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In 2015, I hired my first ever assistant, the wonderful and talented Laura. We worked together for three years, and I still consider hiring her one of the best decisions I ever made for my business. I want to share with you a bit about what the process of hiring was like for me, and how I managed to overcome the big fear I had that the magic and mission of what I’ve built might become diluted with the addition of a new person.
The first two years of growing Made Vibrant was general such an enjoyable experience. I had the freedom and flexibility to experiment with different revenue models, and I had the luxury of teaching myself everything on my own time without having to worry about anyone else. For a while it felt like maybe I might always want things to remain that way, operating a business solo. Maximum simplicity, minimum responsibility to anyone else but myself.
That is until the end of 2015, when I looked up and realized running the day to day of the business was starting to make me feel a bit like one of those circus performers spinning plates on broomsticks.
Slowly I had been adding each new spinning plate—an Instagram challenge here, another new product there, a blog strategy, a creative practice, a Slack community. The list went on.
And all of those things were wonderful and helpful additions to my business, Made Vibrant. They brought me joy, they brought my business profit and they brought my audience value.
But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t exhausting, what with all the constant running around and trying to keep all the plates from falling.
That’s when I started considering the notion that an assistant might be the right way to go.
I remember the exact moment it dawned on me that something had to change. I was sitting at my computer literally just staring blankly at my calendar, almost on the verge of tears because the minutia of all the spinning plates I had in the air felt virtually paralyzing. I had no energy to even tackle my to-do list because the weight of the whole thing had me in a chokehold.
That’s when I asked myself these two simple questions: 1) Is my business making enough money that I can afford to pay someone part-time? and 2) Am I willing to let go of some aspects of my business in order to make room for more of what I value in my life (creativity, curiosity, ease)?
The answer to both questions was yes.
The first thing I did was ask my close business peers about their experience with virtual assistants/hiring just so I could get a baseline understanding of what I was getting myself into.
I’ll be honest though, while getting outside feedback helped warm me up to the idea that this could be a great and helpful thing, it also actually made the process feel a bit more overwhelming than it needed to be because I realized there is no uniform way that people go about hiring assistants.
Every business is different and every business owner is different, so it’s no surprise that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
But the more people I talked to, the more I realized I just needed to figure out what worked for me:
Once I realized it was my business and I could run it how I wanted to, the process felt less overwhelming because I realized I was free to just be myself.
Now, before we move on to the process of actually finding my assistant, let’s wade together through some of the big fears that came up for me once I decided to dive in.
Ahhh yes. That all-terrifying, unpredictable, sneaky little booger called The Unknown. As with all things that I’ve never done before, my assembly of what-ifs received their call to arms and started showing up in record numbers once I decided to finally hire someone.
As in all cases of the great fear of the unknown, I simply had to remind myself to, hello, breathe, but then also to accept that I don’t know what the future holds and that’s okay. I’m a big girl and I can trust myself to know that I’ll figure out whatever gets hurled at me.
Yes, all of those big scary things are what-ifs, but there’s also a great number of what-ifs that could mean wonderful things too:
Basically, my tip for silencing the fear of the unknown is simply to say, “Hey fear, yeah I know we’re flying blind here but I’m a pretty seasoned pilot by this point so just trust me, I got this. Now sit back and enjoy the flight.”
This is probably going to seem like a weird one, but I was literally afraid of being required to talk to another human on a regular basis.
Now, before you internalize how bizarre that sounds, just know that I am in fact an introvert. I enjoy the deep thought that comes with being alone, in my own head, and while I can definitely enjoy connecting with people under the right circumstances, sometimes interacting at all can leave me feeling a bit… drained.
So, I think a part of me was a bit apprehensive about the whole communication part of the process. Would it drain me to be in constant contact with someone? Would it leave me feeling overwhelmed?
Again, though, once I realized that it was my business and I could mold the relationship to reflect my introverted self, the fear subsided. (Also, I’ve found in recent weeks that if you’re just honest with people in telling them what you need and how you work best, they’re usually pretty cool with being accommodating.)
Okay, so here’s the biggest fear of all. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had to acknowledge:
How arrogant is that?! The truth is, I’m not the magic. Maybe I’m an instrument of it, maybe I help the magic get out into the world, but it’s not me or even the business itself; the magic is in what the business stands for. It’s in the honesty of telling one’s story, the beauty of listening when inspiration calls, the connection that comes from supporting other soulful creatives worlds away from you.
And that means that someone else out there can be an instrument of all that too.
If the right person shares my same values and can get behind the mission of my business, then if anything, the magic of the business becomes stronger.
Which brings me to…
Based on the fact that my biggest fear was diluting the core of Made Vibrant, the single most important thing that I was looking for in the assistant applications was a deep understanding and whole-hearted commitment to the mission of my business.
I mean it when I say: everything else was secondary to this priority.
Because even if someone was the most organized, most detail-oriented, most effective assistant ever, if what I’m doing doesn’t resonate with them in their bones, then I don’t think I would fully trust them to interact with the Made Vibrant community and pour that passion into whatever task they’re doing.
As an aside, my favorite and most unexpected part about hiring someone who believes in your mission? They can actually help ground you in your own WHY.
After simply interviewing Laura and chatting about Made Vibrant, she reminded me of the fact that among the various personal and professional development sites across the web, to her Made Vibrant stood out as a resource rooted in authenticity and relatability. When she said that, it actually served as a powerful reminder that I need to be doubling down on those things. It effectively helped me find my way back to the heart of why I started my own business.
Which is to say:
“If you hire the right person, they have the ability to strengthen your core purpose, not to dilute it.”
Here are the simple steps I went through to find the right assistant for me.
I went to my audience FIRST. If I’m going to find someone that is aligned my core mission, there is no group better qualified than my own audience. That’s why I started from the inside. I listed out the basic requirements of the position, what I was looking for and how to apply.
(Note: I included instructions to submit an email as an application rather than to simply fill out the form because I wanted to immediately be able to tell if people could follow instructions. You want to look for ways to further qualify your candidates so the actual process of submitting an application is one way to do that.)
Things you definitely want to include:
I made it a point to read and give my full attention to every email that came through. If the email followed instructions, the candidate had the skills/experience that I required and if the email was well-written with strong communication, I immediately whittled the stack down to those candidates.
From there, I went back through again and made note of those that felt particularly invested in Made Vibrant’s mission. I opened the door on this a bit when I asked applicants to include why they felt they were right for the position, but those that stood out to me were the ones that took that opportunity to communicate why their values were deeply aligned with those of the business.
Lastly, I knew that I wanted to narrow the field down to just a handful of applicants for live interviews. I simply didn’t have time to interview more than two or three candidates, so to get my list down to those few, I sent the top applicants some last final questions to dive a bit deeper. Some were skills-based, some were scenario-based to get a sense of how they’d respond to different situations, and others were simply to get an idea of how the relationship could grow in the future. Here are the exact questions I asked:
The answers to these types of specific questions actually made it fairly easy to identify three top candidates. Once they responded, we set up a time for a Skype interview the following day.
This step for me was more about finding the best personality fit. I knew going into it that I didn’t need to find a best friend, someone JUST like me, but I did want someone that I would enjoy communicating with on a regular basis and I wanted to make that personal connection before agreeing to set up the professional relationship.
This is when the choice became really clear for me. I think even in a virtual interview, you can get a sense of how you click with someone, where the conversation goes, how enthusiastic they are about working with you, etc.
My conversation with Laura flowed naturally and I got off the call feeling not only like she was the right fit, but I actually felt re-energized about my own business. I knew that was the kind of energy that was worth risking all the scary unknowns for!
Once I contacted Laura to tell her she got the gig, we got to work right away! I sent over a contract with payment terms, “termination” terms (ie. what happens if either of you want to end the relationship, and the basis agreement that she’d be acting as a contractor rather than an employee.) **Note: I’m not a lawyer so if you are going to draw up a contract, I recommend at least consulting with a lawyer.
Then we set up a kick-off call to bring her up to speed on what was going on with Made Vibrant and I trained her on some tasks. As we moved along, we updated and evolved the tools/processes that we used to manage our workflow. In general, though, we used a combination of Slack, Google Docs, and Asana to manage tasks, which worked very well.
Growing a team can be unsettling if you’ve never done it before, but after three years I can say it was MORE than worth it to feel like I had someone on my team rooting me on and who was invested in seeing the Made Vibrant vision come to life.
I know it could just be that I’m primed to see digital products everywhere because that’s my primary business model these days, but there’s a part of me that is starting to feel like the walls are closing in a little bit.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a beautiful thing that people are teaching others what they know, and that, in the process, they’re able to create joyful lives full of flexibility and freedom — heck, I’m one of those people, and I’m a prime example of the value and impact that online learning can add to a person’s life!
BUT, if I’m being honest, it can be difficult to run a business in an arena that seems to be getting larger and more crowded by the day.
Every time I come up for air I feel like I’m seeing a new blog, a new podcast, a new brand, a new webinar. He’s doing it bigger, she’s doing it better, they’re all doing it faster and smarter and OH MY GOSH HOW WILL I EVER STAY RELEVANT?
Any of that ring a bell? Hopefully it’s not just me.
Tell me if this sounds familiar…
Let me tell you what, boy have I’ve been there. More times than I can count, in fact.
