162: Turn Passion Into Profit: Inspiration for Course Creators | Featuring Guest Amy Porterfield
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This transcript has been automatically generated.
Bonnie Christine:
My friends, I have such an incredibly special guest on the show for you today. So excited to invite Amy Porterfield back. Today, we're talking all things digital courses. Now I think that you're very familiar with Amy. Amy is someone who I've personally learned tons from over the years. But if you are new to her, let me introduce her. Amy Porterfield, founder, New York Times bestselling author of 2 Weeks Notice and host of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast is an online marketing expert who has turned her journey into a roadmap for others. With her top ranked podcast, best selling courses, and action by action approach, Amy demonstrates that even the newest online entrepreneurs can overcome overwhelm and create a business that they love. Our conversation today is so incredibly rich. Whether you are just starting out or more advanced in your business, you're gonna take away so many ideas on how you could develop or include education in your business lineup.
Bonnie Christine:
You know, this is a topic that I'm super passionate about, so let's dive in. I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains running a multi 7 figure business doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today, I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.
Bonnie Christine:
I'm so excited to welcome our very special guest today, Amy Porterfield. Welcome back to the show.
Amy Porterfield:
Oh, my gosh, my friend. I'm so happy to be here. This is I've been looking forward to this all day.
Bonnie Christine:
Well, we had you on over 100 episodes ago.
Amy Porterfield:
Really? It's been that long? Jeez. It's been that long.
Bonnie Christine:
And so the first time you were here on the show, we were talking about 2 weeks notice, your book. And I would love to get an update from you. How I mean, I know, but for the listeners, please share some news about the book and where you're at with it now.
Amy Porterfield:
That feels like a lifetime ago, but, really, it was just about a little over a year ago, and, I am happy to report we became a New York Times bestseller with that book, stayed on the list for 2 weeks, which is really exciting. And here's the bigger news, though. The New York Times is a little bit of an ego boost. However, the stories that have come from this, the people who have literally left the jobs they no longer love and created online businesses with courses and memberships and and masterminds, it's like the best thing I ever hear. Sometimes I'm out and about and someone will say, I quit my job because of your book and I it's like my favorite thing to hear. So, it's been a really great amazing ride since the book came out.
Bonnie Christine:
Incredible. And, Amy, you're probably best known for your podcast, Online Marketing Made Easy. So can you tell us a little bit about the podcast? This is where I learned about you so many years ago and have learned so much from you ever since. Where are you at with the podcast?
Amy Porterfield:
So it started in 2013, so it's been around for a very long time. And, you know, when I started the podcast, I wasn't sure if it was the right move. In 2013, podcasts were starting to kinda become popular, but it wasn't like everyone and their mother had one. And now it seems that way, but still there's so much room for new podcasts. So anyone listening that thinks they wanna start 1, I still think it's the best way to, get your name and your content out there in a way that is feels very organic. So I'm a huge fan of podcasting. But, yeah, I started it in 2013. We're up to 700 and something episodes to date, and it's where I get to teach everything that I know in a way that I get to tell stories and examples and student successes, and it's it's the thing that I spend the most time on.
Amy Porterfield:
We do 2 episodes a week, and I'm constantly thinking about and creating for the podcast. And, also, I always say this, I wouldn't have the business I had to have today without my podcast. I think it was a really important part of building my brand.
Bonnie Christine:
Do you know the numbers? Do you know how many downloads you're too?
Amy Porterfield:
We've had over 65,000,000 downloads. We get 100s of thousands of downloads a month or even sometimes in the 1st week. So it's been a huge success for us.
Bonnie Christine:
Yeah. Well, I can attest to that because, you know, my podcast is just a year and change old. We did hit 1,000,000,000 downloads.
Amy Porterfield:
That's huge. I mean, that's a lot of people listening to a podcast.
Bonnie Christine:
That is a lot of people. But I put off starting it so long because I thought the lie I I believed in the same lie that it was way too far gone, should have started it 10 years ago or 5 years ago, and finally did it, and it's been the best thing that we've ever done.
Amy Porterfield:
That makes me so happy. I can't believe it's just been a year. I feel like you've been podcasting for way longer than that.
Bonnie Christine:
Nope. Okay. So a few more stats I wanna get to. How many students have you impacted through your course, digital course academy?
Amy Porterfield:
So we have helped over 90,000 students move through my digital courses, but the majority of them have been through digital course academy. And that number blows my mind. And here's the thing, many of them came into the program starting from scratch. They didn't have an email list. They didn't have a website. They didn't have a business, and they wanted a course to start their business. But a lot of those people in the 90,000, they used it to start a side hustle while they were still in their 9 to 5 job. And then many of them used it to move from 1 on 1 coaching into digital courses so that they didn't hit that ceiling of revenue. So they're from all walks of life, all ages. I've got one that's 16 years old and a 65 year old. I love that. Like, so many different ages and so many different walks of life have made their way through Digital Course Academy.
