Summary There's a strong shot of social media wisdom, a sprinkle of humor, and a hearty serving of...
Renee & Dr. Ramon Goings of Done Dissertation | BOBs in the 'Burbs Ep5
Summary
Oh the insights! 💎💎 In this episode, the spotlight is on the remarkable duo, Dr. Ramon and Renee Goings of Done Dissertation. They share their innovative approach to easing the dissertation journey for doctoral students, unpack the lessons learned on their entrepreneurial journey and stress the value of embracing imperfection. Along the way, we mix in some Aries love, a little Jeezy and celebrate the vibrant Black community in Laurel, Maryland. So, whether you're navigating your own dissertation journey, looking to elevate your digital presence, or simply enjoy a dose of inspiration sprinkled with practical wisdom, this episode has what you want!
Show Notes
In this episode:
- Operating in Laurel, Maryland
- Challenges in Building Done Dissertation
- Tools and Strategies for Building Connections
- Prioritizing Actions that Lead to Revenue
- What to Read, Watch, or Listen To
Keep the convo going, find Done Dissertation on:
- Instagram: donedisscoach
- Facebook: donedisscoach
- Twitter: donedisscoach
- Youtube: donedissertation
- Linkedin: RamonGoings
Transcript
Ashley L. James
Hey My People! This is Bobs in the 'Burbs, a podcast dedicated to shining a spotlight on Black-owned businesses thriving in suburban areas. We're here to amplify their stories and explore how they use the power of social media to make a lasting impact. I am Ashley L. James, the founder and social media consultant of ALJ Digital. Today, I will be chatting with Renee Goings and Dr. Ramon Goings of Done Dissertation and they will tell us about taking business tasks from daunting to done.
Ashley L. James
Hi, Ramon and Renee. Thank you for joining me today. How are you?
Renee Goings
Hello, doing good, how about you?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Thanks for having us.
Ashley L. James
Yeah, I'm doing good. OK, thank you. So we'll kick it off with your story. Can you tell us more about who you are and more about your business?
Renee Goings
Yeah, you want to take it or I'm going to take it.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Sure, I guess I could start. So yeah, Renee and I just so you have the backstory before the business starts We met in college first year freshman year been together ever since We were paired together in a group because of our astrological sign and actually came to find out we're in this group We have the same birthday same day same year. And so we started there. We've been together ever since and so you know when we started the business I initially started I was a college from a college professor and
I had been helping people with their writing and even myself as a doctoral student, I went to Morgan State University for my doctorate and I was struggling at first to trying to get through and understand how to finish the doctoral program. And I figured out a system that I taught myself on how to develop as a writer. And so by the time I finished, I was out writing the faculty and they were like, oh, let me send my students to Ramon, he's figured something out. And I just started helping people. I was doing it for free for a long time.
And so somebody was like, boy, you better start charging for that. You got your own work to do and you don't always free work to help other people. And so I just started charging for editing services and then the editing turned into all these students asking questions. And it got to a point where I was like, look, I think there's something to this. I don't know exactly what it is, but there's something to what we got going on here. And I just started coaching people and charging for the services and things just kind of spiraled from there and got to a point, like, especially during COVID.
things that was just me by myself grew to a point where Renee had been helping all this time and we were building it. I'm like, at some point, you know, I gotta, I can't do a job being a professor and do the business just by myself. And so this is when Renee and I tried to start and make that decision to transition. And I don't know if Renee, you want to take it from here in terms of what you were seeing on the other side.
Renee Goings
Yeah, so I, at that time, I say things kind of like the light switch, like during COVID. We had just so many more people that were interested in our services and wanting to join and it was getting to be a lot. And so at that time, I was working in corporate America, just kind of climbing the ladder. And I worked on the broker side. So what I did was either underwrite or negotiate health and welfare contracts for a book of business that I was assigned to. In a nutshell, I did a lot of client management and talked with like a lot of business owners, and a lot of CFOs about budgeting and managing costs around their benefits. And so I had done well in my career, actually had even gotten to the point where I had my team, I was a vice president, but I was worn out.
I've been doing it for about eight years and I was ready for something new. And so we had gotten to the point within our business where you know, I would do stuff in the evenings, you know, reconciling our books because I've got a thing for numbers. I'm a math major. I'm doing stuff on the weekends and helping. But you know, I was overworked and burned out with my corporate day-to-day job. And so we thought, you know, hey if I left and came on full time, I'd have way more capacity because we're getting to the point where it's like either I need to come on full time or we need to hire somebody if we want to continue growing. Being the control freak that I am, I was like, yeah, no, I'm going to come on over. So after many, many conversations with our financial advisor and planning this transition for a good six months. Yeah, yeah. I'm not one, you know, you have some people that have a story where they're like, yeah, one day I was just like, I quit and I'll just figure it out. That's not me.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, that took a while. Yeah.
