166: What If Business Got to Be SIMPLE?

Foreign hi there.

Before we dive into today's episode, I want to ask you an important question. Are you wondering why your hard work isn't reflecting in your bank account? If so, I've got something that could change the game for you. With my Digital Product Accelerator one on one coaching program, I'm on a mission to help entrepreneurs like you bank consistent revenue without sacrificing your time, time or sanity. Imagine shifting from 90% client facing work to enjoying consistent revenue from your digital products, all while reclaiming your time. You already know that you don't need another course and a one size fits all approach isn't going to cut it. What you need is a strategic long term plan tailored just for you. So if you're ready to build the profitable, freedom giving business you've dreamed of, apply to work with me by going to destinycop.com apply. I cannot wait to learn more about you and your business. Welcome to the Creators MBA Podcast, your.

Go to resource for mastering the art.

And science of Digital Product Entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners generate consistent revenue.

From their digital product business without the.

Need to be glued to their desk constantly live launching or worrying about the social media algorithms.

I hope you enjoy our episode today.

So today I'm doing something a little.

Different and I am so excited to share an episode that originally aired on.

On the Simple Marketing podcast hosted by.

Tish Collins, where I had the honor of returning as a guest. And in this conversation we dive deep into simplifying digital product businesses and I discuss how I've structured all three of my online digital product brands to create sustainable revenue streams. I hope you enjoy this episode.

We have a returning guest to the podcast today. I don't think we've ever had a guest on the show twice, but I know you have so much value to share Destiny, so it only makes sense to have you back on the show to share even more of your brilliance with our listeners. So for those who need a reminder and those who may have missed your first episode, can you just introduce yourself and let everyone know what you're all about?

So Tish, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I am super excited to be here today and to have this conversation with you. Honestly, I feel like I could talk with you all day long because we have so much in common here. But I own and manage three different digital product businesses and one of my key passions is helping online business owners create consistent revenue from their digital product businesses without the need to be glued to their desk. Constantly live, launching or even worrying about the social media algorithms. And I know we're going to dive into how I have done that, even though I have a brand like hobby school where we are doing virtual summits basically throughout the year. So I'm definitely want to dig into how I have kind of made my business and my life so that everything is convenient for me and for the people that are in my audience. So, Tish, I can't wait to dive into this with you.

Yeah, I absolutely love that. And I know that, like me, you are a huge fan of digital products and they are a huge part of your business. So I. I would love to start just by getting to know why you have made digital products such a big part of your business.

Well, first of all, I really got into this years ago because I love teaching. Like, I've been teaching online way back in the dark ages in 2005, when people didn't even know that you could actually teach online. So I was teaching online as a university marketing professor, and I had people coming up to me and say, you know, can you really do that? When I say teaching online? Back then it was asynchronous too, meaning I wasn't doing like live lectures with my students. Even way back then. We had the discussion forums. I would record lectures, we would post them in the classroom. So everybody was basically, you know, going through the course material at a time that was convenient to them. Now, fast forward many, many years later, everybody understands how this works, right? So. So that's really how I got into digital. You know, really, I think my core value in how I have ran my life for many, many years, way back before I even started teaching online is I love the freedom and flexibility that digital products provide us. Now, Tish, that doesn't mean that I'm not working hard. It doesn't mean that, you know, business owners out there who have courses or memberships, it doesn't mean that they're not working hard. It just means that they basically, they've designed a business. If they've done it right now, there's ways that you can do it that won't give you this freedom and flexibility. And we can talk about that too. But if they have done it right, you can have that freedom and flexibility to work when you want to, or work at a time that's convenient for you and allow your students to participate and learn at a time that's convenient for them because the reality is they're very busy.

Also, yeah, I love digital products as a way to serve your audience without having to be glued to your desk 24 7. Because when we start our businesses, that is just not what we want. We want freedom, we want flexibility, we want our lives back. And so they are such a great way to actually get that freedom and also to serve a broader audience as well. And I personally love that because they are usually quite low ticket. It gives people in your audience who aren't quite ready to work with you one on one the opportunity to still learn from you and they can still be really valuable as well.