Bonnie Christine:
Yeah. So we're gonna talk all things digital courses today. I love that you and I are coming together on this topic. Yeah. You are hands down the expert in the industry for digital courses. We're gonna talk about coming to a digital course from a beginner perspective, maybe also from a more established perspective. Would you share with us how much revenue you've earned through your digital courses?
Amy Porterfield:
Yes, so we've been in business for 15 years. And before I say the number, I wanna say that my very first digital course, I made $267, and then I cried for a week, told myself I wasn't cut out to be an online marketer or online business owner, and then I dusted myself off and put myself back out there. And over the last 15 years, we've generated over a $100,000,000 in revenue.
Bonnie Christine:
That is a number that is hard to even wrap your mind around.
Amy Porterfield:
I agree, my friend. Here's the better part of that story, and this is something I teach my students, and I know you've experienced this. The beauty of digital courses and even memberships and and outlets like that, the profit margin is incredible. So our profit margin, we have a pretty big team, so that cuts into our profit margin, but ours is between 40-45% every year. When you talk to someone who is a brick and mortar, it's like 4% sometimes if they're lucky, especially restaurants and different industries like that. So to have a business where I have 24 full time employees and I'm still making a 40% profit, it blows my mind, but a lot of my students are 50 to 60% profit cause they have a lean team and a really successful course.
Bonnie Christine:
I can remember being at 60 or 70%
Amy Porterfield:
Right. I was gonna say, I remember you saying that.
Bonnie Christine:
No. I was all by myself, which is not really recommended.
Amy Porterfield:
Right. But still, I remember you talking about that. So it's absolutely possible to have a beautiful profit margin and keep a really lean team.
Bonnie Christine:
So before we really dive into it, I thought we'd go back to when you and I met.
Amy Porterfield:
Yeah.
Bonnie Christine:
You and I met in 2019. We met one time before that. I don't know if you remember, but it was, it was at Stu's Mastermind. You came and we met there.
Amy Porterfield:
What? Before 2,000 19? Before. Oh my gosh. So long ago.
Bonnie Christine:
Yeah. But just kind of casually. And then in 2019, we were in this we were at an event together, the same mastermind. And we just so happened to sit next to each other. And now I came in knowing you and looking forward so much to getting to know you. I don't know that you came in knowing me.
Amy Porterfield:
In my mind, I've had two thoughts. First of all, who is this woman with the best hair I've ever seen in my life? I couldn't get over your hair. And number 2, you open your mouth, and I remember saying to Stu, one of the smartest women I've met, and I promise you I said that. I think you're so strategic and so smart, and the way you run your business is so dialed in. That's what I say. When I tell people about you, I say her business is so dialed in. She knows exactly how to run a lean, profitable business. So I was impressed from the minute you opened your mouth.
Bonnie Christine:
Well, I think it was fate that we sat next to each other because we just seem to totally hit it off. I love your mind. I love your heart. I love your sense of humor, and we've been friends ever since. So it's so so good to have you here. It feels so natural.
Amy Porterfield:
Thank you, my friend.
Bonnie Christine:
I don't know if I've ever told you this, but I never set out to educate. Did you know that?
Amy Porterfield:
No. Tell me more.
Bonnie Christine:
Never wanted to teach. You know, my biggest goal was to become a fabric designer. It's all I wanted to do. And this opportunity kinda fell in my lap, long story, to teach. It was so big that I had to do it, so I did it. And I got home and collapsed in thought, phew, like, so glad that's over. I was so nervous. I was in front of a crowd. And it was not until stories from that started rolling in about the impact that it had had. And I didn't fully embrace it for nearly 5 years. I didn't fight it, but I just didn't fully embrace it. And over and over and over again, it just showed my students, the community, the world just showed me that this was part of my bigger calling. And so I went all in in 2018. Since then, we've generated $25,000,000 in our education business. And so we're throwing insane numbers around. But truly, you and I both started at just, no money, 0 experience, 0 credentials really, and built this. And so that's really where I wanna go with our conversation today is for those who are interested in possibly adding education to their, you know, their business, what it could look like. And I wanna invite you who are listening to just dream with me and Amy a little bit.