Ashley L. James
Yeah.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, yeah.
Renee Goings
That's not me. And so after a lot of planning and thought put into it, I went ahead and I ripped the band-aid off and I came over full-time on February 22. And so as the director of operations, what I was able to do is take a lot of stuff that was kind of on his plate to allow him to be able to focus on the delivery of the services and the coaching, et cetera. And I kind of took ownership of a lot of the other things that were happening within the business that were kind of just way too much for just one person.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, once she came on, we saw our company, in terms of revenue, doubled. That year she came on full time. So it was a direct line. We needed it. We were, we had a chance to grow, but we needed her.
Renee Goings
In my mind, in full transparency, my corporate job wanted me to stay and they offered me a nice little bonus to stay. In my mind, the way I have to reconcile that is, I don't know if I'm an overachiever, but I'm like, I got to make that, like to make this make sense. Like I didn't miss out on an opportunity. And so luckily, because of all of the efforts, and time that Ramon had poured into the business at its inception. When I was able to come in, you know, just based on my personality and what I had been doing in my corporate job, and then going into like doing a lot of the sales, it was just, it was easy. It was easy.
Ashley L. James
Yeah, wow, that's fantastic. And I know that corporate to kind of drive the startup business is a huge change. So can you talk more about what that was like for you, Renee?
Renee Goings
Oh my gosh, it was a huge change. It's still one that I'm learning even today. I had learned that if you're not dead dog tired, beat down, working all hours of the night, having no boundaries, because basically, I was in client management. So our sales team would get clients. It was my job to not only manage them and do everything for them to manage their health and welfare, but I had to keep clients happy.
Ashley L. James
Mm-hmm.
Renee Goings
And so that meant, you know, creating relationships. And sometimes that meant, you know, really not having any boundaries, you know, being up at midnight, you know, sending an email, which really should be able to wait till the next day, but you know, you got to do what you have to do. So coming in to, you know, being in my own world where I can kind of control things, I'm immediately telling, you know, we got to do this, we got to do that. I'm not burned out. So that means I'm not working hard enough. I'm not grinding hard enough.
And is this like toxic mentality that I had that Ramon had to say, like, you are doing a lot. Like we've doubled revenue. What do you mean you're not doing enough? And I was like, wait, you mean I don't have to like to work myself to the bone to be successful is like this, this mentality that I had to get out of, um, you know, outside of that too, you know, to having total autonomy over your schedule.
Ashley L. James
Yeah.
Renee Goings
you know, it's a little bit different for me. And so there was a transition there with that. Like, I gotta be in my office at this time, at this, you know. It was like, no, like, if I wanna go out and run to the grocery store, I can go and I can do that and I can come back. So those were some shifts. But I would say the main shift for me was coming into an arena and area that I was not familiar with. So I am not a subject matter expert on writing a dissertation, you know. I only have my bachelor's degree. I did not, I'm not a doc student. I get a lot of clients that ask me all the time, oh, are you Dr. Goings as well? No, I am not. The only thing I know is from what I have seen him go through. And so not being a subject matter expert on something or going through it myself, I really kind of had to learn, you know, the key parts of it so that I could be able to connect with prospects on sales calls and be able to talk about what they're going through and make our services meaningful to them, you know, to see if they wanted to join. So that was a big thing, a huge transition for me.
Ashley L. James
Yes, it does. Yeah, that sounds like it. That's kind of a lot to go through. It's interesting that mental change that has to happen for you to run your own business or run a business with your partner. It's just, I don't know. It's like unless you have gone through it, it's hard to describe it. But I love that you brought that up and brought that to the forefront. One thing, let me run back just a little bit, because Dr. Goings, you did speak about you guys kind of meeting up because you have the same astrological sign, but I don't think you mentioned which one that is. So what is it?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Aries
Ashley L. James
What? So this is an Aries call today?! We're all Aries. Okay, I love this!
Dr. Ramon Goings
Now, what day, what's your birthday?
Ashley L. James
I'm April 15th. What about you guys?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Okay, March 28th.