So. Absolutely. And even in the low ticket items, right, I mean that you can definitely have that freedom and flexibility with that also. But I would even suggest that even with online course or a membership, you can still design those type of digital products so that you still have that freedom and flexibility in your life. And I'll give you some examples there. So. And this isn't even a digital product. This is my, you know, one on one coaching. I offer one on one coaching where we do it via Voxer. And you know, my clients get unlimited coaching and they can send in their, you know, their questions, their request, any, you know, any marketing audience that they want to do, they can send them in. We do all of that via Voxer. Or they have a form if they want to do some type of marketing audit and they do it when it's convenient for them. So if they have a question at 3am on a Friday night, they can send it in. It doesn't mean I'm gonna respond right that. Right that particular second, but I will respond within the time that I promised to them. So the same like with your online courses or your memberships, you can set them up so that you're still supporting your students so they can achieve that transformation that you have promised them in that course or whatever you're promising them, you know, for that membership too, so that you have that freedom and flexibility. So you're not having to do, you know, a constant zoom call or you even having a Facebook group that you're constantly having to manage and wrangle, because I know that those can get out of hand too.

Oh my God. I love Voxer mentorship. I made this part of my business model. I think I did it first in 2020. And it has just been a core part of how I work with my clients since then, like no calls or anything. And I love the freedom and flexibility it gives, not only you as the business owner, but also the client as well. So I love that you have implemented that. And then I am curious. So when we're talking about digital products. What kind of offers do you, do you actually sell?

So that's a great question. So in our hello, content shop, that shop has online courses in it, but it's mostly low cost digital products that online business owners can use in their marketing or in their online courses or memberships. So we have a lot of ready made type of products that they can take and customize and include it in an online course or include it in a membership program. So I have that particular brand, I have my hobby school brand which we run virtual summits. And in that we sell our VIP passes. So when somebody signs up for the free summit in that we have a funnel on the tripwire page, we have our VIP pass. And then if they click to purchase that, then we have a funnel after that with order bumps and upsells. And we have done very well with that in hobby school. In addition, with hobby school late in 2023 and we're still working on it, we have it set up, haven't really totally optimized it and done everything that I want to there, but we also have a Shopify store for hobby school. And just to give you an idea of some of the things that we sell there, Tish, like our coloring books, you know, who would have thought our coloring books on that store would have been so popular? So we have that Shopify store that we're continuing to build out. And then of course in my personal brand, I have some online courses there. But mostly what I focus on there is my one on one coaching.

All of that sounds so great. And how are you marketing these digital products in a way that generates consistent sales?

So another great question, and I would say that an effort that I put a lot of emphasis on is visibility. So I am constantly seeking out opportunities like, like what I'm doing right now. Right. Being a guest on somebody's podcast, you know, a lot of times the podcast host will allow you at the end to offer up a free gift so you can drive, you know, new people into your world there. I, you know, speak at virtual summits. I do lead magnet swaps. You know, we do sometimes I host my own bundle. I might do some virt summit. So I do a lot of visibility efforts. And here's the reason why I do that, I believe based on, you know, the work that I've done over the years. And you know, and I've done other things too. I've done some service work also. But I do believe that when you are a digital product business owner, your marketing Strategy is different from then, from when you were a service provider. You know, I have some of my business best friends or service providers. One of them, she does websites for vacation rental owners. So that's part of her business. Part of her business is the digital product business. And she was like, destiny. When I post on Instagram about one of the websites I've done or, you know, I post a testimonial, she goes, I can just get business from that. She goes, but I can't do that with my digital products. You know, it's just not the same. And I think with digital products, you have to really focus on, you know, lead generation, generation, get new people into your world. But also email marketing. Email marketing is critical, and I have placed a major, major focus on my email marketing to get that consistent revenue coming into my business. The other thing that I've done, and you know, hobby school is an example of this, because hobby school is fairly new, right? I've only. I've only. It's only been out there for a couple years and right now kind of where we are with that business because I've done some presentations on this recently to kind of walk people through how we would have grown it. We have around 16,000 people on that email list. It might be a little bit more because we're in the middle of summit promotion right now and over a hundred thousand in revenue. And that has been mostly through partnerships, right? The speakers that are coming in, they're promoting the summit. So we've been growing our email list. We've been getting revenue from the VIP pass sales. The other thing that we're doing to monetize that brand, I've done some email sponsorships, right? Because my email list has grown. Some of our past speakers have come to us and said, will you promote this event? Like one of the people that we've worked with in a previous summit, they own a calligraphy, a calligraphy membership. And they've come to us to promote people to get them into their workshop where they were promoting that particular membership. So we've done some email sponsorships. We do some sponsorships of and VIP spots for the summit, so we get some revenue there. We also do affiliate promotions because we know that that audience loves events. So if we can find a summit or some type of event that's happening when we're not doing one of ours, we'll definitely promote it. So we're doing a lot of things like that. Tish to kind of monetize and get that consistent revenue in the business. Like I It's not that I'm not working because I'm definitely working hard. I'm just. I just basically work on my own schedule. Like I was saying before we started recording, I only have two meetings on my calendar this week, and one's for me personally because I'm working with a copywriter to update my website. And then I have, you know, this interview with you, but my calendar is fairly blank.