Bonnie Christine:
We're gonna get tactical. We're gonna get strategic. We're also gonna invite you to come to Amy's boot camp, which is coming up, for anyone who's interested in in seeing what a digital course could look like for them. Yes. I'm excited. So, Amy, right now, I know many creatives in my circle who would love to add teaching to what they do, and they hesitate. And they hesitate, I think, for one kind of fear of what other people will think of them. Like, oh, you're adding education.
Bonnie Christine:
Now you're gonna make income from that. Almost like this vibe of you're selling out or something. And I have been on the last, maybe, 6 months on a mission to just completely destroy that perspective because I'm so grateful for the people who went ahead of me and taught. I also feel like we're really called to teach what we know, especially as creators. I would love to hear your take on this.
Amy Porterfield:
Absolutely. Here's the thought. When you were saying that, I thought, okay. So if you feel like, I've never taught before and if I start to teach, maybe I'll be a sellout or people will think like, oh, now she's making money doing that. And then I started to think, okay. Think about this is for everyone listening. Think about your favorite teachers, instructors, people that inspired you to do what you're doing.
Amy Porterfield:
Imagine if they had that thought. I can't teach this. I don't know enough, or this isn't really what I was set out to do, or other people are gonna think this or that of me, and they never ever were your teacher or mentor. That's life changing to you. And so when I say all that, I mean, you have a responsibility that if it's on your heart that you want to teach other people what you know, I feel like that's a responsibility and a beautiful one, but also imagine what you can speak into other people's lives, what you could do for them, the transformation that you can add or encourage them to make in their own life. Like, I just feel like there's something so beautiful there that you're you're short changing yourself and others if you don't at least explore it.
Bonnie Christine:
I mean, I think about you when I think about that. What if after you had your first course launch? What if you had decided, nope, I can't do it. It's not for me. And then all of these 90,000 people students, all of your podcast downloads, and people like me who hadn't been able to learn from you along the way. So I'm so glad that you decided to keep going.
Amy Porterfield:
I feel I am so happy that happy is a silly word. I'm so honored that I get to do what I do, and I thank God that I didn't give up when I when I really wanted to. You know how, people worry about what other people will think or say? Well, I'm 15 years in and that hasn't gone away. I wish it has. I can catch it faster, but it still shows up for me. But when I made $267, I remember thinking, what are people going to say about this? What are they going to think of me? And my friend reminded me, no one knows how much you made unless you tell everyone no one has any idea if you sold 1 course or a 100. And I realized, oh, maybe I'll keep my mouth shut on this first one. But we think people are watching and talking about us. Most people are just interested in what doing anyway, so we gotta kinda put it in perspective.
Bonnie Christine:
Yeah. Oh, I love that. I also wanna talk about kind of the benefits of teaching. I think, especially even already with what we've talked about, people automatically think about the revenue. And it is one of the most beautiful, truly beautiful revenue streams you can have in your business. But aside from that, there are so many incredible benefits. I think it's been the most benefit rich thing I've personally ever done. Meaning, it's helped me master my topic better than ever before.
Bonnie Christine:
It has helped me impact people in a way that I've never thought was possible. Could you speak a little bit to maybe the unknown or less obvious benefits to adding education into your business?
Amy Porterfield:
I love I've never been asked this question. I love this question. So when I think about, you know, benefits beyond the revenue, and at the end of the day, that's the least important thing when you think about what matters most, and it's a great thing, but also there's other things more important. You already hit hit it on the head at the some of them. When I think about educating, one, I think personally what it's done for me. I am a better leader, a better communicator. I am so much better at creating something from nothing. Like, a lot of people cannot do that.
Amy Porterfield:
I couldn't do it 15 years ago. But when you keep at it and you keep at it, you'd be amazed how easy it becomes to create from scratch, and I think that's a beautiful skill to have. I also think about the fact that I have taught myself to understand people in such a deeper way. You cannot create a course, market a course, and have success with the course if you don't deeply care who's on the other end of that. So I've learned how to listen better. I've learned how to ask the right questions. I've learned how to pitch and catch with people so I could add value in the moment. I also am way better than I've ever been at off the cuff. Now I am a planner. I am assuming you are too, my friend.
Bonnie Christine:
Yeah.
Amy Porterfield:
Okay. I like to plan everything. I like to script everything. I like it all to be buttoned up before I present anything, but that's not always the case, especially when you doing it have been doing it as long as I have. You're gonna have to kinda learn to be off the cuff more. That was hard for me. That was something that I was not good at in the beginning. And now over the years, you sit me down in a chair and don't give me any notes because I know what I know from doing it for so long, I'm on fire.