Ashley L. James
Wow, very cool. So, alright, so moving back into Done Dissertation. So, can you talk about what that process is like when someone joins your program for the first time? What do they go through?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, so when someone says they decide to join and they, you know, provide their payment, as soon as they do that, they get a welcome email from us that includes several items. We have an onboarding process, so they have to kind of go through that because there's some other additional information we need from them once they join the program. And then also as part of our program before, because our program is a group model, I do have a one-on-one consultation with each of those folks once they join to just map out a plan for them during their time with us in the program. So they have an opportunity to schedule that as soon as they join. And then they have access to our curriculum. So it's not just coaching being in like, you know, coaching calls, but we also have a curriculum that I developed that has helped doctoral students get through the process. So our goal as a company is to take all the guesswork out of the process that holds a lot of students up so that they can focus on the writing. So we've done all that for them. So our goal is to help nurture and support them while they're with us so they can just focus on getting this project done.
Ashley L. James
Okay, very good. And then Renee, can you kind of add in how you kind of get people through their process once they first join Done Dissertation and kind of what do you add there?
Renee Goings
Yeah, so that's I'm so glad you asked that question and I'm just going to be honest and transparent. It's been you know a journey for me finding my place like outside of when they say yes you know I want to join and then really kind of turning the reins over um to Dr. Goings um and so basically what I do is because I have nurtured this relationship with them I mean I have some clients that are so frustrated with what has been happening you know they're sharing very personal stories and things with me on the sales call, and I'm following up with them until they've made their decision as to whether they wanna join or not. And so it's kinda hard for me to just be like, okay, bye. So what I do kind calling on my experience in client management is keeping up with them. And so I have monthly one-on-one checkpoints with our clients to make sure that they're finding the resources and the program to be helpful to them.
Sometimes I find that clients, while we give them this whole toolkit of things to use, don't quite understand how to strategically use them. And so I'm helping them and being a thought partner in that process. And so when I have these monthly check-ins with them, it's like, okay, hey, you know, I'm attending all of our weekly coaching calls. So I'm also hearing what they're working on, what milestones they're hitting, et cetera.
But I'm also like, okay, hey, what's the next thing you're working on? And maybe they might be like, oh, you know, I don't know how to do this or that. And I'm like, okay, I want you to go to this module within the curriculum. I want you to do this. I want you then bring your questions to office hours calls. I'll help you learn how to pre-submit the question, you know, just kind of helping them holding their hand while they're going through. which is a lot of the stuff that I did in my previous job, just a different topic. Um, so that's kind of how I remain involved. Hmm.
Ashley L. James
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to speak over you, but I was saying it probably had a different vibe as well.
Renee Goings
Yes, yes, very different, very different, but still very applicable. You know they need that person. I don't want to call it hand-holding, but they need to know that outside of the coaching calls and the other, uh, different things that they're able to utilize, that they're able to have that one-on-one touch point. Um, and so it's, it's very helpful for our clients, just knowing that they have that, that level of support.
Ashley L. James
I like that go-to person if they have any questions. Yeah, that's perfect. Okay, so let's talk about your suburb of choice. So where are you operating out of? And yes, tell us more about that.
Renee Goings
So we're in what we call the DMV. We're in Laurel, Maryland. So we're smack dab in the middle, 20 minutes north, you're in Baltimore, 20 minutes south, you're in DC. So a very thriving area. A lot of folks, Black and Brown folks are doing very well in this area. And we initially actually after college had moved up to where Ramon is from, which is Connecticut, and first started in the job market when the recession hit, it was rough. And so yeah, it was really bad. And so we eventually thought, you know, New England area is real tough to live, though the winters are harsh. It's very expensive to live up there. And most folks would argue it's expensive to live in the DMV area, and it is, but it's something different up there in the New England area. And so we decided to come back down to actually where I'm from, which is the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. And we've been here ever since.
Ashley L. James
Awesome. OK, love that. And now we talked a little bit about some of the challenges that you've faced, that both of you have faced in building Done Dissertation. Can you speak a little bit more about what went into creating the business and just how you've managed it thus far? What are the challenges that you've run into?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, I think at each development stage, we have different challenges. So when I was first just me kind of me starting it out, it was figuring out what it that I wanted to do and who I wanted to do it for. And so like finding who my ideal avatar would be for the business and how do I want to deliver it? So before COVID days, I was traveling. I would meet with clients around Maryland. I would drive to them wherever they were. We would have coaching sessions in person because somehow I had that mindset about you know, my background's being a teacher, K through 12 teachers. I thought, oh, you need to be in class with somebody for them to get a result. And so I'd be traveling around. Then I recognized at that phase in the business, that my traveling around was fine, but there would be days that I would start traveling to a client and they would cancel the session. And so now, and the way I didn't have my business model set up right, where I was still gotten paid regardless. So there were things at that phase, I had to figure out like pricing, how to deal with people who are canceling, like figuring that part out.
