KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- Starting an online business or creating a course must be done in baby steps. Don’t just take a jump.
- Make short-term goals. In this business, you must be able to pivot and make changes on the fly to keep your business relevant. Start with six-month goals and work up from there as you get more comfortable.
- Creating a course is stressful for a short amount of time, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Find the light and stay motivated. Keep a project plan with a tool like Asana so you can keep track of your tasks and progress.
- When you reach a goal, celebrate! It’s important for you and your team (if you have one) to celebrate those milestones.
- To start, get in the trenches and learn all you can about your target customer. Create surveys to discover what people need.
- Take some time to understand your promise. What is your promise, and can you really deliver it to your customer? If so, this is where your course is born.
- If you’re just getting started, try to create the course first and then market it. Creation and promotion are two separate beasts.
- Keep your course simple at first and get fancy later. Your customer will care more about the content and knowledge than they will about whether you’re using fancy video all the time. You’ll never get to where you want to go if you don’t start.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
Don’t compare yourself to the big shots in the industry. Everyone started somewhere; you have to start somewhere, too. Just get started! Remember, however, that while you can use what others are doing as inspiration, that isn’t where you start. Learn from them—take their courses, listen to their podcasts, read their blogs. But then start from scratch
on your own. You can do this!
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS
- How Amy transitioned from being a good employee to being her own boss – 09:03
- Amy’s vision for her business, and how things changed – 12:45
- How to stay motivated when creating a course – 17:33
- The key to completing your course – 19:11
- It’s important to show your team how instrumental they are – 22:39
- Amy’s tips for creating your own online course – 25:23
- The comparison game and how it can affect you – 29:22
- Consistency matters, no matter the size of your audience – 30:20
- What’s next for Amy – 33:16
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE
- Amy’s course on courses: Courses That Convert
- Amy’s website
- Amy’s social mediaFacebook
- Asana
Transcript below
Hello and welcome to Episode 29 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast and I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. Welcome back for another amazing week of the podcast. I think I'm still riding high on Pat's interview last week. It really was a bit of a dream come true for me, I have to say.
And this week is exactly the same. You know when you start a new project and you sit down and you think, “Okay, who do we want on the project? What do we want to achieve?” And you dream bigger than you ever think you can dream. You sit there and go, “Oh, imagine if we got that person. Imagine if they would come on the podcast”.
Well, that's what my team and I did a few months ago when we were trying to think who would we want to interview. And we had a list of people that were, kind of like, mega stars in my world. And they were, kind of, the people that you would love to get on the podcast, but you knew that they were busy and they have lots of engagements and they, maybe, aren't as easy to get on.
And Pat was one of those people. So, to have him on for week one was, kind of, crazy dream come true. And this week, it is exactly the same. This week I have the absolute pleasure of welcoming Amy Porterfield. You heard right. Amy Porterfield on my podcast. Honestly, this really is like a dream come true. I've been a fan of Amy's for longer than I can tell you. She was, probably, one of the first people that I really started to follow and get into and I feel like I have learned so much from her.
I have her Courses That Convert, which is a online course that she offers, along with another two online courses. One about list-building, so building your email list. And the other one is about Webinars That Convert. So, if you're using webinars to sell to your audience, then she has got a great course to explain every single step on how you do that.
And, like I said, I have just been the biggest fan for as long as I can remember. I've seen Amy speak twice at Social Media Marketing World. And I reached out to Amy, oh, quite some time back now and connected with her over social media. We chatted a bit. Then, when I was in the States back in June, I asked if we could go for a coffee and she really kindly said, “Yes,” which was amazing.
We had a lot of things in common and we had a mutual friend, which helped, obviously. And we went for coffee and we talked nonstop for two hours. And she'd said to me, “I've got an hour,” which I was like, “Yeah, that's great”. And we sat there for two hours and we literally didn't stop talking the entire time.
So, both of us are stepmoms to sons who are very similar ages. So, we had a big chat about that. We both have dogs and, even though I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of my dog, he's more my husband's dog when he needs anything doing, we had a good chat about that. We have really similar husbands. My husband's in the Forces. Amy's husband is a fireman. They're both super-supportive of what we do and it just was the nicest coffee ever.