Yeah, those were some really great examples. And I agree, audience growth is such an important part of growing your business. And you shared with me before that you have grown your email list to over 16,000 subscribers in the space of two years. So can you tell us how you were able to do this?

Yes. So that was for hobby school specifically. I have a separate email list for my personal brand. But for hobby school specifically, it has primarily been through collaborations and partnerships. So we have done some lead magnet swaps. So that's one of the, one of the ways that we have done that. But primarily that growth has been through speakers, right, who have spoken at one of our events. They have promoted that event to their audience, their audience signed up for that event, and then, you know, they're on our email list. And I will tell you that we have people in our audience that come to every single event that we do. They absolutely love it. They buy the VIP pass every single time. The other thing that we've done with that brand, and I don't do a lot with social media, in fact, I do very little with social media. But with hobby school, for our summits, we have a pretty engaged Facebook groups. So, you know, that's another way that we continue to nurture that audience. And I know that people are finding us too from that Facebook group and they're getting, you know, they're attending our events and they're getting on our email list. But I would say that's really the only social media consistent social media that we're doing for that brand.

Amazing. And some more great examples because I know that for a lot of people it can be hard to know how to grow your list. So thank you for sharing that. And then what's your strategy once these people are on your email list, how are you using it to sell your digital products?

Hey there, Destiny here and I'm the host of the Creators MBA Podcast. And this episode is brought to you by HelloContent Shop your Go to destination for content creation in your online digital product business. I understand how busy you are as an online business owner. I am right there with you.

And that is Why?

I have filled our hello Content Shopify store with low cost digital products that you can use as a lead magnet or part of your paid programs like your online courses or membership. We also have marketing templates like email swipe files and social media templates designed to save you time and money. So whether you're looking to streamline your content strategy, enhance your digital products, or just save some precious time, I've got you covered, my friend. Now visit the HelloContent Shop today and take the first step towards effortless content creation.

So we have a weekly newsletter that goes out and in that weekly newsletter we might highlight a specific offer that we have going on there. So I have an email marketing plan. I actually have it mapped out for almost the entire year that has our promotional calendar on it. So what we're promoting for that particular brand, whether it's an affiliate promotion that we're participating in or one of our products. So let's say we've launched a new product on hello Content Shop or in hobby school, so we'll put together a promotional plan for that. The other thing I, you know, I would be remiss if I didn't mention this. One of the things that I have found, and I didn't actually realize this until I kind of got into the weeds of it for these Shopify stores that we have, what we have found is the best way to get people to that store and to promote the digital products that we have in that store is to focus on a single product. So like when we have a new product that we're launching that we know people are going to be super excited about, we'll highlight it in our email promotion. And that tends to drive more traffic when we're very specific about here's what we're doing, here's what you get, and we might even throw in like a coupon code or something just to encourage people to go check it out, then go to the shop and you get 30% off on the tire shop. That hasn't been working for us. What's been working for us is sending people to a specific product, sometimes a collection. But a specific product tends to work best. So to answer your question specifically, we have a very detailed email marketing calendar that has all of the promotions that we're doing throughout the year. So every single week we have like the educational content that we're going to have in that email in our promotional content. We have it all mapped out. And actually I should probably share that sometime with folks so they can see, you know, how very Detailed that email calendar. Email marketing calendar is.

I love that you are so organized, but I just want to put a side note here, because when it comes to digital products, there is a bit of a misconception that we need a huge email list and that you need to make thousands of sales to see a return. I mean, I have an email list of 7000, but I was still seeing huge benefits from when I was selling digital products to a list of 700 people. And I'm sure that when your list was smaller, you were still seeing really great results as well. So what would you say is the minimum that you need to be able to sell digital products and how can you use them to bring more profit into your business even if you're not making thousands of sales from your digital products themselves?

I would say to start selling to your list as soon as you have a list.

Oh, yeah.

So I don't care if you only.

Have 100 people on your list.

