90: Jess O'Connell: Online Course Creator Shares her Successful 47K Launch

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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 Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners increase their 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. 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 today my special guest is Jess o'. Connor. Jess started her business after her husband lost his job in 2018 and they went on government assistance. Her first launch generated 1,500 in revenue and it was the proof she needed to give it her full attention. I'm not going to go into all the details. Jess, I want you to tell your story and thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. I'm super excited to to dig in with this with you.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to share my story because I think it's something a lot of people can relate to right now.

Yes.

And as I was going, you know, looking at your website, going through the information that you provided me, I'm like, this is such a powerful story. So can you start at the beginning and kind of walk people through your journey and to how you got to where you are today?

Yeah, absolutely. So I've always been kind of online. I think I'm of the generation that like I had an Instagram before I started my business. I actually had a blog back when blogging was cool. And so I had this weird knack for growing an audience and I parlayed that in my early 20s into a network marketing business. And that's really where I got my start. And I had grown this nice little business. It was doing fine, like it was making about $1,000 a month, which in network marketing world is respectable. But I was like phoning it in, you know, like it was just this little side hustle. I was a mom of two, we had two very little girls in 2018 when everything changed. I had a six month old or not even a six month old and a three year old and I was a stay at home mom just kind of phoning it in. But I knew like, you know, like when you know in your heart that like there's so much more in there and that you're just kind of playing small. And so after like in the summer of 2018, my sister got married and she lives in Northern Ireland. And we saved for months and months and months and months and months to be able to afford this two week vacation overseas. We went to England, Northern Ireland with a six week old baby because we are crazy. And we had this amazing trip, spent our entire savings and we came home and my husband lost his job. And I remember that day he texted me and he said, don't be mad. And my three year old was being a three year old and I was like, she will sit in time out all day, I don't care. That's what I texted him back and he said, no, come outside. And I was like, what? So I walked outside and he was sitting in the driveway in his car crying. And I said, did that happen? And he's like, yeah. And I said, you know, I think this is the best thing that's ever going to happen to us. And I don't know where that came from. And in hindsight, that's maybe not the most sensitive thing to say to somebody who is the breadwinner and just lost his job. But I just had this sense of knowing and this calm and that like the universe works in really powerful ways that don't always make sense. And I think that like I just knew that this was the course, this like course correction that was going to change the trajectory of our lives. And it completely was like, it was not easy at first. Like you said in my bio, like, we had to get on Medicaid for the kids, so they had insurance. We went on mortgage assistance because we couldn't pay our house payment. But because of that, something was ignited inside of me. It was like that feeling of like, I know I'm playing small, I know I'm meant for so much more, was kind of shoved to the forefront and I couldn't ignore it anymore. And I had taken a course from somebody else, and that was really the first thing that really woke me up to this online course world. I had no idea that this existed when I was in my little network marketing bubble. And. And I took this course and I was like, wait a minute, I remember she had a launch and she sold like 46 people or something into one $97 offer. And I was like, wait a second, she just made like $20,000 just like on her Facebook page. And that was such a light bulb moment for me. And I was like, I can do this. Like, I can do this. And so I was like, I was learning from her, and I knew that that was something that I could do. And I just had this idea and it came to me like. And I remember feeling so crazy, but I was like, this is what I need to offer. Like, after trying to figure out, well, what's my niche? What do I want to talk about? All of those things I just knew and I wanted to offer. I had been running my network marketing business differently than is, like, the status quo in that industry. And I got so many questions asking, how was I doing this? How was I filling my groups? How was I, like, hitting my sales goals every month? And I was like, I need to teach them how to do that too. And people were already asking me for it. I just had never thought about selling it. And so that's when I put together a little three day challenge and I told people what I was doing. And then I offered them a $59 offer to learn, like, the full system. And in that first launch, I made $1,500. I think I sold 25 or 26 spots. And I was like, wait a second, this is a real thing? And that completely changed the trajectory of my life and my business and everything. And so I did it again and I repeated it. And I came to a place where I was like, okay, I need to think bigger than this tiny little thing. And I went through a lot of launches and I figured out what My core offer was and that's really what I was able to scale. And I've since pivoted from that original offer and grown. But like, that was really the kindling to the fire in my heart that helped me get out of this playing small mindset and start my course based business.