Those dreaded comparison gremlins not only have the power to drive you crazy, but they find small and sneaky ways to absolutely CRUSH your confidence.
So, how do we fight back? How do we find the motivation to press forward even when we feel like everyone’s ten steps ahead and there’s not an original bone in our body?
Well, I’ll tell you what I do at least.
(Authenticity, you beautiful thing, there you are rescuing me again!)
I know it’s probably bad form to talk about all this on the day I’m re-launching a shop full of, yes, digital products, but that’s why in some ways I think it’s even more important to talk about.
We all know I’m certainly not the only one writing e-books and building online courses and designing worksheets on the internet. FAR from it, as I’ve pointed out.
But what keeps me making them is the fact that I love it. That I truly believe in the power that these resources can provide in the form of knowledge and support and motivation. More importantly, though, I believe in the unique spin I’m able to bring to everything I create.
THAT is what I want you to remember when the comparison gremlins come knocking. I want you to remember that:
It’s the secret family recipe that keeps your customers begging for more. The thing that keeps your tribe coming back AND (conveniently enough) the one thing that no one can steal from you.
But here’s the realllllly important caveat to using your secret sauce to stand out in a sea of seemingly similar businesses:
“YOU have to believe you’re special before anyone else will.”
When I say that, I don’t mean it like a vague inspirational poster. I mean it like a direct order handed down from a drill sergeant. An imperative statement. I’m writing it again just to make sure it really sinks in:
When you’re floating aimlessly in a sea of self-doubt, you have to anchor yourself to reality with the unwavering belief that no one else on this earth can do what you do quite LIKE you do it.
Otherwise, it’s just too easy to get swept away by comparison. It’s too easy to feel like it’s all been said, it’s all been written, it’s all been done.
(And if that comparison keeps you from creating the beautiful work that I know is in you, well all of us are going to be the poorer for it.)
To put it simply: The best way to be original is to ignore what everyone else is doing.
To remember that your uniqueness is inherent, innate, and indelible.
To press forward towards your dreams with vision and confidence, regardless of if those around you are pointed in the same direction.
I know we’re just talking e-books and online courses here, but on days when I get discouraged that maybe I have nothing new to say, I remember that I have A LOT to say about not having anything new to say, and that just might be MY secret sauce. 🙂
Then, do whatever you need to do to really believe that.
I’m constantly using online courses to acquire or improve my skills with design programs, web design, marketing and web development — all valuable things that I’ve used to build and grow a profitable business.
And I’m not the only one.
With the explosion of information available to us online, I’ve noticed a huge increase in learning resources available to those that want to learn new things over the past few years — just look at the success of sites like Skillshare and Lynda.com.
This fact is actually very good news for you and me because as the increase in demand for online learning increases, so does the opportunity for people to make a living by sharing their talents and teaching others.
And I’m not just talking about online courses that are $500+. You can make money with small and affordable classes too.
This revenue stream has been so impactful for my business that I was able to stop taking on client work altogether, something that I didn’t truly enjoy as much as I enjoy building resources for soulful creatives.
Since making this change, I’ve been able to shift my business in a way that I feel is more authentic to who I am. I get to help a lot more people on a regular basis. I get to constantly come up with new ideas and execute on them. I get to enjoy the process of thinking through how to teach a new idea to someone. Overall, I feel freer and more flexible to design my days the way that I want (as opposed to designing them around client deadlines.)
And I’m hoping they might be able to do the same for you.
Now, I remember what it was like when I started building my first e-course. It was unbelievably overwhelming! I remember thinking… Where in the world do I start?
I’m hoping that this post will be the answer to that question for you.
I’m going to take you through every single step in the process to building (and selling!) your first online course.
Now, while I think this post is incredibly thorough, by no means am I saying it’s exhaustive. Meaning… YOU have to figure out what works for you. If you don’t want to do things exactly as they’re outlined below, well more power to you!
The purpose of this post is to provide you with some structure to simply get started. Ultimately, though, you have to seek out and choose the best resources and processes that feel right for your business.
Just to reiterate: this post is not a “how I got rich on the internetz and how you can too” post. E-courses are NOT a get rich quick scheme.
They take a lot of work to put together, and there are no revenue guarantees. HOWEVER, if you enjoy teaching and sharing your gifts with others on a one-to-many scale, e-courses could be an excellent way for you to create real revenue doing something you love. And that is my ultimate goal — to help you design a business and a life that is as vibrant and authentic as possible.
So, without further ado…. Let’s get into it!
Online courses are, simply put, just another way to share information or your skills. They can get a bad rap because some people are sleaze-balls and make crappy things in life. But the same thing can be said about terrible websites, spammy e-books, and blogs with 47 email capture popups. The key is to focus on making something great and something you know will help other people.
My husband Jason and I believe that everyone has something to teach. There’s no doubt in our minds that you’ve cultivated some expertise in your life and you could share that with other people. An online course may be the perfect vehicle for that!
Simple steps to ensure you create a great e-course:
It’s only fair to play the other side of the fence here as well so what are some reasons you shouldn’t make an online course?
As a society, we’re so quick to jump at a new project or opportunity. We get immediately wrapped up in all the amazing potential! But, as with every new thing, the potential is not guaranteed results. Even if you’ve created an online course before, it doesn’t mean the next one you create will be a smashing success.
Wrapping up this section on if you should/shouldn’t create an online course, if you can answer YES to these six questions, then you absolutely SHOULD create your own e-course:
If you answered yes to every question—and you must answer yes—then congrats! You should build an online course!
Here’s a quick aside from my husband Jason when he was wrestling with self-doubt before making his first e-course (which, spoiler alert, went on to make $100,000 in just three years):
When I set out to create my first online course in 2013, I had absolutely no clue what I should teach. I knew I wanted to move away from trading time for money, but I didn’t know where to start. A friend of mine gave me some great advice in the form of a question. He asked, “What’s something you have experience with that you could share with other people?”
My self doubt immediately crept in and told me, Nothing! I’m not special. I’m not a teacher. Why should I create an online course? These thoughts are normal, and they continue to come to the surface every time I think about creating a new online course. The first time around, that self-doubt lasted a couple of weeks before I realized I had quite a bit of experience in landing paying sponsorships for projects. Over 1,600 paying sponsors, to be exact. There had to be something I’d learned during all that experience and some processes/tactics I could share.
And there were! I created an online course called How To Get Sponsorships For Anything. That course was my starting point, and three years later, it’s brought our household $100,000 in total revenue. Take that self-doubt!
There is something unique about you. There is something you know better than most people. You are full of interesting ideas, thoughts, opinions, and experiences.
No surprises here! Before you start building a course, you’re going to want to figure out what you want it to be about. It’s important that you feel comfortable enough with your topic that you have plenty of information to share on the subject. As a personal preference, I like choosing topics I have some extensive personal experience in so that I don’t have to go off and do a ton of research on my subject; instead, I can simply teach from a place of personal knowledge and experience.
Here are some guiding questions to ask yourself as you brainstorm your e-course topic ideas:
Speaking of that last one, let’s talk a little bit about demand.
Now, like I said, building an e-course is no easy task. There is a lot of time and energy that will go into building your course, so you want to make sure that the juice is going to be worth the squeeze, right? You want to make sure that your course topic is something that people will want to learn (and something they’ll pay you for!) That’s where the idea of “product validation” comes in.
See that dandy email sign up form at the top of this post? With every big blog post that I think could be an interesting product idea, I make sure to include one of those at the top and bottom so that 1) I can start capturing a list of interested people that might purchase a course on that topic, but also so that 2) I can gauge interest on that particular topic. If I put up the blog post and no one enters their email address (or very few do) then I know the juice is likely not worth the squeeze and I move on to the next course idea.
Here’s a post where I talk much more in-depth about how I use product validation to know which product ideas will bring me revenue:  [How To Know Which Product Ideas Will Bring You Revenue]
Sometimes you’ll find that what you think people want, they’re not willing to pay for. For instance, I had this idea for a daily Photoshop tip email and I set up an email capture on a post with other Photoshop tips. It’s been almost 5 months and only 50 people have signed up saying they want that product. To me, the effort to build it wouldn’t be worth the revenue it would likely bring so I scrapped that idea.
Here’s a look at the in-post sign up form:
Product validation is your assurance that you’re spending your precious resources (like time, creativity, money) on something that will bring your business substantial revenue.
The lesson here: Don’t choose your topic assuming that people want an e-course on your subject. Make them prove to you that they want it by requiring them to opt-in somehow.
Once you’ve settled on a topic, you want to loosely outline the lesson topics and course content.
At this point in the process, I simply start with a blank Google Doc and start cranking away, typing everything I can think of related to my course topic. In these beginning stages, I’m not worried about lesson titles, the order of content, or even whether a particular thing fits into the course or not. This step is all about getting the knowledge and information out of your head and onto digital paper.
I usually start with a bulleted list and just type out points or questions under the umbrella of my course topic. Once I feel like I have a good amount of bullets, that’s when I take a step back to ask myself what order the information should go in. That’s when I go back through each bullet, cutting and pasting them around until the bullets are re-ordered in the most logical, step-by-step progression.
Remember, you want to think of your course content as building blocks. Ask yourself what basic information might form the foundation for more complicated information. This will help you get clear on the order the course content should go in.
