29: Moving Beyond a Scarcity Mindset (in your online course business)

Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Destiny Kopp. And in this podcast we're covering actionable tips to grow your online course business. But before we begin today, I want to let you know that this episode is sponsored by my free mini course, Course in a Box, which is your plug and play system with templates and videos to get your online course created. You can grab your free course in a box by going to destinycop.com and this link will be in the show Notes. And today we are talking about moving beyond the scarcity mindset. And I have a special guest with me today. I have Linda Perry. And Linda is a lawyer turned mindset coach, copywriter, and course creator. Linda's career hasn't followed the typical trap. She has spent time in prisons and courtrooms all around the country, honing her skills for empathy and persuasion. Add in serious training as a coach and she's got plenty of advice to share with course creators on how to get out of the scarcity mindset and build a thriving online course business. And Linda, I'm so excited that you're here with me today. I love talking about mindset, but before we begin, I have a ton of questions for you. But before we begin, can you tell everybody a little bit more about yourself and your entrepreneur journey? Very interested in hearing more about how a lawyer turned into a mindset coach.

Yeah, it's so funny. Thank you for having me, Destiny. I'm really excited to be here today. And you know, yes, I definitely didn't follow the traditional track to doing what I do today, but I spent 17 years as a federal criminal defense attorney. And while I really loved can wear on you quite a bit. And I'd always been interested in mindset work. My mom used to have books lying around the house. She was a doctor. So she was also sort of interesting to have mindset books everywhere. And I'd followed the work of Debbie Ford, who was a best selling author and had studied at some point with Deepak Chopra. And she just, her books really resonated. She didn't really talk about mindset in that typical woo way. She was practical. She really helped me through some difficult times. And all of a sudden, really it hit a point. And I looked at my husband and I said, I kind of want to go do this. And he was so supportive. And I then ventured into coaching and I left the law because I gained the confidence and the courage to really go after something I wanted to do. And the reality was is I missed writing and a lot of Life coaches who do go on to actually create courses and try to put themselves out there, struggle so much to get out there that I ended up really kind of creating a hybrid of a business where I really dove into copywriting, probably about, I think, four years, three, four years ago now, and started really understanding branding copy. And how do you really actually get coaches out there so they can make a difference? How do you get course creators out there so they can make a difference? So that's kind of my journey in a nutshell. I do still do copywriting. I love creating courses. I create my own courses, and I do a lot. My bulk of my business is really turning back into mindset because I think it's really the foundation for having a successful business.

So I would agree with you on that. I think how we approach our business, our mindset, on how we market ourselves, it is so critical for our success. And I love talking about mindset and really just how it affects how we run our business. Can you tell us a little bit more? When you talk about having a scarcity mindset, what do you really mean by that?

It's such an important question. I think there's. We're hardwired, sort of from caveman times, if you will, to. To worry about what's coming next. Are we going to have enough? Is there going to be something there for me? And, well, as basic as it was for survival in caveman times, it still exists. And when you're running a business, scarcity mindset is that mindset of wondering, well, the field is already flooded. Why should I go into that? Or I need to save up and I can't invest in my business anymore, or. Or it's really not investing in the right things because we're so afraid that there's not going to be enough for us. Scarcity mindset tells us that there's only a limited amount of money, audience goods, anything that might help us move forward. And it can be really debilitating. It's hard to build a successful business when you're so afraid that every step you take is going to lead to losing something.

So let's delve into this a little bit. And I really like what you said, that, you know, we're always worried or we keep thinking about that there's a limited amount of audience, there's a limited amount of money. And the truth is we are all in crowded marketplaces, right? I'm in a crowded marketplace, you're in a crowded marketplace. So I think this fear, right, is very real for a lot of course creators out there. So can you talk a little bit about why is this scarcity mindset, why is so detrimental to us when we are, let's just say we've created a course and we need to put it out in the marketplace. Why is that scarcity mindset so detrimental to us?

Well, it can be detrimental in several different ways. First of all, you could create a course and you might not even put it out there or you might sort of self sabotage and put it out in sort of a half real way. So you might just go, oh, see, there it is again. I'm proving that the market's flooded. I can't do this. Right. And we might go into a marketing launch where we only put it out to our friends, or we only like, maybe we do a webinar but we don't promote it properly. Scarcity mindset can really sabotage your ability to actually put yourself out there in a really positive way. And the problem is, is our brain is always looking to validate our fears. And so if we take one step into the deep waters and we think there's a shark and we're just not going to go back in. And so I think it can be so detrimental, it can hold you back. It can, you know, that energy also, and this is a little woo, but the energy that you're putting out there when you have a scarcity mindset, people can feel it. Right. And so they don't want to be part of that. So it can be super detrimental. I always say it's like a little bit like a beach ball. So we're trying to stuff away our fears, push them down, and then in the middle of a launch or in the middle of all this, the beach ball flies up in our face and scarcity mindset's there and we sabotage ourselves. So it can be extremely detrimental to putting a course out there, you know, in any way, shape or form.

