55: Corinne Hone: Non-Profit Career to Social Media Expert & Course Creator

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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. Before I begin, I want to let you know that this episode is sponsored by my Course in a Box program which helps you create your revenue generating course in less than a week. Course in a Box is on the AppSumo Marketplace at a special deal and the link for Course in A box on AppSumo is in our show notes. And today we're in the middle of a course creator series where I'm chatting with ordinary course creators just like you. We're talking about their journey in their online course business, how they got started, the challenges they've experienced and how they overcame them. These are real discussions with real people and let's get started. And today I have a special guest with me, I have Corrine Hone. Corrine is the founder of Hone youe Social, a social media management and coaching business which is on based based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Hone youe Social was born in March of 2019 and since then she has sold out her full service social media management packages and has moved into business coaching for creatives. Corrine believes that finding a work life balance is crucial for long term sustainable success and takes a holistic approach to business coaching touching on mindset, goal setting, strategy and productivity. Corrine's coaching programs have gained high praise from her past and current students. And Corrine, thank you so much for joining me. I'm so excited to have a conversation with you today.

Thank you so much for having Me, I'm delighted to be here.

Now, we've been chatting a few minutes beforehand, and I know you have a very interesting story that everybody's going to want to know, so why don't we jump right in? Why don't you tell us? You can start at the beginning and tell us a little bit about you and your business and we'll talk about your journey.

Yeah. So I never intended to be an entrepreneur. I never thought it would be part of my story, and it was never something I had dreamed of doing. So it's a bit of a funny story as to how I actually got this business started. In 2014, I had graduated university. I had actually studied to be a speech and language therapist. But at that time, Ireland was in a very bad recession. I'm from Ireland, if you can't tell from my accent. And there was just no work going. There's a lot of unemployment. And I thought, okay, well, I can either sit at home and be unemployed or I can do something I've always wanted to do, which was travel to a different country, do some volunteer work, and just have a bit of an adventure. So I packed up and I went to Guatemala for what I thought would be three months, and I ended up staying for four years, and I ended up working in the nonprofit world there. My lifestyle in Guatemala was very fulfilling because of the work I was doing, but also very balanced. I felt like I had a really good balance between work and enjoying my time. Being able to go on some amazing trips and just live in a town that was so beautiful and surrounded by volcanoes and just so out of what I had ever dreamed my life could be. So while I was there, I met my now husband and he's from the States, which is why I'm in Salt Lake City right now. So we moved here about two, three years ago. I went through the whole process of getting my green card and being able to work and have my residency. And then I decided, okay, well, we've just had this amazing lifestyle in Guatemala, coming to work in the US where, you know, there was not a lot of holiday time and you seem to be work, work, work. And I didn't see that work life balance, really. And that's what I felt like I was really missing. So that's why I decided to start my own business, be my own boss and be able to get back to that work life balance. So I'm not, you know, working eight to six every single day. I can have my own, my own timetable, my own just more freedom, I guess, is What I was looking to get back to based on the experiences I had in Guatemala.

So that's interesting that you say that. And I do think in the US we have this culture, right. That you and I. And I've been there. I've been in that corporate world where you were working. You said nine to six. Honestly, I think it was like six, seven to seven in most of the jobs that I've had. So you move back to the US A few years ago. You had this great life in Guatemala. You moved back to the U.S. was your husband, was he employed with the U.S. company, or what made you move back?

Yeah, so when we were in Guatemala, we were looking for a change. You know, we've been there three, four years and thought, okay, what's next? So, yes, he was looking for work back in the States and he was offered a job. So we moved back for him to work and he went straight into corporate life. I had to wait a while before I was working because I had to get my green card and everything set up, and then I went for work to work with a nonprofit. So we both had, you know, day jobs. Yeah.

So you were working in your nonprofit. Were you working crazy hours too, in that nonprofit?

It wasn't as bad as what he was working, but it was still very, very busy. Yeah.

So, you know, and just to kind of give you a little bit more context here, I used to work in the corporate world. Well, honestly, I felt like I was working that seven to seven. And I took a step back and said, you know what, I don't want to do that anymore. I need more of a work life balance. And that was like around 2005. And that's when I found, you know, some work at home type opportunities that at that point in time I was teaching online for a university, so I was able to do it out of my house. So definitely, I think a lot of people that are listening here can relate to what you were feeling and what you were experiencing with the need to have that freedom and, you know, kind of come and go as you're wanting. So you were working with this nonprofit. When did you decide to open up your own business?

