Today’s episode of the podcast is a throwback to one of my earlier episodes, where I got to interview the wonderful Amy Porterfield.
Amy is an Online Marketing Expert who helps entrepreneurs build successful online businesses and profitable digital courses.
This episode was my second ever interview and whilst some time has moved on since then, the conversation still stands.
We're talking about online courses and transitioning into an online business, and although some of my opinions might be different now from what I've learned, I think that's interesting is interesting to see how far I've come as a person.
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- Starting an online business or creating a course must be done in baby steps.
- 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.
- To start, get in the trenches and learn all you can about your target customer.
- If you’re just getting started, try to create the course first and then market it. Creation and promotion are two separate beasts.
- Consistency matters, no matter the size of your audience.
- 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.
- When you reach a goal, celebrate! It’s important for you and your team (if you have one) to celebrate those milestones.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE
Don’t compare yourself to the big shots in the industry – use what they are doing as inspiration, learn from them, listen to their podcasts, read their blogs – but then start from scratch, and do it your way!
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS
- How to stay motivated when creating a course
- The key to completing your course
- Why it’s important to show your team how instrumental they are
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
TRANSCRIPT
Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. So great to have you with me again, as you may have known, if you listen to last week's episode, we are doing some replays. We are doing four in total. The first one was last week, which was Jasmine, which was just brilliant. I love that episode still one of my favorites. And this week is another of my favorites. Obviously they're all my favorites, which is why I chose them. But this week was my second ever interview. When I started my podcast and, and I talked to people a lot about podcasting, often people who join me for the 90 day program want to launch a podcast. I've launched a few podcasts now with people.
So we use that 90 day program to go through and launch their podcast. And one thing that people ask me, or one thing that I talk about, if you're thinking about one is what's the format going to be. Are you going to have interviews? Are you not? What style? And actually, one of the things I did when I started my podcast was I initially just did solos.
The first 20 something episodes were solo episodes and I did it because I think I heard Pat Flynn say something about it. Anyway, I heard someone say about it, you know, if you're going to do a podcast, you wanna get really comfortable with doing it before you start interviewing anybody. So that's what I did.
I got really comfortable with talking to myself and recording myself and putting out the episodes. So for me, I didn't start interviewing until around episode 20 something. This amazing person was my second ever interview. My first ever interview, FYI, if you wanna go back and listen, it was Pat Flynn, which is a kind of crazy, amazing first interview.
But my second ever interview was Amy Porterfield, which I am confident, you know who she is. Cause I've talked about her before. It's it was amazing that I got to interview her second on my podcast because she's a very sought after. All these people are that I'm bringing to you in these replays. And the fact that I've interviewed any of them is, is unbelievable, but to have her as my second was amazing. And actually like I did last week with Jasmine's, I've just listened back to lots of it and. And I really enjoyed the conversation. It was a really lovely conversation. And obviously some time has moved on since then. Like, again, it's about four years I think, but it was the conversation still stands.
We're talking about online courses. We're talking about transitioning into an online business and some of my opinions and thoughts might be different now from what I've learned. And I think that's interesting. It's interesting to see how far I've come as a person, but again, the conversation was just lovely, really, really nice, really fun.
And I think what's really great about these replays. I'm giving you, they are all very charismatic people, so they're, they're great to listen to great to hear their stories. So I really hope you enjoy this replay. Again you might have listened to it, but it could have been a long time ago, but it's a good one. So I really hope you enjoy it. And I'll see you at the end.
Amy. Thank you so much for being a guest of my podcast. I am so excited to have you here.
Amy: 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. So I think this is gonna be a lot of fun.
Teresa: Oh, I'm really excited about it. You are only my second interview. Oh, my goodness. My last interview was a Pat, he is just like a consummate professional. Isn't he? 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.
Amy: Well, uh, thank you for having me. I'm honored to be the second.
Teresa: Ah, thank you. So obviously I have followed you for ages. I've been very lucky to see you taught live. I'm in, 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.
Amy: 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, uh, I say in the States, cause 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, 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, 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 this message. And then I thought I wanna 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. Right. I mean, I got to learn from the master and I was really in it. Like I got to pitch and catch with him. I got to be in his proximity.
We traveled all over the world. I mean, I got that. My travel bug is out of me. I am done, we are on the road all the time. And so I finally realized I wanna 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 traveling that much and being on somebody else's time, you could only do that for so long.
And so I thought I wanna be my own boss. I wanna call the shots. I wanna create content for my own business, not for somebody else's. And I had just gotten married and the traveling all the time, just wasn't going to work. And so I, I, I took baby steps. So this is great for anybody to hear that is wanting to transition outta 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, I want to move on. I wanna start my own thing. I'm gonna 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'd 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 Forlio 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 programs around social media and online marketing and sell those program. 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 realize 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 10 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. 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, cause 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.
