88: Edoardo Binda Zane: How the Pandemic Grew His Business from In-Person Coaching to Virtual

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Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners increase the revenue with digital products and automated sales funnels. In this podcast we tell the stories of ordinary business owners just like you. We talk about their story and how they got started, the challenges they've experienced and how they overcame them. And these are discussions with real people who understand what it's like to own an online course or membership business. Before we begin our show today, I want to let you know that this episode is sponsored by our flagship Course in a Box program which helps you create your revenue generating course in less than a week. Course in a Box is available on AppSumo at a special deal and you can learn more about Course in a Box by visiting the link in the show Notes. Let's jump right into our show.

And my special guest here today is Eduardo Bendazani. Eduardo is a leadership coach and trainer who provides teams and leaders with communication and leadership skills to thrive in increasingly dynamic markets, to be resilient to changes, and to increase their capability of generating value. His course, Emotional Intelligence for Leaders, teaches leaders how to become a resilient leader, drive performance and inspire their team. Eduardo, thank you so much for joining me. I'm super excited to have this conversation with you today.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Well, why don't you take a few minutes and tell the audience about your entrepreneur journey and how you got to where you are today?

Well, it starts with probably the most uninteresting starting point as an entrepreneur, which was I did the typical business school and then entering consulting and stayed in there for a few years, about seven until I realized how sick I was of that environment. It wasn't something for me, it wasn't something that I liked. And there was being in consulting, you managed to see both the good sides and the bad sides of it. So the good sides might be all the hard skills, the technicalities, the structures, and the analytical intelligence you need to use, but there was an utter lack of human communication, interaction, empathy if you wish. And as someone who has always been interested in that, there was just way too much for me to way too much to not have around me. So maybe out of frustration and out of the need to develop something, I decided to take the other way around. So instead of being in a situation in a consultancy where it didn't like the lack of, let's call them, soft skills in general, I decided to be the one providing specific training for companies to build Those soft skills because having worked in consultancy, I could speak their language and I could provide them with something that I knew they would need. And that was the little initial start of my entrepreneurial journey, which went when. Which then went through a few transformations, but that's probably the seed.

So we're going to talk about those trends transformations in just a second.

I knew it.

But tell me, what year was it when you decided, you know, I see a need in the marketplace. This is definitely missing here and I have a passion here and I want to go pursue it. What year was that?

It was 2015 and I'll be absolutely upfront here. It wasn't so much seeing the need, it was at that point it was more the passion project. And in hindsight that may not have been the best choice to make, but it's something that I needed personally at that moment and need assessment. In hindsight I should have done it a bit more and it was around 2015.

Okay, so it was your passion project and I completely get that. How long did it take you to transition from this consulting environment that you were in to starting your own business?

It was, I want to say, a few months. I don't think I have a clear cut idea of when you could place the start of the business. I was very free flowing in the beginning, like blissful ignorance in a way and just trying things out, learning by doing, failing quite a lot. So if we consider when I started trying as the start of my business, I would say probably immediately now, from there to when it became profitable or when it became this, say, sustainable. We're talking about a year or something.

Okay, so you, you know, probably as you put it, had some ups and downs there, maybe had some failures, but you are learning by doing, which is, you know what, I think a lot of people listening to this can relate to this. So did you have a specific plan in place to do the transition or did you just jump in and, you know, you, you know, gave in your notice and then you said, you know what, I've got to make up that income within X months.

It was more of a case of the second place. I jumped in and I was like, let's see if it flows or if it flies. And luckily I had built enough savings to support me in that, which I then drained out completely. I'm going to be honest and upfront about this, but it was more a situation. The whole story goes like this. I spent a few years in different companies doing my consultancy work and I was at a point where I was sick of it. And at that point, I got given another offer for a higher salary, higher responsibility, higher position somewhere else. So it was prestigious. The contract was really good, and I decided, sure, I will give it a shot again to see if something changes. However, those few months that I spent there, even though I was great at my job, managed to build so much frustration that even though I didn't have a plan, even though I didn't assess market needs, the need, the personal need to jump out of it and jump in cold water was too much to take. And so, yeah, basically, if you want to frame it in a. In a very clear picture, jump in cold water and learn to swim.

