Teacherpreneurs, Raise Your Hand
Teacherpreneurs, Raise Your Hand
TRYH: 178 Unlocking Financial Freedom through Digital Courses with Amy Porterfield
Ever wondered how digital courses can revolutionize your life? Get ready to unlock the secrets with Amy Porterfield, a trailblazer who has guided over 90,000 entrepreneurs to success. Her wisdom on overcoming obstacles like overwhelm and self-doubt will set you on the path to financial freedom and fulfillment. Plus, we have exciting news about the open enrollment for Digital Course Academy, offering you a chance to join a community that champions your growth with exclusive bonuses.
Listen to compelling stories of transformation from individuals like Corinne, who turned her love for doodling into a profitable venture, earning thousands from her first launch. Or Raya, whose blueprint for beauty business success raked in over $100,000 in pre-sales. And don't miss Belle's journey from handmade book enthusiast to thriving course creator. These narratives highlight the importance of validation, perseverance, and community support. Tune in for a heartfelt anecdote on the impact of gratitude and discover how you, too, can create and launch your own successful digital course.
Links Mentioned in the Show:
DCA + Deboree
Welcome to Teacherpreneurs. Raise your Hand. Episode 178. Today is a little bonus episode and I'm so excited to bring it to you. It is a message from Amy herself and I'm so excited to share it with you. Hope you stick around.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Teacherpreneurs. Raise your Hand where bold teachers rise up and transform into successful teacherpreneurs who are destined for greatness. What exactly is a teacherpreneur, you might ask? Well, Webster's Dictionary defines the term as Um. Okay, it's not yet a word in the dictionary, but hear you me, it will be one day. In a nutshell, a teacherpreneur is both a teacher and a business person. Okay, it's not yet a word in the dictionary, but hear you me, it will be one day. In a nutshell, a teacherpreneur is both a teacher and a business person, and we're here to help you be better at both. So, without further ado, from One Tired Teacher and Trina Debery Teaching and Learning, here's your host, Trina Debery host, trina Deber.
Speaker 1:Hey, so I wanted to share this little bonus episode. It's a short one, it's not too long, but I have a little message from Amy and I'm excited to share. I will tell you that the cart is officially open for Digital Course Academy and maybe you are still headed to the five no fuss steps to a profitable digital course from scratch. Maybe you're still headed to that masterclass and if you are, you've got to still go because it is incredible. It is such an incredible experience. If you're even considering doing digital courses or creating digital courses, you're going to want to see what this is like. I mean, this is like beyond anything you can imagine. It's not your typical webinar, it's not your typical masterclass. It is like it's crazy. It is so crazy. I absolutely love it. I think it's so fun. Last year I went and I cried, so it's very exciting. But inside of this experience, inside of this masterclass, amy will be inviting you into Digital Course Academy and it's a special place to be, and I wanted to share a little bit about what that is and what that means. And I also want you to know that I have some bonuses. I have some bonuses if you decide to join DCA and you decide to join through me Because, as you know, I am a proud partner.
Speaker 1:I'm a proud affiliate partner with Amy and I have been for like the last six years. It's been quite a journey and, honestly, it's one that I think is coming to an end. That is my intention for this year, that this is going to be my last year, and I'm a little bit sad about that. I'm also really excited about the group of teachers and teacherpreneurs that's going to join me inside and what we're going to do. One of them is going to be from last year. She wanted to come back and participate because she said this group was just so helpful to her last year. So I'm excited to have her back and it's going to be. It's going to be an exciting journey.
Speaker 1:But I think that I need to. I think I need to like start putting myself in like a sole focus and not splitting myself all over the place and these crazy different directions that I'm constantly going in, and I want to. I want to be a little bit more intentional about what I'm doing and how I'm showing up and all those good things. So I, yeah, I'm excited. I'll talk more about that, like later on next week and yes, so in the meantime, I wanted to share something really special that happened before we jump. Actually, I'll wait till the end, so you can wait till the end to hear that little part, because it was a really cool little thing that happened and just another example of how really great she is. All right. So today we're going to listen to a little message from Amy herself and she's going to talk to us about digital courses.
