162: Turn Passion Into Profit: Inspiration for Course Creators | Featuring Guest Amy Porterfield

My friends, I have such an incredibly special guest on the show for you today. So excited to invite Amy Porterfield back. Today we're talking all things digital courses. Now. I think that you're very familiar with Amy. Amy is someone who I have personally learned tons from over the years. But if you are new to her, let me introduce her. Amy Porterfield, founder, New York Times best selling author of Two Weeks Notice and host of the online Marketing Made Easy podcast, is an online marketing expert who has turned her journey into a roadmap for others. With her top ranked podcast, Best selling courses and action by action approach, Amy demonstrates that even the newest online entrepreneurs can overcome overwhelm and create a business that they love. Our conversation today is so, so incredibly rich. Whether you are just starting out or more advanced in your business, you're going to take away so many ideas on how you could develop or include education in your business lineup. You know, this is a topic that I'm super passionate about, so let's dive in.

I'm Bonnie Christine and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life.

But when I first set out to

become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer.

Fast forward to today.

I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly proud, profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

I'm so excited to welcome our very special guest today, Amy Porterfield. Welcome back to the show.

Oh my gosh, my friend, I'm so happy to be here.

This is.

I've been looking forward to this all day.

Well, we had you on over 100 episodes ago. Really?

It's been that long?

Jeez, it's been that long. And so the first time you were here on the show, we were talking about two weeks notice, your book and I would love to get an update from you. How? I mean, I know, but for the listeners, please share some news about the book and where you're at with it.

Now that feels like a lifetime ago, but really it was just about a little over a year. Ago. And I am happy to report we became a New York Times bestseller with that book. You stayed on the list for two weeks, which is really exciting. And here's the bigger news, though. The New York Times is a little bit of an ego boost. However, the stories that have come from this, the people who have literally left the jobs they no longer love and created online businesses with courses and memberships and, and masterminds. It's like the best thing I ever hear. Sometimes I'm out and about and someone will say, I quit my job because of your book.

And I.

It's like my favorite thing to hear. So it's been a really great, amazing ride since the book came out.

Incredible. And Amy, you're probably best known for your podcast, Online Marketing Made Easy. So can you tell us a little bit about the podcast? This is where I learned about you so many years ago and have learned so much from you ever since. Where are you at with the podcast?

So it started in 2013, so it's been around for a very long time. And you know, when I started the podcast, I wasn't sure if it was the right move. In 2013, podcasts were starting to kind of become popular, but it wasn't like everyone in their mother had one and now it seems that way. But still, there's so much room for new podcasts. So anyone listening that thinks they want to start one, I still think it's the best way to get your name and your content out there in a way that is. Feels very organic. So I'm a huge fan of podcasting. But yeah, I started it in 2013. We're up to 700 and something episodes to date. And it's where I get to teach everything that I know in a way that I get to tell stories and examples and student successes. And it's, it's the thing that I spend the most time on. We do two episodes a week and I am constantly thinking about and creating for the podcast. And also I always say this. I wouldn't have the business I had to have today without my podcast. I think it was a really important part of building my brand.

Do you know the numbers? Do you know how many downloads you're to.

We've had over 65 million downloads. We get hundreds of thousands of downloads a month or even sometimes in the first week. So. So it's been a huge success for us.

Yeah, well, I can attest to that because, you know, my podcast is just a year and change old. We did hit 1 billion downloads.

That's huge. I mean, that's a lot of people listening to a podcast.

People. But I put off starting it so long because I thought the lie I, I believed in the same lie, that it was way too far gone. Should have started it 10 years ago or five years ago and, and finally did it. And it's been the best thing that we've ever done.

That makes me so happy. I can't believe it's just been a year. I feel like you've been podcasting for way longer than that.

Nope. Okay, so a few more stats I want to get to. How many students have you impacted through your course Digital Course Academy?

So we have helped over 90,000 students move through my digital courses, but the majority of them have been through Digital Course Academy. And that number blows my mind. And here's the thing. Many of them came into the program starting from scratch. They didn't have an email list, they didn't have a website, they didn't have a business and they wanted a course to start their business. But a lot of those people in the 90,000, they used it to start a side hustle while they were still in their 9 to 5 job. And then many of them used it to move from one on one coaching into digital courses so that they didn't hit that ceiling of revenue. So they're from all walks of life, all ages. I've got one that's 16 years old and a 65 year old. I love that. Like so many different ages and so many different walks of life have made their way through Digital Course Academy.

