Stevie Says Social Podcast

A couple of years ago, I had a profound epiphany that changed my business and my life forever.At the time, my digital course business was rapidly growing, revenue was skyrocketing. Had more students than ever.On paper – I had achieved the success that I had thought I so desperately wanted.I should have felt happy, excited and full of pride.Here’s how I felt instead:

REPEAT AFTER ME: DO NOT MANAGE YOUR BUSINESS BY LOOKING AT YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.Hands up if you're guilty of this!Here's what it looks like:Opening up your banking app.Taking a quick squeeze and using the "cash in the bank" to assess the "health" of your business.Making decisions on spend based on the figure you see.Rinse, repeat.It's normal for a LOT of businesses to operate this way.The truth is though? It's problematic, ESPECIALLY so, when you have a business that has inherently "lumpy" income. Lumpy income means that you don't have a consistent "amount" ending up in your bank account each and every week, and it's really common for course creators (and all online business owners).Oftentimes, we're launching so we will get a big cash injection in one month thanks to pay in full payments, and then slower months where you have MRR (monthly recurring revenue) from older payment plans still coming in. Or you might sell year round (no launch

TRUTHBOMB: You DON’T have to scale your business to the moon (and in fact, the pursuit of doing so might be costing you dearly). Here's how to set yourself up for LIFE - both in terms of revenue, wealth and your TIME (aka the ultimate freedom) - and enjoy the ride along the way. In this episode, we discussed:✔️ Stop listening to people with a completely different endgame to you;✔️ Swap "scale" for "simplicity";✔️ Go deep, not wide;✔️ Create very specific organic content;✔️ Stay small and serve deeply;✔️ Grow slowly;✔️ Watch your time;✔️ Invest cashflow;✔️ Don't sacrifice your health;✔️ And MORE!Full show notes for this episode can be found at:https://thecoursecartel.com/184----------Want more?

Who needs to get more eyeballs on their business without spending a cent?*Everyone raises hand*It's critically important, and even more so RIGHT NOW. Attention is currency, and the more you are able to command it, the more competitive you will be in the marketplace. From the very start of our business, we have relied heavily on organic strategies to grow our business. The power of doing so?1) Increased Profit Margins: Having an organic audience means you can spend less on paid advertising -- meaning higher profit margins for your business. 2) Higher Conversion Rates: Organic traffic converts at a higher rate than paid traffic, because there is a "know, like and trust" factor. 3) Fuels Paid Traffic: Having a paid strategy alone is no longer recommended even by paid ad agencies; complementing your paid ad traffic strategies with organic reach strategies helps to warm those leads up to "stick" and convert.4) Avoid Commoditisation: A strong organic reach strategy combined with thought lea

Tough love-bomb

Next up in our Podcast Best Of session, we revisit Why Starting THIS Podcast is BEST Thing We’ve Done — Ever (And What We'd Do Differently If We Were Starting Today)!Starting my podcast is hands down, without a doubt, the single most powerful and highest ROI marketing strategy I have ever adopted in my business. It is almost singlehandedly responsible for 40% of enrolments into our Launchpad program, and for the remaining 60% it is a significant warm up strategy for people who “found” us through other means. We know, because we ask.In this throwback  episode, I am going to give you a behind the scenes breakdown of the exact impact that podcasting has had on our business, how you can expect it to impact your business if you were to start one, and what I would do differently if I was starting out today.✔️  Who Is Podcasting Best Suited To?✔️  What Role Does a Podcast Play in Your Content Marketing Strategy?✔️  What Tangible Impact Has Podcasting Had on Our Business?✔️  Would We Still Start a Podcast Today?

First up in our walk down memory lane, we revisit for Podcast Best Of how our podcast makes us $8,300 an hour!“I don’t have TIME to start a podcast...”“The tech is overwhelming, I don’t know where to start...”“But what if I run out of topic ideas?”If you’ve EVER considered starting a podcast, it’s likely that one of these “buts” have stopped you dead in your tracks. And, I get it.In a world where we’re all frantically trying trying to run a business, maintain a social life, juggle family, drink enough water, text everyone back, stay sane, survive and be happy (PHEW), adding another ‘thing’ to the list can feel like the actual definition of insanity.Plus, you need a mic, you need to learn how to edit, and -- sure you could probably Google it but every time you do -- it feels like you’re drinking water from a fire house. Not to mention the imposter syndrome that creeps in every time it enters your mind like, "Who am I to start a podcast?” Says your mean girl/guy brain."Why ME?! What if I run out of id