Speaker 3:Well, hey there. Thanks so much for having me. So, like you said, I've spent the last 15 years creating and selling digital courses, which is now the number one revenue generator in my $100 million online business which feels wild for me to even say. But I've had the privilege of helping more than 90,000 entrepreneurs create and launch digital courses to grow their business, and I'm going to share a lot in this episode about digital courses who makes them, who's successful with them, what they teach, what they charge, and so much more. But if I could sum it all up in one statement, I believe to my core that a digital course is the single most powerful and strategic way to make an impact in the world, while growing your income and freedom to life-changing levels. But with all of my experience working with course creators literally tens of thousands of them I can tell you that there's one thing that stops people from getting started and seeing real, genuine success. Can you guess what it is? It's overwhelm. Overwhelm of not knowing where to start. Overwhelm of not knowing where to start, overwhelm of not knowing what to teach, overwhelm about the technical areas of creating and launching your course and, especially, the overwhelm of that feeling I am not enough, I'm not expert enough, I'm not unique enough, I'm not prepared enough the list goes on and on. If you've been even a little curious to know whether or not you could create a digital course, but you have some, or maybe all of these fears that I mentioned. If these fears are stopping you, stay with me, if you're okay with it.
Speaker 3:I want to jump right into this first idea. I'm so overwhelmed by all the things. I don't even know where to start that one, let's talk about it. This is like quicksand for every entrepreneur A looming mountain of tasks between you, tasks you don't even know what they are yet. Between you and that vision you have to create this profitable digital course, that overwhelming feeling will suck you right in and make sure you go nowhere. So here's what I want to encourage you to think about. You don't need to have all the answers. You just need to commit for yourself and your business and take the best next step. I'm going to share some examples of what it looks like to take the next best step, one at a time in a second here. But again, I believe to my core that a digital course is the single most powerful and strategic way to make an impact in the world and grow your income without locking yourself into trading time for money. So please don't let the fear of not knowing where to start or what next step to take be the thing that stops you.
Speaker 3:I want to tell you about one of my students, corinne Gerhart. So this is a great example. So Corinne owned a dog walking and pet sitting company. Holidays and weekends were her busy times, which is no fun, right? She didn't get to participate in these holidays and weekends. She was working.
Speaker 3:Through her business, she started earning a reputation as the doodle expert, and I love this because my dog Scout he's a Labradoodle, so I'm loving this. She actually wondered if she could leverage this experience as the doodle expert to help solve her scalability and flexibility issues with her current company, but she didn't know exactly where to get started. So, despite her fears and I want to mention this, every single successful student I've worked with they all have the fears you have now. They all have the doubts they all started. So, despite her fears and I want to mention this, every single successful student I've worked with they all have the fears you have now. They all have the doubts. They all have the obstacles. I promise you you're no different, I promise.
Speaker 3:So, despite her fears, she took her next best step and started the Doodle Pro podcast, and it did really well. And before long she ended up selling her dog walking business and went all in on just doodles, and that's when she decided to create a specific doodle course. The result $14,000 on her very first launch. Plus, she made an additional $9,500 from a membership that she offered with her course launch. So she paired it with something else. Now Corinne wrote me soon after and this is what she said the money win is so great, but the best part for me is that I got my life back. This is the stuff I live for, my friend. Okay, here's another one, if you're feeling stressed because the process itself feels like it's just way too much, like you don't know exactly what to do. But you know it's a lot of steps, so that's just stressing you out.
Speaker 3:So my student Raya she struggled with acne at a young age and she wanted to help people who faced her same struggles. So she became an esthetician and she started in a brick and mortar. She started a brick and mortar business. She was 23 years old and it was just a tiny little room and zero clients. But she quickly experienced success and she grew both her team and her business. So she did good. And then she started to hear about digital courses and she immediately saw an opportunity to help struggling and burned out estheticians build successful businesses like hers. She had success so she wanted to teach other people how she got that success. But here's the thing she didn't know where to start. So Raya created a course and it was called the six figure beauty business blueprint. Now, because she wasn't sure what to do with this course like how to get it out there she just showed up every day on Instagram and she started to promote her course. She started to tell everybody about it. She had 105 signups and $105,000 launch before her course was ever even made.