Yeah. So we're going to talk all things digital courses today. I love that you and I are coming together on this topic. You are hands down the expert in the industry for digital courses. We're going to talk about coming to a digital course from a beginner perspective, maybe also from a more established perspective. Would you share with us how much revenue you've earned through your digital courses? Yes.

So we've been in business for 15 years. And before I say the number, I want to say that my very first digital course, I made $267. And then I cried for a week, told myself I wasn't cut out to be an online marketer or online business owner. And. And then I dusted myself off and put myself back out there. And over the last 15 years, we've generated over $100 million in revenue.

That is a number that is hard to even wrap your mind around.

I agree, my friend. Here's the better part of that story. And this is something I teach My students and I know you've experienced this. The beauty of digital courses and even memberships and outlets like that. Um, the profit margin is incredible. So our profit margin, we have a pretty big team, so that cuts into our profit margin. But ours is between 40 and 45% every year. When you talk to someone who has a brick and mortar, it's like 4% sometimes, if they're lucky. Especially restaurants and different industries like that. So to have a business where I have 24 full time employees and I'm still making a 40% profit, it blows my mind. But a lot of my students are 50 to 60% profit. Cause they have a lean team and a really successful course.

I can remember being at 60 or 70%.

I was going to say, I remember

you saying that, though I was all by myself, which is not really commit,

but still I remember, I remember you talking about that. So it's absolutely possible to have a beautiful profit margin and keep a really lean team.

So before we really dive into it, I thought we'd go back to when you and I met. Yeah, you and I met in 2019. We met one time before that. I don't know if you remember, but it was, it was at Stu's mastermind. You came big and we met there before 2019. Before.

Oh my gosh, so long ago.

Yeah, but just kind of casually. And then in 2019, we were in this. We were at an event together, the same mastermind, and we just so happened to sit next to each other and. And now I came in knowing you and looking forward so much to getting to know you. I don't know that you came in knowing.

In my mind, I had two thoughts. First of all, who is this woman with the best hair I've ever seen in my life? I couldn't get over your hair. And number two, you open your mouth and I remember saying to Stu, one of the smartest women I've met. And I promise you, I said that I think you're so strategic and so smart and the way you run your business is so dialed in. That's what I say when I tell people about you. I say, her business is so dialed in, she knows exactly how to run a lean, profitable business. So I was impressed from the minute you opened your mouth.

I love that. Well, I think it was fate that we sat next to each other because we just seem to totally hit it off. I love your mind, I love your heart, I love your sense of humor. And we've been friends ever since. So, so good to have you here. It feels so natural.

Thank you, my friend.

I don't know if I've ever told you this, but I never set out to educate. Did you know that? No.

Tell me more.

Never wanted to teach. You know, my biggest goal was to become a fabric designer. It's all I wanted to do. And this opportunity kind of fell in my lap. Long story to teach. It was so big that I had to do it. So I did it. And I got home and collapsed and thought, like, so glad that's over. I was so nervous. I was in front of a crowd and. And it was not until stories from that started rolling in about the impact that it had had. And I didn't fully embrace it for nearly five years. I didn't fight it, but I just didn't fully embrace it. And over and over and over again, it just showed my students, the community, the world just showed me that this was part of my bigger calling. And so I went all in in 2018. And since then, we've generated 25 million in our education business. And so we're throwing insane numbers around. But truly, you and I both started at just no money, zero experience, zero credentials, really, and built this. And so that's really where I want to go with our conversation today is for those who are interested in possibly adding education to their, you know, their business, what it could look like. And I want to invite you who are listening to just dream with me and Amy a little bit. We're going to get tactical, we're going to get strategic. We're also going to invite you to come to Amy's boot camp, which is coming up for anyone who's interested in and seeing what a digital course could look like for them.

Yes. I'm excited.