And then I started to learn, I started being in different business coaching programs that, oh, maybe one of the ways to funnel people out is by your price. And so you'll get a certain type of client who wants to, you know, do a certain type of level of work if they have invested a certain level amount of money. And so having that helped me figure out, oh, if I want to go on one, if I want a certain type of client, I need to charge more. And then I started to charge more. And it's every time I kept charging and going up on the price, I still would get clients to come through.
And it got to a point, you know when COVID hit and we went virtual, that changed things. It got to a point where I just literally could not take on any more one-on-one clients because I was burnt out. I was like, there's no way I can do any more of this. And so I had to figure out how to change what we were doing as one-on-one, meet with people to a group model where we could bring on other coaches and have more of a scalable system. And so that's what we did like in 2020, 2021 is I converted from one-on-one to a group model.
And that allowed us to take on more people. We brought on a coach. Like, it helped us to grow. And at that point, it becomes, how can you sell a group program? So again, the problem shifted for us. Because people like one-on-one for some, you know, that was their thing. They want one-on-one. So it's just, that I came to that objection about one-on-one. And then from there, it's just figuring out, who's our ideal client? Where do we find them? Because again, I wasn't trying to be on social media at first, but then I learned pretty quickly, like, if I want to stay in business and try to grow this thing, I gotta be on social media somewhere. And so that became another challenge. Like how, as someone who doesn't like to be on video and do all that stuff, how do you overcome that and get on video? And that's just interesting. I get paid to talk around everywhere. I'm on video all the time. So it's just ironic what happens now.
Ashley L. James
So basically you've had to overcome that because that opened up a whole new arena for you.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yes. That was my unique challenge. Just for me personally, that was a personal challenge for sure.
Ashley L. James
Yeah. No, but it makes sense. I think that a lot of people are kind of nervous to get on video. I'm nervous to get on video. It's just like the mistakes feel magnified, at least for me. And so I'm always super nervous whenever I'm doing something like this, but so I can understand where that fear would come from or just hesitancy, you know. And then is there anything that you want to add Renee about challenges for done Dissertation?
Renee Goings
Um, yeah, I think it kind of goes back to what we have been discussing. I would say when I think about my experience, one of the biggest challenges for me was, um, really kind of just the transition from working for someone else being a W2 employee to coming over and, um, doing kind of something similar, but in a very different way. And then also to learn a whole nother area or arena because again like I'm not a doc student. I've never written a dissertation. Don't plan on it. And so there was a learning curve. You know, I'm a black-and-white person. I feel like in some instances I'm an overachiever. So I want to know everything and I know that's impossible. But I want to know it all and so I even just think about Ramon you remember like we'd have breakfast meetings. I have my notebook. Okay, what does it mean when they say this word? What does that relate to? Like, what does the process look like from start to finish? Like me learning, I'm reading the materials that our clients do. I'm looking at the modules because I'm trying to learn this so I can connect with clients and speak that talk when I'm speaking to them during consultations. And even now, I mean, it's still a learning curve. There's always going to be something to learn because everybody's process is so different. You know, you get some folks that are writing a three-article dissertation versus a traditional dissertation, or you have some schools that, you know, they don't do proposal defenses, some do. There's all these different nuances that you're constantly learning about. And so the learning never stops. But that initial learning of what the sphere looks like was a big transition for me. So I would say that has been a big difficulty for me. Yeah.
Ashley L. James
Okay, and then we were talking before about video being one of the primary ways that you reach out to either potential clients or people that you're working with now. Can you speak more about the social media channels that you're using and how you're using video to reach people?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, so we're just about everywhere. So all on social media, I would say our main channels now have turned over. And this has shifted. So when we were first starting, like 2018, 2019, even to 2020, Facebook was more so the place where we got a lot of leads in Facebook and Twitter. But now it's shifted, whereas LinkedIn and YouTube have been our main acquisition channels social media-wise. So it's been a shift that's been interesting to shift. So like even as in business, you have to think about the shift and then make your content applicable to that platform too.