This is usually a good point to walk a friend or peer through your outline to see if it makes logical sense to them. Sometimes when you’re so close to something (hello, you’re likely already an ace at whatever you’re teaching) it can be hard to see the holes in your content — the parts where a newbie might get stuck. Getting feedback could be crucial to spotting those holes early. (Even better, think about how you can get feedback from someone who is similar to the type of person you’re targeting with your course!)
Once you feel comfortable with the order of information, think about how you could organize it further into a course format. Start to pay attention to how information can be grouped together to form lessons, modules, chapters, etc.
For example, the Better Lettering Course is set up as six lessons only, each with a different topic about hand-lettering. The Better Branding Course, on the other hand, is much more in-depth and has a lot more information (27 lessons total.) That could easily be overwhelming to someone, so I’ve grouped those 27 lessons into four modules, each to represent a different step in the branding process. This organization helps make the course content more digestible.
Your lesson here: Come up with a course outline that includes all the lesson topics you want to cover, and organize them in a way that will make sense to someone learning about your topic for the first time.
Once you have your basic lesson topics written out and organized, that’s when you want to go back through and fill in content for each section.
You can write as little or as much as you want for each section, but it’s probably a good idea to think ahead a little bit in terms of how you might want someone to experience the course.
Writing is a strength of mine and the way that I organize my thoughts best, so I like to go through and write out each section as if it was a blog post like this one. This approach not only forces me to explore each lesson topic in-depth (making me more prepared when it comes time to record my videos,) but it also allows me to easily convert the course content into an e-book if I want to sell that separately at a later date.
Here’s a screenshot from my original outline document once I went back and filled in the course content. I like to format the Google Doc so it becomes clear to me how to structure my slides once I make them for the course videos:
Now, that might not be the case for you. The idea of writing all the content out for your course might be intimidating or overwhelming, so maybe instead you just want to continue adding bullets and sub-bullet points to your outline to get more specific with your information.
If you know you want your course to be videos with slides (no written portion), then it may not be necessary to write out all of your course content line by line. You could just use your bullets as points on your slides. Do what feels most natural for you so you can set yourself up for success in terms of creating the actually content, which is the heart of your online course.
Your lesson here: Keep adding content to your outline until you feel you’ve successfully written the content of the course in whatever format makes the most sense to you.
After I have an idea of what the course will be about but before I begin work on actually building the lessons, that’s about the time that I start figuring out an overall look and feel for the course.
I typically go with something that feels somewhat consistent with my umbrella brand (now Wandering Aimfully, previously Made Vibrant), but with a twist so the course has a bit of brand identity on its own. I also always create some sort of identifying logo, along with loose brand style rules so the design of the course remains professional and consistent throughout.
Funny enough, the logo for the Better Branding Course actually came from of a rejected logo concept for a design client. I loved the idea of the diamond being made up of connected points. In the course I talk a lot about how the seemingly different elements of your business and personal story can be connected by a single conceptual thread that forms your brand. The diamond visual was great at reinforcing the content in the course, so I decided to use it in the Better Branding Course logo.
I created a quick little style guide using the MV brand colors (plus that fun pop of purple) and I used this guide when designing my sales page and Keynote slides for each lesson.
In a course with multiple modules, I also think it’s helpful to “assign” a color to each module as a way for students to quickly recall what module a particular video was in or to easily match certain resources with certain modules.
Speaking of Keynote slides, that brings me to the next step…
Woohoo! If you make it to this point and successfully create the course content, you will have made it over the hump!
Then it simply becomes a matter of packaging up that content in a way that is easily accessible for your students. That’s what these next two steps are about — figuring out what medium you want to use to teach your course and deciding how to deliver the course content to your students.
When it comes to online course content, I think there are three main ways to teach: video, audio and written content. In both my courses, I use a combination of video and written content, but let’s go over each one to help you decide what you want to use.
Video is my preferred method of teaching because it combines the visual component of images/written content with the ability to add personality and context in your voice.
I’ve seen video used in primarily two different ways: with the teacher on-screen or the teacher off-screen.
If you decided to teach on-screen, the benefit is that your student gets to experience your full personality and engage with you in a meaningful way. They can see the expressiveness in your face as you talk and that goes a long way in getting them excited. If done right, in a professional studio (similar to how Treehouse does their videos or how Marie Forleo teaches in her weekly MarieTV videos) then the result feels professional, high-quality and personal.
As a drawback though, going this route can be expensive and time-consuming because not only do you need the quality equipment to do it well, you also have to nail your lesson scripts.
If you don’t have the cash or access to a professional studio, but you want to utilize the personal feel of on-screen video, you could have a friend with a nice camera shoot you on a colorful, interesting background and think about doing maybe a quick video introducing yourself and welcoming people to your course.
Teaching off-screen, however, can still be effective and can be more affordable if you don’t have access to a professional camera. You can record your voice as you teach with the help of Keynote/PowerPoint slides. This will allow you to edit the audio, meaning that even if you don’t record a lesson perfectly all the way through, you have the ability to edit out your mistakes.
I’ll be honest, either video option is ultimately pretty time-consuming, but in my opinion, it provides the most comprehensive and immersive learning experience.
Think of this option as delivering your course content like podcast episodes. Similar to video, audio allows you to inject your personality into your teaching and gives you the flexibility to edit out your mistakes. However, if you’re trying to teach on a topic that is very visual and relies on things like images for understanding, this wouldn’t be a great route for you.
Whether you decide to go with video or audio, making a small investment in sound equipment like a simple lavalier microphone (lav mic) will go a long way in the perceived quality of your final product.
If you’re not comfortable in front of a camera or recording your voice, you can always try a written-only course. You could put your course content in daily emails, slide presentations or a series of PDFs. While you may lose a little of that personal connection with your students, the time and money investment are certainly much lower than going the audio/video route, so if you’re on a tight budget, written-only is a good place to start.
Since both of my courses are primarily video-based, I’ll share with you my process for building and recording my video lessons.
First, I started by taking my written content from Step 3 and using it to build a Keynote presentation.
I love using Keynote because I can easily create Master Slides with branding/typography settings and it makes it really easy to add new slides in the style I want. I also love the image editing tools, and the fact that I can really easily export to PDF, which allows me to offer my students the ability to download each lesson’s slides as a PDF.
I created an “appear” action for each bullet point just because as I talk over the slides, I don’t want students to tune me out in an effort to read the bullets. Instead, the bullets are used as a reference point and the real meat of the teaching comes through in my audio (you can see that in the video lesson below.)
Once I created all the slides for every lesson, then it was time to record my videos. First, I plugged in my lav mic to my laptop to make sure my audio would be better than my Macbook built-in microphone.
Then, I opened QuickTime Player on my Mac, hit File > New Screen Recording, clicked the red record button in the pop-up window, and I clicked anywhere to record the whole screen.  (If you’re using a lav mic, click the drop down arrow next to the record button to make sure your audio input is set to your mic.)
Then, I hit Play on my Keynote presentation to make it full screen from the point at which I wanted to record. At that point, I started talking over my slides and teaching my lesson. As I clicked the right arrow, it cued my bullet points to transition, just like you would do if you were giving a presentation in front of an audience.
Now, I don’t always say things perfectly. Some people might choose to read a script so they know exactly what they want to say minus the ummms and ahhhhs. For me and the style of teaching that I want in my courses, scripts simply don’t work. I want my courses to feel natural and friendly, like talking to a friend over coffee, and so I’m okay to sacrifice a few moments of my silly, unscripted interjections in order to maintain that authenticity.
Luckily, I also have a video editor on hand (my life partner, Jason) who edited all my videos for the Better Branding Course. Jason taught me the basics of iMovie so that I could edit my own videos for the Better Lettering Course, but since there was a lot more content this time around a higher price point, I knew I wanted the videos to be edited by a professional (luckily a professional happens to live under my roof.)
f you decide not to do video, you want to apply the same basic concept of this step to whatever your medium is at this stage. This part of the process is all about formatting your course content in the medium you choose.
If it’s audio, record those lessons as audio files on your computer (and edit, if needed.) If it’s emails, start writing each email in a Google Doc or laying out each PDF in your design program of choice. This step is all about presenting your lessons as they’ll be consumed by your students.
Your lesson here: there are multiple different mediums that you can use to teach your course. Ultimately, you want to choose the medium that you feel most confident with and the one that best communicates what you’re trying to teach.
Decide how you’re going to deliver your course content and get your course ready for students.
Now that you have all your fancy lessons in whatever medium you want, you have to ask yourself:Â where is my course content going to live and how are my students going to get their hands on it?
Both excellent questions! Let’s first dive into where your content will live online…
Video and audio files must be hosted somewhere online before you can make them accessible for consumption. There are a few different ways to make this happen.
My first time around for the Better Lettering Course, I decided to upload my finished video lessons to YouTube and set them as “Unlisted.” This means that only people with the video link (my students) can view the videos, and the video won’t show up in Google’s search results. The course platform I use (which I’ll go into more below) allows you to embed videos, so by using this feature on YouTube, I was able to essentially host my private video content for free.
To upload my videos, I first setup a YouTube account (which you technically should already have if you have a Gmail/Google+ account.) Then I hit Upload and dropped in my mp4 file (making sure to set my video as “Unlisted” like I mentioned above.)