No one wants a marketing plan, but EVERYONE wants to make more money, right? And even more so, they want to do it in a way that doesn't mean posting 132 Instagram stories, labouring for hours over their next Instagram post, wasting precious time trying to come up with content ideas and dropping BIG money on ads with no ROI to show for it -- right? And that, my friends, is the power of a simple, powerful marketing plan. So, let's breakdown the process we used inside of our own business this year to build out a marketing plan in an hour, and to then spend no more than 5 hours a week making it come to life. This is the strategy we will be using to further establish our authority and go-to status in our industry, to ensure that we are attracting perfect fit clients into our business and to create a bulletproof attraction system that brings BOTH new people into our ecosystem and primes the ones already in it to purchase from us. You ready? In this episode, we discussed:✔️ Where a Marketing Plan Sits in t

Want to create custom, bespoke and BEAUTIFUL delivery experiences for my students to separate me from others in the industry, AND to create beautiful sales pages and assets to boot, too? KLEQ is an "all-in-one" course platform that is completely customisable from a design perspective, and enables you to create an ENTIRELY bespoke student experience for your courses and programs that look COMPLETELY unique to you. For just a few days, the KLEQ team are offering a $1 trial for 30 days, and (wait for it) 50% OFF your first five months. Check out KLEQ here!Brand power is the sum of all of the elements that make up the strength of a business or person’s brand and how they are perceived in the eyes of prospects.It influences someone's decision to buy heavily... and in some cases, FAR MORE than the actual sales process, funnel or launch event set up to make sales.There could be two people or businesses with identical launch events, or evergreen funnels, or sales call processes... and they would experi

There are two ways to win at online business.One? Brute force. “Hustling” all of the hours. A focus on “being productive”. Being a good little “worker bee” and working long, hard hours to elbow your way into the success that you so desire..The other? Working “smart”. Focusing on EFFICIENCY over productivity. Setting up structures, systems and automations to create a high profit margin digital business without a big team or long hours. Building out customer lifetime value and increasing average order value to make MORE money with FEWER sales, reducing complexity and allowing you to serve your people deeply and get (handsomely) compensated for it.I know which I’d rather. In today’s podcast episode, we speak to John Lint. John is the founder of “all in one” online course software KLEQ. KLEQ is an incredibly powerful tool that allows you to work efficiently, to automate and streamline your online course processes, to save BIG on individual software subscriptions and to implement SMART strategies for making MORE p

A business, a baby, a rebrand, oh my! 2022 has been big, beautiful and bloody tough at times.In today's podcast episode, we are digging into this year's year in review, something that I do every year and which gives me an opportunity to reflect on the year. In this podcast, we cover:

The journey from brand new digital course creator to what we like to call the "Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot" -- earning $250k+ in profits, working 5-hour days with a clear calendar and a lean, remote team -- involves a number of distinct "seasons" and phases. As much as the online course industry would love to have you believe that you can launch an online course or program, put it on evergreen and sip margaritas on the beach, it doesn't quite work that way. The good news? It's SO possible for you. The real talk, though? It involves grit, resilience and perseverence. You've gotta be good (and dedicated.) And it requires a few years of work SO THAT you can live the way that most others want to. If it was easy, everyone would do it. In today's podcast episode, we are defining exactly what we mean by a "Lifestyle Business", and the several phases you need to move through as a current or aspiring digital course creator before you hit what we like to call the &quo

Newsflash: Becoming a successful business owner (course creation included) takes courage, tenacity and grit.Helena Nikola, founder and creative director of Helena Nikola Interior Studio and Home Done Differently, is a Perth-based interior architect and designer creating multi-layered and emotive homes with her signature flourish of élan.The way Helena took learnings from her first launch to pivot into a $30k launch on the final day is proof of that (not to mention? Her launch ALSO cascaded into several HUNDRED thousand dollars for her service business too - wild).Would you like to know how Helena Nikola made $30k in the last days of her first launch?In this podcast, we cover:

"I want to create a digital course but I hate the idea of launching or showing up live!""I'd love a successful course but I have a little one and I'm time poor!""I'm not in a business niche.. do hobby courses even make money?""I hate social media - can I still create a successful course?"If you have asked yourself ANY of these questions or had ANY of these thoughts, this episode with the lovely Mathilde Kien is MADE for you!Mathilde is a French teacher and podcaster. She's the host of the French Made Easy podcast with over 2 million downloads (and counting.) She helps thousands of beginners speak French clearly and confidently from the comfort of their homes through her podcast and online courses.In today’s podcast episode, we delve into how our Launchpad client Mathilde came into the program with an established course business, grew her evergreen webinar opt-in page conversion to 67% and how she fits course creation and Launchpad in around her young

