43: From Teacher to Entrepreneur: The Mindset Shifts That Built a Life-Changing Business

Hi, I'm Lydia.

In 2020, I resigned from my corporate job and took a big leap of faith. I launched a business I had been dreaming about for a long time. I had so many questions when I first started and zero people on my email list. But I was committed to one thing. Taking massive imperfect action. Within 18 months, I had thousands of students in my courses and coaching programs and was able to retire my husband from his 30 year career to work with me. I'm still pinching myself that we get to run a six figure business while living a life we love. But the truth is this overnight success did not happen overnight. For more than two decades, I let imposter syndrome, fear of failure and perfectionism hold me back from my passions and purpose. What is it that you've been wanting to launch? In the Launch Perspective Podcast, we share the mindset and the step by step strategies that will help you launch and scale the online business of your dreams so you can live life with more freedom and impact. It's time for a new perspective.

Welcome to the show.

Hi Lydia. Welcome to the Teacher Biz Podcast.

Hi Heather. So happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Happy to have you here too. Let's start by having you tell us a little bit about you and your business and who you serve.

I launched my business in 2020 and I called it Banish Business Coach Clutter. I literally started that business, truly, because I always knew I wanted to do something different. I wanted to launch a digital business, but I had been dreaming about it for six years and I finally decided I'm not going to know if this works unless I just jump in. And I couldn't decide what topic to focus on. And one of the things people always came to me for was digital organization. So I thought, why don't I help people create systems and get more organized in their businesses and. And that's how Banished Business Clutter was built. And over the last five plus years, I have had such an amazing journey, learned so much more about myself and actually serve my audience in a very different way than I started. I now help them clear the clutter of mental chaos, help them get clarity so that they can build sustainable businesses that support their life. So it's been quite a journey. I absolutely love what I do, love who I work with, and I'm thrilled to talk about it today. So thanks again for having me.

I always find that you start, what, in one place and then you end up somewhere else in your online business. It just kind of evolves as your people come to you and tell you what they need. So I love.

It really does. And you learn so much about yourself and your passions and what you love and how you love to help people. So, you know, it's one of those things. I wish I would have known that it could change over time. I think I would have started sooner. I was so scared that I would pick the wrong topic and the wrong thing. And I didn't realize. Just pick. Because you don't really learn these things until you do it. So I'm so glad I jumped in. Like I said, it's been a journey, an unexpected path, but it's worked out so well.

I love that. Just pick. The clarity comes from the action. Get into action and the good ideas will come to you. I couldn't stop more so true. So your business has evolved over the years. Can you give us kind of this picture of what that looks like?

I literally started by hosting free five day challenges and helping people get more organized in their business. That was the whole launch of my business. We would have like declutter your business boot camps and banish your business clutter challenges. And I would just focus on things that I knew would help business owners be more efficient, be more effective, be more confident. Clutter really affects us in so many different ways. Mental clutter, digital clutter, physical clutter, all that confusion that we have. And so I just wanted to help people turn that clutter into clarity to confidence so that they could really make decisions that would move them farther, faster. And I fell in love with live launching. So these challenges and bootcamps were so much fun. I was connecting with my audience. I was learning what they needed. It was very effective in helping me convert to the course I sold, which is called the digital clutter cure. I launched the digital clutter Cure multiple times over two years. That was such an amazing experience that people kept coming to me and saying, how are you doing what you do? How are you launching how do you do challenges? How are you growing your business the way you're building? And what I've discovered is that is what my true passion is. As much as I am good at digital organization, and I love to teach those concepts, really the transformation of how my digital business impacted our family, that's what I really, really want to help people do. I want to help them create a business that allows them to retire their husband like I did, allows them to to give their daughter their dream wedding like I did, allow them to move to Orlando, Florida to be near their grandson. Like that is what it comes down to. It's not just helping you get on organized online. I want to help you like transform your life. And so that whole journey and process is what brought me to what I focus on today, which like I said, is more on let's help you create a sustainable business that supports the goals you have in your life. And that all happens simply by launching something. Launching something to get started. I still sell the digital clutter cure today. People still come to me for digital organization tips and tricks and all that. But my membership is all focused on helping you build that digital business.