Teresa: It's just, honestly, the story's amazing because I used to work the Land Rover. I did corporate marketing for Land Rovers. So again, a brand where, you know, in some parts of the world, that is the only vehicle they see, you know?
Amy: Oh yeah.
Teresa: And people love the vehicles.
Amy: I have a Range Rover. I love the vehicle.
Teresa: And, 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 same and I, you know, 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, like no, that's not what I wanted.
And they think, oh, I'm gonna 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.
Amy: Never.
Teresa: I think with clients and you have them, you do feel like you are kind of tied a bit or you are responsible or gotta be around in business hours.
So if I come off to, you know, go off to the States, I feel a bit like, oh, how are we gonna manage these things? So, yeah, I feel like I hear your journey and think that's where I wanna be. That's where I wanna be in five years’ time. Let's say.
Amy: I love it.
Teresa: It's my fingers cross. Did you ever imagine in the early days when you started, did you think I'm gonna become this successful?
Amy: Oh, heck no, like 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 like 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 like 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.
Teresa: 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.
So I thought, you know, I could spend months putting together an amazing Facebook course and Facebook makes one change and that's it. I'm done, you know, that is no longer relevant. What is it that you love and are there still things that you dislike about what you do now?
Amy: 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 light bulbs go off and people think, oh, I get it. Finally, you broke it down. I'm best known for step by step in breaking things down and holding people's hand through the process. And, 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 program 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 programs. It's 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 worry. I'm a worrier by nature. I worry about them. I wanna 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, like on my chest, like I can physically feel it sometimes. And so I have to be careful about my self care. Like I talk to a therapist type person every single week on a Friday morning at 7:00 AM. I do meditation. I have to, I, you know, I go on walks with my dog. I have to do a few things because I, I 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, it's building an online business is not easy. And so that's the part that I have to be very mindful of.
Teresa: 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.
Amy: Yes.
Teresa: And you know, you can't just, well, you can, but it's not, I don't think this would be my sort of thing. This definitely isn't yours. You know, you can just put together a course and sell it and who cares if they do it? You know, at the end of the day, 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 and went, “Oh my God, Amy's done it again.” And I was like, “What you mean?” She went, I I've bought courses. I she'd already got courses. She said, and I've gone and bought email and webinars that from her. Not, and she knows what she's doing. She can't, I can't help myself.
Amy: Oh. 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, 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 know, 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, we care deeply.
Teresa: We do. And, and I want to, the, the bit that I love doing is adding value is, is being a help to someone. So, you know, I don't want you to just sit there and go through the motions.
I want you to really take and make a difference. But you know, she wouldn't, 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 truly Testament to how good that first course is for her to then go and spend, like you said, that, you know, these aren't $50 courses, you know, spend a bit more and, and do another one. So they're amazing. Now.
Amy: Thank you.
Teresa: I've gotta ask how on earth do you stay motivated when you are putting together a course? Because I have put mini courses together. I 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. I'm like I said, I'm in courses that convert and the content that is in there is unbelievable.
You do not short change anybody, but how do you, cause that must take you ages. So how do you keep motivated while trying to finish it?
Amy: Well, I love that you asked 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 gonna get done, but it's miserable.” And I loved 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 dollars courses, I, I am dirty. My hair is dirty. I'm 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 slide deck with all the content and the flow and recording them. That is, that is an ugly time for me. I feel overwhelmed and stressed and it's not my favorite.
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, cause it, 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. So it's 60 days. And what has helped me is a project plan. So once I get it, 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 like, Amy, this is what you're doing for the next two weeks.
I feel like I'm gonna take longer than I should to do it. I'm gonna 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, my shorter answer is it is very stressful for a short period of time. I've gotta see the light at the end of the tunnel and I've gotta have a project plan.
Teresa: 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 excuses after excuses, after excuses, like, and I'll tell myself, well, it's not an excuse. This is genuinely it's real . And, and I just listened to myself.
Think it is, I am literally sat here going, oh, I haven't got time for that. Well, you know, you could not sit down and, and maybe watch something on TV tonight, if you really wanted to do, you could just crack on do that. so sometimes I think the discipline is really good and you have a great team around you.
I am. That is like team goals. If anybody follows Amy and sees how she treats her team. And I can imagine they work very hard for you, Amy, I can imagine. You know, it's not all trips on boats and, 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.