And Amy really kindly offered to come on the podcast, which, in my head, I'd kind of thought, “Okay, if this goes well and Amy and I get on as well as I think we will, then maybe when I get back to the UK I will email her and say, ‘Is there any chance?'”
And I didn't even have to. We were talking about the podcasts … Obviously, she has one … and she literally said, “Well, who'd you want to be on there?” And I said, “I've got this list,” but I hadn't asked anybody yet, because I was nervous in case they said, “No”.
And she was like, “Well, if I'm on your list, I'd love to come on the podcast”. And, honestly, inside, I was squealing like a child. I was so excited. So, we got it planned and we did the call and it was awesome. What I love about it is Amy shares, not only how she got to be the success that she is today, and she's a phenomenal success, but she tells you about her baby steps of coming out of a job with Tony Robbins, no less.
So, she originally worked for Harley-Davidson® Motorcycles and then went to work with Peak Performance Coach Tony Robbins, where she oversaw the content development team and collaborated on ground-breaking online marketing campaigns.
So, she talks through how she moved away from a full-time job with someone as awesome as Tony to then starting her own business and also how her business has changed over time. She also tells me how she keeps motivated while putting together her online courses, which, if you haven't ever bought one of Amy's online courses, oh, my word. They are massive. And I just can't even start to think about how you stay motivated to complete all that content.
We also talked about how you can start your own online business and if you're thinking of starting a course, what steps Amy recommends that you take, in order to get started.
So, I am really excited about this one, as you can imagine. And, if you do know me, you know Amy is huge in my world. So, I am over the moon to be able to introduce to you the amazing Amy Porterfield.
Amy, thank you so much for being a guest on my podcast. I am so excited to have you here.
I love that I get to do this. Every time you and I talk it's like girlfriends are just chatting about everything. Work and life and all the good stuff in between-
Love it.
So, I think this is going to be a lot of fun.
Oh, I'm really excited about it. You are only my second interview-
Oh, my goodness.
So, my last one was with Pat. He is just a consummate professional, isn't he?
Right.
He's amazing. So, that was awesome. But, I feel like I'm getting all the best people to start. So, it's just fantastic.
Well, I thank you for having me. I'm honoured to be the second.
Thank you. So, obviously, I have followed you for ages. I've been very lucky to see you talk live. I'm a student in Courses That Convert and I follow your content. I love what you do. And also, your story, I feel like, if I was to think of my future forward, of how I want my story to pan out, is your story. So, I would love it, for my audience that may not have come across you, although I've talked about you a fair bit, I would love it if you could just explain how you, kind of, got to where you are now.
Great. Okay. So, I started my marketing career with Harley-Davidson® Motorcycles, but it was at a local level, so it was in the States and I … I say, “in the States,” because you're not in the States, but it was in California. And I worked for Harley for a few years and that's where I learned marketing.
So, when you work for a company where people tattoo their logo on their body-
Wow.
I mean, that's crazy. It's a tribe. It's nostalgic. It was amazing. And that's where I learned community. But from there, I then went to work with Peak Performance Coach Tony Robbins. And funny enough, I got there because I broke up with a boyfriend. I was up late at night, couldn't sleep for weeks and weeks and that dang Tony Robbins infomercial kept coming up on the television. And I would see it every night and I thought, I need some of that.
So, I went to the library. I got his tapes. I mean, this is how long ago it was. I got his tapes. I listened. I fell in love with his message and then I thought, “I want to work for this guy”.
So, I left Harley-Davidson®, got a job with Tony Robbins and I was the Content Director. So, I got to work on the content that Tony would do on stage and in his digital products. And for six and a half years, I got the best education I could possibly get. I-
I can only imagine.
Right? I mean, I got to learn from the master. And I was really in it. I got to pitch and catch with him. I got to be in his proximity. We travelled all over the world. I mean, my travel bug is out of me. I am done. We were on the road all the time.
And so, I finally realised, I want to be my own boss. After listening to Tony over and over again, I wanted to do my own thing. And, quite honestly, I was exhausted. Travelling that much and being on somebody else's time, you could only do that for so long. And so, I thought, “I want to be my own boss. I want to call the shots. I want to create content for my own business, not for somebody else's”.