I relate to that so much. Lydia. I feel the same way. I started my kindergarten ready business to use my teacher skills and I had no idea that I would even enjoy business. Things that I liked, marketing. I didn't ever think of myself that way. But then I was.

You were a kindergarten teacher. I was a music teacher that I was a music teacher before I had my kids. And I knew I wanted to be a teacher from the time I was in fifth grade. I used to line up my stuffed animals and play. School teaching was my heart. That was my passion my whole life because I played instruments. I just went into music teaching and had no idea how much I would love business. So I love that you have that same kind of epiphany. You know, I think teachers make amazing business owners.

Tell me more about that. Tell us about how you've used your teacher skills in your business. And I know you have some thoughts on this, so I want to hear them.

Like I said, it's so weird. People are like, you used to be a music teacher. Like it doesn't seem like a correlation. But truthfully, if you can teach, the world is your oyster. Because all of us are looking for ways to make complicated things simple. And that's what teachers do all day long. It doesn't matter what you teach. If you can help, take something that's confusing and complicated and turn it into a simple system, framework, roadmap, blueprint. I love these words as a teacher because you're helping people understand, okay, this is why this is a struggle for you. But if you do steps one and then step two and then step three and you focus on the right things if going to move the needle. I mean that is what we naturally do as teachers. Well, if you want to teach digital content like courses and workshops and membership content, that's a perfect fit because now you're just taking whatever that topic or niche is for you and you're teaching that concept to generate revenue in your business. I mean it was Such a natural transition. And I think one of the things, even in my membership, I work with a lot of people who were former teachers and they get this concept very quickly. Others are not. And so they have to learn some of those skills that we naturally have or that we've gone to school to learn that whole framework system and how did it go from point A to point B or point Z or whatever. I think it's so natural. And I really feel like teachers have such an opportunity to teach online and build a business that supports their family.

I couldn't agree with you more. Something I talk about a lot is this common misconception that teacher skills are not transferable. Like, you go to school to be a teacher and then that's all you could ever do. They are so transferable to online business. You know how to scaffold information, you can teach things well, like you were saying. And there's this huge online education industry that you just fit perfectly right into. If you can get through all those mindset blocks of I'm not a business owner, I can never do that.

And all of those things, I had those mindset blocks literally for six years. I had a 20 year direct sales career that was very successful. But in 2014, I was like, I was just ready for the next thing. And I almost went out on my own and then. But I was too scared, too scared. I had major imposter syndrome. I was like, what can I really offer? Who's going to buy it? How am I going to find my audience? And so a big blessing that happened is an international speaker heard that I was kind of in this transition and she called me up and she said, what are you thinking about? And I said, I really want to launch my own, but I'm super nervous. And she said, why don't you come work for me first? Help me bring my speaking business online. I will pay to teach you all the digital things. And after you help me do all that, if at any point you want to go out and launch on your own, you'll be blessed and released. And that's literally what happened. So for four years I worked for her and she paid for me to learn all things online marketing. And I helped bring her business online. She was still selling like CDs and DVDs at the back of speaker rooms. And we brought her business onto digital platforms. And by learning all that process, I was like, this is such a powerful platform. I have got to do this for myself one day. And I finally got up enough nerve two weeks before COVID shut down the world. I resigned from a job paying me a full time salary and I was like, I'm doing this. I didn't know Covid was coming. And I'm so glad I jumped in when I did because there was no plan B. It was like, burn the ships. I have to do this. And that literally started my business March 2nd of 2020 and have never looked back. The only regret I have is I didn't start sooner.

Truthfully, I love that so much. Oh, my gosh. And that was just like such a lucky kick in the pants to have this person.

It was hu. It was a very huge blessing. I learned a lot, but really, I had to get over that fear. Fear of failure, fear of what others think. I call it fo wot f o w o t. Fear of what others think that holds people back so much. And you have to get past it. You have to understand that your journey, you have your own calling and passions and ways you can impact the world and you have to just lean into it. It doesn't matter what other people are thinking, other people are saying. But I will say, you know, investing in the learning is one thing, but at some point you have to go. It's time to just do it. You have to be an entrepreneur that builds the train as it goes down the track. If you wait till that thing is perfect, you are never going to get out of that gate and you're just going to miss out on so many opportunities.