Speaker 3:Because I teach my students to come up with your concept, outline your course, get really clear on what you're going to teach and what you're going to deliver, and then promote it before you ever create it, because I never want you to create a course that no one wants to buy. So when you put it out into the world, it's validation that this thing is worth creating. Now I followed up with Rayette and she told me this is what she said. Quote making online courses doesn't have to be hard. It can be easy, and you can tailor the strategy to your business however you like. End quote. And she's totally right. The truth is, when I started 15 years ago, no one told me that it can be easy, and I really struggled in the beginning because I didn't have any guide to kind of show me how to get started. So I wish I had heard from Rhea way back when. Now, here's the thing If you're listening and you start to feel overwhelmed, because maybe you're thinking I don't even know what I would teach, or maybe you're afraid to put all this time and energy into creating a course without knowing if people will actually buy it, which I just mentioned, right? So I get that, and I want you to stay with me, because I have a really great resource that I'm going to share at the end of this training that will help with this. Okay, in the meantime, though, I've got to tell you about Bell Mills. Okay, this is such a good one.
Speaker 3:So, after spending almost eight years at home with her kids, she decided to take an art class at her local university and she started creating handmade books using salvaged paper. Yeah, handmade books using salvaged paper. One of her teachers asked her to take over one of her classes at the local studio and she started teaching in person in virtual workshops. It was like a great opportunity. She put herself out there, she got this great invite. She's like, yeah, I'll do that.
Speaker 3:However, eventually Belle wanted to find a way to avoid teaching the same class over and over, and also this was a really manual type of thing and she just had to allow her hands to have the opportunity to rest Like it was really taxing on her hands. So she wondered if she could turn her workshops into pre-recorded classes so she could teach a class once and offer it online all the time and beyond her local market. But in her mind it appeared that there were very few digital course students or creators that were actually artists and that kind of concerned her. I'm sure Belle wondered like what if she put all this time and energy into creating a course? What if people don't buy it? What if all this work isn't worth it?
Speaker 3:So she came across a successful fellow artist who was promoting digital courses for her work and she used that as inspiration to take her very own plunge into the digital course space. This is important. It's important to maybe see someone else do it. Now Belle could have said, wait, that person's doing something similar, there's no room for me. No, she thought that person's doing it with success. So that's proof that this could work. I'm gonna be inspired by that. That's the right mindset, my friend. So that this could work. I'm going to be inspired by that. That's the right mindset, my friend.
Speaker 3:So she created an introductory class called Upcycled Bookbinding and offered it at an affordable price so that many people could access it. The result $6,000 from just the pre-sell of her course. 130 people signed up. Now the course was under $100, so it was really affordable, but she made $6,000. That is a lot of money. So she wrote me and this is what she said, quote that initial success has given me the confidence to continue pursuing my dream of being a successful online course creator. With just the pre-sell, I've already accomplished so much more than I thought was possible for online art classes. It's been life-changing for me and now I truly believe I can make a sustainable living as an artist.
Speaker 3:So seeing other people in the space that you're looking to get into again great validation that there is an audience. But it can also lead again to that feeling of overwhelm that I mentioned earlier, that feeling that maybe you're not enough, that question of who am I to be doing this? You see other people doing it online and they look like they have it all together. They look like they're making millions of dollars even though you have no idea. They look like they're the biggest pro at it. So then you look at yourself just getting started and you're like who am I to be doing this? I absolutely felt that 15 years ago and I can promise you 99.9% of my students who get started from scratch, who fast forward, have had amazing success with courses. They, too, felt this way. They tell me this before they get started and then I get to see them shine.
Speaker 3:Also, another thing that might come up for you because it did for me is that I was kind of embarrassed to put myself out there, start promoting myself in my course, because I was just worried about what people would think or say about me. Here's the truth. So back in the day, I used to work for Tony Robbins and when I left there and started my own business, I launched my first digital course and I just did not want to put it out there and my husband was saying like why aren't you putting content out there? Why aren't you promoting this course? And I said I'm really scared about like what will Tony think? What will Tony say? And he's like, babe, I love you, but I'm sorry to break it to you. I think Tony is doing his own thing, building his own business. I don't think he's worried about what you're putting out online. And I laughed and I'm like, okay, you're so right. But what about my old coworkers? What are they going to say? He's like them too. Everyone's doing their own thing.