If you've ever coasted along, unsure when to finally take the leap and REALLY make the most of your life, Victoria's story will hopefully inspire you to get started without it taking a significant health event to put everything into perspective. In 2020, Victoria had a health scare that forced her to reprioritise the things that really mattered in her life and to finally make the waves of impact in the leadership space that would make a real difference.Victoria Brown helps new and emerging leaders bust through all the leadership BS, and become please-let-me-work-for-you baddie #bosses. After an 18 year career working on incredible brands (like Air New Zealand, Village Roadshow, BBC and Swarovski) where she has led amazing teams and worked with jaw-dropping talent all over the world, Victoria obsessed with helping new leaders who want to do things differently. Her business Brighten Project offers leadership coaching and team development for leaders who want to smash through ceilings and achieve epic

If you've ever felt like your industry has too many rules or regulations to create an online course, that you don't have the time or that it's all too hard - you need Lucy in your life.Lucy Percy  is an expert estate planning lawyer, and the founder of online law firm Head and Heart Estate Planning. Around  the time Lucy joined Launchpad in December 2021, she was due to undergo huge changes and committed to prioritising creating a course SO THAT she could set her family up for the future and create more time freedom in the long term. Lucy's approach and the Head and Heart Estate Planning framework is so unique because it is a complete solution including the must-have legals, but also ensuring her clients are leaving a legacy of love and passing on their important life admin knowledge. Lucy's course, Future Proof Your Family has allowed her to deliver her highly valuable and unique services using a hybrid model, at an inclusive investment price to protect more families.In today's

Ever told yourself that you don't have the TIME to create an online course? What if you were to switch "I don't have time" for "I'm not making this a priority," and you were to see how that feels? That's exactly what Britt did when, 12 months ago, she committed to prioritising creating a course SO THAT she could free up more of her time in the long term. As a social media manager, Britt's time was capped - she didn't want to scale to be a big agency. With clients consistently enquiring about her services but no ability to serve them without burning out, she joined our Launchpad program. Just five months later, she had sold out her Foundation Round, and 12 weeks after that had created her Instagram content course, Conquer Your Content. In today's podcast episode, Britt walks through her journey as a course creator, why it's not all piña coladas on the beach and her honest account of 12 months growing a new business model.  In this podcast, we cover:

There is a real “trend” at the moment of creating offer after offer; course after course. At best, it’s a tired approach to “doing” an online education. At worst, it has the potential to cause reputational damage and operational chaos. Here’s why.

You'd think that hitting $100k, or $500k, or $1 million in online sales would mean you've MADE it, right? I mean, all of your revenue goals have come true! You're awesome! You did it! Everything is PERFECT!Only... so often, that ISN'T actually the case. In fact, experiencing that "first taste" of success is often a dangerous place to be in. It's very easy at this point in your online course business to fall into the "trappings" of success, and commit one of what we like to call the "Seven Deadly Experienced Online Course Creator Sins". I know, because I've been there myself. In today's podcast episode, we'll be covering the Seven Deadly Experience Course Creator Sins, why they are so common, and why I personally feel so passionately about helping others avoid them. So much so, that SOLVING these problems is going to be a 'central pillar' in our business rebrand!Here’s the seven deadly ‘online business sins’ newly minted course cre

Welcome to the LIFESTYLE BUSINESS SWEET SPOT.  Our new business brand, The Course Cartel, is hellbent on achieving it, in living in it, and in helping other like-minded, ambitious good humans live in it too. It's our ethos. Our unique approach to "doing" online business. Our mission. And now, the focus of our 2.0 Podcast, aptly ALSO named the "Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot". Today heralds the beginning of our new era as we introduce our NEW podcast to you, and just as importantly, our NEW business brand. The mission across both is the same; to cultivate a collective of people all aligned towards a common goal: The Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot -- An impactful digital course business earning $250k+/year profit, working 5-hours days, with a mostly clear calendar and a lean, remote team. We're NOT one of those businesses that sugarcoat the work to get there: From start to finish, it's a three to five year journey. We're also not for everyone, and that's okay. Maybe sc