So I love the story that you shared. I want to back up and unpack some of this. So when your husband lost his job, and I believe you said that was in 2018, were you, you had your network marketing, marketing business, which is making thousand dollars a month, but essentially you were a stay at home mom, is that correct?

Yeah, absolutely. So he was the breadwinner. I mean that thousand dollar a month income was paying for my diaper bag addiction, which is a whole underbelly that people don't know about. But like, so it was kind of my fun money as a stay at home mom. And so it certainly wasn't enough to pay our mortgage and support our family.

So in 2018, you were like, you know, I got to get serious about this and do something about it to support my family. What were some of the first steps that you took there? Did you have to basically start from scratch or did you have some of this already set up?

So I already had an audience, right, Because I already had my network marketing business. So I was initially thinking, how can I sell something to them? And it was interesting because I was having a really hard time conceptualizing that. I was like, well, maybe I'll take it from a different route. Maybe I'll like add on to the things that I'm already doing there. But none of it felt like the right thing. And I was really struggling to figure out like how I wanted to position that. And then I realized, like, and then people kept messaging me and like, hey, how are you making, like, how have you built this success in your network marketing business? And I think I even specifically said out loud, like, oh, if I could just teach everybody how to sell like I do that Nobody would send DMs anymore and the whole industry would be different. And then it was like this light bulb moment of like, why don't I do that? And I think that we, I think that we think that it has to be complicated to start a business like this. Like, well, I'm not an expert at anything. Like I don't have a degree in anything. But I think that we also all have this thing that people are asking us how to do. And when we realize that that's our secret genius, that that's like the Thing that we're meant to talk about. Like, that's the easiest thing to capitalize on because you already have people asking for it. For example, I have a friend, her name is Julia, she dresses her kids so freaking cute. And she gets a lot of questions like, how do you do this? Like, how do you not like, how do you have such a cute wardrobe for your kids without buying a million clothes? And she's like the queen of capsule wardrobes for her kids. And so she just put together a course for that. And I was like, yes, I need that. Like I want to dress my kids in a capsule wardrobe, but I have no idea how to put something stuff together. It doesn't have to be like something massive. It just has to be something that you're passionate about and good at, that people are asking you for and you have that built in demand.

So I have to ask, what is a capsule wardrobe? I've never heard that terminology before.

Yeah, it's this really cool thing that like you have like five pairs of pants and like eight shirts and they all match. So like you don't have to buy a ton of kids clothes. My thing is like we have a ton of clothes and they don't match and my husband does not know how to put out together. So my kids are wearing like watermelon pants with a unicorn dress. And I'm like, oh, sister, like who dressed you today? And so it's a way of looking at clothes in a more sustainable way so you're not buying pieces that don't fit together so you can buy less clothes and use them in a billion different ways. It's this totally genius thing that I cannot figure out apparently. But I have her course, so now I can.

I love that. And I've never heard of that concept before. Of course I have boys and they were Adidas shorts and Adidas shirts. So, you know, whatever.

Yeah, it's easy.

I have to go back and ask for that $59 offer. And that three day challenge that you did, was it to help the network marketers not DM anymore?

Yeah, that was really the promise. So I had built this little sales system of, oddly enough, using challenges to sell into my network marketing business. And so I was like, well, I know how to run a challenge. Like that's how I've been selling people into my groups for my network marketing. So I'll just run a challenge and then. And we call them free groups back then. So I'll just run a free group and sell them into my like paid thing and So I was teaching people how I set that up. Like, I had like a four week sales system where like, you invite people to your free group, you run your free group, and in the free group, you invite people into your paid group. I mean, like a challenge. And so I literally like mapped it out for them and taught them that sales system so they weren't dming people like, hey, you should buy my product, but instead, like cultivating that trust through a challenge. And that solved a problem for them because it gave them this structure to follow. And it obviously solved a problem for me because it was something that was working in my business that a lot of people weren't doing back in 2018.

So the other thing that you mentioned was you figured out what your core offer was, which I think you pivoted even a little bit from them, which is very normal. All of us in the online business world, we do this, but you have a repeatable process. You said for your launch. So kind of walk us through your next offer and then kind of what you're doing today.