Speaker 3:And also anyone who puts you down for going after your dreams, for putting yourself out there in this way, I can promise you that they are doing less. What I mean by that is no one doing more than you, no one that's going after their dreams. You know, hustling to make it work. They will never stop and put you down. That's not how it works. So just consider the source, my friend. If they do talk, consider the source. Now back to you.
Speaker 3:Imposter syndrome. That's what this is all about, right? Imposter syndrome. It was such a regular for me. But in the back of my head, even though I was thinking, who am I to be doing this, I kept thinking I think I can help people, though I actually think I can figure this out. There was this little faint voice. I just knew I can figure this out. There was this little faint voice. I just knew I had perspectives that were different from maybe other voices out there. I had different experiences and I really wanted it. I wanted freedom. I wanted to work when I wanted, where I wanted, how I wanted, and I knew digital courses would get me there. It wasn't that nine to five job and it wasn't doing consulting or coaching, because that's one-on-one work, trading time for dollars. I wanted something to give me more freedom, and that's why I stuck with it.
Speaker 3:So here's what I want to offer you when this fear starts to creep up you don't need to be an expert to have a successful digital course. Yeah, you heard me right. I'm going to say it one more time you do not need to be an expert on a subject matter like know everything about it to have a successful digital course. You just need to have a 10% edge a 10% edge over the students that you are going to be teaching. You need to be 10% ahead of those you're teaching and be willing to show them exactly what you did to get the results that you got. So the 10% edge is something that I teach my Digital Course Academy students. It's meant to help you develop your skills and confidence to consistently show up when starting out, knowing you don't have to have everything figured out, just the 10% edge, so that you can teach people what it is that you did for yourself or for somebody else to get results.
Speaker 3:And I think this is the important part. It's all about understanding that you don't need to be years ahead of those that you serve to make an impact. Instead, it's about leaning into the results that you've gotten and choosing to impact those who want to experience the the results that you've gotten, and choosing to impact those who want to experience the same. So you've got to acknowledge your credibility and success, like right now, my friend, you have the 10% edge. You probably have it in a few different ways in, like, the business sense and in a personal sense. Maybe you have an Airbnb that's just crushing it. You know exactly what it takes to have a successful Airbnb. That's a digital course. Maybe you're a project manager and you created some really specific processes and systems that have worked for you and, like really allowed you to climb the ladder as a project manager. That's a course. You could teach that. So we don't need to overthink this and that's important. So what's something that you've accomplished that makes you feel proud, like, think about that, feel that Acknowledge that you did that. Or what's something that people always ask you like, how are you doing that? Or how did you do that? That might be a course.
Speaker 3:The thing is, you've got to just keep showing up. You don't need to have confidence that this is going to crush it right now. You just need to have courage. Think of the first day at a new job. You didn't know the systems or softwares or even where the coffee was at. But six months into this new job, you showed up, solved a problem, got the well done from your boss at maybe a meeting or something. You figured the things out in over a really short period of time. So that's no different. With this, you create your first digital course. You will figure it out as you go and if you let me guide you, we'll get there a whole lot faster. But I'm really here to say you can absolutely figure this out. You already have a successful track record of figuring many other things out before today. Now I do want to share with you one final story, kevin.
Speaker 3:Kevin was a middle school vice principal who taught fitness on the side. He wasn't necessarily a fitness expert and, again, his day job was in education, but he wanted to help other dads like him in fitness, so he kept showing up. He started an Instagram account with just like short workout videos for busy dads. And then people started asking for virtual private coaching for workouts that they could do at home. So he decided to turn his fitness coaching into a digital course. What Kevin did was lean into that 10% edge that I just talked about, and even then his first launch didn't go as planned. But he fine-tuned his content and he relaunched.
Speaker 3:Did you hear that the first launch didn't go as planned? Mine didn't either. I made $267 and then cried for a week, but imagine if Kevin or I had just stopped there. No, we went back and we kind of changed a few things and we dusted ourselves off. After I cried and we got back out there and this is get ready for this.