So, Amy, right now, I know many creatives in my circle who would love to add teaching to what they do, and they hesitate. And they hesitate, I think, for one kind of fear of what other people will think of them. Like, oh, you're at it in education now. You're going to make income from that. Almost like this vibe of you're selling out or something. And I have been on the last maybe six months on a mission to just completely destroy that perspective, because I'm so grateful for the people who went ahead of me and taught me. I also feel like we're really called to teach what we know, especially as creators. I would love to hear your take on this.

Absolutely. Here's the thought. When you were saying that, I thought, okay, so if you feel like, ugh, I've never taught before. And if I start to teach it, maybe I'll be a sellout. Or people will think like, oh, now she's making money doing that. And then I started to think, okay, think about this is for everyone listening. Think about your favorite teachers, instructors, people that inspired you to do what you're doing. Imagine if they had that thought, I can't teach this. I don't know enough. Or this isn't really what I was set out to do. Or other people are going to think this or that of me, and they never, ever were your teacher or mentor. That's life changing to you. And so when I say all that, I mean you have a responsibility that if it's on your heart, that you want to teach other people what you know, I feel like that's a responsibility and a beautiful one. But also imagine what you can speak into other people's lives, what you could do for them, the transformation that you can add or encourage them to make in their own life. Like, I just feel like there's something so beautiful there that you're. You're shortchanging yourself and others if you don't at least explore it.

I mean, I think about you when I think about that. What if after you had your four, your first course launch, what if you had decided, no, I can't do it. It's not for me. And then all of these 90,000 people, students, all of your podcast downloads, and people like me who hadn't been able to learn from you along the way. So I'm so glad that you decided to keep going.

I feel I am so happy that happy is a silly word. I'm so honored that I get to do what I do. And I thank God that I didn't give up when I really wanted to. You know how people worry about what other people will think or say, well, I'm 15 years in, and that hasn't gone away. I wish it has. I can catch it faster, but it still shows up for me. But when I made $267, I remember thinking, what are people going to say about this? What are they going to think of me? And my friend reminded me, no one knows how much you made unless you tell everyone. No one has any idea if you sold one course or a hundred. And I realized, oh, maybe I'll keep my mouth shut on this first one. But we think people are watching and talking about us. Most people are just interested in what doing anyway, so we got to kind of put it in perspective.

Yeah. Oh, I love that. I also want to talk about kind of the benefits of teaching. I think especially even already with what we've talked about, people automatically think about the revenue. And it is one of the most beautiful, truly beautiful revenue streams you can have in your business. But aside from that, there are so many incredible benefits. I think it's been the most benefit rich thing I've personally ever done, meaning it's helped me master my topic better than ever before. It has helped me impact people in a way that I never thought was possible. Could you speak a little bit to maybe the unknown or less obvious benefits to adding education into your business? I love.

I've never been asked this question. I love this question. So when I think about, you know, benefits beyond the revenue, and at the end of the day, that's the least important thing. When you think about what matters most and it's a great thing, but also there's other things more important. You already hit, hit it on the head at some of them. When I think about educating one, I think personally what it's done for me, I am a better leader, a better communicator. I am so much better at creating something from nothing. Like a lot of people cannot do that. I couldn't do it 15 years ago. But when you keep at it and you keep at it, you'd be amazed how easy it becomes to create from scratch. And I think that's a beautiful skill to have. I also think about the fact that I have taught myself to understand people in such a deeper way. You cannot create a course where market a course and have success with the course if you don't deeply care who's on the other end of that. So I've learned how to listen better. I've learned how to ask the right questions. I've learned how to pitch and catch with people so I could add value in the moment. I also am way better than I've ever been at off the cuff. Now, I am a planner. I am assuming you are too, my friend.

Yeah.

Okay. I like to plan everything. I like to script everything. I like it all to be buttoned up before I present anything. But that's not always the case, especially when you doing it, have been doing it as long as I have, you're going to have to kind of learn to be off the cuff more. That was hard for me. That was something that I was not good at in the beginning. And now over the years, you sit me down in a chair and don't give me any notes because I know what I know from doing it for so long. I'M on fire. I've never loved to be on video, so I want everyone to hear this, that if you're watching or listening to this or whatever it is, if you give me the option to be on video or not, I will always choose no video. It's just not my favorite thing. However, anyone I talk to will say, amy's good on video. And that is just because I have practiced it over and over again. And now anytime I'm invited anywhere, I know I can hold my own. So I guess I want to say with all of these different, like, kind of hidden benefits or things we don't talk about enough, you, it all comes down to confidence. I was someone who had zero confidence on the day I left my 9 to 5 job and started my business and had no idea what I was going to do. And over the years, as I've practiced teaching and learning about my students and understanding how to create content, my confidence soared. And so. But it took a while for sure. And so those are all huge benefits of learning to teach in the capacity that I do.

