Ep177 How to Start a Side Hustle by Creating and Selling a Digital Course with guest Amy Porterfield
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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in. Thank you.
Sara Mayer: Hello, bold goal crushers. I am super excited for this episode because we are going to talk about how to start a side hustle by creating and selling a digital course. And there is no better guest than Amy Porterfield to talk about this topic. Amy is an online marketing expert and the host of the top ranked podcast, online marketing made easy.
Sara Mayer: Through her bestselling courses book and popular podcast, Amy's action by action [00:01:00] approach proves that even the newest online entrepreneurs can bypass the overwhelm and instead generate exciting momentum as they build a business. They truly love Amy. I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thanks
Amy Porterfield: so much for having me.
Amy Porterfield: I appreciate it.
Sara Mayer: Many of our listeners are dreaming of their business or a side hustle. And I wanted to ask you a little bit. About how they might know if a digital course is a possible avenue for them to make this stream a reality.
Amy Porterfield: There's a lot of options. So I love that you asked this question.
Amy Porterfield: There's a lot of different things you could do from courses to memberships to masterminds to service based business to one on one coaching consulting. There's a lot you could do. So why choose a digital course as a way to begin in online business? And my answer for you is that digital courses allow for more [00:02:00] freedom.
Amy Porterfield: A lot of the different business models you can choose do not allow for that freedom of location and time and creativity. So let's take for example, if you did one on one coaching or consulting, which for the record, There's nothing wrong with that. And a lot of my students do that in addition to their digital course, but when it's your only way to make money, when you have to show up and work with the client, get on zoom, one on one calls back and forth, there's only one of you in so much time in a day, you will absolutely hit a ceiling of how much money.
Amy Porterfield: and impact you can make. However, with a digital course, it's one to many. The reason I started creating digital courses 14 years ago and over the last, I'd say 12 years, I've taught people how to create and launch digital courses is because of freedom. It started with, I wanted to work. When I wanted, where I wanted, how I wanted to work.
Amy Porterfield: And so when you have a digital course, whether you live launch it or put it on [00:03:00] automation, you have ebbs and flows. You could launch and step back and have some white space and relaxation. Then you can go full bore again, and then you can step back. And I love the ebbs and flow of that type of business.
Amy Porterfield: And it also allows you to reach so many more people that you normally wouldn't have access to. And so you're doing one to many, you're not hitting that time ceiling or that location ceiling or financial ceiling that a lot of other business models will absolutely be a part of that mix.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. I love that.
Sara Mayer: , I started with one on one coaching and in person workshops and there was only so much time in the day. And then I launched my digital course, the bold goal crusher course. I've had over 700 students go through my course in two years.
Amy Porterfield: That's a lot of students, 700 people served. I think it's so exciting when I hear stats like
Sara Mayer: that.
Sara Mayer: And I never would have been able to do that through one on one coaching. And if you're listening [00:04:00] today, I'm actually in the Bahamas because I can be in the Bahamas and I can travel and do what I need to do and then launch when I want.
Amy Porterfield: Yeah. It's really exciting. I love talking to people who are an example of exactly what I teach and you absolutely
Sara Mayer: are.
Sara Mayer: And it's one of the things that I struggled with at the beginning was What should I teach? Because there's so many things that you could teach and we're all, we all have a lot of different interests. So how do you know what to teach and what topic you should choose for your course? Is there like a method to figure that out?
Sara Mayer: And then how can you be sure it's actually going to be successful? Cause that's one of the questions I always get. Oh yeah.
Amy Porterfield: What would I even teach on? And this comes up a lot. Now we'll take the mindset. Barriers aside for a second, like who's going to buy what I teach, who am I to be teaching this? A lot of insecurities come up when you want to create anything new and we could talk about that.
Amy Porterfield: But before we [00:05:00] even get there, just coming up with the idea in the first place, it's the perfect first step. So to do I created a formula a few years back that I teach my students and I call it the sweet spot formula. There's four different quadrants. And the first quadrant is What are you good at?
Amy Porterfield: Where have you gotten results? I call this your 10% edge. What could you teach somebody else because you've gotten results in that area or you've worked with a customer or a client or a friend or a family member and you got them results. So we're looking for where you excel. Now when I say it's your 10% edge, what I mean by that is you just need to be 10% ahead of those you serve.