So each platform has its way may like, content to be delivered. And so that's been something we've had support, shout to Keri Henderson, who's our director of marketing, helped us kind of figure out and learn over this last, she's been with this three or four years now going on. And so helping us figure that part out. And then, in terms of video content, there was a shift in this time too, from more long-form stuff to the short form. We kind of saw that shift as well. So being mindful, making our content shorter. But then we still found that we have a long form. I do a weekly show. We started in 2020 when I was promoting a book that I wrote called 14 Secrets to a Done Dissertation. And this just started just to promote the book. And then we realized how well it was doing to get clients. I was like...
Well, what happens if I just do this consistently each week? And so now it's four years of doing just about every week. We have a long-form video come out and then we just repurpose that content to short form for the platform. So we've gotten smarter along the way, but it just first started just sitting down in front of a camera and just cranking out live videos. I used to do them live too. So that was just always the, you know, each week, Tuesdays at 8:30 PM, I'd be in this office recording each week and like. We've gotten smarter now. Now you can schedule stuff. Now you can make it look like it's a lot more things you can do with the tech. We've just been helpful for us, but at first, it was just all live for about two years.
Ashley L. James
But everybody was focused on live anyway as far as social media channels so I know that helped you grow your audience as well.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, and one thing I'll add too for people, if you look at our social media numbers in terms of number of followers, it's pretty small. But I would just tell people if you have the right followers, then you can make a lot of money. I think some people get caught up like the vanity metric. Like, oh, I need thousands. No, if you got like a couple hundred of like just solid folks who do what you have, you can stay at this for a long time. So I think that's something people have to consider too.
Ashley L. James
That's true. So it's really about the quality over the quantity to use an obvious phrase. But seriously, if you have 100 people and those 100 people go for you, you don't need thousands. Those 100 people are, you know, they're going to do everything you need them to do. So, okay, cool. So, videos where you kind of focus on and YouTube has been a really big platform for you. So with that being said, are there any tools that you like to use to beef up your video content?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, so a couple of things I think about the video side. So I use Restream to record all the long-form videos. I like that because then you can schedule that content, whatever you record, to go out to all the platforms at once. And so it's nice. So I'll do a bulk, I'll use record. I'll do one session, it takes me about two and a half hours, but I record all the long-form videos for the month. And this is when Renee comes in because she writes, that helps write the scripts for the videos. And I just deliver them.
So, when she talks about her knowledge, she now can talk all the talk that we do when we're talking about dissertations. So she'll write it, I just deliver it. And then we just use Restream to schedule it out. So that's one of the main pieces for long-form. We use Canva a lot to do all the thumbnails, flyers, and all that stuff that we need. And then the other one we're really big on is called the Superphone. Because one thing about... content, right? The purpose of social media is to get these people off of social media to be able to market to them Where you have control over the interaction. So we use Superphone, which is an SMS marketing tool So we can send text messages to our audience And so we have you know A result was like a thousand folks on our text message list that are docs into want what we have like so we have a direct Access in line to folks and so it's just amazing to have that one-on-one connection with people in our network And so I say those like the main the biggest tools that we're using. I don't know, Rene, am I forgetting something? I'm trying to think if there's anything else.
Renee Goings
In terms of the videos and using AI to cut up the videos, I know that you guys will use Opus clips or whatever, because we are content bank is huge. I mean, like he was saying, we've been doing these, you know, the episodes for the show for now going on three, four years. And so we're very intentional. Shout out to Carrie. We're very intentional on understanding the different psyche of our clients and where they are depending on what time of the year quarter season, etc. And so we're speaking to that we're doing that in a way because of you know, I'm speaking with prospects and potential clients, so I'm hearing what they have to say. We're writing the scripts, he's delivering it via the show and then we're able to cut all that stuff up and utilize it and repurpose it for whatever platform It makes the most sense for so we have so much content. And so, you know, cutting up all the videos and being able to use it in different ways has been like really, really helpful too.
Ashley L. James
Okay, yes, I love Opus Clips. So, also Canva has their version of shortening the clips as well or you know creating new clips, the magic clips that they're doing.
Dr. Ramon Goings
I have to look at that. I haven't tried that. I've seen it, but I just never clicked on it to see what it does. Okay. I'll try it out.
Ashley L. James
Okay, so the next thing I want to ask you guys is what piece of wisdom would you want to give the next generation of Black entrepreneurs?