Done is better than perfect. Progress over perfection. All those things that I'm shouting at my students all over the place.

That's why you're my people, Heather.

We are, we are, like, connected here. I love you, but yes. And online business is changing so much at the same time. So if you figure out all the things before you start moving, those things are going to change.

And not only that, like, I'll tell you one other story about my challenge. So my very first challenge I held March 25, that thing kicked off. So remember, I launched my business March 2nd and I was like, I'm not overthinking this. Because I was a huge overthinker. And I was like, I'm not going to overthink it. Done is better than perfect. I had this whole mantra, take massive, imperfect action. Take massive imperfect action. And I'm like, I'm just going to launch this challenge. I didn't even know half of what was going to be in at that point. And I had not built my course yet. This always surprises people and they're like, how did you do that? Now, one thing I did have, I always want to be transparent here. I had really worked on my video skills. So I was really bad at video when I started, but I had been in a job where I was teaching every single week. And when Facebook Live came out in 2016, I was teaching every single week. So I did have that skill under my belt. So I wasn't scared about going live on video, I wasn't scared about teaching online, but I did not have my course built. And so I do this five day challenge and literally in the middle of this five day challenge, I still didn't even have the name of it. And I got on the phone with somebody that was like, help me name this course to help me figure out what's going to be in it. I just talked it out with one person. Day five, I was like, okay. I opened the doors to the digital clutter cure and I said, this is what it's going to include and every week you're going to get access to a module. I had not recorded any of it, but I just knew every week I was going to record it, send it, record it, send it. And then I said, it's going to be a 497 course, but if you get in this first round, it's 97. Introductory price will never be offered this again. And I got my first 95 students. That was the validation I needed. It just is what I needed. And I was like, you know what? It wasn't built. It was. The first iteration was not great. It was like pieced together as best as I could. But every time I improved that course, my founders got access to the updates. And now it is so packaged up with the pretty bow and has amazing modules. We refreshed it like three or four times. And now I just sell it all the time on Evergreen for 3.97. And so again, that process takes time, but over time you improve it, you tweak it and you learn. But, oh, I'm just so happy I launched it before it was done because I learned what my audience wanted because I was with them during that initial launch. So rather than me making this course over five or six weeks, they were in there with me asking me questions that told me what to put in the course. So I actually loved creating that way and I learned it was actually easier to get feedback from people. And that's what helped me create the framework of it rather than building it first.

I love that story. Oh, my gosh. I've done the thing where, like, you sell it before you make it and I love that. I think it's a good thing to like force yourself to kind of create your product. Right.

It forces you for sure. There's no procrastination once you've sold it to people. And I could be the leader of procrastination. Anonymous. So I have to have that push. Yeah.

When I did it, like, I had an outline, I had a name, I had a sales page. I just didn't have the course content yet.

So the night before happened, I bought a template because I used kajabi and I was not kajabi skilled at the time. Kajabi expert now. But at the time I didn't know what in the world I was doing. So I bought a template to fast track that. We didn't have chatgpt back then. I kind of guessed what was going to be in the modules. It probably totally changed over time. But yeah, that's not for everybody. Not every personality is going to jump in like that. I was comfortable enough that I could do that. But again, I knew for my personality I had to have that push or I was going to overthink every lesson, every module. So you have to do what's right for you. But everyone should be stretched. If you're launching and you feel a hundred percent confident and ready, you launched way too late. You should never feel that. You should always feel that angst of, oh, is it going to work? Is this right? Because that means you're launching faster and you're launching enough. You have to launch to learn. If you're not launching enough, you're never learning fast enough and it's just going to be a much longer journey. So we are always like, get it out, get it out.

That way you can always launch it.