Amy Porterfield:
I've never loved to be on video. So I want everyone to hear this that if you're watching or listening to this or whatever it is, if you give me the option to be on video or not, I will always choose no video. This is not my favorite thing. However, anyone I talk to will say, Amy's good on video. And that is just because I have practiced it over and over again. And now anytime I'm invited anywhere, I know I can hold my own. So I guess I wanna say with all of these different, like, kind of hidden benefits or things we don't talk about enough, it all comes down to confidence. I was someone who had zero confidence on the day I left my 9 to 5 job and started my business and had no idea what I was going to do.
Amy Porterfield:
And over the years, as I've practiced teaching and learning about my students and understanding how to create content, my confidence soared. And so but it took a while for sure. And so those are all huge benefits of learning to teach in the capacity that I do.
Bonnie Christine:
Yes. This entire list of soft skills that you don't necessarily set out to develop, but they're invaluable when you do, like speaking, like being on camera, like being super empathetic. I just recently pulled some videos of my early teaching years. Maybe there's
Amy Porterfield:
Oh my gosh. Don't give me a heart attack. I've done the same and it's
Bonnie Christine:
I cannot. I cannot. So when you want to expand and also, I think professionally, it has brought us together, whereas I don't think I would ever have been in that room had education not been a part of my business.
Amy Porterfield:
Great point.
Bonnie Christine:
And so it gets you into just this completely different kind of space. I know that something else that you've shared before is that maybe digital courses as a topic is not your lifelong passion, but seeing the results of your students is. And so every time you hear someone who's been able to quit a job that they hated or or wanted to get away from and been able to create a a truly a career that just lights them up through what they've learned through what you teach, that's the joy. So tell me a little bit more about the impact education has had on you from just a fulfillment perspective of seeing people impacted through what you teach.
Amy Porterfield:
I love that you brought up that, like, digital courses are not necessarily my passion, but it's what digital courses do for my students and myself. That's absolutely true. I don't wake up in the morning and think, I wanna teach everyone how to create a course. Like, it's not, like, the first thing, but I do wake up in the morning and think, I know there's a woman out there that is looking for something different and more freedom, and she wants to make her own money, and I know I have a solution for that. So getting really clear on your why, we've heard it a 1000000 times, is really important. And so when I do what I do because of what it's able to what it's afforded me, but also my students. So, for example, I have a student. Her name is Lacey, and she's a hairstylist, and she works behind the chair.
Amy Porterfield:
And if you think about a job like that, she is literally on her feet every single day. And if she can't show up for work and stand on her feet for 8 hours, she is not making any money. And she realized that that got to a point that there's it's just it was too much on her body. It was not fulfilling her anymore, but she didn't wanna totally leave her niche. She just wanted something different. So she created a course teaching other hairstylists how to be hair assistants. So teaching other people how to become hairstylists assistants. Very niche, very specific.
Amy Porterfield:
And so once she did this, her whole primary business changed to teaching inside digital courses, not being behind a chair. And so that might seem like a little thing to someone. It was a very big thing to her. Now she had more lifestyle freedom, much more financial freedom. Courses made a whole lot more money than having to do, behind the chair, the work behind the chair, but also it opened a whole world of people she never would have had access to. And that widened her worldview a 1000000%. So here she was before she was struggling with the job she no longer loved. She presold a course that she hadn't even created yet.
Amy Porterfield:
It was an idea that she fleshed out. She made $24,000, and then she officially launched it and made $61,000. Do you know how long it takes to make $61,000 cutting and styling hair? A very long time. And I tell you this story to not make it about the money, but to make you think, like, how much did her life change when she realized, oh, wait a second. What I just did, I can do it again and again. So when I teach digital courses, I don't teach people to make 20 different digital courses. I tell them one course, one course that you can launch over and over again on your timeline. I have another student.
Amy Porterfield:
She's a lawyer. That's a really stressful job. And while she was a lawyer, she created her own time management system for just her as a lawyer. It only worked for different lawyers that had really crazy hours, really long hours, and she created just a little quirky time management system that just worked perfectly for her. So when it started to work for her, she started to teach a few people 1 on 1, other lawyers how it worked, and they loved it. So she decided to create a digital course. So she created a digital course, and the first time she sold it, 5 people bought it. Just 5 people.
Amy Porterfield:
It's not something to leave your job over. Right? But then she started to do it, sell it over and over again. She made $213,000, and she quit her job as a lawyer, not because she had to, because she wanted to. She wanted something different. And I know a lot of people listening right now, they just want something different or they want more freedom or they wanna add to their existing business. That's another beautiful thing. Whatever you're doing right now, you don't have to let it go. A digital course can be a nice compliment to what you're already doing to maybe lessen the load of having to make money here and add it here or just kinda change your business model.