It takes that marketing muscle to start selling to your list. It takes time to develop. So I would say start selling immediately. It's not, I'm not saying every single email that you sent out, you're selling. I'm not saying that at all. But definitely get into the, you know, just get into the habit, I should say, of selling to your list. And you, I agree with you, Tish. You don't need a huge email list to profit and make money from these digital products. Now, I do believe that you need to focus on lead generation and continuing to grow your list. And I think I've, you know, definitely made that clear here. But you can get started immediately and start making money from digital products products.

I am so glad you said that. It's like that analogy. If you're in a room with 10 people, would you wait for more people to arrive before you start selling or would you sell and show up for those people who are there to hear what you have to say? So definitely agree with you 100% there.

Yeah. And I, I would say that I'm not a salesperson. I'm a, you know, decent, good marketer, but I am not a salesperson. And there's difference between being a salesperson, marketing person, and I would say that I have definitely had to work on, you know, selling to my list because I, I don't want to feel, you know, sleazy or anything like that. But the reality is a lot of people aren't viewing your emails like that. They're not, they're not saying that, you know, I can't believe she's selling to me again. You know, I'm just going to go unsubscribe. That's just not going to happen. And I had. That was a mindset, Tish, that I really had to work on myself, definitely.

But the more you practice, the better at sales you will get. And also you will just develop a way of selling that not only works for you, but also works for your audience and just feels good. So it's just about getting out there and experimenting and trying new things.

I couldn't have said it better myself. And I will say that I feel like I'm still working on this. Right. I haven't necessarily perfected it, but I think we definitely working on it every single day.

So I have one last question. I know that like me, you are a big believer that business gets to be simple. It doesn't have to be complicated and you don't have to be working 24 7. So other than what we discussed earlier with regards to digital products, how do you keep business simple and what advice do you have for anyone who wants to create a simple business that doesn't keep them glued to their desk?

So we've talked about a lot of it today and I think a lot of it has to do with how you set up your offers and your systems in your business. Now I'm a huge fan of marketing funnels. So like when somebody signs up for one of my lead magnets, for most of them on the next page, not every single one of them, but for a lot of them on the next page, on that thank you page, you know what we consider to be that thank you page. I will have a tripwire offer that will be one of my low cost digital products. And then from there I have, you know, sales funnels on the back end of that and all of that's automated. So somebody comes into my world, like I had a few sales yesterday, not a lot, but definitely a handful that came in and people bought, you know, signed up for my lead magnets and bought my low cost digital products from, you know, going through that funnel. So I would say systems are critical systems in your marketing systems, like what I talked about with my email planning, you know, kind of setting, setting that up and makes it so much easier to go in and write those emails. I think that is critical. And then going back and we touched upon this earlier, but going back and being a little bit more details in your offers, like your online course, even as like a signature course or a membership, how you set that up, I really would encourage everybody to think about their core values and not only what works for their customer, but what will work for them long term. Because if you set up a course or a membership where you're having to do constant zoom calls, or you're having to constantly manage a Facebook group, or you're constantly on the hook to answer questions day in and day out, that's probably not going to work for you long term. And I can tell you that there are ways to still support your students and make sure that they achieve their promise transformation for your offer by setting it up in a way that works for you and you know, and your core values so you aren't glued to that desk, so you're not constantly on zoom calls. And also, you know, kind of touching upon what we talked about with social media. I don't want people to have to be constantly worried about posting on social media. There are ways that you can set up these businesses. So if you, if you love social media, that's fine. I have, I have students and clients out there that love to constantly post on social media, but a lot of them don't. So if you don't want that for your business, you don't have to have that with these digital product businesses.

Yeah, absolutely. And circling back to your first point, we actually spoke about automated sales funnels in depth in your first episode. I can't remember the episode number off the top of my head, but I will put the link in the show notes for anyone who wants to go and listen after this. But it was a great episode. Right? So I would say definitely go and have a listen to that if you want to learn more from Destiny. But first, Destiny, where can everyone go to connect and learn more from you?

So definitely my personal brand website is destinycop.com that's destiny with an I. I do have a free gift, Tish, if people would like to go grab it, it's destinycop.com freedom. And that is my three part private podcast series. I call it the Freedom Formula where I go in a little bit more detail about what I mean by that. Also how people can design these digital product, business, business or businesses as in my case, so that they're not constantly glued to their desk or live launching or worried about that social media algorithm.

Amazing. And I will link to that and your website and socials in the show notes. But thank you for being our first returning guest. It has been really great to chat with you again. Done.

Thanks so much for having me. This was so much fun.

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you love the show, I'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform.

Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.