Again when you learn more money. You have to do it if you're good. And I always say, I work with so many people who have launched businesses and six months a year, three, five, seven years in, haven't made any money and I'm like, that's a hobby, honey, that's not a business. Hobbies cost money. But if you really want to support your family and the people you're going to impact in the world, you. You have to make money. So that is the focus. I had the most basic homepage known to man and I had an offer to sell a thing. That was what I focused on, not all the other things. I didn't have major social media platforms, I didn't have a ton of content. It was like, what can I sell And I literally just reached out to people I knew. In the beginning. I didn't have an email list. When I launched my business, no email list. So I just was like, I'm doing this challenge. I sent it out, literally, to family, friends, past business contacts. I'm like, I'm doing this thing. It'll help you get more organized. You'll love it. Join me. I mean, if you have people that know and love you, they'll at least get a few in there. I started off with 250 signed up, and then they shared it with people they knew. So by the end of the challenge, I had 400 people in it, and 95 of them, almost 25%, converted to buying that course.

That conversion rate is insane.

Insane.

Oh, my God.

And we've learned just so much since then. Now, that was a warm audience because a lot of people that knew me. You know, your rant's not usually gonna be high as a cold audience, but the point is, you just have to get in. I work with a lot of people who are like, I only had five people sign up. I'm like, celebrate it. Because that's five people you didn't have before. And you're gonna learn so much by working with those five people. They are probably gonna be indebted to you for life. They're gonna be your VIP customers. Cause you're gonna give them this extra time with you, and then the next time you do it, your launches will be better. But if you never do that initial launch, nothing moves forward. So you got to get it out there.

Such good advice.

Okay, so we talked about live launching and why that was so fabulous. And it really was. It was the foundation of my business. Doing those free challenges for the first two to three years. Huge. Let me tell you the downside of it. I'm always weary of people who don't share the downside of things, because this is not a picture perfect, rosy journey. You are always going to have the struggles. And my biggest struggle was what I call the revenue roller coaster. It's the feast and famine cycle. So we were very good at live. I say we now because I have a very small team. But it was just me in the beginning. I've always wanted to be a we team, so I very naturally say we instead of me. Even when it was, like, one person on my team, I acted as if we were a big we. So anyway, when I was doing these live launches, they were going great. But I wasn't doing them every month. I was only doing them every three to four months. Right. Live launch is a lot of work and you put a lot of energy in them. You can't do them too often or your audience gets burned out. And so I would have these revenue boosts every three to four months. And then in between it was like nail biting. How am I going to make money this month? Especially when I retired my husband. So he worked in IT 30 year career and my dream is always to get him to come home. He actually came home to homeschool our son. He wanted to get more involved in our church and ministry opportunities and being able to retire him was huge. But once I retired him, like the realization of this is not fun money for me. I can't just sit back and sit by the pool any day I want because this is literally the only income stream for our family. And so I had to figure out a way to get off the revenue roller coaster. And so that's what I'm talking about. And turning your passion into predictable profits. And the whole point of the talk is how I kind of went from this revenue to consistent 30k plus months. And so that is a journey that doesn't happen overnight. But I talk about how I pressed into things that bring in recurring revenue, passive income opportunities, that sort of thing. And so that's what my talk is about.

Oh my gosh, it's so juicy. I'm so excited for it. And that is just so true because it's really fun at first to have those like big launches and spikes in revenue. But you can't live like that. That can't be all.

There are times where we would have live launches scheduled and I have aging parents. Like if you have to drop everything and go help a family member or somebody gets sick, you get sick, you want to go on vacation. Like I've learned very quickly I can't just build a business, I have to build a life. And so if I want the lifestyle that allows me to live how I want to live, I don't want to be doing live launching every three to four months, once a year or twice a year. Great. I love them. I mean, they bring so much energy, especially the way we run them now. They're much more intense, much more involved, very team oriented. So I only want to do it like one to two times a year and that's it. Well then how else is the income going to come in? So the fact that I now have revenue streams where the first of the month, I already know the amount of money minimum I'm going to make is life changing. When you don't have recurring revenue, you don't have affiliate marketing revenue coming in. Like, you start every month at zero. And that is a very daunting, unhappy place to be. What can we build? And that comes from your other experiences. So I will never say live launching is not good because it really was the foundation of my business. But because of that experience, I learned the value of things that will give me predictable profits. And that's what you have to lean into at some point as you're scaling your business or you'll always be on that roller coaster.