So it was probably only a few months into actually working that I just decided that that wasn't the lifestyle I wanted to have. And my husband was feeling the same way in his corporate job. He was like, this is such a big, huge lifestyle change from where we were in Guatemala. And, you know, we'd come back, I suppose, primarily for financial reasons and also to be closer to his family. And I think we probably hadn't thought the whole work or career thing through, really. You know, we. We'd known we wanted to come back for some time, and when he got this job offer, we were so excited about it that we know took it, and it just didn't turn out to be quite what he wanted. So we both actually ended up starting separate businesses. So we're both entrepreneurs now, and it's been such a shift. I feel like as an entrepreneur, you can go either one of two ways, and we definitely struggle, or we can relate to both ways. It's okay. You have your own business now, and it's your livelihood. You don't have the backup of consistent steady income from like you would have in your 9 to 5. So you're all in on your business and you think about it all the time. It's really hard to switch off, which we definitely have moments like that. But then on the flip side, you are able to set your own schedule and to take time off when you need it. And I think that's kind of like the two ends of the spectrum. And I know as an entrepreneur, it's easy to get sucked into the. Oh, I'm sorry.

No, yeah, I mean, I definitely understand what you're saying.

Yeah, it's easy to kind of be all focused on your business and not take the time off, even though you can. You are your own boss, you are able to make that decision, but because it is your livelihood, it's very easy not to, because you're coming from a scarcity mindset or a mindset where, you know, you need to work really, really, really hard all the time in order to be successful. And I don't know if that's a US State of mind or if it's an entrepreneurial state of mind, but we've been working really hard to find a balance between, you know, putting in the hours at work, doing what you need to get done, and then also being able to take time off, you know, have those boundaries.

So you guys jumped into this basically at the same time. Were you scared?

Oh, yeah, definitely. It was a big risk, you know, to both leave steady income jobs and to do our own things. We didn't know, you know, if it was gonna work out for us or not. But thankfully, both businesses have been successful, and we have been able to make it work. And it's been really nice to do it with, you know, with your partner who understands the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur and who, like, we encourage each other to keep going and when things can, you know, not go as planned.

So in 2019, you started hone youe Social. What did you. And you needed money right away. Let's just be honest, both of you guys jumped into this. What did you do to get your business up and running quickly?

Yeah, I started my business when I was still in my job. Okay, five job, because like I said, we were both starting our own businesses. We didn't know how it was going to go. So I was able to cut back to working 30 hours a week at the nonprofit and have, you know, 10 or 20 hours a week to work on my own business. So I started off actually March. So we're talking now March 2021. So it's two years ago exactly when I started working on Hone youe Social. And my goal was to sign on one new client a month. That was my goal. The first month in business, I only made $200 and I thought, okay, well at least someone's paying me to do some social media work for them. But that's not going to be enough to quit my 9 to 5 and go full time. So it wasn't really until I think January of 2020 when I had worked on my money mindset, I'd worked on my confidence, I'd worked on my packages and offerings and was able to sign my first four figure client on a monthly retainer. That's when I kind of was brave enough to hand in my notice at my 9 to 5 and take my business full time.

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Okay, so you tell me a little bit about the work that you did on your mindset, your money mindset, and how do you think that that helped you get to where you signed that first big client.