Amy Porterfield:
I tell you these stories to say, I live for them. I live for these stories from women who train doodles, which are the dogs. Do you have a doodle?
Bonnie Christine:
No. I don't.
Amy Porterfield:
I feel like you'd be no. You have a huge dog. You have a huge dog.
Bonnie Christine:
I do. He's a Leon Berger.
Amy Porterfield:
That's right. It's like her dog is bigger than her. That's right. I forgot that. But when I say doodles, you were probably right, thinking of the doodles that all of your students make. There are many women who have been in my community who have taken their craft of surface pattern design and have put it into a digital course to teach it in many different ways. So and and one more thing I have to say, and I promise I'll stop talking. Some women will hear people will hear, okay.
Amy Porterfield:
You have tons of students, Amy, who have done what I want to do. So there's no room for me. It's already been done before. Everything I want to do has already been done before. And the way I teach coming up with a great perfect topic for you, one of the quadrants I teach them quadrants of how to come up with your idea is is anyone else doing it? Because if they're doing it successfully, ding, ding, ding, that's exactly what you want. You want a proven method that then you can carve out a little area on the Internet to find your audience. Because think of it this way. You sell a course, let's say it's $500, and you sell, 20 of them.
Amy Porterfield:
You just made a lot of money and only 20 people purchased from you. You don't need tons of people in order to change your life with the digital course.
Bonnie Christine:
That's right. And something I think people always get tripped up over is there's so much free content around this topic on the Internet. Why would anybody ever pay for it? Yeah. And I'm like, the more free content I think the better because that also means the more confusion.
Amy Porterfield:
Oh, that's such a good way to look at it.
Bonnie Christine:
And that rabbit hole. They're just looking for someone to part the clouds, grab their hand, and be like, I'll I'll I think it's just as important to teach people everything that they need to know as it is to not teach them anything they don't need to know. Let's not waste time. Let's give clarity.
Amy Porterfield:
That's so true. You know, you just made me think of something else. So one of the questions I get asked a lot is, Amy, if what I wanna teach you could literally go on YouTube and type in like, one of my students, we call her Sarah Sourdough. She teaches people how to make sourdough bread through her digital course. If you were to Google how to make sourdough bread, 100s of 1,000s of hits will come up. So how did this woman make over $50,000 teaching people how to make sourdough? Because they wanted to learn from her. And this is so true for our businesses as well. We create relationships.
Amy Porterfield:
We care deeply about the people we serve, and we put out amazing, clear, concise content. When it comes time for them to want to learn exactly how to do it, we will be the first person they go to. Not YouTube, not chat gpt. We have the relationship with them. So digital courses are very much relationship building landscape as well. I teach my students in your course, you could have a free community that goes with the course. You could have Voxer. You could have Slack.
Amy Porterfield:
You could have live q and a's so that human touch is there. You don't have to, but you can, which separates you from chat gpt or YouTube or whatever it might be.
Bonnie Christine:
Yeah. I love that.
Bonnie Christine:
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Bonnie Christine:
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Bonnie Christine:
Okay. So let's talk to the newbie, the person here who maybe not maybe doesn't have a business at all, maybe in a 9 to 5, maybe just thinking. And they're probably thinking like, really? Can I really start Can I start with a course? Don't I need to hit these milestones first? Do you think they need to start with another business model first? What would you say to someone who was, finding success in an area of their life, but maybe not, have this big business already?
Amy Porterfield:
Okay. I love this question. So I'm gonna answer it specifically, but I wanna tell you a quick story. So there's a student of mine, her name is Masha, working mom, 9 to 5, super busy, but she didn't love her 9 to 5 job. She wanted freedom and balance. Those are the two words she used, freedom and balance. And so while she had a 9 to 5 job, she joined my program to learn how to create a course. She wanted to create a big, beautiful signature course, which means, like, full transformation and takes a while to create, but it makes a lot of money and a lot of impact.
Amy Porterfield:
Well, she got into my course and then COVID hit, and her whole life was turned upside down like everybody else. Kids came home from school, husband's at home. She's like, I cannot create a really big course, but I need to make a quick cash injection. So she decided to create what I teach. I teach many different types of courses, but one of them is a workshop course where essentially, this is so great for newbies. It's an hour long course that you charge for. So let's pretend well, in her case, I'm gonna use a different example than what she taught. She taught Instagram.
Amy Porterfield:
But one of my students, she teaches how to land your dream job in a big beautiful course, but, also, she has a workshop course. And the workshop course is a 1 hour course teaching how to write a resume. And it's $97 and it's really easy for people to get into. It's a quick quick decision. Okay. $97 how to write the perfect resume, sign me up. And so that was her first course that she created just to get her feet wet. She's a total newbie, didn't have a big email list, didn't have a big social media.