Renee Goings
I guess I'll start. The piece of information I think about a person that may be looking at this and they have an idea, they have a product that they wanna sell and they're just trying to figure out what that next step is going to look like and it feels very daunting. The biggest piece that I wanna give is to just take action. Imperfect action is better than no action. And so I know that you know, a lot of times it's easy to get caught up in doing the things that are comfortable at times. You know, but just start taking action, start getting out and doing and taking action and doing the things that are going to directly lead to sales. Because once you have a revenue stream coming in, not only does it bolster, you know, your confidence, it's proving your concept of what you're selling and what you're doing. It's bringing in revenue for you to reinvest back in your business and be able to do bigger and better things. Um, but it just kind of keeps you going. You don't have a business if you're not earning any revenue. And so, um, that's my biggest thing. Just take action, take action. That's going to lead to sales. Everything else. I know it's a lot. It can be daunting. Everything else will fall in line.
You'll either figure out how to automate it using like a, you know, Canva or something like that. Um, or you'll get it done, but just kind of focus on getting that client, getting those clients, and in selling what you're selling and bringing revenue in.
Ashley L. James
Okay, and you talked about focusing on the biggest things that you have to do first. Take action on what's most important. How do you decide, you know, which thing on the to-do list helps the most?
Dr. Ramon Goings
And you've watched the video.
Renee Goings
That's such a good question. So with any person that's first starting their business, and we've talked about this on our podcast before, really what I would start off with is if you have a budget or projections, I mean, most folks that go into business, they're looking to earn a certain level of revenue or reach a certain amount of customers or sell a certain amount of units by way of whatever that product line is or whatever.
So whatever you're looking to sell or whatever metrics you're looking to hit, look at what that is and look at what are the things that are gonna lead that number to go up. So for us, just to give an example, it may be looking at my Facebook group list, seeing who are the people that make sense for me to talk to and sending them a message or DMing them or calling them. So those kind of things is more so like what I'm talking about. But it may look a little bit different for everyone just based off of you know what you're selling, what you're looking to pursue. So an example of something that maybe you could be caught in the weeds is oh I need my website to look this way you know when I first start. That does not lead to direct sales. So while it's important to have a branded you know website that is reflective of you and what you're selling it'll get greater later. You know, get something out there to be able to do and operate your business. But it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be glossy. You know, that's not going to lead to direct sales, you know, connecting with your target audience, getting people on the phone or communicating with them, sowing those seeds that will lead to revenue. That's kind of what I'm looking for and talking about.
Ashley L. James
I like that. That was a sound bite. It can get greater later. That's right.
Renee Goings
I got a shout out, I got a shout out my mother-in-law because she says that a lot. I stole that. She always says it'll get greater later and it does.
Ashley L. James
That's right. And how about you, Dr. Romon?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, so I would say one thing folks to consider is like not being afraid to charge more for your services or product because, you know, for me, I grew up pretty poor. So like when you think about cost for things, cost is relative to your own experience in relationship with money. And so sometimes as business owners, we may go into this thinking, everybody only sees money how I see it. And, you know, I want to charge low because I want to get the most clients. That's the mentality sometimes we have. And I promise you, that doesn't work. The same people who will like pay for something for 25, probably will pay for it for 2,500 if you position it right. And just to give an example, like one time when I was doing one-on-one coaching, someone had reached out to us and the most they could buy from us at the time, I think it was like $800. That was the most they could have spent. That person said no back then, but the problem got bad for them two years later, they came back to us and now the cost was 5,000 and they paid 5,000.
So like that kind of shift like really kind of like helped me understand even for myself, I was like, Oh, people will pay if it's the problems important enough. And so like, I'm like, as a business owner, we got to charge for whatever it is that, you know, that transformation we're having. Um, and then also I think part of it, what Renee was getting at, like taking the action is like sometimes create the product and sell the product before it's created, like we did that with our program when we were going from one on one to group, I actually pre-sold it and gave myself enough time to build everything out. Cause it was like, there's no need for me to go ahead and start working on something if no one's gonna buy it. And so sometimes we can get caught up. It's like, go get a sale first and then build it out on the backend. I promise you'll be the best thing you could do. That way you don't waste any money or time trying to sell something people don't want. And so that would be a couple of things I would say.
Renee Goings
Because when I'm telling you part of our program, we have an extensive curriculum. One of the things we realize is that a lot of our clients, although they've been through coursework, they're still like trying to figure out how to take the coursework and connect it to actually completing the dissertation. And so Ramon built out this nine module over 30 video lessons, literally of him recording all these different lessons.
I mean, it was a huge, huge undertaking. It took a lot of time. It took a lot of resources. And so to his point, building that out on the front end and waiting months to start making a sale, that was not befitting to the company. It's like, I know I can do that. Let me go ahead and start presale and seeing, is this even worth me doing? Because I'm going to put all this time and effort into something and then it might not even be, you know, what the people want.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah.