Yeah, it's this entire list of soft skills that you don't necessarily set out to develop, but they're invaluable when you do, like speaking, like being on camera, like being super empathetic. I just recently pulled some videos of my early teaching years. Maybe there's.

Oh my gosh, don't give me a heart attack. I've done the same. And it's.

I cannot, I cannot. So when you want to expand. And also, I think professionally it has brought us together, whereas I don't think I would ever have been in that room had education not been a part of my business. Great point. So it gets you into just this completely different kind of space. I know that something else that you've shared before is that maybe digital courses as a topic is not your lifelong passion, but seeing the results of your students is. And so every time you hear someone who's been able to quit a job that they hated or wanted to get away from and been able to create truly a career, that just lights them up through what they've learned, through what you teach. That's the joy. So tell me a little bit more about the impact education has had on you from just a fulfillment perspective of seeing people impacted through what you teach.

I love that you brought up that, like, digital courses are not necessarily my passion, but it's what digital courses do for my students and myself. That's absolutely true. I don't wake up in the morning and think I Want to teach everyone how to create a course. Like, it's not like, the first thing, but I do wake up in the morning and think, I know there's a woman out there that is looking for something different and more freedom, and she wants to make her own money. And I know I have a solution for that. So getting really clear on your why we've heard it a million times is really important. And so when I do what I do because of what it's able to, what it's afforded me, but also my students. So, for example, I have a student, her name is Lacy, and she's a hair stylist. And she works behind the chair. And if you think about a job like that, she is literally on her feet every single day. And if she can't show up for work and stand on her feet for eight hours, she. She is not making any money. And she realized that that got to a point that there's. It's just. It was too much on her body. It was not fulfilling her anymore. But she didn't want to totally leave her niche. She just wanted something different. So she created a course, teaching other hairstylists how to be hair assistants. So teaching other people how to become hair stylist assistants. Very niche, very specific. And so once she did this, her whole primary business changed to teaching inside digital courses, not being behind a chair. And so that might seem like a little thing to someone. It was a very big thing to her. Now she had more lifestyle freedom, much more financial freedom. Courses made a whole lot more money than having to do behind the chair, the work behind the chair. But also it opened a whole world of people she never would have had access to, and that widened her worldview a million percent. So here she was, before she was struggling with the job she no longer loved. She pre sold a course that she hadn't even created yet. It was an idea that she fleshed out. She made $24,000, and then she officially launched it and made $61,000. Do you know how long it takes to make $61,000 cutting and styling hair? A very long time. And I tell you this story to not make it about the money, but to make you think, like, how much did her life change when she realized, oh, wait a second, what I just did, I can do it again and again. So when I teach digital courses, I don't teach people to make 20 different digital courses. I tell them one course, one course that you can launch over and over again on your timeline. I have another student. She was a lawyer That's a really stressful job. And while she was a lawyer, she created her own time management system for just her as a lawyer. It only worked for different lawyers that had really crazy hours, really long hours. And she created just a little quirky time management system that just worked perfectly for her. So when it started to work for her, she started to teach a few people, one on one, other lawyers, how it worked, and they loved it. So she decided to create a digital course. So she created a digital course, and the first time she sold it, five people bought it. Just five people. It's not something to leave your job over. Right. But then she started to do it, sell it over and over again. She made $213,000, and she quit her job as a lawyer. Not because she had to, because she wanted to. She wanted something different. And I know a lot of people listening right now, they just want something different or they want more freedom or they want to add to their existing business. That's another beautiful thing. Whatever you're doing right now, you don't have to let it go. A digital course can be a nice compliment to what you're already doing to maybe lessen the load of having to make money here and add it here or just kind of change your business model. I tell you these stories to say I live for them. I live for these stories from women who train doodles, which are the dogs. Do you have a doodle?