How Amy transitioned from being a good employee to being her own boss
And I had just gotten married and the travelling all the time just wasn't going to work. And so, I took baby steps. So, this is great for anybody to hear that is wanting to transition out of one thing into another. I didn't just wake up one day and say, “I'm quitting. I'm starting my own business”. But instead, I said, “Okay, I want to move on. I want to start my own thing. I'm going to start taking baby steps”.
I asked to move from the content department to the marketing department and I had a lot of clout there. I had been there for a while, so they said, “Yes”. And then, at one point I said, “Can I start working from home a few days a week?” And then from there, “Can I go part-time?” And then from there I took the leap and went out on my own.
And I think when you're a good employee … I recently heard Marie Forleo interview somebody about being a good employee and how you want to just shine, no matter what. And I feel like I was a good employee till the very end, so they said, “Yes” to all those things.
Then I finally took the leap and here's where I'll wrap up the story. My goal was to create online training programmes around social media and online marketing and sell those programmes. That's how I had seen it done by the big guns that were making lots of money and a big impact.
I went out on my own. Had no idea how to create an online course. Didn't have an audience. And I was freaked out, because I didn't have a big savings. So, I started to take clients for social media. So, I took about eight clients. I was doing their social media for small businesses and I hated it.
I didn't realise that it wasn't for me. I mean, it's great for other people. They kill it. I didn't enjoy it. And I had no idea how to set boundaries. So, they were calling me at all hours of the day. Their expectations were wild, because I didn't set any and I just was not loving it. But I did it for two years and being in the trenches with small businesses, doing their social media taught me so very much.
So, I needed the education, I just didn't enjoy it. About two years into my online business … It's almost ten years now. About two years in, I decided, “No more. I do not like this business model I created. I'm starting over”. And I started to create courses and let go of my clients.
The day I let go of my final client-
Oh, wow.
I turned up the radio. I danced it out alone in my little condo like, “I finally am doing it”. And it was hard for a while. We actually went into debt a little bit when I let go of my clients and started my online courses, because they, kind of, took a while to ramp up.
So, that wasn't ideal, but I'm here now. 90% of my revenue is made from three online courses I sell on Evergreen every single day and then I do some affiliate marketing as well.
Honestly, the story's amazing, because I used to work for Land Rover. I did corporate marketing for Land Rover. So, again, a brand where, in some parts of the world, that's the only vehicle they see.
Oh, yeah.
And people love the vehicles and.
I have a Range Rover. I love the vehicle.
And it is. It's an amazing brand. A great product. And then, obviously, worked in marketing forever. Started on my own, but I did exactly the same and I had clients. And I remember hearing you say once, which is exactly what I thought, was you went from having one boss to suddenly having eight.
Yes.
Like, “No, that's not what I wanted”. And people, they think, “Oh, I'm going to have my own business so that I can have free time and I can manage my … ” And it's like, “No, no, no. That didn't work. That isn't how it's working”.
Never.
I think with clients, when you have them, you do feel like you are, kind of, tied a bit, or you are responsible, “I've got to be around in business hours”. So, if I go off to the States, I feel a bit like, “Oh, how are we going to manage these things?” So, yeah. I feel like I hear your journey and think, “That's where I want to be. That's where I want to be in five years' time, let's say”.
Amy’s vision for her business, and how things changed
I love it.
If I can keep my fingers crossed. Did you ever imagine, in the early days, when you started, did you think, “I'm going to become this successful”?
Oh, heck no. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd have the business I have today. And here's something I tell my students, “The business you have today will look dramatically different in just a few years from now”. And so, making big decisions, making pivots, all of that is okay, because it's going to look different.
And I wanted to sell online courses, but I didn't know exactly how it was going to turn out and I think that's okay as well. I recently heard a friend of mine say she never sets goals five years out. She does it about 24 months out and that's about it. And that's what I've always done.
At first it was six months out, then 12 months out, then I could look about two years forward, but no more than that. And that's allowed me to not have to make everything such a big deal, because I could pivot as I go.
Yeah. And I think that's so important. Again, when you said you started off on social media, I've thought about social media courses, but the problem with the social media world is, you do something and 10 minutes later, it's out of date.
Yes.
So, I thought I could spend months putting together an amazing Facebook course and Facebook makes one change and that's it. I'm done.
Yes.
