Kate McKibbin marks episode 150 by revisiting her biggest lesson: simple wins over clever. She simplified her Ecourse Empire program and built Ecourse Elite around three core systems to help six-figure course creators reach seven figures.
As I said, as fun as it is to grab those post it notes and those whiteboards and map out something crazy and make the most of just how cool and clever all the tech is these days, time and time again, simple is best.
This is the Doing It Online podcast with your host, serial entrepreneur, six and seven figure funnel strategist and Kate McKibben, where every week we're here talking nerdy and sharing the things that actually work to help you do what you do online. But better, easier and with a ton more profit too. Are you ready? Let's do it.
Hello. Hello guys, it is Kate here. Here from hellofunnels and welcome to the Doing It Online podcast and welcome to my birthday episode. So happy birthday to me. I'm not telling you exactly how many trips around the sun I've made this this year, but my first business started in 2007. So you can do some creative math there if you want. So today's episode, I really wanted to make it just a quickie and to talk about one of the biggest lessons that I learned slash relearned this year. So let's dive right on it. Alrighty guys, as I mentioned, today is my birthday episode and because of that I'm going to be a little self reflective, but hopefully it is something that's useful to you as well. So I'm, as I said in the title, this episode really is about that biggest lesson that I learned these last 12 months. And to be honest, it's one that I've would say it's not learned for the first time. I've learned it and relearned it and we'll probably relearn it again at some point. It's one that does keep circling back and that lesson is keep it simple, stupid. I definitely have a tendency to get overexcited with, with all the things really. But how, you know, clever and intricate and, you know, crazy. You can make things these days, like when I first started my first business, you can do any of the cool automation stuff that you can do now. And I do get a little carried away with that. So whether it's through our, you know, things that we're testing and playing with in our marketing and sales process through delivery things through how we're sending out gifts to our clients when they hit certain milestones, to how we're actually structuring. Structuring, sorry, and delivering our program, I do tend to come in and go, oh, wouldn't it be cool if we could do this? Wouldn't it be cool if we could do that. And I think those are probably the words. My team's least favorite words would be when I come and go, hey, I had an idea. So over time, and it's something that happens, I think quite regularly with a lot of us is that, you know, you start out with something that probably is pretty, you know, simple steps, 1, 2, 3, to get to A to B. And then you start to add a little step side, you know, little side mission over here and a little caveat over here and a little breakout there. And eventually things start to get more and more complex or which is actually probably more. What I do is you sit down at the start and you map out something crazy and complex from the start. And then as people get more and more confused by it, you have to then go through and simplify it down. So we spent a lot of time, end of last year, start of this year, really looking at what is and isn't working in the business on all fronts, across all departments as a marketing, sales, delivery, customer service, everything thing. And funnily enough, or not funnily at all, as always happens, the things that work the best. And you know, this is one things that we teach when we teach funnels as well. But the things that always are working the best are the simple things. The crazy complex, clever stuff just never works as well. You'll have some people who come through and love it, but others who are just like, you know, particularly like with marketing funnels, people, you know, 80% of people will not do exactly what you think they will do. So they're going to end up in some weird little limbo, no man's land or something. And, you know, all this stuff is best for you. Strip it down, keep it simple. Same with delivery. Like, we went through and we just done a big update to our program ecourse Empire, and I was super proud of it. I was like, oh, wow, we've made this so clever. And then the feedback from not everybody, like a lot of people, like, yeah, that's cool. But there were some people like, I don't get it. What have you done? You've confused me. And, you know, I sort of. My initial reaction was, oh, we can't change it again. You know, that's going to make my team really upset. And there's something go do. You know, number one priority in our business is always, let's make sure that every single client is really clear. They really understand what they need to do. They have everything they need. They're not getting stuck, they're not getting held up because I've decided to be clever on something. So we went back to scratch, we simplified it all down and you know, we've been rolling that out and everyone's been really loving this new simplified version. So sadly, as I said, as fun as it is to grab those post it notes and those whiteboards and map out something crazy and make the most of just how cool and clever all the tech is these days, time and time again, simple is best. Everybody wants simple. And it was probably definitely a good lesson for me to learn prior to coming in and creating our new program, Ecourse Elite, because I think particularly once you have a more established business you really, really like, simple is plays a whole new role here. Like when people are just getting started in business, you want to keep things simple because people are learning a lot and so they need to be guided and they need. You want to try not overwhelm them. You want to make sure that no one's getting lost or confused because there's a lot of new concepts and a lot of stuff that can be, you know, really taxing mentally. When people are more established in business, you want to keep things simple because they've got a lot on their plate, they don't have a lot of time. They, whatever they put in, they need it to be the most effective, the, the clearest, the easiest. Maybe it's something that they're going to get their team to outsource and to do for them. So simple takes on a whole new level of importance. So in planning out this program, you know, I sat there and I went, okay, so I know what I'm going to help people to get from A to B. Help people to get from, you know, six figures, multi six figures into having everything set up and scaling towards that seven figure mark, if not beyond. And I started like my first reaction was, oh, I've got to have this and this and this. Wouldn't this be cool? And as soon as I heard myself saying that, I'm like, no, Kate, do not do that. Let's keep this as simple but effective as possible. Like what are the. Like if we strip it back to the bare bones of what needs to be done and what systems need to be added and what strategies work the absolute best, what would those be? And I came up with the three strategies that I've seen work with clients, I've seen work with us. These three systems that need to be added in, I'm like, okay, well if we add these in, in what order they need to be added in, how can they be stacked how do they work best together? And how can we make sure that within our trainings, within the templates and resource library that again, we're making it just crazy simple, like something that can literally be clicked and installed and then people just go through and update their copy or something that can, you know, just bring it right back to simplicity to ease. Because I know I said people at this level, people with six figure programs, they are not wanting to spend 12 hours a week watching a whole ton of videos and you know, they want to come in, get what they need, get the tools that they need, get it implemented and start getting results. So I'm really exciting, I'm really exciting. I'm really excited. Sorry to be able to, you know, share this program and I'm so proud of how simple we've been able to make it. I believe we do still have a last couple of seats. I am recording this a couple of weeks out so at there was still definitely a few available when I'm recording this but they may no longer be now. But if you are interested in joining us in our first round of Ecourse Elite, as I said, it is a program designed specifically the six figure course creators wanting to learn the systems they need to implement to scale up to 7 and do it in a way that is simple, stress free, enjoyable and reliable that isn't about just spending more on Facebook or working harder or launching yourself into the ground. Then head on over to HelloFunnels co Elite. You'll be able to see if there's any spots left. If not, you can probably jump on the wait list for next time, but if there is, apply now. Get your seat. I can't wait to share this for you, share this with you and work through and see the amazing results that you get with three simple programs installed into your business. So we'll see you hopefully inside and if not, we'll see you next week on the podcast. Bye.
Thanks so much for listening to the Doing it online podcast. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. And if you're ready to take your online course sales to the next level with your own six or seven figure funnel, let Kate show you exactly how today@StealMyFunnel.com.