Amy Porterfield: You don't need to be light years ahead, more time, more certification, more education. You don't need any of that. You already have a 10% edge. Everybody does. And you might have 10% edge in a few different areas, whether it might be your personal life or your professional life, you can pull from both. So that's the first quadrant.
Amy Porterfield: Where have you gotten results that you could actually teach someone else how to get those results? The [00:06:00] second quadrant is who do you want to serve? When you think of the people that you could help, what are their struggles? What are their desires? What do they need? Because we need alignment between what you're good at.
Amy Porterfield: And who you can help and what you can help them do. So just start thinking about who you might serve, who you might sell your course to, what are their challenges and how can you meet them? The third quadrant is the profit potential. So if you think of an idea for a course, ask yourself, are there books about it?
Amy Porterfield: Other podcasts about it. Are people creating courses about it? Are there coaching consultants around this topic? And if the answer is yes, ding, ding, ding, that's a good thing. We don't need to be first to market that it takes a long time and a lot of money and effort. I love the idea of you creating a course where there might already be another course.
Amy Porterfield: Like that out there, which proves people want to pay money for that knowledge. We have to subscribe to the mindset. There's enough room for all of us. When I first came on the [00:07:00] scene, I taught Facebook marketing 14 years ago when everyone in their mother was a social media manager teaching Facebook marketing.
Amy Porterfield: It was just. You woke up one day and you literally could say you were a social media manager back in the day. So I had a lot of people doing what I was doing, but I kept thinking I've got a style of teaching. I've got my own stories, my own experiences. I'm going to find my audience and over 14 years, I really have.
Amy Porterfield: And so there's enough room for you. It's good. If it's already out there, that means it's being validated. And the fourth and final quadrant is what lights you up. Doesn't have to be your life's purpose or passion. You just have to enjoy teaching it. Because as we're going to talk about that topic a lot when we have a course on it.
Amy Porterfield: So even on the tough days, it's got to keep pulling you forward. Yeah.
Sara Mayer: Bold goal crushers. If you are looking to get started on your course creation, I invite you to join. MI in Amy's boot [00:08:00] camp. Check it out today, it's only $47. Go to Saramayer.com/amybootcamp. And you can get all the details on the bootcamp as well as my bonuses that I'm offering. I look forward to seeing you in the bootcamp
Sara Mayer: There's so much gold in what you just said. I think so many times out there and myself included, we think we need to be the expert. We need to have it all figured out. And we look at others, like maybe I look at you and I'm like, Oh, she's so far ahead.
Sara Mayer: But we don't actually need to have it all figured out. It's just 10% just 10%
Amy Porterfield: edge. Yeah. Let's talk about that for a moment. So I would never encourage someone to create a course where they haven't gotten results because the whole point of a course is you've gotten results for yourself or someone else.
Amy Porterfield: And now you're going to figure out, okay, how did I get those results? Let me go back. Let me piece that roadmap together. First I did this, then I did that. [00:09:00] That's the making of your course. So that's why you just need to be a few steps ahead of those you serve. Cause something they don't know.
Amy Porterfield: And so this takes a lot of the overthinking or who am I to be teaching this? Who are you not? Why wouldn't you, if you've gotten results and someone's like, how did you do that? Teach it. And one of the beautiful things about having a 10% edge is that when you learn from someone who's already been in the trenches, they're not that far ahead of you.
Amy Porterfield: So they can still relate to the struggles and the challenges and the mindset shifts that need to be made. It feels more relevant to you because they've just been there. So there's a beautiful thing about your teacher not being way, way ahead of you, which that might be your case with your students.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And also you remember what it's like because you were just there.
Amy Porterfield: Exactly. It's so true. You remember what it's like so that you can relate to them more. When you start thinking of their struggles, they're very real to you, which means you're going to be a better teacher when you talk about them.[00:10:00]
Amy Porterfield: Yeah.
Sara Mayer: And then your final point, step four, you talked about teaching something that lights you up. Yes. And so often, people who are listening to this podcast, you may be at work and you have all these things that you need to do in your corporate job. And you may like five or 10 of them, but there are some things that you maybe don't really like to do.
Sara Mayer: So this is an opportunity to create something that brings you joy, whether it's a side hustle where you're creating a digital course on the side. I did that one. I first started and then, yep. And then COVID happened and I was thrown into the deep end of the pool, but thank goodness I had already started working on this.