No, I don't.

I feel like you'd be. No. You have a huge dog. You have a huge dog.

I do. He's a Leon Burger.

That's right. It's like her dog is bigger than her.

That's right.

I forgot that. But when I say doodles, you were probably right thinking of the doodles that all of your students make. There are many women who have been in my community who have taken their craft of surface pattern design and have put it into a digital course to teach it in many different ways. And so, and one more thing I have to say, and I promise I'll stop talking. Some women will hear. People will hear. Okay. You have tons of students, Amy, who have done what I want to do. So there's no room for me. It's already been done before. Everything I want to do has already been done before. And the way I teach, coming up with a great, perfect topic for you. One of the quadrants I teach in, quadrants of how to come up with your idea is, is anyone else doing it? Because if they're doing it successfully, Ding, ding, ding. That's exactly what you want. You want a proven method that then you can carve out a little area on the Internet to find your audience. Because think of it this way. You sell a course, let's say it's $500 and you sell 20 of them. You just made a lot of money and only 20 people purchase from you. You don't need tons of people in order to change your life with a digital course.

That's right. And something I think people always get tripped up over is there's so much free content around this topic on the Internet, why would anybody ever pay for it? And I'm like, the more free content, I think the better because that also means the more confusion.

Oh, that's such a good way to look at it.

And that rabbit hole. They're just looking for someone to part the clouds, grab their hand and be like, I'll, I'll teach. I think it's just as important to teach people everything that they need to know as it is to not teach them anything they don't need to know. Let's not waste time, let's give clarity.

That's so true. You know, you just made me think of something else. So one of the questions I get asked a lot is, Amy, if what I want to teach you could literally go on YouTube and type in like one of my students, we call her Sarah Sourdough. She teaches people how to make sourdough bread through her digital course. If you were to Google how to make sourdough bread, hundreds of thousands of hits will come up. So how did this woman make over $50,000 teaching people how to make sourdough? Because they wanted to learn from her. And this is so true for our businesses as well. We create relationships, we care deeply about the people we serve and we put out amazing, clear, concise content. When it comes time for them to want to learn exactly how to do it, we will be the first person they go to. Not YouTube, not ChatGPT. We have the relationship with them. So digital courses are very much relationship building landscape as well. I teach my students in your course, you could have a free community that goes with the course. You could have Voxer, you could have Slack, you could have live Q and A's. So that human touch is there. You don't have to, but you can. Which separates you from ChatGPT or YouTube or whatever it might be.

Yeah, I love that.

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Okay, so let's talk to the newbie. The person here who maybe not maybe doesn't have a business at all, may be in a nine to five maybe, just thinking. And they're probably thinking like, really? Can I really start? Can I start with a course? Don't I need to hit these milestones first? Do you think they need to start with another business model first? What would you say to someone who was finding success in an area of their life, but maybe not have this big business already?

Okay, I love this question, so I'm going to answer it specifically, but I want to tell you a quick story. So there's a student of mine, her name is Masha, working mom, 9 to 5, super busy. But she didn't love her 9 to 5 job. She wanted freedom and balance. Those are the two words she used. Freedom, imbalance. And so while she had a 9 to 5 job, she joined my program to learn how to create a course. She wanted to create a big, beautiful signature course, which means like full transformation and takes a while to create, but it makes a lot of money and a lot of impact. Well, she got into my course and then Covid hit and her whole life was turned upside down like everybody else. Kids came home from school, husband's at home. She's like, I cannot create a really big course, but I need to make a quick cash injection. So she decided to create what I teach. I teach many different types of courses, but one of them is a workshop course where essentially this is so great for newbies. It's an hour long course that you charge for, so let's pretend. Well, in her case, I'm going to use a different example than what she taught. She taught Instagram, but one of my students, she teaches how to land your dream job in a big, big, beautiful course, but also she has a workshop course. And the workshop course is a one hour course teaching how to write a Resume. And it's $97. And it's really easy for people to get into. It's a quick, quick decision. Okay, $97. How to write the perfect resume. Sign me up. And so that was her first course that she created just to get her feet wet. She's total newbie. Didn't have a big email list, didn't have a big social media. So it was a workshop course on how to do a resume. And then Masha, who I was talking about hers was how to use Instagram to start building your business. The first steps you need to take to use Instagram to build a business, she made $3,000 doing that. But what it did is it validated that she's got an idea on her hands. And her students started saying, could you teach us this? Could you teach us that? So she took that Instagram course and she turned it into a signature course. Mom to mom Fluencer. That was the name of her course. Big picture program of how to build your business. She made $10,000, then launched it again, $25,000. And at the time where she made $25,000, it was her second launch, she only had 2,000 people on her list. Meaning when she launched it the first time, she had way less than that. She's gone on to make $400,000. And the reason I tell this story is it started with a one workshop course because she was a newbie. The workshop course led into a bigger course, led into multiple launches. So start small. Anyone listening? There's different ways, there's different kind of courses where you can start small, start making a little money, and then your audience will tell you what they want next. So you don't start, you don't start small and stop there. It's just A way to get going if you are a total newbie.