Once all my videos are uploaded, I can use the embed feature to drop the embed links for each lesson into my course platform of choice (more on that below!)
For my second course, the Better Branding Course, I wanted the video player to look more custom and a bit more professional, so I opted to go with a service called Wistia. Wistia basically creates a white label media player for you which allows you to host your videos, customize your player overlay and upload custom thumbnail images to your videos. The result is something that appears a bit more modern and high-quality than the YouTube player.
Wistia is a paid service, however, so if you’re planning to keep your e-course at a lower price point or if you’re trying to keep costs low, the free YouTube hosting route is certainly a viable option.
For hosting audio files, I really like SoundCloud. I love the way their embeddable player looks and functions, and the fact that you can customize things like the button color. Jason has a course about securing sponsorships for podcasts, and he uses SoundCloud to host audio interviews inside his course dashboard. Here’s what that looks like:
Speaking of course dashboards, once you have your content uploaded and hosted, you’re going to need a place for people to access your e-course!
Full disclosure: my husband, Jason, co-founded a course platform called Teachery when he realized there weren’t any easy, turn-key but customizable course platforms out there. Teachery is what I use to host both of my e-courses.
Now, I know I’m biased, but I really do believe this platform is the best option for creative entrepreneurs that want a robust way to host a custom course without any WordPress or technical know-how. You can literally start building a course in minutes and it has some awesome built-in integrations with Stripe and Mailchimp.
The Teachery platform allows you to build your course and then connect it to a custom URL (like… “www.handletteringforbeginners.com”, for example) with a customizable “dashboard” interface for your students that looks like this:
And here’s what it looks like inside a lesson with my course videos from Wistia embedded:
My favorite part about Teachery is that they handle all the complicated stuff like setting up user accounts (for your students to login), processing payments (securely!) and capturing email addresses of those students.
I especially love how easy it is to manage multiple courses at once and keep up with new students as they purchase.
Here’s what my Admin dashboard looks like on the back-end of Teachery:
And then here’s what it looks like when I’m editing my course:
For me, it takes the effort out of setting up my course so I can focus all my time and energy on the content and experience that my students get.
Here are just a few reasons why I feel Teachery is the best option for me:
If you’re a technology newbie but still want to create a video/audio course, I can’t recommend Teachery highly enough.
If you want a written-only course and want it delivered to people in a series of emails, I’d recommend using Mailchimp and setting up an automation sequence to drip content. While I’ve used Mailchimp’s automation before, I’ve never used it as a course delivery method. Here’s an awesome post by Paul Jarvis that details how to set up a self-paced email course using Mailchimp automation, better than I’m sure I could explain it. If you’re interested in this option, I’d give it a read: [How To Create A Self-Paced Email Course]
There are certainly A LOT more options than just Teachery or Mailchimp, and I know there are some WordPress plugins that offer the ability to build courses within your existing WordPress site. My advice is to do a little bit of research to find out which course delivery option works best with your technical skill level and the course experience you want to create.
OR… don’t do any research and just use Teachery because it’s awesome. It’s totally up to you.  🙂
If you DO decide to go with Teachery, they’ve created a FREE course walking through exactly how to set up your online course on the platform (yep – it’s a course about a course. SO META.)Â [ How To Build A Course In Teachery ]
Your lesson here: Choose the hosting method and course platform that fits your budget and technical skill level. If you don’t want to spend time and frustration setting up a password protected area of your website, use a third-party platform like Teachery.
Once I have my course built and ready for students, I also think about any additional resources or features that would be a nice draw for the course.
For example, the usefulness of the information in the Better Branding Course relies on the students’ willingness to apply the principles to their own business. That’s why as a part of the course, I created over 15 worksheets and templates for them to complete and use throughout the course.
For the more complicated worksheets, I created them using InDesign, and then for the simpler resources (like the Brand Elements Checklist), I used Keynote and exported to PDF.
I uploaded each worksheet PDF to Google Drive, and created automatic download links at the bottom of the lessons they pertain to. When a student clicks the link, the PDF downloads right to their computer. They can edit the PDFs digitally, or they can print out the resources and fill them out that way.
This is also the point where I start to think about things like on-boarding. On-boarding simply refers to the process of getting new users (students) integrated into your existing system (course.) I want to make it as easy as possible for students to go from the moment of purchase to diving head first into the course. That’s why I created a “Getting Started Guide” which is automatically emailed to new students upon purchase (this Welcome Email feature is another reason I love Teachery.)
The guide walks them through how the course works, the layout of content, and how to interact with other students using our community chat app, Slack. (For an in-depth post on how I set up the Better Branding Course Slack community and why I LOOOVE it, click here: [ How To Set Up A Slack Community ]
Your lesson here: As an option, this is a good time to think about how you can enhance the experience of your students beyond just the course content with bonus features like worksheets, on-boarding, and a course community.
This is the home stretch, friends! Once you have your course built, it’s time to market it and launch that sucker! Here are a few things you’ll want to consider as you figure out how to make your course appeal to potential buyers.
Hopefully by this point you already have a great idea about who you’re building this course for. Even better, maybe you already have an actively engaged audience that’s excited to buy just as soon as you launch. The reason you want to get super specific and clear about your course audience is so that when it comes time to write your sales page or promote your course, you know exactly how to position your course so that it appeals to the people it will benefit.
Here are some questions to ask yourself as you nail down your course audience:
Use the answers to these questions to position your course and to think of places you can promote it where your ideal audience hangs out.
Pricing can be a sticking point for a lot of people (I know it can be for me) because it’s hard to know what someone will pay for what you create, or the value that they’ll feel your course is worth. That’s why I think you have to ask yourself a couple key questions to get a general pricing range that is logical, and then you just have to go with your gut.
Think about your target audience. Now, ask yourself these questions to determine your pricing:
I will say, a lot of pricing/marketing information online will remind you that pricing your products high means you need to sell less to hit your overall revenue goals. And that’s certainly true. BUT I will say that there’s also a time and place for low-priced products, and if you create the right info-packed course at a low price point for the right audience, you can still make real money (my $20 lettering course being an example of that.)
Something else to keep in mind: you can always add content to your course and raise the price, but you probably don’t want to have to drop the price to get more sales (your early customers likely won’t take very kindly to this.) That’s why I always start with my lowest, best possible price and then if I add modules/content in the future (which I have done with both courses), then I feel I can ethically raise the price to reflect the new value of the course.
Before your course is ever launched, you want to start warming up the audience you do have and letting them know what you’re working on. You also will likely want to start collecting emails of people who are explicitly interested in buying your course once you launch. I usually set up a simple landing page on my website explaining what the course will be about along with an email capture to start building a pre-launch list.
Whenever I’m building a product, I also like to share the experience on social media so that people can actually get a behind the scenes look at the process of creating something (and this, of course, provides double duty by reminding people that the course will be coming out!)
I’d recommend starting to tease the launch of your course AT LEAST a month in advance of launch, if not two months before. This will give people time to understand why you’re creating the course and it will allow you to build up a healthy list to launch the course to.
Your lesson here: Figure out who your online course is most valuable to and then come up with a price for your course that feels appropriate to that audience and the content you’re offering. Then, start prepping your audience and gathering a list of people that would be interested in purchasing the course before it launches.
Hooray! You made it! Your course is a living, breathing thing and now it’s time to put it out into the world. Before you officially launch, though, you’re going to want a place to send everyone. This is where your sales/landing page comes in!
Sales page design can be another sticky point because there are just SO many ways and strategies to grab someone’s attention and tell them about the course. I recommend starting with something that VERY clearly speaks to your ideal audience and the pain point that your course will solve for them. Here’s the top of the Better Branding Course sales page which speaks clearly to my ideal audience: creative entrepreneurs who are NOT designers.
After that, you want to give people an idea of what they’ll get when they purchase your course and what the end result will be when they complete it. It can also help to include any credibility-building points like why you’re qualified to teach someone your course topic. Lastly, of course, you want to include multiple opportunities for someone to select the buy button and go straight to your order page.
As you design your sales page, ask yourself: Does this web page clearly explain:
Once your sales page is designed, it might be a good idea to ask someone that has little to no idea of what your course will be about to scroll through and see if they understand clearly what you’re trying to communicate.
BONUS TIP: Make sure you test the checkout process! The last thing you want on launch day is for people who want to buy your course to somehow have an error or issue when they’re trying ot pay you!
You also will need to decide how long you want your course to be open for enrollment. Do you want the course to always be for sale (like my $20 lettering course) or do you want it to be for sale just once a year (like Marie Forleo’s B-school)?
OR… do you want it to be for sale for limited periods of time throughout the year, like the Better Branding Course which is open for 48 hours once a month?
There are benefits and drawbacks to each one of these options that you’ll want to consider. The downside to having a course always for sale is that someone who lands on your sales page doesn’t feel a sense of urgency to actually purchase. It’s easy for them to say, “Oh I’ll come back and buy that later.” The upside to that though is that if someone does land on your sales page, they can buy right when they have the impulse and you get paid consistently throughout the year. (I especially like this for the Better Lettering Course because I now can count on that product to bring me a fairly steady amount of money each month, something that was certainly a nice change of pace from the ever-erratic design client world!)