Yeah, it's a process. I think there's lots of different mindset techniques, you know, such as journaling or meditation or vision boards or whatever it is, but they don't work overnight. You have to keep working at them day after day, week after week. So for me, I had never really heard about mindset work or manifestation or any of this kind of thing. It was all very new to me. And when I first read about it, I thought, you know, that doesn't make any sense to me. Like, you can't just, like, write something down in your journal and it's gonna happen. But then I learned that that's not what it's about. You know, if you're focusing on these things, if you're working towards them, you're then gonna take aligned action to actually make it happen. So when that clicked, when, you know, I understood that, okay, I can imagine or visualize the success I want to have for myself, it become then on the actions you need to take to actually make that happen. So working on my mindset work daily and then using that to set realistic goals for myself really helps me move my business forward. And then in terms of money mindset, I didn't have a lot of confidence when I first started my business. I knew it was something I wanted to do, but I didn't know if people would actually want to pay me for what I was offering. And I was scared to charge too much in case I would be, you know, scaring away potential clients. You know, I didn't think that I could charge $1,000 a month for what I was offering. So I started out really, really low, you know, between 1 50, $350. But over time, I discovered that what I was offering was really, really valuable to my clients. And it wasn't just that I was delivering, you know, social media content. It was that I was giving them peace of mind that this work was going to get done. I was saving them time because they no longer had to do it. I was helping them earn money and grow their business by getting their business visible on social media. So I understood then there was a deeper value to the work I was providing. And once I understood that, I was able to shift my money mindset and increase my prices accordingly. So that really, really helps me then attract dream clients into my business because they understood the value of what I was offering and they were willing to pay for it.

So you started out doing social media management services.

Yes. Right.

How long did you. I know you've made a little bit of Changes from that. How long did you. I know you're still doing it too, right?

How.

Tell me a little bit about your service portfolio and how it's changed and the time frame for that.

Yeah, so I started out in March 2019 and I honestly had way too many offers on the table. You know, I was like, yeah, I can work on your YouTube, on your Pinterest, on your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. I was offering all the things. And I quickly discovered that I was getting pulled in too many different directions and I wasn't able to, you know, keep up a strong knowledge base on all these different areas because there was just too many. So instead I'd say maybe six months in, I pared down my offerings. Then I was only offering organic social media management for Instagram and for Facebook. So that helped kind of hone what I was offering. And then I ended up quitting my 9 to 5 in February 2020. And then as we know, in March of that year, coronavirus hit. And a lot of the clients I had built up until that time needed to put their social media management on, which I totally understood. A lot of them were in the restaurant industry or project based businesses and they just weren't able to make as much sales as they had been due to the pandemic and the uncertainty of that time. So I thought, okay, well, I've just quit my 9 to 5. Lots of my clients are putting their services on hold, my income is reduced drastically. What can I do to keep my business working and moving forward? So that's when I decided to become a social media business coach or consultant and teach people how to do their own social media for their businesses. Because at that time everyone was at home, we were in lockdown, we had a lot of free time and people were wanting to learn new things and still work on their businesses. So that's why I decided to move into consulting. So that's kind of where my focus is now, even a year on.

Okay, wow. So that's interesting that the pandemic really kind of forced you to take this turn to keep up the revenue in your business. When you first started out working with folks, were you doing like one on one consulting or how were you teaching them to do their own social media management?

Yeah, I started out doing one to one. So that was I guess from April through September. Really, I mean, I still do one to one coaching. Then I decided that, well, I guess I took a look at my business and it helped me see that there's only one of me and there's only so much of an impact I can make. So I thought, okay, how can I scale this so I can make an impact in more people's lives? And I think I looked at it, you know, I worked in the nonprofit world for so long and I always tried to come up my business from a place of service and I knew that I had the knowledge and skills that people needed in order to scale their business and make a real change in their lives. So I thought, okay, one to one is great, it's really, really fulfilling, but it's very, very time consuming. So how can I scale this? So that's when I moved into group coaching. I had a group program launch in August, September, time of last year. And now I'm working on an online course which is a self study course which allows me to share my knowledge to a wider group of people because they're not dependent on me scheduling a call with them, you know, every single week so I can reach more people.

So how. Tell us a little bit more about your group coaching program. Is it like a six week program and how many people do you pull into it? Tell us a little bit more about that.