That is no longer relevant. What is it that you love and if there's still things that you dislike about what you do now?
Oh, yes. Okay. So, what I love is I love the teaching part. I absolutely love to put together content and teach it in a way that lightbulbs go off and people think, “Oh, I get it. Finally you broke it down”.
I'm best known for step-by-step and breaking things down and holding people's hand through the process and that definitely is something that feels good to me. So, I absolutely love it. I mean, I, of course, love the emails that say, “It worked. I did it and look at my results”. So, I live for that.
Now, the stuff I don't love. When I first taught Facebook, I had the same problem that you'll likely be up against where it was always changing. I had a Facebook programme, back in the day, and I wanted to pull my hair out the second Facebook would make an announcement. So, I get that part.
I don't love updating my programmes. No matter what you teach, it's a pain in the butt. And I also feel a lot of pressure to support a lot of people, my community. I'm a worrier by nature. I worry about them. I want to make sure they're getting the kind of support they need and that they're getting to the finish line. And so, I hold that a lot on my chest. I can physically feel it sometimes.
And so, I have to be careful about my self-care. I talk to a therapist-type person every single week on a Friday morning at 7 AM. I do meditation. You know I go on walks with my dog.
Yup.
I have to do a few things, because I will take everybody else's struggle and burden of building an online business and just put it all on myself. And you do that when you have courses that teach people how to do stuff and they're going through it and they're struggling. Building an online business is not easy.
No.
And so, that's the part that I have to be very mindful of.
And I think as well, there's a big difference between people who just put courses out to sell and people who want people to succeed.
Yes.
And you can't just … Well, you can, but it's not … I don't think this would be my [inaudible 00:16:05] and it definitely isn't yours. You can just put together a course and sell it and who cares if they do it? That's up to them.
But of course, you don't want that. You want people to buy your course, go through it … In fact, I have a friend who has her own business who spoke to me just the other day where, “Oh, my God. Amy's done it again”. And I was like, “What do you mean?” She went, “I've bought courses … ” She'd already got courses, the first, but, “And I've gone and bought email and webinars that come from her”. And it's just like, “I'm not”. And she knows what she's doing. She can't … “I can't help myself”. And she-
Aw, and I love her. But those are the people I think about, because that's hard earned money they're spending with me. And I get it and I want them to truly succeed. And, you're right, there are people that just put out their courses and they say, “It's up to you. You're a big girl. You're a big boy. You figure it out”. I can't. I can't do it. And you can't either. I know you enough to know … We care deeply.
We do. And I want to … The bit that I love doing is adding value, is being a help to someone. So, I don't want you to just sit there and go through the motions. I want you to really take it and make a difference. But this friend of mine wouldn't have bought these other two courses if she didn't find that that first one was amazing. So, that is surely testament to how good that first course is for her to then go and spend … Like you said, these aren't $50 courses … To go and spend a bit more and do another one. So, they're amazing.
Thank you.
How to stay motivated when creating a course
Now, I've got to ask, how on Earth do you stay motivated when you are putting together a course? Because I have put many courses together. I have started to plan a bigger course and oh, my God, my head just wants to implode. I don't know how on Earth you … And yours are massive. Like I said, I mean, Courses That Convert and the content that is in there is unbelievable. You do not short change anybody, because that must take you ages. So, how do you keep motivated while trying to finish it?
Well, I love that you ask this question, because I was recently talking to a friend about her getting to the finish line of writing her book. And she has 30 more days to go. And I said, “How's it going?” And she's like, “It's miserable! It's going to get done, but it's miserable”. And I love the truth behind that.
And I will tell you, I feel like I'm living in a cave when I'm creating one of my signature courses, one of the big thousand dollar courses. I am dirty. My hair is dirty. I am in the same clothes two days in a row. I have 10 mugs around me. My husband hates that part. Like, “Put your mugs in the dishwasher”. “I can't. I'm too busy”.
I do go into a cave, which typically happens around creating the SlideDeck with all the content and the flow and recording them. That is an ugly time for me. I feel overwhelmed and stressed and it's not my favourite. I don't sleep well. But we're talking maybe a week or two and then I come out of it.
I have to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and what has helped me along the way … because it would take me a good 60 days to create one of my signature courses. And I'm just talking about content creation, course creation, not launching it, right?