Yeah, I agree with you. I. In the early days of my business, all my money was coming in from Facebook ads and I would be worried about that in the middle of the night. Like, what if they stop working? And we know, like they have, they.

They can stop working. Like Instagram can go down. Like, there's so. There's so many things that can happen. And so, yeah, you, you have to plan ahead for those things. Yes.

Oh, I'm so excited for your talk. I was so thrilled when Lydia said yes to speaking because I know she has so much wisdom to share. So friends listening should definitely tune in to her presentation. I think you'll get so much out of it. Lydia. Where do people go wrong when it comes to online business? Digital product sales? What are some pitfalls we see people falling into here?

The biggest word that always comes to mind is indecision. I say all the time, indecision is the enemy. If you don't sales.

What are some pitfalls we see people falling into here?

The biggest word that always comes to mind is indecision. I say all the time, indecision is the enemy. If you don't decide and do, motion never happens and momentum never builds. Think of all the decisions we have to make in our business every day. What am I going to launch? What's the title going to be? What's going to be in it? We have thousands and thousands of decisions that have to be made and we're constantly doubting ourselves. So self doubt comes into that, that fear of failure. I love this analogy. That'll help people get over this. What if I make the wrong decision? It's like getting in your car and putting in a destination in your gps. What happens when you make a wrong turn? Back in the day when we had GPSs, it used to say what it would say. Recalculating. It doesn't say, loser, get out. Like, this isn't for you. And somehow we think that if we make a wrong turn, a Wrong decision that we should just throw in the towel. We're not cut out for this. Like all of a sudden we are failures, pure failures. That's not how it works. Like, there's no wrong turn. Every turn is helping you figure out the next best turn. And if you can think of your journey that way. I don't know if you know this, but when rockets go to the moon, they are off target 99.7% of the time, but yet they still reach a destination. So if you think of your journey as constant recalculations and not right turns and wrong turns, you'll be a lot less hesitant to make the next decision. So you just decide and do and based on the results, what's the next thing we decide and do? If you're constantly stuck in indecision and overthinking, fear of failure, fear of what others think, and self doubt, you're never going to move forward. You have to embrace the thought that I do things to learn, I decide to do. That's how motion happens. Clarity comes with action. You have to embrace that. Just like you said.

Absolutely. The thing that's really standing between you and success is you. Not anything else. All the other stuff you can handle, but it's the you thing that you have to overcome in order to see any of the success that you could see that is out there for you to get to if you just don't.

Stop until you do a hundred percent. And that's funny that you say about the stop thing. So I just hosted my first retreat with those in my membership and one of the activities we did was something called the Ace game. The way to win the game is to get to an ace in the deck. And so I keep flipping cards over and of course it's not always an ace, is it? Right, It's a two of clubs, it's a five of spades, whatever. And I'm like. And so when I hold them up, I'm like, you did a launch, nobody showed up. And I'm like, oh no, you sent out an email, nobody clicked. And like I keep telling things where people are seeing them as failures, they're not seeing them as I'm getting closer to my ace. And eventually the ace is in the deck. It's always in the deck. It can't not be in the deck. But how do you get to it? You have to keep playing the game. And so eventually you get a jack and you're like, oh my gosh, that took off a little bit, Something good happened. And then you Get a king. And you're like, oh, my goodness, something's working. But until you keep playing the game, you don't get to the higher cards and the ace, and so you can't stop. And I love Les Brown's Chinese bamboo tree analogy. Gee, have you ever watched that video on YouTube? Just look up Les Brown, Chinese bamboo tree. And he talks about how bamboo trees, when you plant those seeds do, you know, nothing comes out of the ground for five years. And when it finally sprouts in five months, it grows 90ft tall. So the question is, did the bamboo tree grow 90ft tall in five weeks or in five years and five weeks? And most people give up while their bamboo seeds in the ground because they don't see anything. They don't see the results. They don't see anything happening. People are going, why are you still watering that setting? There's nothing happening. But there is something happen. You just don't see it yet. And you have to wait until that time and all these things kind of come into place and then it just skyrockets. So I always think of that analogy anytime I'm like, oh, is this working? Nope. Everything I'm doing is getting me closer to that, getting closer. Just keep going.