Amy Porterfield:
So it was a workshop course on how to do a resume. And then Masha, who I was talking about, hers was how to use Instagram to start building your business. The first steps you need to take to use Instagram to build a business. She made $3,000 doing that, but what it did is it validated that she's got an idea on her hands. And her students started saying, could you teach us this? Could you teach us that? So she took that Instagram course and she turned it into a signature course, mom to momfluencer. That was the name of her course. Big picture program of how to build your business. She made $10,000 then launched it again, $25,000.
Amy Porterfield:
And at the time where she made $25,000, it was her 2nd launch, she only had 2,000 people on her list. Meaning, when she launched it the first time, she had way less than that. She's gone on to make $400,000, and the reason I tell this story is it started with a workshop course because she was a newbie. The workshop course led into a bigger course, led into multiple launches. So start small. Anyone listening, there's different ways. There's different kind of courses where you can start small, start making a little money, and then your audience will tell you what they want next. So you don't start you don't start small and stop there. It's just a way to get going if you were a total newbie.
Bonnie Christine:
Okay. That's so good. Now let's talk to the more advanced listener. I know I have many, what I call, professional creatives, which means that they're making a full time living at their craft, whether that's, you know, jewelry making or ceramics or art. But many of them have never tapped into education. They're making a full time living or at least working full time at their art. Never tapped into education. What would you say to that person?
Amy Porterfield:
Okay. So I would say that ask yourself first why. Why haven't you ever tapped into education? And see if there's any limiting beliefs that come up or any judgments that you're making of other people teaching or what would it be like if you taught. Are there any worries about what people will think, what other people will say? Because all of that is none of your business. What they think, what they say, what they might talk about, none of their opinion is none of your business. And you have to ask yourself. Right? And you have to ask yourself, what would teaching your expertise, your art, what you have done that has fueled your life and your bank account, what if you taught someone else to do what you're doing? Whether it be for their hobby, they don't need to make money by what you teach them, or if it does make them money, great. A lot of my students teach hobby based business have hobby based businesses.
Amy Porterfield:
1 of my students teaches how to make stickers. The woman made $1,000,000 last year on how to make stickers, but she's a she's so, so creative. She loves to be in that world. The women aren't making stickers to make money. They're doing it because they love it. There's businesses you can create that will just make people happy and let them be creative. So just ask yourself, what has stopped you? And then here's my favorite question. What does this make possible? If I were to teach my art, what would this make possible for me and for those that I serve? It's my favorite question.
Amy Porterfield:
You and I both love Michael Hyatt. He asked this of me. He's my coach, and he asked me often when I'm stuck or don't know what to do. Well, what if you did that? What would it make possible? And it starts to open up a world. So those of you more advanced, you have a a beautiful business in your art, what would it make possible if you taught what you know? Because it would open up a lot of doors.
Bonnie Christine:
Okay. I need the sticker details.
Amy Porterfield:
Right?
Bonnie Christine:
Ollie, my daughter wants to open a sticker shop so bad.
Amy Porterfield:
I'm gonna I'm gonna send this woman's details to you. It's so cool.
Bonnie Christine:
So I wanna speak to something I know some of my listeners are thinking right now. They're thinking, if I teach my art, I'm creating competition for myself. And I think that you and I could probably dismantle that pretty quickly. But also, one of my favorite examples is a woman in my mastermind. Her name is Laurie Anne, and she does fine art. And she has a wildly successful fine art business where she sells originals and prints. She also has this wildly successful education part to her business, teaching this, Amy. She teaches other artists how to make prints of their originals.
Bonnie Christine:
There's a whole detailed process about how to either scan it or photograph it and then touch it up in Photoshop and then do the printing. So she's not teaching how to paint like her, which would essentially be maybe competition. She's taking one little tiny thing of her process that she has mastered that everyone struggles with and teaches that and has had wild success with it. So I think a lot of this is just calling you to have kind of a vision storming session over what could you teach? What is one thing that you just have nailed you've had success in, something that someone else is struggling with. And so I know that this is, one of the things that you help people kind of come to terms with in the boot camp. So before next, we're gonna talk about some course math. But before that, can you kind of just give an overview of what you're covering in the boot camp? Because I think clarity on the topic that you could teach on is probably the biggest gift you could give someone.