I love that. I love that. So you started your own business. How did you. What did you do first? How did you find your first clients? Did you build a website, an email list? Like, how. How did that process. What was your journey there?

Well, the origin of all of this was the fact that I saw that a lot of the skills that would allow me to outperform other consultants came from something that was just a hobby back then, which was improv comedy. There is a big community in Berlin, and I was part of it. And my initial thought was, well, if I can figure out a way to transfer these ideas, these exercises, these trainings to a working environment, then, well, there is gold to be found there. And so the first few. The first few weeks or months were a mixture of testing what types of exercises that come from this world, which is very much apart from a serious form of professional one, would work and how I could convey what I wanted to convey most effectively. So in that sense, in practice, it meant running a lot of free workshops, running a lot of, well, webinars weren't a thing back then. Doing a lot of street free stuff and gaining as much stage time as I could. This allowed me to, first of all, get my name out there or get my performance or my work out there, and also to figure out what would work or wouldn't. And to this day, the training structures, the exercises that I have developed and put together, still work. They're still the ones I rely on, because the testing of the product was so intense back then that it helped me to get something where pretty much I don't need to worry for now, at least, about adding content or modifying content.

Okay, so you started out doing a lot of free workshops, free webinars. Were these virtual or were these at the. At the firm, or you were meeting face to face with folks?

Oh, no, no. Virtual was never a thing. And we'll get to the point later in terms of how Covid hit if you want.

Okay.

But all of this was, um. I created my meetup group. I hosted free events on Eventbrite. I had deals with rooms where I wouldn't pay for the room, but I would get donations and they could sell drinks. So a lot of, you know, partnerships around firms. Yeah, sure, I got invited to do a couple at via friends that either owned or were working in a firm, but it was, it was all for free. And it was all in person, all in one room. Maybe anywhere between five and 30 people in one room, all working closely together and interacting together. My focus but back then was just to do one too many.

I love that. So you are using meetup, using Eventbrite, getting people in these rooms and helping them with their leadership skills. Tell me a little bit about how you started getting paid from folks.

Well, little by little, here and there, people would get back to me or approach me, go like, hey, I was at this workshop that you've done for free. It would be interesting to do it in our company, maybe a small version of it. And little by little, things like this started, started rolling out. And sometimes it was completely unexpected. Maybe the event wasn't even mine. And I would talk to people and I will be offered a job directly there. But what I noticed at that point was that the more stage time, the more awareness, or top of the funnel if you want, the more people are aware of you and what you do, simply, it's like a numbers game, the more the probability that you will be offered to do something. So all of that, all that I was doing then was building awareness. And little by little, this started paying back. Not as immediately as I would have hoped for, but it did well.

It's always slower than what we want, right?

Oh, yeah, most definitely.

All right, so walk us through the next few years. How long did you, you know, continue to do these, the free workshops, and then more transition to I'm getting paid for everything.

Oh, I never stopped doing the free workshops those were regularly taking place. Because it's one thing to nag someone on LinkedIn, for example, which I've also done, and say and send a message along the lines of, hey, I'm doing this training. I am awesome. Do you want to hire me? Or of course not exactly with those words, but any variations of it. It's different to push someone like this and have some sort of community, either your mailing list or people that follow you on LinkedIn and Eventbrite and have them come to see, hey, maybe let's do this again. Maybe it's fun. Maybe I can show it to my colleague and see what we think. And the free events never, never, never stopped. They were what kept the awareness going.

Do you still do them today?

I do them of course, remotely because I cannot be in person. But that's the part that has to do with the transition that I had to do to online. So it's more webinars either live streams on YouTube or collective Zoom calls so that the free part of giving something of value out for free beforehand is still there and it still works for me. It's still something that every now and then it can be even in a matter of years. Someone, sometimes you get a call or get an email saying, hey, I've seen your stuff two years ago and now I see you on LinkedIn, maybe we can work on some coaching. And I'm like, yes, that's fine. And I would never have gotten that message had I not done all the process.

Okay, so now walk us through the process for your online course. When did you identify a need in the market or what made you want to develop an online course?