Yeah, definitely. So the main program I offer one to one is 12 weeks long, but there is an intensive version which is 6 weeks. I personally prefer the 12 week program for people because it allows them to actually implement what we're talking about in our coaching calls and come back to me with any questions. So it's a bit more, I guess, action focused. The six week intensive is more just of a teaching side of things and they don't have a lot of time to implement everything we discuss. But it's up to, you know, the individual, what they would prefer. And from the back of my one to one coaching I was able to create a curriculum for my group coaching based on the questions and themes that came up from my one to one client. So within that we do some mindset work. We talk about building your confidence, talk about how to price your services, talk about how to use social media, specifically Instagram, to connect with your dream clients for your business and build relationships with them so that you can sell to them authentically. And then we, because my coaching is now focused on service based entrepreneurs, so social media managers, graphic designers, web designers, VAs people like that. We do a lot of work on the whole client journey for them. So helping them onboard their clients very professionally, helping them make sure that their clients are happy every single step of their journey from when they sign up all the way through to when you off Board them. So I like to take as holistic an approach as possible to coaching. So while there's a big focus on social media to grow your business, we also want to make sure that you're confident in what you're offering, you're aligned with your offers and that your clients are going to be happy as well. And that's really what's formed the basis now for my self study online course. I've kind of distilled all that information into a self study version.

So you use the content from your one on one and the group coaching to create your self study online course. You mentioned to me earlier that you launched it in January of this year, but you had some difficulties there. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what happened and what you would do differently?

Yeah. So I was working on this online course, I think from October through December of 2020 and I knew I wanted to launch it in 2021. So this year I decided I would do like a beta launch, a test launch in January. But honestly I probably should. Well, I shouldn't have because with the holidays and everything just in the run up to it, I just felt really distracted. My head wasn't in the zone, you know, I just wasn't. I didn't even have the online course curriculum finished yet. I didn't have all the resources ready to go. So I kind of went into my launch half heartedly and nobody signed up, which makes total sense to me because I did not feel aligned with what I was offering. I wasn't being active on social media. I wasn't being social, I wasn't actually connecting with people, telling them about it. I wasn't showing up on my Instagram stories to say how excited I was and to explain what was in it. It was very much a lackluster attempt at a launch.

And this was a beta launch. Right. So it wasn't, it was just a beta launch. How did you launch it? What did you do to get it? Get the, you know, the word out there?

Yeah, so I did a free masterclass. I did two free masterclass trainings on how you can use Instagram to grow your audience and sell to them. And the turnout was great. You know, I had lots of people sign up and come live to the masterclass and I had really fun doing that. But apart from that, I wasn't really active on social media or getting it out there much even. You know, my emails were, you know, pretty small scale. I wasn't talking about it enough. And that's because I wasn't excited about it. I just, I, for some reason had put January down as my launch date, you know, months back, and I thought, well, it's on my calendar, I may as well just do it. But I really should have listened to my intuition more and stopped and just pushed that, that launch date out a bit because I just wasn't in the right headspace to launch at that time. So I think it's very important as entrepreneurs that we listen to our intuition and we listen to our guts and we do what feels right for us. Because if you're, you're not excited about what you're doing, your audience is going to be able to tell and they're not going to be able to, to invest with you.

So where are you now with your online course?

Yeah, so I have all of the content ready to go and I am sorry, at the moment I am in the freebie phase of my launch. So that's when I'm trying to attract more people into my audience with a free resource that I have. So right now I'm promoting a mini course that is five videos helping people learn how they can price their services as a freelancer. So that's something that's really aligned with my online course. It's directed towards service based entrepreneurs or freelancers who are the people I would love to gain access to my online course when it's ready. And I'm trying to be super active on social media, posting three, four times a week to my Instagram feed, showing up on stories every single day, connecting with new people and building relationships and just getting myself out there more, you know, doing podcasts like this with you. I had a TV interview last week. So I'm doing as much as I can now to get my name out there and to become more visible in front of my dream clients. And I'm doing that because I'm really, really excited now about what I'm offering. I didn't have that same excitement when I launched in January, but now all the content's done. I've seen the amazing value in there, so I'm really, really excited to share it with the world.

And I looked at your lead magnet. I think you have it on teachable. It's like a five video series that is a great lead magnet for your online course. You know, I think it's very well written and you know how you have it set up and I love, it's kind of like a mini course, if you would. I love mini courses for course creators.

Yeah, it is the first time I'VE ever done anything like that. In the past my lead magnets have been downloadable PDFs and they've performed well, but I just wanted to do something different this time.

And the reason why I love video type mini courses or just videos in general is because you're asking your ideal client to invest part of their time, which you know, generally leads to more of an action taker down the road when you're ready to sell your online course. So that's a perfect lead magnet.