Sara Mayer: Cause if not, I would have taken a lot longer to get going. That was August and I launched in the end of December. Oh, that's
Amy Porterfield: fantastic. Okay. I love that. You brought this up. One of the things you can look at a side hustle or a digital course, whether it's your side hustle or your full time thing as a foundational [00:11:00] piece to keep you safe.
Amy Porterfield: Meaning I've heard story after story, not just a COVID, but that was a big one of people that couldn't do what they were doing and they needed to step away, but their course still allowed them to make money. This is sad and it's a. Story that just happened. But when I launched my book back in February, my book launched on a Tuesday.
Amy Porterfield: My mother in law unexpectedly got sick on a Wednesday by Saturday, she had died. And this is something no one saw coming. She was very healthy. It was very much of a fluke. And right when that happened, I was able to say, Hey. I have to walk away from my business for about two weeks. Almost. I've got to be there for my husband and his family.
Amy Porterfield: And I was able to walk away while still making money. Not that's the most important thing, but it's a fact still making money in my business with my courses, but not having to show up and be present. And so having something in your business that could be a safety net when life happens. It's a really big deal.
Amy Porterfield: So whether you make digital [00:12:00] courses, your main thing, or just an extra stream of revenue, whether it's a side hustle, when you're still in a nine to five job, that extra security, you never know when you're going to need it.
Sara Mayer: I'm so sorry to hear about your mother in law. Thank you. And so you may be thinking as you're listening, okay, this is a possibility for me.
Sara Mayer: I might be able to do a digital course. And before you launch a digital course or. Basically anything for that matter, you really do need to have an audience. So if someone is listening right now and they're like, okay, I want to create this digital course and promote it, but they have no audience or small audience, should they wait to create their digital course?
Sara Mayer: What do you advise? I
Amy Porterfield: love this question. I get this question a lot. 90% of the people that I work with to create a digital course, they do not have an audience or a very small one, maybe a small social media audience, but no email list. I wish I could tell you [00:13:00] that you don't need an audience. But we know anything you do in business, you're going to need an audience.
Amy Porterfield: I don't have a magic bullet for that one. However, I do have a system when I teach my students how to create a course. What I tell them is I want you building your email list while you're creating your course. Let's say it takes you 60 days. Or longer, whatever works for you, if it's a side hustle, you might need some extra time, but to create your course, let's say it's a side hustle, you've got a full time nine to five job in a busy life.
Amy Porterfield: You're going to give yourself 90 days to create the course before you launch it. That is 90 days of growing your email list as well and growing your email list. Once you get let's say. A freebie, a lead magnet, a giveaway created so people will give you their name and email in exchange for that freebie.
Amy Porterfield: Once you get that created, which you could do in just a few days, you can start putting it out there and it becomes more a little bit on autopilot because it's out in the world. So you don't have to think. Think about list building every minute, it starts to happen more organically, but you've got to set [00:14:00] up the pieces to do and that is worth your time now, even if you start to create your course right away. So do not wait to create your course until you build your audience, do it at the same time. And then when you're ready to launch, you actually have an audience. Now, the beautiful thing is you do not need a huge audience to make great money.
Amy Porterfield: I have story after story of my students with small audiences that made great money with their very first digital course. My favorite one that I love to tell is Rob Green. He's a photographer and he decided to build a course where he teaches how to make flash photography. Okay. Thank you. Look like natural light.
Amy Porterfield: And so he did this course and he had a hundred people on his email list and a small social media following, and he made 12, 000. That's a lot of money with a small audience, but he nurtured the audience. He showed up for them. He was in constant contact with them. So when he created this course, they were ready to buy.
Amy Porterfield: So that is something that is very doable for [00:15:00] those listening today as well.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And that's a prime example of what I did. I started my course and I had probably 25 people that I could put together and say, Oh, they've bought a workshop for me before cause I was doing some in person. And then there was this point where.
Sara Mayer: In my pre launch, I had a lot of people that bought that I knew, like really new in real life. And then all of a sudden I'm like, who is this person on my list? I don't know this person.
Amy Porterfield: So it's such a good feeling. I love that you remember that. Who is, Donna, I have never heard that name before.