The benefit to limiting the duration of your launch window is that the sense of urgency could put some potential buyers over the edge to purchase for fear that the course won’t be open in the future. This is especially true if you do a big launch just once a year. If someone knows they’ll have to wait an entire year to get into the course, that’s a pretty compelling reason to buy during the small launch window. The drawback is that you might be losing some sales because if they find your course when enrollment is closed, it’s possible that they’ll lose interest by the time it’s open again. Also, if you launch just a few times a year, your revenue comes in all at once rather than in increments throughout the year. It’s a bit harder to predict your cash flow for your business if that’s the case.
Remember, you can always test one of these options, learn, and then change down the road. Right now, the monthly launches for the Better Branding Course are working well because I like focusing on a small number of students and helping them through the course, without worrying about new people starting all the time. However, I haven’t ruled out the option of opening the course up completely in the future. Only time will tell!
Once you know how long you want your course to be open, pick a launch date and mark it on your calendar!
Sales page, designed! Launch window, decided! Launch date, picked! Now it’s time to tell people and get some new students!
Now, this by no means is an exhaustive list of all the various ways you can promote your course, but these are the main ways I promote mine.
Remember that pre-launch list? Now it’s time to put it to use! Those people have already raised their hands to say they’re interested in what you’re selling. A week before your launch, send them an email letting them know the launch date and how they can purchase. Then, the morning of launch, send an email letting them know it’s the big day! In that email, don’t just send them a link to your sales page (remember, they already said they want your product!). Be sure to include a direct link to your order page so they can purchase on the spot, as well as a link to learn more on your website.
If you have a main email list, you’ll also want to prep them and send them an email on launch day as well. Don’t overload your list with too many sales emails, but remember, this is likely your most engaged promotion vehicle because they’ve opted in. Don’t sell yourself short by sending only one email and then wondering why you didn’t get more sales.
You likely already have some people visiting your website. Make sure it’s clear to them no matter what page they land on that there’s a product launch going on and direct them to your sales page. I do this through Squarespace’s Announcement Bar which sits at the top of my website during my launch period.
I’ve never used the live webinar/free video series strategy to sell products, but I’ve seen it work for other entrepreneurs. The idea is to lead with free content (like instructional videos or a free webinar) that people have to give their email addresses to see, and then you can try to convert those people to sales of your course. Hilary Rushford uses this strategy for her Instagram course. She teaches a free class with something like 15% of the content from her paid course and then converts the webinar attendees to purchasers.
In all honesty, I don’t love the feeling of this method. It feels a bit bait-and-switch to me, BUT that doesn’t mean it can’t work and that certainly doesn’t mean it can’t be authentic. I’m still brainstorming on ways to test this promotion method in a way that feels good to me. Let me know in the comments if you’ve seen anyone that does it really well!
My original Hand-lettering For Beginners blog post is still the #1 sales referrer for my lettering course. Don’t be afraid to edit blog posts that get a lot of traffic by adding buy buttons or at the least by adding links to your sale pages.
You can also think about where your ideal audience hangs out online and think about offering to write a guest post for those websites. Adding a quick link to your course in your author byline could get you some pre-qualified traffic. (This method probably works best for a course that has completely open enrollment because you never know when those posts will go live or when they might pick of steam.)
Lastly, of course, you want to use your social media accounts to spread the word about your course. Do yourself a favor and create your promotion images or graphics ahead of time so you’re not scrambling for images when you want to post. And remember, social media is incredibly ephemeral these days, so even if you feel like you’re inundating people on all fronts, only a fraction of your audience will actually see all three of those Instagram posts you shared, and even LESS people will see those multiple tweets. If you share in a sincere and non-spammy way, you shouldn’t worry about oversharing.
There’s also the opportunity to pay for social media promotion like with Facebook ads or promoted pins on Pinterest. This is not something I’ve tested to-date as all my promotion is unpaid, but if you have a smaller email audience and really believe in your course, it might be worth testing!
Your lesson here: Leading up to your launch, come up with a promotion strategy that feels good to you. Remember, you’ve created a kick-ass e-course that will help people, so your job is to get it in front of them. Promote your course with pride, learn from what works and what doesn’t, and keep moving forward.
PHEW! Holy cow, we made it!
I know I shared with you A TON of information in this post, and it might even seem a bit overwhelming right now. However, I invested the time to share just about everything I’ve learned with you because e-courses have quite literally changed my business and transformed my life.
Now I’m able to make money doing something that I absolutely love — teaching — and I get to do it in the way that I want. With the money I made on both my e-courses, I was able to pay off my credit card debt and I’ve taken my business from barely breaking even last year to being on pace to triple my revenue this year.
Here are the revenue stats for my first two courses, which I want to share with you NOT as a way to say, Look how much money I’ve made but as a way to say: With hard work and confidence in yourself, you too can make real money teaching what you already know:
We can all benefit from the knowledge that we collectively share, and there’s nothing wrong with getting paid to enrich the lives of other people with your natural talents.
If you’re a creative entrepreneur and you’re struggling to get some steady, recurring revenue, maybe it’s time to really consider building an e-course.
For those of you who aren’t in the SMS gang, every Monday for the past 72 weeks I’ve sent this community an e-mail newsletter detailing whatever challenge or insight I felt compelled to share that week. It’s my way of documenting my own personal journey to my brightest self and my way to connect with other humans out there who have a desire to do the same.
I truly believe that the growth in visibility I’m starting to see with my business can be attributed back to the strength of the Self-Made Society community, and, even more so, to the quality and consistency of that Monday newsletter. In my eyes, deciding to start the newsletter is the most impactful decision I made in the early early stages of my business.
As I shared with both of these two friends just how rich and fulfilling this community-building effort has been for me, I realized that I’ve actually never sat down to share my thoughts on why I believe email newsletters are so important and how to get started building one as a new business owner.
So… that’s what I’m hoping to share in today’s post!
Back in January 2014 when I had just launched Made Vibrant, I remember feeling so unbelievably excited by the idea of finally sharing my perspective and thoughts with the world on what it meant to live as “your most vibrant self.” I was enamored with the idea — it was a game changer for me — and I wanted to introduce it to as many people as possible. But, just a few weeks in, I started to realize that posting my blog posts day after day on social media left me feeling… unsatisfied. I had no way of really knowing what resonated with people or connecting faces and names and stories with the numbers that started to appear as a slow drip of website traffic.
That’s when I stumbled across the blog of my (now) friend, Nathan Barry. Nathan has made some pretty substantial revenue over the years selling products to his highly engaged email audience, and from that experience, he has written a ton of highly helpful, transparent content around the value he places on building a deeply connected audience using email.
As I started reading more and more about email marketing, it all just started to seem so simple. Of course, I’d want a way to stay in touch with people who were interested in what I had to say. Of course, I’d want to deliver content directly to them on a regular basis. Of course, I’d want the opportunity to have conversations with them. And, if one day I did decide to start selling products (I was 100% client work in those early days) then, of course, I’d want to offer that to a group of people that already trusted the quality of my work rather than cold leads or strangers on social media.
The biggest draw for me in the beginning though was that connection I was missing when I’d share my writing online.
Trying to have conversations and build connections around my content on social media felt a bit like trying to form a soulful bond with someone in the middle of Times Square. It was noisy and crowded and it lacked the sense of intimacy and trust that I wanted to have with my readers.
Email, on the other hand, felt personal and practical. Not only did it provide a direct interaction that felt more like an enlightened conversation over breakfast with a friend, but it was a way to keep track of those conversations and stay on the radar of the people who were resonating with my message.
In the beginning, I didn’t worry about writing a click-optimized subject line or keeping it short and sweet like many email marketing experts will tell you.
It was long. It was real. It was funny in places, contemplative in others. It had a depth of content that I wasn’t seeing anywhere else in my own inbox at the time.
That first email went out to a whopping… wait for it… four people! (Actually, scratch that, it was two people because the other two were Jason and myself from testing the sign up form!)
Humble beginnings, indeed, but I didn’t care. It felt like I had made my first two friends at a new school. From that point on my focus became trying to write a newsletter each week that was worthy of opening.
Before I knew it, I had 50 people who were raising their hands to hear what I had to say each week. 50 PEOPLE! It felt amazing. Like my voice was finally being heard and my mission wasn’t going to die in a deserted corner on the internet somewhere. That’s when I decided to brand the list itself not just as a “subscription,” but as a community called Self-Made Society. I wanted it to feel like a club you got to be a part of simply by owning the fact that you could achieve success on your terms, of your own making, regardless of what anyone else said.
The best part? I started to get emails BACK from people on Mondays. Whether it was a short “thank you” or “this hit home for me” or “this is exactly what I needed to hear this week” — it all made me feel like I had a purpose.
People continue to share bits of their lives with me in these email replies. Their dreams, their struggles, their epiphanies. Things they wouldn’t dare shoot off in a tweet or a blog comment.
I respect the exchange that takes place between us, and I believe it’s that care and respect that people buy my products. They can feel the sincerity because over time I’ve been able to create a connection between us that they trust.
Which brings me to my next point…
I’ve been harping on the idea of consistency a lot lately, both in this post about building a profitable business and this one about what happens when you break consistency, but it’s only because more and more I’m starting to see just how vital consistency is to the strength and growth of an audience.