Yeah. I can imagine.
The key to completing your course
So, it's 60 days. And what has helped me is a project plan. So, we use something called Asana, A-S-A-N-A. Once it's in Asana and it's literally broken down, step-by-step, module by module, what needs to get done, I'm good with a list. But if it's not in front of me saying, “Amy, this is what you're doing for the next two weeks,” I feel like I'm going to take longer than I should to do it. I'm going to say, “I'm not feeling creative today, so I don't have time”. And those things can get me in a lot of trouble.
So, my shorter answer is, it is very stressful for a short period of time. I've got to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I've got to have a project plan.
Yeah. And I think having that broken down thing is so useful. I know that when it comes to doing your own stuff, that is the last thing that gets done and I find-
Right?
Excuses after excuses after excuses-
Yes.
And I'll tell myself, “Well, it's not an excuse. This is genuine. It's real”. And I just listen to myself and it is. I am literally sitting here going, “I haven't got time for that”.
Well, you could not sit down and maybe watch something on TV tonight. If you really wanted to, you could just crack on and do that. So, sometimes I think the discipline is really good and you have a great team around you that is like team gold.
If anybody follows Amy and sees how she treats her team, and I can imagine, they work very hard for you Amy.
Yes.
I could imagine it's not all trips on boats and flights to Canada, which it's been recently, which is so cool, but that's why you get to do those amazing things, because they work so hard for you.
Okay. I'm so glad you brought this up. So, you're right, recently the whole team took a trip to Canada for a day of training, which was super-fun for all of us. And then we just finished a live event, so we all got on this really cool boat and had champaign and had so much fun.
And, while I was on the boat, I closed my eyes for a minute and I had champaign in my hand and, literally, a cupcake in the other … They brought cupcakes on. And I thought, “I'm eating a cupcake on a boat with the sun shining on my face with champaign. This is the life”.
And I closed my eyes for a moment and thought, “Holy cow, it took so much hard work over the last four days to get to a place that we could celebrate. My team is tired. They're cranky. They probably never want to see my face right now, because we went through a lot with this live event we just finished” that I was telling you about, long nights. I pressured them to get stuff done on a certain amount of time. I had to be more bossy than I typically am. And so, I thought about that and we've got to celebrate those moments, because you're right, it is tough sometimes.
My team is probably overworked right now, but as a leader I'm mindful of it and I think, “Okay, what are we going to do to offset this?” But I sometimes feel guilty, because they work really hard, but their attitudes are amazing. So, when we can celebrate, we celebrate.
And you know, I follow Chloe on Instagram and Angie, your Community Manager-
Yes. So, Chloe my Integrator. Angie my Community Manager.
Yeah. And you can just tell, they love what they do and-
They do.
And a, kind of, I guess, what you had with Tony Robbins. They're almost experiencing the same type of thing. And, it's funny, I've seen more of Chloe coming out in your things. Obviously, she's on your podcast. I see her more, sort of, generally, sort of, saying stuff and doing stuff. So, it must be really lovely, as their boss, to be seeing how they're developing and how much they love it.
It’s important to show your team how instrumental they are
It is and one of the things I've realised, over the last few months, is that if it's just The Amy Show, that is not compelling enough for Chloe to feel that she's making a huge difference or Angie to feel like she's part of the community. So, at the live event, I had my whole team up on a panel and they all answered questions. People loved it.
When Chloe can get out in front of people and talk about what she does and the impact she makes, I want her to realise the impact she's making through my business. It's hard when you run a personal brand and it is The Amy Show many days, but I need people to know, one, I don't do it myself.
Let me tell you a quick story. This morning my podcast didn't get published right. So, I'm a very early bird. So, 5:30 in the morning, I'm the first one up on the team. Chloe's on vacation today, so she's not even checking in. And 5:30 this morning, I go into our Help Desk, just to look for something and I realise, tons of tickets, like, “Your link's not working. Your link's not working,” because the email went out.
I had no idea how to fix it. And that's good and bad. It's good, because my team takes it over. I don't even know what to do in Word Press anymore, but it scares me a little to think, “Oh, my God. I don't even know what to do in Word Press anymore”.