Amy: 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 champagne and had so much fun. And while I was on the boat, I, I closed my eyes for a minute and I had champagne in my hand and literally a cupcake in the other, like they brought cupcakes on and I thought “I'm eating a cupcake on a boat with the sun shining on my face with champagne. 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 wanna 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 gotta 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 gonna 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.
Teresa: You know what I follow Chloe on Instagram.
Amy: Yes.
Teresa: And Angie, uh, your community manager.
Amy: Yes. So Chloe, my integrator. Angie, my community manager.
Teresa: Yeah. And you can just tell, they love what they do and I 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.
Amy: You know, I, it is. And one of the things I've realized 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, when Chloe can get out in front of people and talk about what she does and the impact she makes, I want her to feel as though she, I want her to realize the impact she's making through my business.
So if I, you know, it's hard when you run a personal brand and it is the Amy show, many days. I need people to know one, I don't do it myself. Like, let me tell you a quick story this morning, my podcast didn't get published. Right? 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 realize tons of tickets. Like your Link's not working. Your Link's not working. Cause the email went out. I had no idea how to fix it and that's good and bad. It's good.
Cause my team takes it over. I don't even know what to do in WordPress anymore, but it scares me a little to think, “Oh my God, I don't even know what to do in WordPress 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 like, 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.
Teresa: 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.
Amy: Yes.
Teresa: 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 wanna bring on someone who's better than me. I wanna bring on someone that is more awesome at something than I am, because they are gonna add so much more. Whereas if I just carry on struggling through again, you know, uploading the podcast or trying to write show notes, or it it's gonna be a waste of my time and it's gonna be.
Well, you know, not as well done as if they do it. So I just think.
Amy: So true.
Teresa: And, and like I said, I love seeing the team stuff. I love seeing the girls, they look like they have so much fun.
Amy: They do. They're so silly. We got to the point at the event where it's late, everyone had gone home, we were still working and it was that slap happy, funny time that we have, I think this is my, yeah, everyone's snappy at each other, but in the funniest way. So we have a good time for sure.
Teresa: 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, cause obviously this is your forte. This is where you excel. So if I was starting out today and I wanted to look at doing an online course and there are so many things involved.
There are like a million different elements. There are so many places where you can get it right, or get it wrong. You know, even things down to building a list, sending out emails, creating landing pages, creating the membership or the course itself, you know, marketing it, Facebook ads. How do you suggest that people.
Even start to look at this because I think sometimes, and I've watch 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 6 million pounds. Well, I slept last night. And it's like, and you could do a two by tomorrow. And it's like, no, I don't think that's the case, you know?
So how would you suggest that people even start to go down this process? What would your baby steps be?
Amy: 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 gotta 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. Let's create the course first. And then we'll talk about marketing net. Now, if you wanna, pre-sell it. And you've gotta make money faster. You could pre-sell then create and 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, that outline into slide decks.
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 slide deck. 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, like the big shots, my friends, they are on video and then they might show a slide or two, but they're professionally done.
Marie Forlio, 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 slide deck 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 said wouldn't start there. So keeping it simple. And when you wanna 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? Like what can, 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 I just, the, 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, they're 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 I'm doing now.
Teresa: No.
Amy: Right?
Teresa: Yeah. And I think as well, like you said, often we look at people we aspire to be like, and you know, you, you named some there. I, we talked, in fact, you suggested that business by design might be good for me when we met.
Amy: Love James.
Teresa: Climbed up to it. Oh man. He blows my mind if I'm honest.
Amy: Right?
Teresa: And he is on video on screen on every single video. And like you said, in fact his whole setup is lead magnet. So that to opening the cart for business by design was insane.
Amy: Insane.
Teresa: And if you are looking at it from an , you know, a starting perspective, and you look at that and think that's the level you've gotta get to, you are.
Amy: You'll never start.
Teresa: Never, never.
Amy: Right? He had 12 videos, you guys, for his launch or something like that, 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 JLB like I wouldn't do it.
Teresa: Yeah. And the other thing I remember you talking about once on your podcast and I will link up to it in the show notes when I remember which podcast it was.
You talked about basically, what's the difference between someone who's got this following and, and if you haven't got any following, and one of the things you talked about was consistency. 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 and I'm working really hard in it. And I look at say, Jasmine or Jenna, who you met in Hawaii. That must be so cool.
Amy: Love her.
Teresa: And you look at their Instagram accounts and you're like, oh my God, look at their numbers.
That is crazy. Right. 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. She admits that she posts once a day. So do the maths. That's my favorite 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.
Amy: There you go.
Teresa: And that's the difference, isn't it? You know, that people are just, 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, I was lucky enough to go to Pat's studio, which is amazing.