The beauty of a newsletter is that YOU determine the schedule at which you publish, and you can rest assured that your audience is going to actually have a chance to read that content. On Facebook, you could post every day and those that have liked your page might never even see your posts. On Twitter or Instagram, your followers have to come across your post at the right time to see it, or it’ll likely never enter their consciousness.
An email, on the other hand? An email patiently waits in someone’s inbox to be opened. They may or may not read your newsletter that week, but just by hitting send you’re subconsciously communicating to them that you’re reliable and that you continue to care about how you can provide valuable content to them.
If you are a new business owner (or heck, even if you’re a seasoned business owner but you’re starting to see your community size stagnate), I recommend at least experimenting with the idea of adding a newsletter to build your audience.
Work with your strengths! I loooove to write and tell stories about my life so my emails tend to be longer and that feels right to me. If you don’t love writing but you love talking, try filming a short video and sending that out instead. Remember, going with something that feels natural to you will make it easier to keep up with consistently because you’ll enjoy the process!
You can include links to posts on your blog, but save some content that feels tailored and specific to just your subscribers. In other words, give them a reason to subscribe and not just to visit your blog. I write my newsletter specifically to Self-Made Society with them in mind, and then the following day I re-publish the newsletter as a post to my blog. This is honestly because I feel I pour so much time into the quality of the writing that I want it to be discoverable on the blog to new readers as well (and it provides a great preview for someone who might want to join the list.) The important part though is that my subscribers know I don’t just re-use a few blog links in my email and call it a newsletter; I sit down and I deliver custom, thoughtful content just for them.
Finding your unique creative voice is hard. It’s tempting to simply go with what you see works for other people, or sometimes it’s just hard to get other people’s voices out of your head if you often consume more than you create. But, similar to the point above about finding a structure that works for you, you’re only going to want to stick to your newsletter consistently if you write in a way that is natural and unique to you. People will be able to tell when your personality comes through so do yourself a favor and let it shine!
How often you send out your newsletter is totally up to you. I email my peeps once a week because I love it so much and writing comes naturally to me, but that doesn’t have to be the case for you. Maybe you want to start out trying once every other week or once a month. Whatever you do choose, 1) make sure that new subscribers know when to expect your emails (you can do this by sending a custom welcome email which I show you how to do below) and 2) make sure that you deliver consistently at that frequency.
That’s it for newsletter tips for now. I hope you’ll sign up to receive my Monday morning newsletter. It’s honestly the best part of my week!
We are all creative, but the folks who are known for it have spent time cultivating it, failing at it, and working at it.
It’s easy to look at any famous creative person and think that they’re naturally creative. It’s easy to assume their work just appeared and didn’t take hours/months/years of painstaking dedication. Much like the idea of “overnight success,” creativity is viewed as something that just happens. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s not the case. I’m here to share some examples of how anyone can cultivate and grow their creativity muscle.
Not an actual muscle like the ones bodybuilders sculpt and tone, but a muscle in the metaphorical sense. Some of us are born with the ability to barely workout yet look like a Greek god (assuming that we all view Greek gods as muscular genetic freaks). But alas, the majority of us aren’t so lucky and have to work incredibly hard to build muscle.
The important thing is that the potential is there inside of all of us. You just have to really want it.
None of these will cost you a single penny and all of them can be done right now. These are the exact things I’ve done to help create my crazy ideas: IWearYourShirt, BuyMyLastName, SponsorMyBook, BuyMyFuture, and WatchMeWrite.
I’m not just the president of hair club for men… oh wait, that’s a different article. Onto the 3 ways!
One way to work the creative muscle is to do an exercise I like to call “No Bad Ideas Brainstorming.” I break this exercise down in detail here, but I’ll briefly explain how you can do it right now with minimal effort.
Much like exercise, if you were to put in the work and do “No Bad Ideas Brainstorming” often, you’d come up with lots of creative ideas.
When it comes to being creative, you need to get out of your own way.
Let’s stick with the muscle metaphor and talk about getting in shape or losing weight. Yes, you have the option to eat a delicious cheeseburger with all the toppings, a large order of french fries, and a sugar-filled beverage, but consuming those things won’t get you in shape. By eating a poor diet, you’re limiting your own ability to get in shape. We all know that it’s possible to use willpower to overcome poor lifestyle habits but when it comes to being creative things get a bit more nebulous. There isn’t a real cheeseburger, fried potato stick, or soft drink staring you in the face.
You need to discover what is getting in your way of being creative and actively avoid it. You don’t expect six-pack abs to just show up with no effort, so why would you expect creativity to do the same? Trusting the process and putting in the work is the easiest way to keep you from putting up roadblocks in front of your creativity.
Too often we stay where we’re comfortable.
Don’t feel bad, as human beings we’re pre-wired with a pack mentality. We consume content from the same people on the same platforms. We steer clear of topics we deem controversial. We simply go through the motions and try to avoid discomfort like it’s the Bubonic plague.
Well I’m here to tell you that merely going through the motions will never help you become more creative or generate your next amazing idea. I’m also here to tell you that you absolutely cannot catch the Bubonic plague just by venturing beyond your invisible line of comfort.
To be truly creative you must push yourself beyond your comfort zone. You have to move into uncharted territory.
Lucky for you, we live in a time when information is unbelievably accessible.
We used to have to seek out inspiration. If you wanted to see priceless art, you had to go to a gallery or look at books filled with photos. Nowadays you can slide your phone out of your pocket, tap a glass screen, and you have images of all of the world’s greatest art just a few clicks away. How can you possibly be impressed and inspired by things that take almost zero effort to seek out?
You may find a bit of overlap, but something tells me you’ll find a lot of new resources that you never would have thought to read or investigate. And I know it may sound crazy, but read books! Especially non-fiction (although fiction can be a good source of inspiration, too). Just consume new and different content than you normally wouldn’t, even if it’s only 30 minutes per day.
It’s no secret that we’re over-inundated with notifications, pop-ups, alerts, unread icons, blah blah blah. Everyone knows we live in a society with too much information being thrown at us. Yet people don’t realize you can do things the same way you’ve always done them, especially as it relates to creative thinking and coming up with new ideas.
Think about this for a moment: When was the last time you had a great idea, thought, or revelation while you were elbows deep in scrolling through your inbox or newsfeed on Facebook?
It doesn’t happen. Random ideas occur in the shower, in the bathroom, on a walk, in deep conversation with someone, right before bed, right when you wake up, or any area in your life where you give your brain a little bit of space to do what it does best.
We’re not talking about Neil deGrasse Tyson here, although, he could be a great source of information for #2 if you’re looking to get inspired. Not planetary space, but mental space.
If it’s as easy as just giving your brain some mental space, why aren’t all of us coming up with the next printing press, light bulb, or iPhone? Because it takes more space than most of us are willing to allow. An uncomfortable amount, in fact.
A few years ago, I ran a business that was fueled by creative ideas. The amount of content created in that business on a day-to-day basis was overwhelming, but there seemed to be an endless amount of ideas. Looking back, I now realize why there were always ideas to be had—I allowed for space to fill up my creativity bucket.
On days when I would feel myself getting low on creative energy or ideas, I’d take a walk on the beach with my dog or my wife. I wouldn’t bring technology and I’d just let my brain wander. I wouldn’t always come up with great ideas while on the walk, but what did happen was that it set my brain in motion. The creativity muscle was put to work behind the scenes. It could have been days, weeks, or even months later, but a great idea would pop in my mind. These ideas didn’t come out of nowhere, they came out of the process of allowing for space.
Whether you have a beach, a path by your house, a hiking trail, or a forest, find a quiet place without noise or distractions. Personally, I’ve found that actually moving around and being outdoors allows the most mental space.
Remember, allowing for space doesn’t mean you have to lock yourself in a cabin in the woods for weeks on end. It could be as simple as a 10 minute walk every day. Or maybe even some (prepare for a dirty, over-and-incorrectly used word) meditation.
Simply having ideas doesn’t make you creative. We don’t remember famous inventors for all the inventions they thought of but never brought to life (they do have a ton of those though). We remember famous inventors for the things they actually built and created.
Give yourself the space, practice, and daily intention to become more creative.
Entrepreneurs are often glorified for their one big project that sells to a large company for an absurd amount of money. But for the vast majority of entrepreneurs, this is not actually the case. In fact—if I had to guess—I’d bet this is’t the case for 99.8% of entrepreneurs.
How many Mark Zuckerbergs are there? How many Elon Musks? How many Steve Jobs? Richard Bransons? Jeff Bezos? Bills Gates? Melissa Mayers? Mark Cubans? I’m running out of big names that immediately come to mind. Why? Not because I can’t think of them, but because there really aren’t THAT many when you compare the number über successful ones to the amount of moderately (or un-) successful entrepreneurs.
You might be thinking I’m wrong, but visit any major media outlet—especially tech-oriented outlets. You’ll find it’s a small cast and crew that adorns the front covers and main spreads.
This over-glorification creates an unrealistic environment and skewed perceptions of success. Do I think every entrepreneur should aspire to be as successful as Mark Zuckerberg? Absolutely! But the likelihood of that actually happening? Your chances are probably better winning the lottery.