Lack of other choices, that's the truth of it. No, I was in a situation. Well, if you look at this and look at the last couple of years, um, I. My a hundred percent of my work was working in a closed environment, in close contact with other people. That was it. I had not developed anything else because there was no particular drive to work online. Everything was working fine back then, but with COVID when it hit that all of a sudden became impossible and we had no idea until when that was going to be impossible. It still is. Maybe there is some hope for end of this year, but all to be seen. And in my personal situation in March last year, all of a sudden daycares for children closed along with all schools. My son was two at the time or had just turned three and no, he was two actually. And I was. It was impossible for me to do the job. So within a matter of three weeks I transitioned to being a stay at home dad and trying to figure out what to do with my business, with my work, to get income. Basically whenever my kid was asleep midday and during the evening. But of course it was a massive energy drain. And in the end I noticed that what I could do that was not depending on on time was to come up with an online course. And what I mean with not depending on time is the fact that once it's done, it's out there, it's a product that can be bought without any involvement. That was my specific idea. So not knowing when I would have my time back, and I still don't, at least I would have had something that would have given me the chance of earning some income. Right. And the way I came up with it, the way I chose the topic, Emotional Intelligence for Leaders was a mixture of online research, market assessment, what I had seen and whatever the market was making possible then. And that's it. So I spent, I put together a little studio setup if you want, and started recording. I had a lot of content already and that's it. I came up first with a book because I also published the same format in the form of a book and or the same content I meant in the form of a book and then recorded all the video sessions.

Okay, so tell me about how you launched it to your market or how are you using the course today in your portfolio?

I'm using the course honestly and this is one of the biggest learnings I've received. It's the financial gains that I got from it are much lower in terms of importance from the non financial gains, from the indirect financial gains I should say because having this course online enabled me to first of all reach lot more people because there is a lot of free content that I give out, right? A few lessons from the course are available for free and I there on YouTube, they're part maybe also in my podcast, they are on my Instagram and they're on my website. So there is a lot of online content, free content to consume for people that could be interested. And this has the same effect as the free events that I used to run. So people first of all when they look for emotional intelligence for leaders, they can find me and see what I do and what I can, what I work with and how my approach is. And then it helped me to for example, keep in touch with a client. I had a few workshops that a cycle of workshops that I had sold to a client. And honestly 2020 was starting brilliantly for me financially. But then after two we had to close it because Covid hit. So in order not to lose the client I suggested, well, I can do some free coaching sessions here and there and I can offer you a few free copies of this course for your managers. And that at least kept the conversation going. And in fact now we're picking up the conversation where we can talk numbers again and we can talk finances. So there was a tool that I use not to get immediate gains, but to keep a client and keep the Conversation and the discussion open. And another effect of this was the fact that having done it, having first of all built the material and the skills to deliver videos well, I can do a lot more online. I can be more impactful online and be more effective reaching people. And also having done that, having built that experience, having shown that I can build an online course, got me a commission from another platform to build paid another online course with the material that I have available, which was also relatively, I don't want to say easy, but relatively simple because, well, I had the materials, I knew how the programs worked, I knew how the recording would work, I know what stage presence means, microphones, et cetera, et cetera. So all of that experience that I had built in this little product that I came up with then helped me transition to, well, being able to develop online courses for others to use as they wish.

I love what you did with your online course and looked at other ways that you could use it to build your brand other than just a passive like revenue stream. You used it as an authority builder and you know, a relationship builder with your clients. You mentioned that you launched it or launched another course on a platform. Was that. Can you tell us a little bit about that platform and where that course is being sold?

Sure. It's a course in Italian, actually I'm Italian and it's called Creative Leadership for hr. It's going to be distributed on an Italian platform called a radical HR Club. It's an invitation only, limited access platform only for HR managers looking at training skills and delivering content to help transition companies and firms and organizations at large towards a new way of working well, the so called future of work. So that's the context it's been developed in.

Okay, I love that. So you've obviously done a great job in pivoting and keeping your business running. Even though you've had a lot of challenges over the past year with COVID What do you see as next steps for your business?