But I think, as a leader, I do need to be, “Okay, we need a fail safe so that doesn't happen again,” but it was really cool to know, “Oh, my team just fixes this stuff,” but I literally didn't know what the heck I was doing.
So, I don't know, you have those moments as you grow your team.
And, I think, as well, though, because you have grown a team, you were in a position when you had to do most things, almost everything.
Yes.
And I've done that too, in the sense of, you get to a point where you think, “Okay, I could do this, but really, is it worth my time and my energy and the best resource? Am I the best at this?” And whenever I bring on anybody, I want to bring one someone who's better than me.
Yes.
I want to bring on someone that is more awesome at something than I am, because they are going to add so much more, whereas, if I just carry on struggling through … Again, uploading the podcast, or try to write show notes, or … It's going to be a waste of my time and it's going to be not as well done as if they do it. So, I just think-
So true.
And, like I said, I loved seeing the team stuff. I love seeing the girls. They look like they have so much fun.
They do and they're so silly. We got to the point, at the event, where it was late, everyone had gone home, we were still working and it was that slap happy, funny time that we have. And I thought, this is my-
[crosstalk 00:24:58].
Yeah. Everyone's snapping at each other, but in the funniest ways. So, we have a good time, for sure.
Good. I'm so, so glad. So, Amy, let's just talk a little bit about creating an online business and creating an online course, because obviously, this is your forte. This is where you excel.
Amy’s tips for creating your own online course
So, if I was starting out today and I wanted to look at doing an online course, there are so many things involved. There are a million different elements. There are so many places where you can get it right or get it wrong. Even things down to building a list, sending out emails, creating landing pages, creating the membership or the course itself, marketing it, Facebook ads.
How do you suggest that people even start to look at this? Because I think sometimes … And I've watched a million videos on YouTube and every advert comes up and it's some guy sat in some swanky office in New York saying, “I made six million pounds while I slept last night and you could do it too by tomorrow”. And it's like, no, I don't think that's the case, you know?
Yes.
And so, how would you suggest that people even start to go down this process? What would your baby steps be?
Oh, I love this question. So, baby steps would be to first, get in the trenches. Exactly like you've done and how I did it in the past where, you got to understand your ideal customer avatar and you definitely need to make sure that you have a course idea that is validated. So, before you even get into the online course world, you know people want it and they'll pay for it. That means talking to your ideal customer avatar, maybe doing some surveys, really getting on social media and just listening more than you talk, to figure out what people need.
Once you do that, you can step into starting to create the course. Now, I'm a huge advocate of, “Let's create the course first and then we'll talk about marketing it”. Now, if you want to presell it and you've got to make money faster, you could presell, then create, after you've made a little money. But let's just take that off the table.
I like this idea of, “Let's create the course after it's been validated, get it done and then let's move into doing webinars and building the email list in order to sell the course”.
So, the baby steps would be, literally, step-by-step, validate the idea. Now you've got a course idea, outline the idea. Now it's time to put that outline into SlideDecks. And I always say, “Let's keep it simple and get fancy later”. So, keeping it simple means, you record your course with your audio and your SlideDeck. They don't even see your face.
Now, I've become a poster child for the fact that, that works, meaning, most people are on video inside their course these days, the big shots, my friends. They are on video and then they might show a slide or two. But they're professionally done. Marie Forleo, Stu McLaren, who does membership sites. He's on video. That is fancy and fantastic, but that is not where you start.
So, comparing yourself to the big shots is the worst thing you could do. I have made millions of dollars with a SlideDeck and my audio with every single video inside of my thousand dollar courses. It can be done.
Now, I will tell you, after being at it for 10 years and, kind of, getting more comfortable with video, that's my next step, but I sure as heck wouldn't start there. So, keeping it simple, and when you want to add bells and whistles, ask yourself, “Does this really matter? Does the customer care if I'm on video the whole time or if they just get the teaching and the content so that they can get a transformation?”
That's another thing, if I back up a little bit, as you're creating your course, what is your promise? And can you deliver on that? What kind of transformation or results can you get a person? Then you have to ask yourself, “Well, how do I know this?” One, you've done it for yourself. Even better, you've done it for yourself and a few other people. Then you know you're ready to show other people how to do it.