Your studio looks amazing, but again, that's not how you started.
Amy: No.
Teresa: Showing a video of you. And it kind of makes me laugh. Cause you laugh about it. When you first started, you were sat in a hotel room with a bed in the background.
Amy: A bed behind me. What was I advertising? I dunno, but it didn't even face me. Like 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 gotta get in motion. In action. No matter what you will look back at those early years and cringe. But you'll never get to where you wanna go if you don't.
Teresa: No, and that's the thing you've actually just gotta 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 in there. That is a big investment, a lot of money, you know? So things like this, I didn't have that to begin with you, you, you know, you have to take these tiny steps don't you? In order to kind of grow. And 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 in marketing, I've worked in marketing like forever. This was a new world to me, and it's a kind of new world to anybody my degree done 15 years ago.
These things didn't even exist. 15 years ago.
Nothing.
Amy: Me too. Me too.
Teresa: 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 to look at any of Amy's courses. Cause they are amazing.
Amy: Thank you.
Teresa: Amy. What is next? Like, and I know you don't plan loads in advance, but is there anything you'll sat there thinking this is where I wanna go. This is what I wanna do.
Amy: Yes. I've decided that I'm going to create a membership site for the next step after somebody goes through my course. I wanna have more elevated conversations. I wanna talk about the promotion more. I wanna troubleshoot with people that have actually done the work. I am obsessed with action takers. So, you know, I could, 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 wanna 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 gonna do it right. Slow down a bit. Kind of get my business in, 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.
Like I've gotta slow down. Before I ramp up. So we're getting some things, a place where 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 student. So that's why I'm like, let's, let's wait on this.
But I, I just am stepping into that a little bit more. And I think it's gonna be really fun. So I appreciate you asking.
Teresa: No, and it's awesome. And I think it it's interesting cause we were talking previously that you have just launched a live event for people who are, um, on your courses at convert and are trying to launch and get going and to actually help them complete it.
So to me, that sounds like the perfect thing to do. You're then gonna move into that membership space because, and I remember listening to you on course on convert where you talk about validating your idea and validating it and talking to people. And I remember thinking, oh, I I'll just leave that bit.
Right. you said don't skip it. I thought.
Amy: Don't you dare.
Teresa: I'll skip it. I'll skip it. Anyway. I didn't in the end. And I got on zoom calls with either people that I knew or people in 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.
Cause when you're marketing at a later date, in order to use some of those feeling, words of overwhelm and frustration and you know, all those kind of things that you do feel and your, your. You know, people who are coming on your course fields. So when you are sat down in that room with them, you are gonna be able to just suck up all this amazing information from them, so that when you get to the membership that is gonna help you create a really good product for you.
Amy: For sure.
Teresa: For your audience so that they can take it to the next level. And again, I think the membership model itself is, is a great model because the worldview movement is so quick. It's so fast. You wanna 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.
Amy: Right.
Teresa: Following month or couple months.
Amy: Yes. That's why I'm thinking for you. You might wanna explore this idea when you said things change so fast. I'm like, that sounds like a membership site. You never know.
Teresa: Yeah. And I do, I love the membership site as a model, as well from a recurring income point of view. And of course, Stu is the go to guy.
Amy: I mean, come on Stu McLaren, shout out to you. Love that, man.
Teresa: Yeah, he is amazing. And we've been watching cause obviously we're a huge fan of stories. Him and James currently in Fiji.
Amy: Yes. Come on. those boys are having fun.
Teresa: Yeah. They are living the life. Aren't they? It's just amazing. So I'll get there one day. I'll be, I'll be surfing in Fiji.
Amy: I will not be.
Teresa: The pink is famous on a beach somewhere.
Amy: Yes. And yes.
Teresa: Amy, I wanna thank you so much for coming on. It has been such fun. I'd loved having you on as a guest.
Amy: I love being here. Thank you for this. I'm excited about your podcast. This is exactly what you should be doing. People are gonna 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 gonna get to create.
Teresa: Awesome. Thank you, Amy.
There we go. That was the lovely Amy, you know, what's super funny about that interview with Jasmine's I was gutted because she, her internet quality was bad. So we had to turn off our camera. So I don't have a recording of Jasmine and I talking, but I do have the recording of Amy and I talking and man. How life has moved on. Like the office I'm in is tiny. How I look is so different. It's so crazy. But yeah, it, it, I really loved re listening to that one and revisiting these old podcasts.
So join me next week for another replay. This one is not as old as these other two I've been playing. But's still excellent. And again, one of my most listened podcasts. So I will see you next week, have a great week, and I'll see you then.