Speaker 3:So he first launched didn't go as planned. Then he got back out there. He kind of fine-tuned what he was doing. He told himself I'm just gonna start simple and I can get fancy later. So the result? He has now made over $300,000. His best month he brought in $40,000.
Speaker 3:So in less than a year after launching his course, he was able to leave his vice principal role and go all in on digital courses. And this is the best part. Beyond all the money, he now stays home to care for his children while running his business. Again, that's the stuff I live for, and I want to stop here and remind you of this one thing you have a digital course in you. I mean, I hope you've been listening to every single one of these stories. Maybe you're sitting in your work parking lot, maybe you're commuting to and from work, maybe you're cooking lunch or walking or on the elliptical, whatever it is, and you think, yeah, I can do this. I don't know how, but I can do this, even if it's a nervous yes, or there's some doubt on the periphery of that. Yes, I hope you get that. A digital course is doable, not just for them, it's doable for you.
Speaker 1:This, my friend, is what I want you to hear the most. It's doable for you. She's so. She's just the best. I absolutely love her. I hope that you enjoyed this message from her and I want you to take away from it. I want you to think about it First of all. Message from her and I want you to take away from it. I want you to think about it First of all. There were so many different ideas, so many ideas to think of, so you're not limited by. You know just the things that you do in your job. You are able to pick anything that you want.
Speaker 1:I have worked with teacherpreneurs who have done things inside the classroom, like courses that have to do with the classroom work. I know that. I've talked to people that have done things for parents. I have talked to people who wanted to start book clubs that have nothing to do with teaching or parents or anything like that. I have talked to people that there's just so many different ideas that people have come up with and it's really unbelievable. And the thing is is you don't have to be, like Amy said, an expert. You just have to have that 10% edge and the mindset piece. That's a big one. It can be a big one for me as well.
Speaker 1:The imposter syndrome. Even with this, even with my affiliate partnership, I often get that imposter syndrome where I'm like who am I to to ask people to sign up through DCA? Through me, you know, who am I to say that I have something more to offer than somebody else? And the thing is is that I might not have more to offer than someone else. What I can offer is support. It's cheerleading, it's showing up for you week after week for the duration of DCA. I can show up with a small group of fellow teacherpreneurs, teachers, moms, even dads. I can show up and I can help root you on. I can tell you about the things that I've done that have been a mistake. I can help you avoid those mistakes. I can help you talk things out. I can be there for you during this process. That's one of my bonuses.
Speaker 1:I also offer my podcasting course for free. You get that for free. It's like getting two courses for the price of one and it's just. If you want to start a podcast, you don't have to start a podcast, but it's an extra little bonus. I have a few other goodies involved as well, but it's an extra little bonus. I have a few other goodies involved as well, and you can find out more about what it looks like to join with me at Trina Devery teaching and learningcom. Forward slash DCA, devery. All one word DCA Devery. So I hope that you would consider joining through me. If you decide to join Digital Course Academy, it really is such a game changer. It's more than creating a digital course. It's more than creating and launching a digital course. It is such a community. It is such a lesson in marketing. It is. It's just. It really is an unbelievable experience.
Speaker 1:Now I told you I would share at the end something that happened the other day. I have a dear friend. He's a teacherpreneur. He's a teacher and a teacherpreneur and he's been on my podcast a couple of times. I think he's so great.
Speaker 1:So he reached out to me and he said I know that. He said he had started listening to Amy Porterfield's two-week notice and he said he wasn't planning on quitting, but anyway, so he was listening to that and that I was a big advocate of her stuff and I'd love to know what makes you such a big fan of her work. And I was like all right, let me tell you. And I said, okay, here it is what I like about Amy. She is genuine and real. She isn't afraid to be vulnerable. She knows her stuff and teaches in a way that makes sense, even on the backside of her launches, which I have been a part of. She shows up and serves. She is generous, kind and grateful. She's also very smart. I've been an affiliate partner in other areas and nothing has ever compared to the experience that I have had with Amy.