Amy Porterfield:
Amen to that. And that's where we start. So I created this boot camp. I only do it once a year and it's called course confident. And in my boot camp, the first thing we do is help people to decide on their course topic. Because once you start to feel confident of your course topic, ideas start to flow, what you could teach, what it would look like, who you want to teach. So that's where we start. And in order to come up with that topic, I take people through what is called the sweet spot.
Amy Porterfield:
And there's 4 different quadrants and there's some detail there, so I won't get into all of it here. But basically, we go through these 4 quadrants and you answer questions and you pull from your own experience. And at the end, you have an idea that then you can start kind of playing around with, start talking about, start kind of validating it online. There's different ways to do it that I teach so that you could see if there's an interest. Because the last thing I ever want you to do is create an entire course based on something you think might work. So we have a lot of different strategies to validate that idea so you don't get started till you know this is exactly what my audience wants. So we start with the topic. And then from there, inside the boot camp, we talk about what it would look like to price your course.
Amy Porterfield:
You might be surprised to know that the price of your course has nothing to do with how many modules and lessons or how long it takes someone to get through your course. A course that takes someone a weekend to get through literally could be 10 times more expensive than a course that it takes 6 weeks for someone to get through. It's all about your results. So we talk about that, and I help people come up with their price so that we can do some course math, which I know we're gonna come back to. But inside the boot camp, I also teach people how to figure out their audience. So who is it you're going to sell to and then how do you attract them? Because when people get excited with their topic and they're ready to go, they're like, who am I gonna sell this to? So we do a lot of who's your audience and how do we find them, how do we get them into your world and on your email list. And then finally, there's many different courses you can create, a workshop course, a starter course, a spotlight course, or a signature course. I'm gonna help you in the boot camp decide which kind of course you wanna create and it will unlock exactly how you wanna teach it.
Bonnie Christine:
What I love about this boot camp is it's kind of world renowned. It's super well known because of how incredible it is, how big results you get people, and it's also insanely affordable. So it's $47 and it is a it's a week long. Is that right?
Amy Porterfield:
It's we say it's 5 days long, but it actually secretly you can stay in it for 2 weeks if you wanna ask questions and be around the community. But I do live trainings over 5 days where you get to ask questions, we can engage, but I'm there and then everything's recorded.
Bonnie Christine:
Super impactful. It is, something that I love to participate in. I'll be there this year as well. So we have a page set up for Amy. It's bonniechristine.com/amy, And you can find out more information about the boot camp there. I want to talk about course math. I wanna make sure we have time for this. Yeah.
Bonnie Christine:
Okay. My very first course launch. Okay. I had no idea what to expect. The year was 2018, and I built this course. I gave birth to this course. I mean, I was pregnant with it for a long time, and I birthed it. I charged $997 for it.
Bonnie Christine:
And my secret goal that I was embarrassed to say out loud, I only told my husband was to have a 100 people. A 100 people would have radically changed my life. And that course launch brought in 352 people, Amy.
Amy Porterfield:
Were you like blown away?
Bonnie Christine:
I mean, I'll never forget never forget that week. I just thought, like, what is life? Yeah. It radically changed my life forever. And so I want to let you talk about course math. I wanna talk about numbers. Go for it.
Amy Porterfield:
Okay. So when I talk about course math, I'm not a big, numbers kinda girl. Like, I'm scared to even throw at any numbers when I'm live on video because my math is terrible. However, the point of course math is to really show you how realistic it is to make a good living with your course. So I'm gonna use really simple numbers in the beginning. So you've got a course that's $100. A lot of my students like to start out with, like, a 100 to a $500 course. Some of them start out with a $2,000 course, whatever works for them. But if you just wanted to do, let's say, that workshop course and it's a $100, 20 people, just 20 people out of your entire universe buy this course.
Amy Porterfield:
You just made $2,000 that normally could have maybe took taken you a lot more time or effort to do so. However, the course math means you don't stop there. If you can get 20 people to pay you a $100, you just learned how to sell a course online. Now you're gonna take that expertise, the way you marketed it, your new confidence. What if you had a a $1,000 course like Bonnie Christine did, but only again, 20 people bought it? $20,000 is life changing. And I just said 20 people bought it. You had more than 300 people buy your course, but I bet that someone listening right now is like, I'd take 20 any day if I got $20,000 for that. That is life changing money.
Amy Porterfield:
It doesn't matter how much money Bonnie Christine and I have made, that's a lot of money when we think about it. So the reason I use these very simple numbers and very small numbers is to show you what is possible. But from, you know, my first course making $267, just for the record, the course was $297, but I only sold a few and then I took out a few, like, $1,000 for the expenses, and then I didn't even make enough to cover the first course. But the second time I did it, I made $10,000, and then the time after that, $50,000. So it's not just a little jump. It's a big jump when you stay with it and you really understand what it takes to launch your course and you're dedicated to it. So all this to say, you do not need a huge audience. You do not need a huge email list or $100,000 or a 100,000 people on social.