So, my big picture is, let's just focus on getting the course done, then we'll talk promotion, because, you're right, those are two different beasts. And when we do it inside my business, there are two different project plans. I've got one team doing the launch and I do the course.
Now, I love that you said, “In the beginning, I did it all”. So, you can do it all, but I didn't do it at the level that I'm doing now.
Nope.
Right? Yeah.
The comparison game and how it can affect you
And, I think, as well, like you said, often we look at people we aspire to be like and you named some there … We talked … In fact, you suggested that Business By Design might be good for me when we met-
Ah, love James.
And I signed up to it. Oh, man. He blows my mind, if I'm honest.
Right?
And he is on video, on screen, on every single video. And, like you said, in fact, his whole setup, his lead magnet to opening the cart for Business By Design was insane-
Insane.
And, if you're looking at it from a starting perspective, and you look at that and think, that's the level you've got to get to, you are-
You'll never start.
Never. Never.
Right?
And-
He had 12 videos, you guys, for his launch or something like that.
It was crazy.
Like 12 professionally done. He is a film student, in the past. I could never do what James did, but if I looked at that and thought, “Okay, I need to replicate what James did” and I'm just starting out, I'd literally go back to a J-O-B. I wouldn't do it.
Consistency matters, no matter the size of your audience
Yeah. And the other thing I remember you talking about once in your podcast and I will link up to it in the show notes and I remember which podcast it was, you talked about, basically, what's the difference between someone who's got this following and if you haven't got any following? And one of the things you talked about was consistency.
Yes
And the fact that they are showing up, no matter who's listening or watching and they are doing it day in, day out. And again, when you look at some of those big players … And so, for instance, I'm working quite hard on Instagram at the moment … We love Instagram-
Yes.
And I'm working really hard on it and I look at, say, Jasmine or Jenna, who you met in Hawaii-
Yes.
That must have been so cool. She's [crosstalk 00:30:56].
Love her.
And you look at their Instagram accounts and you're like, “Oh, my God. Look at their numbers. That is crazy”-
Right?
But then you have to look at how many posts they've done. And, it's literally … I think for Jasmine it was something like 4,000 posts-
Oh my gosh.
And she admits that she posts once a day. So, do the maths. That's my favourite saying. Everything is, “Do the maths,” because you start to work it back and you're like, she's been doing that consistently for, like, seven years.
There you go.
And that's the difference, isn't it? They didn't start as they are now. They didn't start with all the bells and whistles and all the fancy filming and … I was lucky enough to get to Pat's studio, which is amazing. Your studio looks amazing, but again, that's not how you started-
No.
And then, showing a video of you and it, kind of, makes me laugh, because you laughed, that's it … when you first started. You were sat a hotel room with a bed in the background.
A bed behind me. What was I advertising? I don't know, but it didn't even phase me. Of course I'm doing this video with a bed behind me in a hotel room, but that's how you get going. You just do it. You got to get in motion and action, no matter what. You will look back at those early years and cringe, but you'll never get to where you want to go if you don't start.
No, and that's the thing. You've actually just got to get on and do it. And even though it would be so lovely to have these amazing funnels, these amazing systems. I've, literally, just moved to Infusionsoft. Or, I'm in the process of doing that.
Wow.
That is a big investment.
Big time.
[crosstalk 00:32:23] a lot of money, so things like this, I didn't have that to begin with. You have to take these tiny steps, don't you? In order to, kind of-
Yes.
So it grows as you grow as well, so-
For sure.
But of course if you are thinking of starting a business online, Amy is the perfect place to start. And her courses are phenomenal, so … And, in fact, something that I did, even though my degree's in marketing, I've worked in marketing forever, this was a new world to me and it's a, kind of, new world to anybody-
Right?
My degree was some fifteen years ago. These things didn't even exist 15 years ago.
Nothing. Me too. Me too.
So, this was one of the ways that I got good at what I do now is by doing courses from other people. So, obviously, I would happily recommend that anybody goes and has a look at any of Amy's courses, because they are amazing.
Thank you.
What’s next for Amy
So, Amy, what is next? And I know you don't plan loads in advance, but is there anything you're sat there thinking, “This is where I want to go. This is what I want to do”?