Okay, so good. Now let's talk to the more advanced listener. I know I have many what I call professional creatives, which means that they're making a full time living at their craft, whether that's, you know, jewelry making or ceramics or art. But many of them have never tapped into education. They're making a full time living or at least working full time at their art. Never tapped into education. What would you say to that person?

Okay, so I would say that ask yourself first. Why, why haven't you ever tapped into education and see if there's any limiting beliefs that come up or any judgments that you're making of other people teaching or what would it be like if you taught? Are there any worries about what people will think, what other people will say? Because all of that is none of your business. What they think, what they say, what they might talk about, none of their opinion is none of your business. And you have to ask yourself, right? And you have to ask yourself, what would teaching, your expertise, your art, what you have done that has fueled your life and your bank account? What if you taught somebody else to do what you're doing, whether it be for their hobby, they don't need to make money by what you teach them, or, or if it does make the money, great. A lot of my students teach hobby based business, have hobby based businesses. One of my students teaches how to make stickers. The woman made a million dollars last year on how to make stickers. But she's a, she's so, so creative. She loves to be in that world. The women aren't making stickers to make money. They're doing it because they love it. There's businesses you can create that will just make people happy and, and let them be creative. So just ask yourself what has stopped you? And then here's my favorite question. What does this make possible? If I were to teach my art, what would this make possible for me and for those that I serve? It's my favorite question. You and I both love Michael Hyatt. He asked this of me. He's my coach and he asked me often when I'm stuck or don't know what to do. Well, what if you did that? What would it make possible? And it starts to open up a world. So those of you more advanced, you have a beautiful business in your art, what would it make possible if you taught what you know? Because it would open up a lot of doors.

Okay, I need the sticker details. Right. My daughter wants to open a sticker shop so bad.

I'm going to say, I'm going to send this woman's details to you. It's so cool.

So I want to speak to something I know some of my listeners are thinking right now. They're thinking, if I teach my art, I'm creating competition for myself. And I think that you and I could probably dismantle that pretty quickly. But also, one of my favorite examples is a woman in my mastermind. Her name is Laurie Ann, and she does fine art. And she has a wildly successful fine art business where she sells originals and prints. She also has this wildly successful education part to her business, teaching this Amy. She teaches other artists how to make prints of their originals. There's a whole detailed process about how to either scan it or photograph it and then touch it up in Photoshop and then do the printing. So she's not teaching how to paint like her, which would essentially be maybe competition. She's taking one little tiny thing of her process that she has mastered, that everyone struggles with and teaches that and has had wild success with it. So I think a lot of this is just calling you to have kind of a vision storming session over what could you teach? What is one thing that you just have nailed? You've had success in something that someone else is struggling with. And so I know that this is one of the things that you help people kind of come to terms with in the boot camp. So before next, we're going to talk about some course math. But before that, can you kind of just give an overview of what you're covering in the bootcamp? Because I think clarity on the topic that you could teach on is probably the biggest gift you could give someone.

