oh, my gosh, I just did this, this like weird obsession on the internet. But it was like almost free, like my best friend, you should totally do it too. And so it started growing a lot at that time. Just organically word of mouth. And people started messaging me with so many questions, and I was like, I will die under the weight of these questions. I was like, I have to resurrect my Facebook group. So that I can answer them. But everybody benefit. Yeah. So that's why I started working on my Facebook presence again. And what happened was, because because of my topic, which I think is kind of compelling, you know, as far as everybody has health issues, or like most people do, and people are really intrigued by things like auras and chakras and like angels and like everything weird and interesting that I work with every day. People, people have really enjoyed that Facebook group, because it has this compelling topic. And I think, and there's there's a lot of different compelling topics in this world. You know, as far as like, people are really interested in relationships, like a really good marriage group, or like a really good support group for different issues, or I love the MemberVault group, I think the member of our Facebook group is so compelling, it's serving our needs people in it are kind, you know, setting that really strong tone is really helpful for whatever topic like your ideal clients will come to you because you have this compelling topic. And because of the tone of your group, and my group is so kind and because I set the tone for that, you know, and so there has been a total of like, one comment in there that, that I felt was not appropriate. But people are so kind and accepting and I don't have to police it, you know, I never have to be like, let's be nice. Everybody's Nice. Yeah. Because the rule is you want to be in my space, like, you're gonna be nice, because they interact with me, they're like, Ali would not tolerate this one, I would not. That'd be nice, or else I'm gonna kick you out. And I'm not gonna have any regrets. But I'd never do that. I've never had to block anybody. I've never had to, you know, say you're not very nice, get nice, you know, not to set the right tone for your group. But when you have that good tone, and that compelling topic, people are going to come and and again, I feel like the Marvel does just an excellent group with setting that tone for the community. Like it feels so safe. You know, not that, like, is there a reason why talking about like, tech on the internet should be unsafe? Like I don't think so. But even so everybody is just kind in there. Yeah. And yeah, and I think a lot of that is I mean, I think Aaron in particular does an excellent job of setting The tone like she's so positive, her emails are so positive when she sends them to me, like all the emails that I get from members that she read. It's like, just charming, you know, and my best friend Aaron. Email, you know, yeah.

Remi Oduyemi  
It was probably one of the only emails I ever consistently ever open because they were just always so good. And like, yeah, just amazing. And, and that's power in itself, right that, you know, you write emails, it's so good that people and I get 1000s of emails, but just you know, don't you don't open. And obviously, your email list is really effective if you're getting over 50% of people opening. And that's incredible. And really effective, really effective in terms of driving sales as well back into your business. But I think it starts at the top, it's you know, your group and your email and the engagement you have it starts with you and who you are. And it's the same with member vote that's run by Mike and Aaron, that, you know, it's top down, right, when the people at the top are kinda nice. It filters down and you attract, you attract people who are like you, which is really important. Yeah, what is your Facebook group called? Because I want to come and join it.

Allie Duzett  
Come join me, we're gonna have so much fun. It's called intuitive healing with Ellie Doucet. Okay, you know, I want to mention really quick for all the new business people out there, I agonized over my name. And you know, there's a million people in this field. And they're picking all these names, you know, like, transform your heart, or like soul healing, and like, all this stuff. And I was like, what, what should I call my group, and that actually was something that really held me back in all aspects of my business. In the end, I took a class where the guy just said, named after so like, your website should just be your name. And I was like, Okay, so my, my, my technical business name is just do that consulting. Like, my, I was like, What am I going to call my Facebook group? And I was like, Well, what do I do? I do intuitive healing. Okay. It's intuitive healing with Ally does that. And that

Remi Oduyemi  
just keeps it simple, right, we'll keep

Allie Duzett  
having my name in the title has been really helpful as well, because there's no question that it's my group. Yeah. Like, people know that I'm the expert. They can ask questions, and my group has very high engagement, and many of the posts in there will get dozens of comments, and not for me, and I like to kind of sit back and let other people, you know, comment on and chime in. But, you know, I do get some people that try to use it for self promotion from time to time, but they know, it's really my group for self promotion. And so it's setting off that tone. Again, from the beginning of like, this is my group, it is for self promotion, like it is to promote the things that I'm teaching and to explain it and to be like this adjunct space to my teaching that has kept it like, here's, here's the thing, it would be very horrible to me if I ended up having this big Facebook group that was just a free for all, you know, and that is not what this is because it has had very clear boundaries and even in the name there is a boundary. Yeah,

Remi Oduyemi  
absolutely. And so your member vote, how can people find you a member if they want to come and check out all your cool offers and your pay by donation products? Where can

Allie Duzett  
my MemberVault is Le Doucet classes.com. So it's a ll i e, d u z e TT? Le do that classes.com. And it has a whole bunch of stuff.

Remi Oduyemi  
Well, I will make sure I put all the links, I'll put your Facebook group, your MemberVault count at the bottom of the blog, and also that people have a way to reach out and come and learn more about you. But yeah, all this let's say thank you so much. This has been really, really helpful. And I think it's going to inspire a lot of our members in how they use member role, especially the mums out there. So thank you so much for your time today, Ali.

Allie Duzett  
Thank you so much for having me. This was a delight.

Remi Oduyemi  
Absolute pleasure. Right. I will speak to you soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Check out Allie's MV Site here: https://www.allieduzettclasses.com

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Hey, hey! 👋 I’m Remi, the User Success Lead here at MemberVault.
You’ll hear me over on the Vault podcast, see me in the Collaborative, and also hosting special user success workshops.

Outside of MV, I work with established entrepreneurs and ambitious business owners who are ready to scale their business using simple systems and cool automations.

You can find my MV site here: https://www.onlinebusinesstemple.com