Yes. I've decided that I'm going to create a membership site, for the next step, after somebody goes through my course. I want to have more elevated conversations. I want to talk about the promotion more. I want to troubleshoot with people that have actually done the work. I am obsessed with action takers. So, I could work with newbies all day long and I love them, but I'm ready to also work with people that have done the launches. They've done well, but they want to do better.
So, I'm creating a premium, expensive membership site where you get more of me and we get to troubleshoot together. And I'm not going to launch it right away. I'm going to do it right. Slow down a bit. Kind of, get my business in a place that is ready to build on. So, that's hard for me and that's hard for a lot of people listening. I've got to slow down before I ramp up.
So, we're getting some things in place. We're updating Courses That Convert. We're updating Webinars That Convert. So, if you're a member, you get my updates. I am going on video this time. It's about time I do it, but not my students. So, that's why I'm like, “Let's wait on this”.
But I just am stepping into that a little bit more and I think it's going to be really fun. So, I appreciate you asking.
No. And it's awesome and I think it's interesting, because we were talking, previously, that you have just launched a live event for people who are on your Courses That Convert and are trying to get going and to actually help them complete it. To me that sounds like the perfect thing to do. You're then going to move into that membership space, because … And I remember listening to you on Courses That Convert, where you talk about validating your idea and validating and talking to people and I remember thinking, “Oh, I'll just leave that there,” right?
And you said, “Don't skip it”-
Don't you dare.
And I thought, “I'll skip it. I'll skip it”. Anyway, I didn't, in the end, and I got on Zoom calls with-
Great.
Either people that I knew or people that my target were. And I recorded those Zoom calls and I listened to every single word they said. Also, I asked them words like how they feel about stuff-
Yes.
Because when you're marketing, at a later date, in order to use some of those feeling words of overwhelm and frustration and all those, kind of, things that you do feel … People who are coming on your course feels. So, when you're sat down in that room with them, you are going to be able to just suck up all this amazing information from them, so that when you get to the membership, that is going to help you create a really good product for your-
For sure.
For your audience so that they can take it to the next level. And again, I think the membership model itself is a great model, because the world we live in is so quick. It's so fast. You want to update things and change things and bring in new ideas. And I know you, obviously, do the live calls in the Facebook group, which is amazing, but in order to do a membership, you can literally … something brand new changes, no problem.
Right.
Following month or a couple of weeks [crosstalk 00:36:12]-
Yes. That's why I'm thinking, for you, you might want to explore this idea. When you said, “Things change so fast,” I'm like, “That sounds like a membership site”. You never know.
Yeah. And I love the membership site as a model as well from a recurring income point of view and yeah. And, of course, Stu is the go-to guy.
I mean, come on. Stu McLaren, shout out to you. Love that man.
Amy, I want to thank you so much for coming on. It has been such fun. I've loved having you on as a guest. So-
I loved being here. Thank you for this. I'm excited about your podcast. This is exactly what you should be doing. People are going to be so lucky to get all of this goodness from you. So, thanks for having me on early, so I get to see everything you're going to get to create.
So, there you have it. The amazing Amy Porterfield. Wasn't she awesome? Not only is she a huge expert in the online courses space, but she's one of the nicest ladies I've met. And, you know when you meet someone or see someone online … I'm going to sound like a bit of a weirdo now … And think genuinely, “I think we could be friends”. That is exactly what I thought when I saw Amy for the first time.
So, I can't believe how lucky I am that she said that she would come on the podcast. And I really hope that you've enjoyed this episode as much as I have. Now, as always, I will put links to everything to do with Amy in the show notes. So, if you go to www.teresaheathwareing.com/29, then you'll find links to all of Amy's stuff in there and all of her social media.
Also, if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, please go ahead and do that. I would love it if you would subscribe, so that you don't miss an episode. So, I'm on Stitcher and/or on iTunes. So, just head along there, hit the subscribe button and you'll make sure that you get my podcast every single week.
Also, while you're there, if you wanted to give me a nice review, that would be amazing. Next week I've got another interview for you. Like I said, September is all about interviews, so I've got another two to come and then I'll do a solo episode and then we'll be mixing them up in between.
But next week is a really cool one. I'm really excited about it. The interview itself was really enjoyable. I had such fun doing it and he is a real expert in his field, so I'm really excited to share that one with you next week. But until then, have an amazing week and I will see you soon.