Amen to that. And that's where we start. So I created this bootcamp. I only do it once a year, and it's called course competent. And in my bootcamp, the first thing we do is is help people to decide on their course topic. Because once you start to feel confident of your course topic, ideas start to flow. What you could teach, what it would look like, who you want to teach. So that's where we start. And in order to come up with that topic, I take people through what is called the sweet spot. And there's four different quadrants and there's some detail there. So I won't get into all of it here. But basically, we go through these four quadrants and you answer questions and you pull from your own experience, and at the end, you have an idea that then you can Start kind of playing around with. Start talking about, start kind of validating it online. There's different ways to do it that I teach so that you could see if there's an interest. Because the last thing I ever want you to do is create an entire course based on something you think might work. So we have a lot of different strategies to validate that idea. So you don't get started till you know, this is exactly what my audience is wants. So we start with the topic and then from there, inside the bootcamp, we talk about what it would look like to price your course. You might be surprised to know that the price of your course has nothing to do with how many modules and lessons or how long it takes someone to get through your course. A course that takes someone a weekend to get through literally could be 10 times more expensive than a course that it takes six weeks for someone to get through. It's all about your results. So we talk about that and I help people come up with their price so that we can do some course math, which I know we're going to come back to. But inside the bootcamp, I also teach people how to figure out their audience. So who is it you're going to sell to and then how do you attract them? Because when people get excited with their topic and they're ready to go, they're like, who am I going to sell this to? So we do a lot of who's your audience and how do we. We find them? How do we get them into your world and on your email list? And then finally, there's many different courses. You can create a workshop course, a starter course, a spotlight course, or a signature course. I'm going to help you in the boot camp decide which kind of course you want to create. And it will unlock exactly how you want to teach it.

What I love about this boot camp is it's kind of world renowned. It's super well known because of how incredible it is, how big results you get people. And it's also insanely affordable. So it's $47 and it is a. It's a week long, is that right?

It's. We say it's five days long, but it actually secretly. You can stay in it for two weeks if you want to ask questions and be around the community. But I do live trainings over five days where you get to ask questions. We can engage, but I'm there and then everything's recorded.

Super impactful. It is something that I love to participate in. I'll be there this year as well. So we have a page set up for amybonnycristine.com forward/amy. And you can find out more information about the boot camp there. I want to talk about course math. I want to make sure we have time for this. Yeah. Okay. My very first course launch. Okay. I had no idea what to expect. The year was 2018. And I built this course. I gave birth to this course. I mean, I was pregnant with it for a long time and I birthed it. I charged $997 for it. And my secret goal, that I was embarrassed to say out loud, I only told my husband, was to have 100 people. A hundred people would have radically changed my life. And that course launch brought in 352 people. Amy, were you like blown away? I mean, I'll never forget, never forget that week. I just thought like, what is life? Yeah, it radically changed my life forever. And so I want to let you talk about course math. I want to talk about numbers. Go for it.

Okay. So when I talk about course math, I'm not a big numbers kind of girl. Like, I'm scared to even throw at any numbers when I'm live on video because my math is terrible. However, the point of course math is to really show you how realistic it is to make a good living with your course. So I'm going to use really simple numbers in the beginning. So you've got a course. It's a hundred dollars. A lot of my students like to start out with like 100 to $500 course. Some of them start out with a $2,000 course, whatever works for them. But if you just wanted to do, let's say that workshop course and it's $100, 20 people, just 20 people out of your entire universe buy this course. You just made $2,000. That normally could have maybe took taking you a lot more time or effort to do so. However, the course math means you don't stop there. If you can get 20 people to pay you $100, you just learned how to sell a course online. Now you're going to take that expertise, the way you marketed it, your new confidence. What if you had a thousand dollar course like Bonnie Christine did, but only again, 20 people bought it. $20,000 is life changing. And I just said 20 people bought it. You had more than 300 people buy your course. But I bet that someone listening right now is like, I'd take 20 any day if I got $20,000 for that. That is life changing money. It doesn't matter how much Money Bonnie and Christine and I have made, that's a lot of money when we think about it. So the reason I use these very simple numbers and very small numbers is to show you what is possible. But from, you know, my first course, making $267, just for the record, the course was 297, but I only sold a few. And then I took out a few, like a thousand dollars for the expenses. And then I didn't even make enough to cover the first course. But the second time I did it, I made $10,000 and then the time after that, $50,000. So it's not just a little jump, it's a big jump when you stay with it and you really understand what it takes to launch your course and, and you're dedicated to it. So all this to say, you do not need a huge audience, you do not need a huge email list or $100,000 or 100,000 people on social. You can have a very small community and make a great living with your courses as long as you care deeply about the people you serve.