I love that. So I. Now that you mentioned that, I just realized this. Like, I. My pivots have all just been kind of like a zoom out. So, like my initial offer, I was selling in my network marketing business and I taught people how to sell. Like I was selling. And then my second offer, I realized that my offer teaching people how to sell their network marketing business, I was selling, scaling that in a really sustainable way. And so I decided, I decided on my core offer, which is like, I cannot stress that enough. I was launching a million different offers. I was like, oh, now I need to create a course on Instagram because that's what my audience wants. Oh, now I need to create a course on this because that's what my audience wants. I decided to stop chasing what they wanted and focused on the one thing. And so I took that offer. And so I had the 1500 couple months of that. And then in May, I had a $3,000 launch, which was my biggest launch of that to date. And that was when I really was like, I'm just going to focus on this. So I launched it again in September and had an $8,000 launch of 19. And then I launched it again in September of 2020 and had a $47,000 launch. And so I took it from 3,000 to 8,000 to 47,000. And that was when I realized that I wanted to teach people how to do that, how to scale to a cold audience. And I realized like that the way that I Came up with what I do now is I got really curious and I was like, okay, what are people doing in their launches that are helping them have seven figure launches, right? What are the big guys doing that I'm missing on this small scale scale? And I started to like, I opted into all of their funnels, I scoured their emails, I timed their webinars. I was like, okay, they're spending this much time doing this and this much time doing this. And I really became like a student of the launches that they were having. And I then created a hypothesis which is kind of what I teach people to do now. And I was like, okay, I'm going to try these four things and run it again. And that's when I was able to take it from three to eight. And I was like, okay, cool, I'm onto something. And then I was like, so then I decided I wanted to fundamentally teach people those four things. And so that's when I pivoted initially. But because I'm curious, I was like, okay, I've learned so much, let's launch it again a year later with all this new knowledge that I have. And that was when I scaled it from 8 to 47 and now it's on an evergreen funnel making $10,000 a month to cold traffic on Evergreen. So like, I really feel like I've cracked the code on that one. But because so I've realized like these are the things that you need in place. So there are six things that you need that I now call the aligned launch formula. And so I went from teaching people how to sell like I was selling in my network marketing business to then teaching people how to scale like I scaled my offer and so it's kind of this like zoom out thing. But that's now what I teach. I teach people who have their own offer, who have their own expertise, I help them scale it to a cold audience because that's really the thing that's missing. You can sell something to people who already want it and that's easy enough. Your first launch probably goes great because your audience is already excited for it. But how do you scale that? And I think that that's a big missing piece in the industry that I have seemed to crack the code on. And so that's what I teach people how to do, is I teach people how to scale their offers through testing like I did and like repetition and figuring out what specifically works for you and your audience so that you can scale it.

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So I have to ask you, and I'm sure this is going through everybody's mind now that is listening to you. You mentioned there are six things that you kind of touch upon. Can you go into any detail of any of those or give us some hints?

Yeah, absolutely. I will tell you the six things. They're not a secret.

I didn't want to give away your secret formula, but I'm happy to share it.