Yeah, thank you. And my reasoning behind it as well is that it's on Teachable, which is where my course is going to be held. And people will also get to not only see, you know, the outline like and the functionality of teachable, but also get to know me as a coach and get to know my teaching style. So I thought it was a good idea to kind of launch this mini course right now.

Absolutely. Tell us about your launch that you have planned. Are you doing masterclass again? Are you doing a challenge? What are you going to do to get people into your funnel?

Yeah, so right now I'm planning to do a free three day training. So this links as well very nicely to my current freebie. So like I said, my freebie now is all about how to price your services as a freelancer. And then my three day challenge is going to be about how you can master your money mindset so you can earn what you deserve in your business. So they link very closely and the whole first module in my online course is about building your confidence and working on your mindset. So again, I try to make sure that my lead magnets tie as closely as possible to my actual online course so that I'm bringing the right types of people into my funnel.

How are you delivering that three day training?

I'm planning to do it via Facebook group. So be a private Facebook group where I'll go live in there every day for three days to deliver a training that will also allow me to do a Q and A session as well with people so I'll be able to connect with them within the group and I'll also pair that with email marketing.

Okay, so when is your launch plan? It's coming up soon. Like in a month or so, correct?

Yes, it's coming up. So my three day challenge is going to run April 20th through the 22nd and then on the 22nd I'll open the open the doors to my online course and probably have it open for 10 to 14 days. Okay.

Are you willing to share like the price you're going to price your course at and tell us a little bit more about your goals in terms of your launch goals.

Yeah, so I would love this launch to be a five figure launch. So I'm hoping for between 10 to 11 thousand dollars is my goal for this launch and I'm pricing the course at 499. It is a six week course and obviously it's self study. It can be done, you know, at your own speed. But I'm aiming to have it all delivered and set up over six weeks. And there's three different modules so we focus on confidence, clarity and clients. And the confidence module, it's all about mindset and getting your goals set so that you can take aligned action. In the second module which is called Clarity, it's all about social media strategies and how to use social media to really get visible and connect with your dream audience. And then module three is all about clients so it's you know, how to sell to them. We talk a bit about sales psychology, about how you can handle objections in an empowering way on your sales calls. We talk about your onboarding process, contracts, invoicing, all those behind the scenes parts of your business that make it really that are like strong touch points with your clients. So you want to make sure that you are serving them as best as you can every step of the way. So it really is like a business in a box I guess. Whether you're starting a business or you're growing a current one, it's a really great fit for you.

Well, I can't wait to see how your launch goes. You'll have to circle back with me in May and let me know. So you have your launch coming up. What do you see as next steps past that in 2021?

Yeah, I would love to build on the momentum that this launch is building my business right now. I'd love to do some more one to one coaching with business owners because I feel like that's really, really fulfilling to me. I love being able to support people one on one as they grow and scale and level up. It's really, really exciting. So I'd love to do that. And my social media management services are still growing. I've actually been able to increase my clients there because I've taken on two team members which has been really, really exciting. So never know, maybe I can grow my team even more and we can keep supporting our clients in whatever way they need, whether it be through social media management or through coaching. So I'm just really excited to build on the Momentum.

That sounds awesome. And Corinne, we are running short here and I want to have one last closing question for you. What advice do you have for other online course creators or entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurs out there?

Oh, goodness. I would say be resilient. And if you take anything away from this podcast today, it's that, you know, I had a launch and it was a total flop and I'm still going. You have to believe in what you're offering. You have to feel really aligned with it and be resilient. You are going to get no's. You are, you're, you are going to have launches or, you know, programs that don't sell the first time around. But if you believe in what you're doing, you just have to keep going because, you know, you learn every single time something doesn't go as planned, you can learn from that and just keep putting your best foot forward and keep getting out there for sure.

And I know in one of our previous podcasts we talked about there are no failures in marketing. It's just learning opportunities and then you adjust from there and keep going.

Yeah, 100%. I couldn't agree more.

Corinne, where can people find you?

Yeah, so I practice what I preach and I'm only on social media. I don't have a website so you can find me on Instagram. Hone your social and I will make.

Sure that those links for you are in the show notes so people can find you and course creators. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you have any questions about course in a box which is offered on AppSumo, please reach out on LinkedIn or DM me on Instagram. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Would love for you to rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform and show us some love there. Have a great rest of your day. Bye for now.