Oh, that's so good. And it's getting our business ready. But also, like, you ready. All the things that you're learning along.

The way, you need skills and strengths to and mindset to get to where that's going to happen. And most of us don't have it until we go through the harder things. I mean, think about people who train to go to the top of Everest. They don't just go to the top of Everest. There's so much training involved. So it's the same thing with our businesses. We gotta be willing to go through that process to be prepared to handle those things when they come.

I love it. Couldn't agree more. What do you think is working really well right now in business in 2025? Are there any things that you're trying that are really hitting for you or working the. And maybe also any things that are not working quite as good anymore?

You know, business has changed a lot since 2020. The way people buy, the way people think, the amount of time people have, the way people trust right now. Like, there's a lot of differences now compared to when I launched my business. And if you're not willing and able and conscious of how to adapt in those situations, you're going to be a very frustrated person because you're going to be like why doesn't this work like it did before? Like even challenges, you know, when people were home for Covid, they had nothing else to do. Now it's like people are busy and people have maybe they're challenged out a bit. So you have to reinvent the way you do something in order to hit people where they are. And what I've learned that's working for me, it is totally still that personal connection and authenticity. I have never been one that's just been able to create a product that I'm not involved with and it just sells on Evergreen and I don't have to touch it. What works for me is that I create things where I am in touch in some way. So it might be a six week course or cohort where I'm going through it with them for six weeks. Now what that is for me is my membership. I have a membership where I am connected with people with a live event once a week. So the fact that they don't feel like I sold them something where they're just off on their own. Good luck, have a good time. They are in it with me and I'm in it with them and I'm not asking them to do anything I wouldn't be willing to do. And they're in a community. I feel like community and connection is so huge right now. People don't want to do their businesses alone. They don't want to be isolated. In fact, one of the things that helps people make decisions faster is by being in a group where they can get feedback and validation and encouragement and support. And so what's working for me personally, maybe not everyone's willing to do this is providing a space for people to have that. So whatever that looks like for you. Not everybody wants to maybe commit to a membership, but I'm telling you, offering an addition to a course that you do. Hand holding is not the right word. It's helping people feel well held. Right. We're not going to be available 247 where people are like calling us. I'm not talking about that. But you need to create space and community where people feel well held. They have a place where they can express some of the struggles they're having and your support and the support of other people going through what they're going through. It is game changing and authenticity. I have never been one that's just been able to create a product that I'm not involved with and it just sells on Evergreen and I don't have to touch it. What works for me is that I create things where I am in touch in some way. So it might be a six week course in their transformation. Most people will not buy a course and do it on their own anymore. They will or cohort where I'm going through it with them for six weeks now. What that is for me is my membership. I have a and never even log in. So what's working for me is creating things where no, we're doing this together, let's do this. How can we help? How can we work together? And that is what's been working.

Such a good answer because I think especially right now with AI everywhere, like there's so many good things about AI for business, but then it's like people are so skeptical, there is this trust recession that they don't want to trust on the other side of the computer screen the way that they used to. And the solution for that really does seem to be showing up where I.

Am connected with people with a live event once a week. So the fact that they don't feel like I sold them something where they're just off on their own, good luck, have a good time. They are in it with me and I'm in it with them. And I'm not asking them to do anything I wouldn't be willing to do. And they're in a community. I feel like community and connection is.

Being yourself, being a human that is not AI generated. And in all of the imperfect ways that you can do that, that's what people are actually drawn to.