There's one more question that I want to make sure that I get to ask you, and I love that this is something that you talk about. It's about effective teaching. Because when I think about the courses and classes I've seen and the ones that are really successful and the ones that may not be as successful, it. It comes down to the difference between kind of compiling content and putting it out there and then really, truly teaching. Like. Like I talk about the art of instruction sometimes really thinking about the transformation and transitioning someone from one place to another. This is something that you teach? Yes. And can you talk a bit more about it? Yes.

So, you know, it's so fun to talk about launching courses and the money and the impact you'll make, but none of that matters if your students aren't getting results and finding immense value in your courses. And the word of mouth is so powerful. When someone takes your course, they love the way you teach it and they tell all their friends about it. That is very powerful. How does that happen? Number one, really understanding who your audience is, what they need, and also how they learn best. Not everyone learns the same. And so what I teach is, number one, make sure you have multiple modalities as people go through your course. So when you go through my course, you can listen just to the audio, you can get a transcript of what I teach, you can watch me teach it through slides and audio, and I almost always have a PDF guide that Will walk you through what I just taught you, depending on how best you learn. So the different modalities are so important. You don't have to do all of those. But taking into consideration people learn differently. It's pretty easy to replicate in different ways. Another thing is to think about the flow. This is a silly thing. When I work for Tony Robbins, he used to say this. You can put words together, Johnny bit the dog, but you can take those exact words, and it could be the dog bit Johnny. So either way, they're the same words, but they're mixed up in different ways, and it means something very different. Is Johnny biting the dog or is the dog biting Johnny? Very different. So I really take into consideration when I teach the flow of how you teach something, and I take my students through an exercise to say, okay, what are we going to teach first? Once they understand that, what is the next step? So I teach my students to have a roadmap, a flow, a blueprint, or a journey that you want to take people on so that they understand where we're going, how we're getting there, and where we're. Where we're going to end up. So the flow of how you teach content is so important, and that's something that we really work on inside my program.

What you're saying is that you obsess over the results of your students.

Absolutely. I live and breathe it because I don't care how much money I make. If people aren't getting huge results and I don't get to hear about those stories, that's what fuels me. So the way I get to hear about these beautiful success stories is if I care deeply about how I teach it.

That's right. We always say we measure our success by the success of our students, not the success of our launch, not the success of whatever the success stories at the end, that's what we're invested in. That means we're really making transformation. I know you're. You do the same.

Absolutely.

So before we wrap up, what is one piece of advice you would tell someone who's on the fence thinking about adding a digital course to their business or starting their business with a digital course?

What I would say is that you don't have to make a decision now. You don't have to say, I'm all in. I'm doing this. But if it's on your heart or you feel a little excited, like, oh, I don't know, maybe I could do that. Maybe I could at least explore, if this is for me, that is what the bootcamp is for. And in the Bootcamp, if you feel like I'm doing this, you'll start to make some decisions that will get the ball rolling, because getting started is the hardest part. So if you're at least bit curious or this has been on your mind for a while, give yourself the gift of the Bootcamp. It's one of the most inexpensive things I offer all year. I. I only offer it once a year, and I'm very much involved. So I would love to welcome you into the Bootcamp and show you what's possible with your digital course.

I would love that, too. I'll be there, so I would love to see you there. Amy, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Thank you, my friend. It's always a pleasure.

Oh, what an amazing episode. I'm so glad that Amy was able to join us. She truly is the person to learn digital course creation from. She's impacted me maybe more than anyone else in my mentor circle. So I hope that you'll learn from her. So come join us in this incredible bootcamp. I'm going to be there. I'd love to see you there. It's incredibly affordable. Just $47. You're going to walk away with with knowing what you'll teach, knowing what you'd be able to charge for it, knowing how to structure your course content and how to grow an audience right now that's ready to enroll when you're ready to launch. It's going to be incredibly impactful. Again, go to bonniecristine.com Amy to sign up for the Bootcamp. My friends, create the beauty that you want to see. Come alive in the world, world. And remember, there's room for you.