Renee Goings
And so just going ahead and that imperfect action and it'll all come together But going ahead and just getting out there and getting it done So I just wanted to say that because you went all those days you going down there and recording that curriculum I mean it was months
Dr. Ramon Goings
I developed it over a month and then the record, once we got the first sales, I got to record this stuff. And so taking the outlines and like putting the PowerPoints together and then recording and rerecording, editing. Yeah, it was weeks of time just on that, the creation.
Ashley L. James
Well, I think that both those points of advice were really great. I mean, definitely as you're building out your business for the first time and kind of jumping into everything. So thank you both. So let's slide over into a little bit more fun stuff. So what are you reading, watching, or listening to that's really got you going lately?
Renee Goings
So in terms of reading, I am currently reading Atomic Habits. I am trying to really strengthen my muscle as it relates to discipline, discipline in doing things and being consistent and sticking with them. And so I heard so many great reviews about Atomic Habits and just building habits that really can kind of set you up for success, not only business-wise, but personal.
So I've been reading that and, you know, it talks a lot about instead of taking this huge project and trying to attack it in one fell swoop, just getting 1% better every single day, just trying to get better every single day. And it's kind of something that we teach our clients all the time, you know, just getting the writing done, putting in the time. It doesn't have to be a lot. And then you go back and you look back three months and it's like, wow, I already have a full proposal done. So I've been reading Atomic Habits.
I also have been reading, it's kind of been hard for me to get into but Spare where it talks about you know Prince Harry and his time with the royal family, just something autobiography. I typically read fiction but just trying to get into another arena of reading. So I've been reading that and then outside of that when I really just not want to disconnect and just kind of like look at a screen, anything that is a crime documentary.
It's like right up my alley. I've probably seen just about all of them on Netflix. You know, all of them on like the ID channel, all those kinds of things. That's really my wheelhouse.
Ashley L. James
Thank you.
Do you have a favorite?
Renee Goings
Yes, so I actually binge. So when I sit here and I'm working, I need something that's on that I don't have to necessarily pay attention to. But I'm like hearing what's happening. So I just finished like binging a show called cold case. And basically, it's like a lot of like old cases that go cold. And then they basically reopen the case and they solve the case.
And it's all kinds of cases all across the US. A lot of them from like the 60s and 70s have gone cold for like 20 and 30 years. And now a lot of them are using like ancestry DNA to use familial matches to find who these killers are because that didn't exist back then. So it's like, oh, we've got this DNA sample. It's not coming up in like CODIS. So let's match it against a familial match. Oh, we have a third cousin and then they do genealogy tracing to figure out who the murderer was. It's fascinating to me.
Ashley L. James
It is fascinating because I haven't watched like crime shows in a while. I didn't know they were going that deep now. They're like, okay, we trying to get the brother, but let me see if, let's see if we can ID the sister and see if there's a connection there. That's wild.
Renee Goings
Thank you.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, it will get you.
Renee Goings
Yep.
Ashley L. James
Okay, so how about you Dr. Ramon?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, so in terms of books right now, reading was $100 million leads by Alex Ramosi. I like the book because it's part of our next phase of our business, like generating more leads. We have a model that works. I use this first book to help develop and make sure it was anything that we could add to our program. $100 million offer. So I said, that worked. Let me try the leads. And so we've just been retooling what we're doing in our lead generation side for the business.
Outside of that, I haven't really read a lot lately because I read a whole, I have to read a whole bunch for work. Like I write, I do research and so that's all day every day I have to do that. So I do a lot just for my own research stuff. And then shows wise, like anything like drug, kingpin related I'm into. So right now I just finished Raising Canine on Starz. Actually I'm watching BMF, the third season. My favorite probably is The Wire. Like I love that show. Just any show like related to like drugs. It's interesting because of how that operation works. I think there's a lot of insights for business owners as you could take from it. Just don't sell that product. But you know, some things about how they operate that I like in terms of what they do.
Ashley L. James
Yeah, I'm loving that spin because there definitely is a lot that can be applied to business. Hopefully you're not using it for that kind of business but So I love that. Okay. Last thing here. I really like adding to my playlist. And so this is the ALJ Work It Out playlist. So are there any songs that you guys kind of jam out to that you would love to add to our playlists?
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yeah, for sure. I'm trying to think what I'm listening to right now.