So I created what I call the Aligned Launch formula. And what it is is that you go through six phases of alignment. The first one is energetic alignment. And I think this one is so key. And this is where I was missing. I mean I was missing places in all of these things, which is how I learned why they're so important. But energetic alignment is making sure that you are in your purpose, right? That you're creating content, you're creating courses from your place of purpose. And so you're aligned with where you are, like with the greater good that you want to create in the world. That's energetic alignment. Another piece of energetic alignment is making sure that you are a hell yes for your offer. I think there are times where we're like, I don't really know if people want this. I don't even know if I like selling it. And that's when you should pivot, in my opinion. Like if you are no longer so lit up about what you're doing, it's time to change something. So that's energetic alignment and then the second thing. So the next phase, once you're like aligned energetically, we move into messaging alignment. And one of the biggest mistakes that I see people making is that the top of their funnel messaging is not in alignment with the bottom of their funnel messaging. For example, a Friend of mine has a self liquidating offer which is like a tiny offer for a meal planning checklist. And then her bottom of funnel offer is like minimalist stuff, like how to be a minimalist as a mom. And I asked her, is the top of funnel offer the carrot that attracts the rabbit that will buy your bottom of funnel offer? If somebody is into meal planning, are they 100% into minimalism? And she's like, well, no. I mean, some are, but not really. And I'm like, yeah, exactly. That's why no one's buying it, because you're attracting people on meal planning and you're trying to sell them minimalism. And those are not in alignment. And so that's what I mean by messaging alignment, making sure that your messaging at the top of your funnel is alignment with the messaging at the bottom of your funnel. And you're attracting people at the top that are ideal clients for the bottom. The next phase of that is audience alignment. And I talk about moving people through a series of content and qualifiers and things to make sure that that pool of people that you're launching to are qualified leads are people who A, have the problem that you solve, B, believe that you're the person who will solve it, and C, are ready to make a purchase to solve the problem. And by doing audience qualifying, you amplify your conversion rates like crazy. For example, with that launch that I had, a $47,000 launch, I had an 11% conversion rate because they were heavily qualified by the bottom of my funnel. I knew that they had the problem that I solved. I knew that they believed that I was the person to solve it through my series of qualifiers. And I knew that they were ready to solve the problem with a paid solution. And when you do that very strategically, the people that you get into your launch are way more likely to convert because they've already gone through that process before they enter your launch. The next piece of that is offer alignment. And this is something that I think a lot of people screw up to, right? There's a lot of bad information, I think, on the Internet. And one of the biggest areas where people sabotage their offers is, well, I'm going to talk about two. One of them is bonuses. I think there's this really bad belief out there that you just have to stack your offers with bonuses for the sake of perceived value. But people value their time far more than they value their money. And if they think that they have to watch seven hours of bonuses to get their money's worth, that is going to be so overwhelming that they're going to think that's the reason why it's not worth it. Right? We don't want to give people more work to do. We want to save them time. And the second area where people sabotage their launches is with their pricing. And I could do a whole episode on this, but there is a very big difference between B2B and B2C pricing. And unfortunately, a lot of people who their courses, B2C live in B2B, right? Because they're a B and they're being sold B2B. And that B2B is business to business. B2C is business to consumer. And in the B2B world, people can charge more because there's a return on that investment. Business owners, when they make an investment, say, what can this earn me? Like, what will this make me? But consumers, when they make an investment, especially in a course, they're thinking, what will this cost me? They're comparing the price of that course to their mortgage payment, to their car payment, to their grocery bill, to their kids soccer lessons. And they're like, okay, I can buy this, but that means that we can't go out to movies for a month or whatever, right? Like, they're looking at the cost where business owners are looking at the investment. And neither is wrong, but it's just understanding the way that your consumer is thinking about the investment and then pricing yourself accordingly so that it's in alignment with them and you. And there's a third piece which is that it needs to be in alignment with the commitment required to get the results of the program. So that's offer alignment and then the next phase is launch alignment. And again, one of the things that I see people doing is, is starting a launch because they're really excited and then like getting in their head about it midway through. And people don't seem that into it. And well, no one's responding to me and no one's engaging. So they stop sending emails and they ultimately, like, bail out of the launch before it's even over. And so by following a launch formula and removing like your emotions from the outcome of that, I help people get through, through the launch so that they can actually test the launch, right? Because if you never complete it, you never actually know if it would have converted or not. And so getting them out of their head and out of their emotions in their launch and just to do the launch. So that's the next phase, and then the last phase is ascension. Like, how are they moving through your customer journey? So, like, what's the upsell, what's the downsell, what's the onsell, what's the pre sell? And how to create this really aligned customer journey so that they are moving people up and down and through, always between launches, after launches, so that you're really maximizing the opportunity to work with people and further their results and their transformation in your offers. And so those are the six things.

And we took a little bit of a tangent there, but I think that was. I loved you going through that and kind of explaining that a little bit more because I had that question and I'm sure that others who were listening were wanting to know more about that. So you've had several launches for the offer that you have now for the align launch formula. Is that the name of your course too?

So I'm actually launching it in a different container than I've done before. So I have launched that offer twice and I scaled that. The first launch was set or was $10,000 and the second launch was $70,000.