They are. And I love AI. I love the opportunities that it gives. And funny story, I actually literally just built an AI clone for those in my membership. And what I mean by that is I've uploaded like 1.5 million words of content into a clone that can answer my members based on content that I've created. So it's not just a generic ChatGPT bot. It is literally a clone with like my 5 so huge right now, people don't want to do their businesses alone. They don't want to be isolated. In fact, one of the things that helps people make decisions faster is by being in a group where they can get feedback and validation and encouragement and support. And so what's working for me personally, maybe not everyone's willing to do this is providing a space for and a half years of podcasts and YouTube videos and blog posts and what I've taught in my Ignite membership. So the benefit of that is yes, at two in the morning, my members can ask Lydia AI a question and she will answer them and they can move forward and make decisions. While that's a huge benefit, that doesn't mean I've removed myself from the equation. The reason they stay in ignite, because I'm still in a private community with them. They're able to ask me questions. I show up every week on Wednesday as the live person saying, this is the struggles. I get it. You know, I've been there and I'm helping them work through some of those things. So I agree. I feel like there's a good balance that you can have. You can totally utilize AI to help people move faster. But if you remove yourself completely, I just feel like not removing yourself is for people to have that. So whatever that looks like for you. Not everybody wants to maybe commit to a membership, but I'm telling you, offering an addition to a course that you do. Hand holding is not the right word. It's helping people feel well held. Right. We're not going to be available 247 where people are like calling us. I'm not talking about that. But you need to create space and community where people feel what's going to set you apart and people are going to seek you out because they want that personal touch, they want that community. Even just hosting my first retreat, I can't tell you how many people are like being in the room, in person with people was such a game changer for them. It just brought so much joy that they didn't realize they'd been missing in this whole journey. And I was like, the more well held, they have a place where they can express some of the struggles they're having and your support and the support of other people going through what they're going through. It is game changing. You can have that kind of experience for your people. The more they're going to stay with you.

Oh yes. I'm just so thrilled to have you. What are you working on right now that you're excited about, Lydia?

Honestly, the membership is my happy place. So I launched Ignite in their transformation. Most people will not buy a course and do it on their own anymore. They will in early 2023 and it really is my dream membership. What I'm most buy and never even log in. So what's working for me is creating things where no, we're doing this to get excited about is what we are helping people do inside the membership. So we originally I did a masterclass a month and then live Q&As and things like that. Well, we now have like, let's do this. How can we Help how can we work together? And that is what's been working. That took 28 masterclasses. I'm like, nobody needs to learn anything else. So now instead of masterclasses we do what we call co working implementation sessions. And I feel like this again is a piece that if you can implement something into your offers where people can just get the thing done, it's game changing for people because learning is great and as a teacher I could teach all day long and be a happy person. But like just because some answer because.

I think especially right now with AI everywhere, like there's so many good things about AI for business but then it's like people are so skeptical. There is this trust recession that they don't want to trust on the other side of the computer screen. The way that they use has heard.

My voice doesn't mean they're going to do the thing. And so like in our co working sessions we pick one of the masterclass topics and we're like, let's get that thing done. Whatever the action steps were on that. So like one time we wrote our own email nurture welcome sequences.

Another time we work and the solution for that really does seem to be showing up.

We're working with our AI to create our next offer. So how to use ChatGPT, how to use custom GPTs I created to create the content for their next offer. So we've done that. The next one we have coming up, I'm going to teach people how to create GPTs so that we can do it. Well, we're not teaching them. I've already taught them how to do it in a masterclass. We're going to actually build them. So we're going to help everybody decide.

What'S being yourself, being a human that is not AI generated and in all of the imperfect ways that you can do that, that's what people are actually.

The GPT you could create for yourself or your business that's going to help you move better run to they are. And I love AI. I love the opportunities it gives or help your students have a better transformation. But we're all going to be in there doing it. And what I love about those is people are working on the thing but when they get stuck they have a group to ask all of a sudden and funny story, I actually literally just built an AI clone for those in my oh, this isn't working where I click or, or like I don't know what to do. And then everyone in the chat's like, you should do this, you should do that. And like, to me, that is one of the most fun things I'm working on right now is creating those spaces for people to get the thing done. We've already booked our retreat for next year, so I'm excited about that too. So it was such a success. I'm like, we're doing that again next April. One of the things I talk about is the value of memberships. For this reason you're a membership. And what I mean by that is I've uploaded like 1.5 million words of content into a clone that can answer my members based on content that I've created. So it's not creating such a community that is energizing to you. Transformational for them, just a generic ChatGPT bot. It is literally a clone with like my 5, but it builds that recurring revenue as well, which supports what you do. There's a lot of benefits. So I'm just thrilled to be learning what works in a membership to further support and scale that.