Speaker 1:And then I told him that this would likely be my last year partnering, and not because I don't love it or love her or love working with other teacherpreneurs, it's that I really need to focus myself. I really need to hone in and focus. Anyway, I don't know if that gives you the information you need, but those are just my feelings and thoughts about Amy. I'll always be a super fan, and so then I was thinking you know, sometimes when we are creating courses or when we're in our business, when we're doing things, we don't get told often enough how great we are. So I was like I'm going to write this to her, I'm going to actually tell her all these things. So I wrote her and I told her you know that I had a friend that reached out and then I shared what I said and I, you know, told her that I was a fan and how much she's meant to me and and I felt a little emotional when I sent it and I was like there's no way you're ever going to see this and I'm sure you're, you're, you know you're not going to see it and it's not going to be.
Speaker 1:You know she's not going to. I mean, she it's on Instagram, so she's not going to see it. But she totally did see it and she wrote she sent me back a voice memo and I was like and it was not like a generic voice memo, it wasn't like a pre-recorded memo, she actually was specifically talking about my message and she wouldn't have been able to say that in advance and it was just the most. It was just such a kind message. I don't want to share it because it feels personal. But I just felt like and even sharing that message feels personal, but I just want you to know like that's what it looks like on the other side when somebody is asking me a question and they want, you know, an honest answer, and that's how I truly feel about her. So I thought I would just share that little part with you. It definitely made my day, yeah. So again, digital Course Academy is open and if you'd like to join through me, I'd love to have you.
Speaker 3:So, before I hop off, I wanted to share that my signature program, digital Course Academy, is open for enrollment, but only until September 26th. I only offer this course once a year and while you go through the course, I'm live in a community for 11 weeks answering your questions and supporting you. So remember you only have until September 26th or you have to wait an entire year. So, inside Digital Course Academy, I take you step by step by step through how to create, market and launch a digital course from scratch. So it's a self-paced program. You get to go at your own pace. I'll cover it all, from coming up with your idea to mapping out your lessons, to recording your trainings. I'll teach you how to pre-sell your course to get some upfront cash, how to create a webinar that feels really good with zero ick, and how to put together a proven sales page and high converting sales email series that are simple as to do but really, really sell. And I'm gonna teach you how to automate your digital course so you don't have to live launch every year if you don't want to. It's the program that tens of thousands of digital course creators have trusted, including our lovely host of this podcast, to uncomplicate the process of pulling this off, even if you're a one man or one woman show, even if you've launched a digital course before where you've had less than thrilling results. Digital Course Academy closes enrollment on September 26th and it won't open again until next year.
Speaker 3:So if you want to learn every step of course creation and marketing with technology, how, to's and templates that will save you time and 15 years of digital course success backing you up, now's the time. All you need to do is go to the link in the show notes to grab your spot. And here's the deal. I want you to be the next Corinne or Raya or Bell or Kevin, or actually. I just want you to be the next Corinne or Raya or Belle or Kevin, or actually. I just want you to be the next you with a lot of digital course success.
Speaker 3:And here's the thing I wanna brag about you the next time I do a podcast episode like this, I wanna talk about everything you've done, the mindset hurdles you overcame to get started. I wanna share your juicy revenue numbers, like everything. So, friend, I want to talk about your digital course success, and that means you've got to get started. So thank you so much for tuning in. I've loved being here and thanks for letting me nerd out about digital courses. It's like my favorite topic and I really do hope I see you inside of Digital Course Academy and if really do hope I see you inside of Digital Course Academy and if you need it one more time, the link to join Digital Course Academy, which is everything you need to create and sell a highly successful digital course. It's in the show notes, all right. Thanks again for tuning in. I'll see you soon.
Speaker 1:Bye for now, and just in case you don't have access to the show notes, it's Trina Debery, teachingandlearningcom. Forward slash, dca Debery, and remember Teacherpreneurs. I am proud to stand among you and, if you're feeling it, I'd love for you to rate, review and subscribe to the show so you don't miss a thing. You can also catch me on Facebook at Teacherpreneurs Raise your Hand, or on my website, trina Devery, teaching and Learning. Teacherpreneurs, raise your Hand. I'll catch you next time. No-transcript.