Okay, so in terms is that. So that's your offer now or did you pivot even from that?

Okay, that's my offer. It's just in a different container. So instead of teaching it like a course, I have this belief that we don't need another course necessarily. We need to take action. And so I'm now facilitating this in what I call a lab. So you get into the lab, you learn the fundamentals of the method, and then you test it over and over and over again. So the results or like the tangible that you get at the end of the one year lab is you'll have this scalable launch asset that then you can launch again and again or put on Evergreen. But like, you've learned how to scale through the method.

Okay. Understand completely, you know what you're doing there. So let's talk a little bit more in terms of what do you see as net steps for your business? You've obviously had a lot of pivots over the years since 2018 and have taken your. Your business to the next level. Where are you going from here?

Yeah, I love that question. I really see building out that lab container into something that I would love to have 100 members in it by the end of the year. And one of my favorite things to think about is the impact that that would create on the world. And I was meditating one day and I had this question come to me. Like, what would change in the world if 100,000 people did the line launch formula? Like, if 100,000 people knew this information, what change would that create in the world? And I can't, like, I can't even quantify how much the entire world would change if more people were making more money in alignment with their offers, right? If there was less frustration in the course industry, if more people were empowered to make money that wasn't dependent on an employer. I just see this massive impact. And so I want to create that for 100 people, which in my brain, like my own little internal goal, is to help each of them create $100,000 launch. And so if I help 100 people have $100,000 launch, that's a million dollar impact. No, that's a $10 million impact. $10 million impact. I think it's 10 million. And so that's like, that's the next step. Like, I want to think about the impact that's created on their communities and on their lives. I mean, can you imagine the impact on the world if 100 people create $10 million? Like, holy crap.

I love the mission that you're looking at and where you want to take your business. I think that is so, so powerful. Jess, you've been doing this for a few years now. You've had a lot of experience with launches. In particular, what advice do you have for other online course creators or entrepreneurs out there?

I love this question. I think that one of the things that holds people back from launching more and scaling their launches is their first launch created what's called post traumatic launch disorder in them. And if you heard that and you're like, oh, yeah, I have that.

I think everybody does.

We all do, right? Because the first launch kind of creates this belief of how launching is. And I was talking with a friend of mine this week and she was like, it's like touching the hot stove. And I said, well, are you really going to want to launch your offer if you think launching is like touching a hot stove? Like, I don't want to do that. We perceive launching as pain, and so we resist it. But launching is how you make money. It's how you scale. It's how you make the impact on the world that you're here to create. Right? It's that thing that's in your heart and how you spread it. And so we like. So my advice would be to look at the circumstances of the launch that created that trauma in your heart and remove your emotions from that outcome and maybe reframe it and ask, like, what are the lessons that I had to learn from that so that I could have the business that I have today? What are the things that I needed to see and change so that I could make the impact that I want to make on the world? And when you reframe that painful experience into the lesson that you needed to have in order to create the impact that you're here to create, you shift the way that it feels in your body and you get curious and you want to learn more lessons. And my advice is to stay curious, keep learning, keep testing. Because the more you test and the more you launch and the more that you learn about what resonates with your audience and what doesn't, that's how you're going to make the biggest impact on the world. And I know that you created your business to make an impact. Right? We're very purpose driven people in this industry and don't let your first experience launching keep you from making that impact.

I love that advice and the picture that you painted for us about touching the hot stove, I think everybody can relate to that about launching or something else related to, you know, making money in their business. Jess, can you let people know where they can find you?

Yeah, absolutely. I have a podcast as well. It's called the Launch Fix Podcast. You can find it everywhere that podcasts are or go to the launch fix podcast.com and to find wherever we are for you. And I would love to have you hang out with me there. And then I'm also on instagram @Jess O'. Connell.

Perfect. Thank you so much. And I will make sure that those links are in the show notes so people can just click on them and get right to you. Jess, thanks so much for joining me today. I loved hearing about your story from the time your husband lost his job and how that kind of forced you to take your business to the next level. So thanks for sharing all of that with us.

Thank you so much for having me. Destiny, thanks.

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 Podcast or your favorite podcast platform and show us some love there. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.