It’s not surprising that 50-75% of entrepreneurs and small business owners fail within their first year. The bar of success is set incredibly high. Instead of focusing on building the best business they can, they chase the dream of Series A funding, big buyouts, and viral success. The mainstream discussion of entrepreneurship has people’s heads in the clouds when their heads should be down, focused on honing their craft or creating amazing experiences for their customers.
Media outlets talk about two types of entrepreneurs.
Where are the people who are forging their own way, but aren’t famous?
Where’s the article about the mom and pop granola company in Michigan that started in a quaint kitchen and is getting national distribution?
What about the all-natural, all-organic, popsicle company out of Florida that’s quietly carving out a niche?
Here’s the problem with the middle gap of entrepreneurship and why media outlets will never talk about majority of us that sit in that gap: It’s not sexy. It doesn’t draw headlines. It doesn’t help advertisers make money with click-bait headlines.
The point is that THE REST OF US (the middle gap in entrepreneurship) need to stop reading the headlines and aspiring to be the next somebody. Entrepreneurs and small business owners need to stay laser-focused on their businesses. Not just on zeroes in a bank account, but the actual experience a customer receives. The quality of the product being sold. The bending-over-backwards level of support.
Everyone wants a marketing strategy or out-of-the-box advertising idea. Those things are fleeting and about as rare as finding the next Steve Jobs.
What isn’t rare or fleeting is the power of word-of-mouth marketing and building a business people want to talk about.
No social network, media outlet, tool, tip, trick, or tactic, will ever beat the power of one friend telling two friends, who then tell two more friends.
As entrepreneurs, we also need to stop cringing when someone calls us an entrepreneur. That word just means a business owner who takes risks. That’s who we are. We need to embrace that.
We’re mostly the giant gap in between those things and we should relish the opportunities that we create for ourselves.
Stop chasing the entrepreneurial dream and start realizing you can carve out your own path. Your level of success should be measured by your own values, not against Elon Musk’s plans to terraform another effin’ planet.
And as long as you have something to teach people, you have an opportunity to make money with digital products.
The reason why digital products are a good idea for any freelancer, solopreneur or small business, is because they give you the opportunity to have somewhat steady recurring income.
If you’re in a service-based field where you make money by trading your time (like a designer or photographer) then you’re often at the mercy of whether that next client lands in your lap. Product revenue can generate a great base income for you, taking some of the pressure off and allowing you to only take on the client projects that you’re SUPER jazzed about.
Aside from the money factor, it also helps you teach on a one-to-many scale vs. a one-to-one scale. As much as I used to love taking on branding projects and doing brand coaching calls, I often found myself sharing the same knowledge many times because I found my clients getting stuck in the same areas. By pulling together an offering that touched on those reappearing pain points (Better Branding Course), I was able to help several people at one time.
Maybe you’re already on board the product train. You know the benefits of bringing in recurring cash, but if you’re anything like me, you have about ten different ideas of products you could make. How do you know which one to pursue?Â
Is it an e-book detailing your camera settings for other amateur photographers? Is it an online course showing people how to paint with watercolors? Is it a group of Photoshop templates with design accents for people to snaz up their blogs?Â
My first e-course product, the Better Lettering Course, brought in $3,800 in revenue in my first month, and two years later, it totaled over $72,000 (for a $20 course!).
Did that happen magically? How did I KNOW that it was going to bring in substantial money before I created the course? Well, I’ll let you in on my big secret:
I actually learned about Product Validation back when I was working with Jason on his marketing startup. We studied something called the Lean Startup Method, which is a methodology for building startups with the most efficient use of your resources. It involves getting validation from REAL customers to test your assumptions before you invest money in fully building out your business.
The idea is that you don’t want to invest time and money into building a product, only to later find out that nobody wants or needs it (and hence won’t buy it.)
And that’s exactly what I did with my course. It started when I created a blog post called “Hand-lettering for Beginners” back in early 2014. When I posted it, I didn’t think much of it, but by summer of that year, the traffic coming to that one post was off the charts (like… 3,000 hits a DAY off the charts.)
That was my first clue that I had found an interesting topic and a steady stream of traffic interested in that topic.
BUT one popular post does not guarantee a successful course. This traffic was interested in free information (ie. a blog post), so would they be willing to pay for it? I needed to find out.
I put up an email sign up on the blog post letting people know that I wanted to create a simple online course teaching hand-lettering basics, AND I also said that it would cost $20. (Including the approximate price of your product if you can is important because the hope is that you’ll only get people joining your list that would pay at that price for your course. That doesn’t mean they will, but it eliminates people who definitely won’t.)
I told myself that if that list of interested people grew to 200 email addresses, then I would invest the time to start making the course. To my surprise, it only took one month before the list surpassed 200 and that’s when I knew the course would likely bring me some revenue, not to mention I had an ongoing steady source of qualified leads coming to that post that might be interested in purchasing.
And that is pretty much my base formula for every digital product I created with my original business Made Vibrant.
On the flip side of the validation coin, it doesn’t always work out this way. I had another idea for a simple daily Photoshop tip email to help people uncover new tricks to make their work go faster and more efficiently. So, I followed my own formula.
I created a blog post, and the post got a decent amount of traffic, but hardly anyone signed up for the pre-launch list, which told me one of two things: either they didn’t have a need to learn about the topic OR they don’t want to learn about it in a daily email format.
If I would have spent the time making ALL those daily Photoshop tips, even just one month’s worth, only to have 20 people buy, that would have been a colossal waste of my business resources (aka my time.)
So, I shelved the idea.
The reason I want to share these two examples with you is this:
“When you’re building a business, there’s an opportunity cost to your time. Make sure you’re investing time in ideas that will have a return.”
You can validate your product ideas in a number of ways, not just by using your blog/content marketing. You can use social media to drive people to a survey. You can interview past clients to see if there’s a common need between them.
Then, make it happen! Send out the survey. Put up the email capture. Start getting feedback from your audience right away!
These are the people that resonate with your authentic self and the impact you want to make in the world. They can be your cheerleaders, your besties, your dream clients –Â whatever you want them to be. But if you want to attract them, you have to be intentional about how you go about it.
I started Made Vibrant and my first email newsletter, Self-Made Society, because I was interested in connecting with other creatives who had an interest in teaching themselves new things and getting better as people.
In a little over a year, I grew that list from 0 to 2,200 subscribers. I welcomed over 1,000 students into my first online course, Better Lettering Course, in four and a half months, and I cultivated an engaged audience on Instagram, growing my account by 50% in just one month!
Was my community growing? Yes! BUT those numbers meant nothing to me without the accompanying comments and emails saying, “I look forward to your emails and posts. They add so much positive energy to my life.” or “I just devoured your blog posts. I feel like you just get me!” Those messages told me that I was building the RIGHT community. One that understood what I was trying to create and one that appreciated it.
Remember:
“It’s not the size of your community that counts; it’s how much your community believes in your mission.”
Think of it like an archery target. It doesn’t matter how big that target is and how many circles are added to the outside—it could be 10ft across—but the name of the game is hitting the bullseye.
Similarly, it doesn’t matter how many people you add to grow your community; if they don’t hit that bullseye in terms of aligning with your mission, they aren’t going to truly appreciate the value you deliver or want to enlist your services/buy your products/consume your content.
In the welcome email to my Made Vibrant email list, I asked subscribers to reply back with their biggest creative struggle. I received so many messages saying that the biggest problem my readers were facing was not knowing what direction to go or what they wanted their creative business to look like. All they knew was they wanted to love what they do and make money doing it.
Here’s the great news about building a community. Even if you don’t know WHAT your business will look like, you can still start cultivating your community TODAY.
Why? Because if you build a community that aligns with your values, oftentimes they will end up telling you what they want from you. And if you listen to them, that’s how you’ll be able to develop content/products/services that bring them value. (And delivering value to an engaged audience is how you make that MONEY!)
So, let’s get to the meat of it then, shall we?
Here are my three steps. (Obviously, they’re all “M” words because you KNOW I get down on some alliteration.)
This is your WHY. It’s the thing you stand for. It’s the thing you believe in and what you want to share with the world. Developing clarity around your message can be tough to nail down at first, but to get started, try asking yourself these questions:
What do I wish there was more of in the world?Â
What have I learned from my own experiences that I want to share with others?
What lights me up and WHY does it light me up?
For Made Vibrant, I realized early on that when I’m creating things I love and working hard to improve myself, I feel like my soul is being fully expressed. Like my true colors are at their very brightest. And I wanted that feeling for other people. I wanted to help people evolve toward their brightest selves whether that’s in life, in business, or in their creative spirits. THIS is the message I want to share, and the community I want to attract is full of people that want that too (hopefully that means you!)
Please don’t forget, this message might evolve over time! But the more conviction you can bring to it when you’re starting out, the easier it will be for the right people to resonate with it and join your growing tribe.
This is the HOW. It’s your instrument—the method through which you share your music (your message) with the world. If you love to write, words are your medium. If you love to tell stories through film, making movies is your medium. It could be music, or watercolor, or hand-lettering, or photography, or design. And, the cool part is, you don’t have to choose just one.
I share my message through words and art (even better if I can marry the two like with hand-lettering!) I find that my sweet spot is in the intersection of art and insight — creativity and connection. Once I identified that it became easy to continually ask myself, “How do I use art and insight to share my message today?”