Where can people find you online?

So my website is BanishedBusinessClutter.com we are probably going to be rebranding here soon. LaunchWithLidia.com is most likely going to be my new domain. Not active yet, but right now still banishbusinessclutter.com, there's tons of resources on there, of course, blog posts. I do have a podcast called Launch and a Half years of podcasts and YouTube videos and blog posts and what I've taught Perspective. And it literally is all focused on why launching to Learn is so powerful in my Ignite membership. So the benefit of that is yes, at two in the morning my members can ask Lydia AI a question and she will answer them and they can for your business. I do invite people to get access to my free workshop, which is your path to predict, move forward and make decisions. While that's a huge benefit, that doesn't mean I've removed myself from the predictable profits. So they can get access to that@lydiamartin.info workshop.

Perfect. And we will put that link down in the show notes as well. Well, thank you so much for being here, Lydia. I can't wait for people to learn more from you.

Thanks Heather for having me. So thrilled to be here.

Thanks so much for joining me today.

On the launchperspect equation. The reason they stay and ignite because I'm still in a private community with them.

They're the podcast Looking for more. Head over to launchperspective.com for show notes.

And you're able to ask me questions. I show up every week on Wednesday as the live person saying this is.

The click links to the content and tools that we shared today. Want to stay up to date on new struggles?

I get it. You know, I've been there and I'm helping them work through some of those things. So I agree. I feel like the podcast episodes or.

Ask a question that I answer on the show, you can do this and more@launchperspective.com See you there.

There's a good balance that you can have. You can totally utilize AI to help people move faster, but if you remove yourself completely, I just feel like not removing yourself is what's going to set you apart and people are going to seek you out because they want that personal touch, they want that community. Even just hosting my first retreat, I can't tell you how many people are like being in the room, in person with people was such a game changer for them. It just brought so much joy that they didn't realize they had been missing in this whole journey. And I was like, the more you can have that kind of experience for your people, the more they're going to stay with you.

Oh yes. I'm just so thrilled to have you. What are you working on right now that you're excited about, Lydia?

Honestly, the membership is my happy place. So I launched ignite in early 2023 and it really is my dream membership. What I'm most excited about is what we are helping people do inside the membership. So we originally I did a master class a month and then live Q&As and things like that. Well, we now have like 28 masterclasses. I'm like, nobody needs to learn anything else. So now instead of masterclasses we do what we call co working implementation sessions. And I feel like this again is a piece that if you can implement something into your offers where people can just get the thing done, it's game changing for people because learning is great and as a teacher I could teach all day long and be a happy person. But like, just because someone's heard my voice doesn't mean they're going to do the thing. And so like in our co working sessions we pick one of the masterclass topics and we're like, let's get that thing done, whatever the action steps were in that. So like one time we wrote our own email nurture welcome sequences. Another time we were working with our AI to create our next offer. So how to use ChatGPT, how to use custom GPTs I created to create the content for their next offer. So we've done that. The next one we have coming up, I'm going to teach people how to create GPTs so that we can do it. Well, we're not teaching them. I've already taught them how to do it in a masterclass. We're going to actually build them. So we're going to help everybody decide what's the GPT you could create for yourself or your business that's going to help you move better or help your students have a better transformation. But we're all going to be in there doing it. And what I love about those is people are working on the thing, but when they get stuck, they have a group to ask. This isn't working where I click or like, I don't know what to do. And then everyone in the chat's like, you should do this, you should do that. And like, to me, that is one of the most fun things I'm working on right now is creating those spaces for people to get the thing done. We've already booked our retreat for next year, so I'm excited about that too. So it was such a successful night. We're doing that again next April. One of the things I talk about is the value of memberships. For this reason, you're creating such a community that is energizing to you, transformational for them, but it builds that recurring revenue as well, which supports what you do. There's a lot of benefits, so I'm just thrilled to be learning what works in a membership to further support and scale that.

Where can people find you online?

So.