Next steps will be to keep on pushing free content. It's. I know it sounds, it's almost counterintuitive, but the more present you are, the more the, the more awareness there is about you. Keep on pushing content, keep on working on different channels. Because right now I found myself that I can work on one to one coaching, for example, I can work on mentoring someone else. I can do group trainings live, I can do live webinars, I can record online courses and I can do all of this also offline at this point. So what the net result of all the Difficulties and the obstacles if you want that Covid caused, enable me now to have more revenue channels if you wish or more products to to look at and offer to potential clients. So the few next steps will be for now as we don't know exactly when we're going to come out of this, keep on doing what I'm doing and reach out to clients preparing for what could happen next. So if by September we have a safe environment and we can travel, then this would mean that perhaps I could travel to Italy and do some workshops there. It would mean that I could operate with big startups here in Berlin and work with with them. It could mean that I could do one to one coaching in a working space, anything. Right now the next steps is a lot of preparation of what could be possible. But for now the idea is to keep on doing this, keeping active and keep building awareness on my style, my approach and my work.

So Eduardo, you've been doing this for a few years. You've done a great job in pivoting your business and keeping it going and building the relationships with your clients. What advice do you have for other online course creators or entrepreneurs out there?

I don't think it's a secret that you prepared me to a few questions for this and when I read this question like what advice do I have for other online course creators? The first thing that came to mind is equipment and basic skills. So I noticed that the the biggest time waster for me was to figure out a setup that could work and the thing that would have helped me the most, and I've seen it helping me a lot with my second course was knowing where to put my hands and what to do. So my advice, with your permission, would be to give out what I use as a setup and if someone else wants to take it and reuse it, they can be free to do so. I will be mentioning brands but I have absolutely no affiliate links or anything. Just to just to be clear, it's just the stuff that I use. So equipment you need altogether think about €300 or about I guess $350 to $400. Something like this, all you need is three lights, LED is better microphone. I use Asura SM58 connected to an audio interface which is a Steinberg UR22 MK2. And in terms of editing, I use a free program called DaVinci Resolve which is absolutely insanely fantastic. And with a camera I just use the secondhand HD camera that I bought some years ago and it still works perfectly. The best. Another big tip that I have is don't think that recording and just repeating yourself during a video can be edited later. Sure it can, but it will be a massive time waster. So if you can nail the first take by investing more time in preparation beforehand and you can nail that first take, then it will save you in the long run so much more time because you don't need to scroll through the whole thing back and forth and cut and. And figure out how to make your video correct. This would be my biggest advice, like how to save as much time as possible in preparing and recording your online course and looking for the materials to use.

So Eduardo, let me ask you this. When you recorded your course videos, were you doing like face, camera or screen share? What? Tell us a little bit about your videos.

The video. What do you mean? The ones that I recorded from my.

For your course? Yeah, yeah.

Well, I, I recorded, I had a camera placed in front of me with all the different lights. I flipped the screens, the LCD so I could see myself being in the frame. Then I hit record and recorded on the camera. And separately I recorded the audio on the computer. Why? Because my, my camera doesn't allow a computer a microphone to be plugged in. So I had to manually sync them afterwards. And the sound from this microphone is much better. So I would record this and then what I would do would be to clean up the video, sync audio and video, make sure the volume levels are fine. And once I had that, I had slides prepared. And here. Working with DaVinci Resolve helped a lot because it helps you to literally. I took inspiration from late night shows. So think John Oliver, Seth Meyers, you know that at some point the frame shifts to one side and you have something like a square or rectangle with a slider image on the side. I copied that idea and with DaVinci resolve I was able to do that, combine it and make it look also more professional when someone looks at the video.

Okay, well, thank you for sharing that and handing out that advice. Can you let people know where they can find you?

Sure. I am very active on LinkedIn and on Instagram most of all, my website is ebzcoaching.com and probably have all the links to my social media networks there. And yeah, anything. If you look at my name, probably just copy what's written on this episode's cover. If you look for my name, there are not many other people in the world with this exact name. So you can be pretty precise in finding me if you just type my name online. And yeah, honestly, for anything Feel free to reach out. Happy to have a chat at any time.

And I will make sure that those links in the show notes so everybody knows exactly where to click and where to find you. And thank you so much for sharing your story and kind of walking us through how you move from your consultant type job into online entrepreneurship and then into online courses and how you've pivoted during the, you know, the COVID pandemic. So I thank you so much for that.

Thank you for giving me the chance of sharing, sharing my experience.

Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you love the show, we'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform and show us some love there. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.