So you mentioned that the brain is looking to validate our fears.

Yep.

So let's, let's jump into those fears. So how do we identify them? What is, you know, maybe I'm sure you've worked with a lot of course creators out there. What is the number one fear that you see when it comes to course creators actually investing in their business? And what can you share with them to help them overcome that?

You know, I love talking about fear. It's one of my favorite subjects because I think it's so prevalent in everything we do. I don't know if that there's a number one fear, but I know when it comes to investing, the fears are really, am I going to make it? Am I good enough? I mean, essentially when it comes down to scarcity mindset, a lot of this is really, am I good enough? You know, is what I have going to make it? You know, can I be that? Can I be Amy Porterfield? Right. We all want to be Amy Porterfield, but can I get there? And the truth is, is it's our self worth that it comes down to. And we all really, we all questioning that. And so scarcity mindset is really about, you know, taking a look at what's out there and thinking, well, gosh, I can't get there, I'm not worth it. Who's going to buy what I have? I'm not unique enough, I'm not good enough. Right, so those are sort of the scarcity pieces. But to look at that fear, I think the problem is we run from that fear. We tend to bury and to hide ourselves. And I try to teach all of my clients to have a very different relationship with fear. One of the things I ask people is recognize where fear is showing up even in your body. When you can start to become aware of what fear looks like, you can identify it and give it the voice it needs. So I know this is sort of sounding like a little in depth, but the reality is we have to turn to our fears, look at our fears, welcome our fears, because fear is a natural thing. I mean, the truth is our fears are trying to protect us from going out and investing and failing. But the reality is fear is not telling us the truth. Fear can't tell us anything about today or tomorrow. Fear. Fear can only tell us about our past. So when it comes to scarcity, we're looking at, well, maybe last time when I did this, it flopped. So I'm really afraid of going forward and doing this again. But the truth is, fear can't tell you anything about what this launch is going to look like or what tomorrow is going to look like. It can only give you stories about your past. Does that make sense?

It does. So you mentioned a lot of things there, but I really want to delve into. You mentioned, what does fear look like? We identify the fears that may be sabotaging us.

I think it starts to. I think it's just a simple question of asking yourself, what is it that I'm afraid of in this moment and allowing yourself to be honest about it. Most people can tell you what their fears are. I think it's really just identifying scarcity mindset. As fear. Right. It's identifying your worries, your doubts, and saying, what is it that I'm afraid of? And again, it'll really usually come down to, I'm just. I don't know if what I have is good enough. And it's giving yourself the space to say, okay, I really am afraid, and I am being honest with yourself. And I think that's really difficult sometimes. But it's just giving fear that space to say, hey, what is it? What am I afraid of? And then what do I need? Right. So they go hand in hand.

Can you talk a little bit about limiting beliefs and how they may play a role in the scarcity mindset?

Yeah. So everything I do is based on limiting beliefs, the work that I share with my audience. Limiting beliefs are those beliefs that, whether they live in our consciousness or most of the ones that are controlling us, live in our subconscious minds. But limiting beliefs really dictate what we can have and what we can't have in life. They set the limitations up. So limiting beliefs, when it comes to scarcity mindset may be beliefs like, there's just not enough for me. The world is not a safe place. I can't make it. I'm not good enough. And it's really hard to be able to move past anything if those limiting beliefs are holding you back. So limiting beliefs play a huge part because they're really telling you you can only go so far. And it's critical to learn how to shift those beliefs in order to move past things like scarcity mindset.

So let's just say that somebody has maybe a goal of, or a wishful goal, if you would, of having, like, a $50,000 launch. With their next launch, could their limiting beliefs, you know, start creeping up and say, I don't think I can do this, and would that keep. So basically what you're saying is that limiting belief would keep them from achieving those revenue goals for that next launch?

It very well can. Unless, you know, especially if you're not fully aware of all of your limiting beliefs, what the work that I've done we call sort of those hidden beliefs that we can't see. We all know some of our beliefs. Like, you know, I used to have a really strong belief of I'm stupid, which drove me to work insanely hard. But there are the beliefs that we can't see that are running the show, and if you are, and they're called shadow beliefs. In the work that I've done and the work that Debbie Ford had coined that and Carl Jung, the Psychologist had coined that term. But the idea is that these beliefs can end up sabotaging. They show up as sabotage. They show up as not investing. For example, if you want to have a $50,000 launch, perhaps you need to be investing in the equipment. You need to be investing in the right webinar software, you need to be investing in presentations. And what can happen is that if you have all of these limiting beliefs, you can quickly get overwhelmed. You can quickly decide, I can't do this. You could quickly decide, I'm going to cut here, here and here. And while you may have a goal of 50,000 as a launch, you end up falling short because you haven't invested. You have these fears around all of it. And so it just doesn't end up going where you want it to go. And people tend to give up at that point, which is really tough.