Amy Porterfield:
You can have a very small community and make a great living with your courses as long as you care deeply about the people you serve.
Bonnie Christine:
There's one more question that I want to make sure that I get to ask you, and I love that this is something that you talk about. It's about effective teaching. Because when I think about the courses and classes I've seen and the ones that are really successful and the ones that may not be as successful, it it comes down to the difference between kind of compiling content and putting it out there, and then really truly teaching. Like like, I talk about the art of instruction sometimes, really thinking about the transformation and transitioning someone from one place to another. This is something that you teach. Yes. And can you talk a bit more about it?
Amy Porterfield:
Yes. So, you know, it's so fun to talk about launching courses and the money and the impact you'll make, but none of that matters if your students aren't getting results and finding immense value in your courses. And the word-of-mouth is so powerful when someone takes your course, they love the way you teach it and they tell all their friends about it. That is very powerful. How does that happen? Number 1, really understanding who your audience is, what they need, and also how they learn best. Not everyone learns the same, and so what I teach is number 1, make sure you have multiple modalities as people go through your course. So when you go through my course, you can listen just to the audio. You can get a transcript of what I teach.
Amy Porterfield:
You can watch me teach it through slides and audio, and I almost always have a PDF guide that will walk you through what I just taught you depending on how best you learn. So the different modalities are so important. You don't have to do all of those, but taking into consideration people learn differently, it's pretty easy to replicate in different ways. Another thing is to think about the flow. This is a silly thing. When I worked for Tony Robbins, he used to say this. You can put words together, Johnny bit the dog, but you can take those exact words and it could be the dog bit Johnny. So either way, they're the same words, but they're mixed up in different ways and it means something very different.
Amy Porterfield:
Is Johnny biting the dog or is the dog biting Johnny? Very different. So I really take into consideration when I teach the flow of how you teach something And I take my students through an exercise to say, okay, what are we going to teach 1st? Once they understand that, what is the next step? So I teach my students to have a roadmap, a flow, a blueprint, or a journey that you wanna take people on so that they understand where we're going, how we're getting there, and where we're where we're gonna end up. So the flow of how you teach content is so important and that's something that we really work on inside my program.
Bonnie Christine:
What you're saying is that you obsess over the results of your students.
Amy Porterfield:
Absolutely. I live and breathe it because I don't care how much money I make if people aren't getting huge results and I don't get to hear about those stories. That's what fuels me. So the way I get to hear about these beautiful success stories is if I care deeply about how I teach it.
Bonnie Christine:
That's right. We always say, we measure our success by the success of our students, not the success of our launch, not the success of whatever. The success stories at the end, that's what we're invested in. That means we're really making transformation. I know you're you do the same. Absolutely. So before we wrap up, what is one piece of advice you would tell someone who's on the fence thinking about adding a digital course to their business or starting their business with a digital course?
Amy Porterfield:
What I would say is that you don't have to make a decision now. You don't have to say I'm all in. I'm doing this. But if it's on your heart or you feel a little excited like, oh, I don't know. Maybe I could do that. Maybe I could at least explore if this is for me. That is what the boot camp is for. And in the boot camp, if you feel like I'm doing this, you'll start to make some decisions that will get the ball rolling because getting started is the hardest part.
Amy Porterfield:
So if you're at least bit curious or this has been on your mind for a while, give yourself the gift of the boot camp. It's one of the most inexpensive things I offer all year. I only offer it once a year, and I'm very much involved. So I would love to welcome you into the boot camp and show you what's possible with your digital course.
Bonnie Christine:
I would love that too. I'll be there, so I would love to see you there. Amy, thank you so much for being here with us today.
Amy Porterfield:
Thank you, my friend. It's always a pleasure.
Bonnie Christine:
What an amazing episode. I'm so glad that Amy was able to join us. She truly is the person to learn digital course creation from. She's impacted me maybe more than anyone else in my mentor circle. So I hope that you'll learn from her. So come join us in this incredible boot camp. I'm gonna be there. I'd love to see you there.
Bonnie Christine:
It's incredibly affordable, just $47. You're gonna walk away with knowing what you'll teach, knowing what you'd be able to charge for it, knowing how to structure your course content, and how to grow an audience right now that's ready to enroll when you're ready to launch. It's gonna be incredibly impactful. Again, go to bonniechristine.com/amy to sign up for the boot camp. My friends, create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world, and remember, there's room for you.