Renee Goings
There's not a particular song. But for me, anything that's like trap music, like anything Migos, I'm like here for like the old stuff, like when I need to feel like I need to get in the zone or whatever. Anything Migos I'm really big into if I'm just looking for something like chill, what I'll typically go to is like a SZA or Summer Walker playlist.
I typically will play something like that when I'm here at my desk like you know working or I'm writing copy for our weekly show. All in all if I want to feel good, I want to feel something upbeat, I really like Chris Brown, old stuff, new stuff, it doesn't matter. So I don't have a particular song or a particular album but that's just what I kind of lean to.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Let me see. I was looking at my Tidal to see what I've been listening to. I said one song I like that just kind of, if I was trying to get to do a workout, I would play, I Might Forgive by Jeezy. That's kind of my, that's my joint right there. So I would definitely do that. And First Person Shooter with Drake and J. Cole. I like those two right now in terms of things that I like to listen to in the car, if I was just trying to jam out. So I like those. But when I work, actually, I play music that does not have words. So like I play like smooth jazz. I can't have anything like getting into my head when I'm trying to create.
And so I listened to just random, just this album called Hidden Beach Volume Recordings I listen to. It's just all like hip hop songs, but just smooth jazz versions of them. So they may play like the chorus, it might be someone singing the chorus, and then like the verse is just all just instrumental music. And this other artist called Varela is his name. So I listened to him too on Spotify.
Ashley L. James
Okay, very cool. I haven't, I didn't know that they had that. So I have a playlist that's similar, but it's not well-known songs. It's just like hip-hop kind of beats type thing.
Dr. Ramon Goings
These are all the songs that, yeah, Biggie song, anything hip hop related, they have, you can just listen to instrumental versions, but a jazz version of it.
Ashley L. James
I like that. Okay, that's cool. All right, nice. Okay, so the last piece is where can people find Done Dissertation online or you as or and you as individuals online as well.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Yes. So Done Dissertation stuff. You can find us anywhere. If you just Google Done Dissertation, we're all the platforms, uh, either at Done Dissertation or at Done Dis Coach D- O -N -E -D -I -S -C -O -A- C- H. Um, if there's someone watching as a doctoral student, um, you need support and insights to get through the process. What I would, what you can do is actually text and you can text hashtag elevate hashtag E- L-E- V- A- T- E to 3 0 1 701-2466, and you can access, we have a training on how to elevate your academic writing. So if you're someone who needs that type of support with your writing, you can go to that text, again, hashtag elevate, and you can learn more about what we're doing and get that training and access to that as well. And then personal wise, maybe Renee can talk about the personal stuff in terms of where they can find us.
Renee Goings
Yeah, I mean, we individually have our own profiles on all the major platforms, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. But we have a lot of folks that always like to ask us about our journey to entrepreneurship, what we're doing, how we're doing, what we're learning about. And so last year we started a podcast or a YouTube channel called Goings On the Record, it's just me and Ramon and each episode has a theme. I mean, we've talked about, hustle culture, we've talked about, you know, what you wanna offer, we've talked about how to budget, we also had pricing, we've also had our director of marketing, Keri come on to talk about all things marketing, and so we're always trying to come up with, based on what we're going through, what we're seeing, how to make something, you know, applicable so that, you know, we can use it as a tool to teach others so that they may learn from our journey, and so that's Goings On the Record on YouTube, and so we typically try to also
Dr. Ramon Goings
pricing.
Renee Goings
when we release the episode post to our social our personal social media accounts as well.
Ashley L. James
Perfect. Okay, love that. All right, so I really appreciate both of you coming on the show today, and I really enjoyed talking to both of you. So thank you so much, and I just really appreciate you.
Renee Goings
Thank you for allowing us, yeah, thank you for allowing us taking the time to, you know, interview us and ask us these questions. And, you know, I hope that the folks that follow you and are in your community may find this information to be helpful on their journey.
Dr. Ramon Goings
Thanks so much for having us. It was great.
Yeah, for sure.
Ashley L. James
Okay, well y'all are dropping all kinds of gems. So of course they will. Definitely. Thank you both and have a great rest of your day.
Renee Goings
Hehe
Dr. Ramon Goings
You too. Thank you.
Renee Goings
Thanks.
Ashley L. James
Alright, my people, that brings us to the end of this episode of BOBs in the 'Burbs. To enjoy more interviews like this one, please subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your podcast player of choice. You can also follow ALJ Digital Marketing on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook for updates. I will add Renee and Dr. Ramon's social channels and links to the show notes, so be sure to take a moment to check that out.
Thanks for joining me today and until next time remember, we out here too. Bye!