So let's talk about pricing. You know, pricing is a topic that comes up a lot with course creators and pricing their courses. You know, for many of us out there, we need to price it appropriately so that we do have money to invest in our business, right? Invest in paid advertising, invest in the tools that you just mentioned. But how does the scarcity mindset impact pricing? And what can you really do about that?

This one happens all the time. I think people are so afraid of saying, gosh, my audience, I wouldn't pay for that. My audience can't pay for that. They're just, they're not going to. So I'm just going to price it at $97, right? And they're giving so much away. And I think what happens too is that I have to price it so that people feel like they're getting a value. So we over deliver. And while I believe in over delivering in a lot of ways, we over deliver and we keep giving and giving and giving. And the price is so low. And so we can't get the audience we want, right? We end up wondering, why do I have, why am I attracting the wrong audience? And we end up, you know, not making the money we want because the reality is people, people won't pay for something unless it almost has a bigger price tag. They want to know that they're going to get something good. So I think when it comes to pricing, we start to play mindset games with ourselves and say, I really can't price that. The way that I teach people to sort of get over that is one of the things I ask people to do, is write down your pricing somewhere, don't, you know, before you allow Your mindset to play games. Just write down those figures, keep them somewhere, you know, because your mind is going to have you second guess them so that it is actually on paper. You can look at it and really stick to that kind of pricing. The other thing is do your research. Research can help you overcome some of your mindset. It's not about being the lowest person in the industry. I think that's a mistake because again, people want something that they value. But it is really about doing your research and setting the pricing at where the market can bear this. Because I think we can play such tricks. Oh, I'm not Amy Porterfield or I'm not so and so. So I can't charge that much. You know, I don't have the skills. I don't have. We talk ourselves out of it. So do the research. Set it, you know, according to the value. And I think that's really an important piece is what's the value to your audience? It's not who you are. We put something so much focused on who we are. But a mindset trick is really, you know, and I'm not necessarily into mindset tricks, but a mindset trick is think about the value. What is the value my audience is getting out of my program? What is going to change in their life? And I think when you approach pricing from that perspective, it really takes you out of the equation, which is super important when it comes to pricing.

So I love that. So price your online course to the value that your audience is getting. Not what you think you can afford or what they can afford, but the value that they're getting out of the course.

Exactly.

Very good. So, Linda, any last minute tips for the course graders who are listening here today about this, about mindset in general or anything that you want to cover?

You know, I think there's a few things I say about mindset is we wait until we're in challenges. You know, I think the right time to start to really work on your mindset is when things are going great. I think it's an opportunity to see what it is that you need to strengthen about your own mindset. When you're approaching even creating a course, there's a lot of excitement and really start to look at some of the traps. I always say give yourself a nice long Runway. But when it comes to mindset, I think the truth is really start to be aware of all the beliefs that are running your show because you can shift them. You can. And I do a lot of work in helping clients shift them. But I think the idea is give yourself the time when you recognize where your limiting beliefs are going to pop up. Look at your past and learn the lessons. This isn't about looking at your past and going, see, I'm going to fail again. It's about learning those lessons and saying, okay, what can I do from here on in? And where are my beliefs going to trip me up? Because the truth is, they're going to be there. Fear is always going to be there. But how do I actually work with this so that I know next time how to overcome it? So those are sort of my tips. I really, I think it's so important to give ourselves the breathing room because we can't push away our mindset issues. We can embrace them, we can work with them, and we can use them to our own advantage. So that's sort of the last thing I want to leave on.

Well, and I have to comment on it because what you said was so great when you said, the fear is always going to be there. So the reality is, whether this is your first launch or 10th launch or your 50th launch or, you know, your 10th year in business, the fear is always going to be there.

Yeah, it's natural and that's okay. And fear can be really. It can. It fuels me. I love when fear shows up. It tells me I'm about to break through my next ceiling, you know, so that, that becomes my new floor. And I think when you look at that that way, you actually welcome the fear because it can fuel some really creative stuff.

Very good. Linda, can you share with people how they can find you?

Yep. I am@lindam perry.com and you can find me there. I am also on social media. I'm on Instagram at Linda M. Perry. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn for course creators and for creative entrepreneurs and copywriters. I do a lot of mindset stuff there. So definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. I love conversations there. So I'm at Linda Perry there as well. So I would love to connect with people and definitely, you know, I answer everything. So feel free to reach out and if you have questions, I'm available.

I will definitely reach out to you on LinkedIn. It's my favorite platform also, and course creators. Thanks so much for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed this episode on the Scarcity Mindset and How to Break Through. We'd love for you to rate and review the podcast on itunes or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day. Bye for now.