This is the WHERE. It’s those specific places you can go where your message can be amplified enough that your target community can hear you. And you want the platforms you use as your microphone to marry well with your medium. If your medium is photography, maybe it’s an Instagram hashtag you use to attract people who adore simple, yet beautiful photos. If you’re a writer, maybe your microphone is a guest post on a blog that you know has an existing community that aligns with yours.
For me, I’ve discovered that Instagram is a fantastic place to marry my love of art and insight because it’s a very visual platform where I can also share little “microblogs” in my captions.
However, don’t be fooled by the word “microphone.” This doesn’t mean shout at people or push your message all day and all night. Instead, invite others into the conversation and make sure your community knows that you want to connect with them, not talk at that. I try to respond to as many Instagram comments as I can and reply to as many email replies as I possibly can because I want you all to know that my #1 goal is to connect.
Now, once you have these three pieces of your foundation, it’s your job to deliver CONSISTENT VALUE to the people that do raise their hands to be a part of your community. Try to climb inside the head of the person you want to bring into your tribe, and ask yourself, What can I do that would add value to their lives?Â
How can you share your message through a specific medium in a place that gives you a microphone where those people will hear you.
That’s the name of the game, folks.
If you already have a solid community that’s growing, awesome! How can you brainstorm ways to bring them more value in the future?
I truly hope that these steps will help some of you out there starting out on your creative business journey!
And that’s what I’m here to explain to you today.
So let’s begin with this: where did this $15K magically come from?
Well, I’m just gonna come out flat and say it: I busted my buns in the second half of 2014. I hit financial rock bottom in the middle of last summer following some serious struggles with anxiety. But I was determined not to work for someone else, so I gave myself one heck of a pep talk and decided to do everything in my power to make my business succeed.
Turns out, that kick in the pants worked because in the second half of last year, I saw an unbelievable amount of growth in project inquiries and client work. To give you some perspective, in Q3 of last year, I doubled my revenue from Q1 & Q2, and in Q4 I increased that number 5-fold. In other words, I wasn’t messing around.
Among several changes I made to my business, I got more focused and specific about my service offerings, I started managing my time for effectively so I could take on more work, and all this led to clients finally landing in my inbox instead of me having to go out and hunt them down.
For a while, it felt like I had finally hit my stride. Client work was fun and challenging, and I felt like I was using my unique talents to make a true difference for the handful of businesses and creatives I was working with.
But, I admit, there was a part of me that felt creatively stifled and burnt out. I was running myself ragged trying to keep up with all the work I had fought so hard to get.
Amidst all of that, through some very much appreciated prodding from Jason, Â I somehow carved out the time to launch the Better Lettering Course… and that’s when everything changed.
Suddenly I was getting emails from students literally all over the world saying how the course had helped them reignite their creativity. Emails thanking me for putting together a fun, relatable resource, and for offering it at an affordable price.
Those students began to join the newsletter or follow me over on Instagram, and it just felt like the business was injected with this new life. All that new energy reminded me of one of my original intents for Made Vibrant – that it feel like a community (not just a client service business.)
I always wanted to create something that wasn’t just about me, but about finding other like-minded creatives out there who are interested in living a happy, bright, and deeply satisfying life.
I felt like I was suddenly impacting people on a bigger scale than I could ever do with my branding work. Don’t get me wrong, working 1-to-1 has its advantages, but there’s no match for the feeling of seeing the course students encourage one another, push themselves creatively, and connect with each other over something they love.
On a business level, I also realized that the model I had been following for the past six months just wasn’t sustainable. Trying to juggle timelines of multiple projects and doing my darndest to give myself fully to each of my clients has proven challenging at times. I worked long hours, fretted more hours than I can count over logos, and went to bed many nights wondering if I was letting everyone down.
So, I did exactly what I recommend in Connecting With Your Core: I took the necessary time to reflect, to ask myself the hard questions, and to really get clear on my vision for the next chapter of my business, preparing myself for the fact that it might mean a big change.
At the same time, four of my past clients approached me to expand upon our work together, along with two new clients asking for Brand Development packages. Transitioning away from client work would mean turning down $15K of locked-in project revenue over the next three months.Â
And yet, I knew that if I kept going down this path, I would find myself three months later, worn out again and still without the time to develop the resources and products that I want so desperately to create for you guys and this community.
I knew what I had to do.Â
So, two weeks ago, I started having the conversations I was dreading. I had to be honest with my clients and let them know I wouldn’t be able to take on the additional work.
And I’ll be honest, it sucked. There were a couple times where I wondered to myself,”Am I CRAZY?” I mean, I’ve worked so hard for a year to build demand for my services, and just when it starts paying off I shut the door.
BUT, here’s the lesson that I want you to take away from my experience:
“No amount of money in the world is worth pursuing a life that is LESS than the one you know you want.”
When you have a vision for your future and the things you want to create, every moment you spend working toward another future is a waste. It’s a waste because your goal should be to pursue the life that makes you feel most vibrant. When you are the best and brightest YOU, the whole world wins.
So yes, here I am, switching gears yet again. And who knows, maybe it will all change again six months from now. Maybe I’ll miss my client work and crank things back up once I’ve been able to build out the resources I’m hoping to create.
There was a time when I might have felt guilty or ashamed of changing directions (and I know a lot of fellow creatives struggle with this), but I think as long as YOU know where you’re going – and more importantly, WHY – then you shouldn’t feel bad about evolving your business.
Creating work that is aligned with your core means constantly correcting your course. Real people change just like real businesses change.
Give yourself and your business permission to evolve.
Are you working toward a goal because you think you should? Are you pressing on just because you’ve worked so hard to get where you are? Or are you truly on a path to a life that feels aligned with your vision for yourself.
I encourage you to ask yourself these hard questions, and if you’re not happy with where it feels like you’re headed, consider correcting your course, no matter how hard it might be.
I have some fun stuff up my sleeve in the coming months, and I hope you’ll all stick around to check it out. As far as I’m concerned, I’m here to encourage you to live your best, most creative life, so that’s exactly what I plan to do.
This week, I wanted to share with you the evolution of my weekly newsletters in the hopes that it illustrates to you the ONE THING that I know could move the needle for your business or side hustle.
Back when I was starting Made Vibrant, I stumbled across a guy named Nathan Barry online. He talked a lot about the importance of having an email list if you ever wanted to make money with your business. Why? Because it’s a list of people who are willing to raise their hands and say they’re interested in what you have to offer.
That made a lot of sense to me, sure, but back then I was only interested in finding freelance design clients.
How is this going to help me get new clients and projects? I thought.
I couldn’t see a direct benefit, but something in me still really wanted to create a community.
I wanted to gather people together that were united in their creativity, their curiosity, and their desire to go out into the world and make stuff happen. I wanted to start something that felt bigger than myself.
That’s when the name Self-Made Society came to me.
I loved that it felt like a secret underground meeting of people who wanted to revolt against anyone that had ever told them they couldn’t be something because they weren’t “classically trained.”
I got super excited, signed up for a free Mailchimp account, sent out a few tweets about an upcoming Monday email, and quickly figured out how to code an email capture into my site.
By the time Monday morning rolled around, I sat down to write whatever came to me. I re-discovered how much I love to write. The words just flowed.
When I was done, I filled out my little email template in Mailchimp, hit the big ol’ SEND button, and just as I was about to pat myself on the back, Mailchimp congratulated me for sending out my email TO A WHOPPING TWO PEOPLE.
My community that I was so excited to grow was TWO PEOPLE! Well, technically it was four, but two of those people were Jason and myself from testing the email capture on my website.
But I didn’t let that stop me. I was so focused on the vision of what it could be that the next Monday, I sat down and got ready to hit send again.
That following Monday, on February 17th, 52 people got my email. WHOA, I thought. How cool is this? A few people responded and said they appreciated my words. It lit me up to know that my thoughts were helping people.
So the next Monday, I did it again. And then again.
These Monday emails are my constant. Each week they challenge me to reflect on my journey as an entrepreneur. They make me feel helpful. They allow me to connect with you guys.
And when I get responses from you all – even when I can’t reply back right away – it lights up my whole world. It encourages me to keep going.
In total, as of this Monday, I have sent 52 Monday newsletter emails. This community has grown from two people to 2,063 people in one year. And I’m really proud of that.
So listen, there are a TON of ways to grow a business, I know that. But if there is one single thing that I know will move the needle for you, no matter what your business is or what your goals are, it is this:
It might not be an email newsletter because maybe writing isn’t your thing. But commit to doing one thing on a regular basis, and keep doing it even when it gets hard. Nothing great was ever built overnight. It takes time to build a community. Time and commitment.
This week, your challenge is to think of ONE thing that you can do consistently.Â
Here are the small caveats to that commitment, though:
1. Make sure whatever you do is high-quality. (The quality of the email I sent to two people is the exact same as the one I sent to 2,000.)
2. Make sure it’s something you enjoy. (If you don’t like writing, don’t force yourself to do a newsletter because it’ll feel like pulling teeth!)
3. Make sure you give yourself a minimum period of commitment. (I promised myself I’d give it six months when I started this newsletter, and I never looked back!)
“Consistency allows people the time they need to recognize and appreciate your work.”