Amy Porterfield: And it's someone who just found you and put their trust in you. Like it's a great feeling.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And now I can say, with the 700 students, I do get to know them through my community and my activities, but many of them came through my lead magnets that I've put out there, which are basically free resources that introduce them to me and the concept of creating bold [00:16:00] goals.
Sara Mayer: There are so many days I open my email and I have no idea who this is, but I'm here to help them so they can achieve their goals. And that's a really cool
Amy Porterfield: feeling. I agree. It's a beautiful feeling. I love that you shared that. Yeah. So
Sara Mayer: I did ask my community if they had any questions for you and this one was submitted.
Sara Mayer: So I'll read it for you. My current. Personal struggle is the voice of one person in my head who questioned my authority as an intelligent, informed business woman, educator coach in the giant crowd of people who constantly encourage me and share how much they appreciate learning with me. It's this one voice that sticks out.
Sara Mayer: And I know I should just ignore it. My reasonable brain knows that, but it's so discouraging. What advice do you have for someone to get past the
Amy Porterfield: naysayers? As another sensitive [00:17:00] girl, I totally understand. I'm not going to belittle that feeling. Even if it's just one person, I have absolutely been there.
Amy Porterfield: One of my mentors shared something with me a long time ago that has stuck with me. And I really tried to use it when I start feeling like someone has said something negatively about me. And that is that nobody more successful than you or someone doing big things in this world is ever going to take the time to tear you down in a comment online.
Amy Porterfield: They're just not going to do it. So I always tell myself what my mom has told me since I've been very young, consider the source. What are they doing online, cutting you down when they do not know you, they do not, they're not in your business and they have put a negative comment saying you don't know your stuff.
Amy Porterfield: Who would do such a thing? Someone that is not as successful than you as you, or someone that's not going after your big, bold goals that you are going for. We have to consider the source. I wish them well. I send them love [00:18:00] and compassion and I send them off. And so that is one thing that I always remember.
Amy Porterfield: No one more successful than me are doing big, bold things is ever going to take me down online. They just don't have the time, nor would they do that to a person. So consider the source. Another thing is we have to remind ourselves that people leaving negative comments for us, and they will, the bigger you get, the more you get welcome to entrepreneurship.
Amy Porterfield: It's a, that part is a terrible part of what we do. The online negative comments it's going to happen. It happens to me every day. And one, I don't look. So that's one thing I don't dive in deep into comments, especially Facebook. I think Facebook has the worst comments. Sometimes I do not dive in and sit there and read them.
Amy Porterfield: I have more important things to do, like adding value to my students. But when I see those comments, I remind myself that number one. They don't pay the bills. If you're not paying my bills, you don't get an opinion like that. And then number two, I just know it's par for the course. If I want to grow, if I want to do big things, I've [00:19:00] got to get thicker skin.
Amy Porterfield: And I do not say that lightly because I am ultra sensitive, but I have to get thicker skin and think, okay, I'm not for everyone. I've got a chapter in my book called you ain't for everyone boo. And it was a something that a best friend of mine told me when I was complaining of a negative comment online, I'm not for everyone and you're not for that person that left that comment.
Amy Porterfield: That person that left that comment will never buy from you. We'll never get value from you. Wish them well and move on. Yeah, that's
Sara Mayer: such great feedback. And in reality, the people who are doing the things, they're so busy doing the things they don't have time to be.
Amy Porterfield: Oh, tell me this. Have you ever left a public negative comment for somebody about who's teaching content online?
Amy Porterfield: Would you ever do that? My friend. No,
Sara Mayer: I don't have time.
Amy Porterfield: Exactly. You don't have time. Exactly. Sarah's doing big things in this world. She's making things happen. She doesn't have time for that. Nor would her heart lead her to that. And so we just have to consider the source.
Sara Mayer: [00:20:00] Yeah. So a little spinoff on that question, what if this person is somebody, and trust and love maybe a family member, you're like, I want to start a digital course.
Sara Mayer: And they're like, get a job or when are you doing this? How are we going to afford this? Because many times it's, it takes a lot of courage to say, I want to do this. And then there are people out there who love us, but they may not be the best
Amy Porterfield: cheerleaders. Okay. I've got two sides to this. The first one is be careful who you tell your dreams to.
Amy Porterfield: I talk about this in my book as well. When I wanted to start my business and go out on my own and create my digital courses, I only told three people because the three people I told I knew no matter if I said, I want to land on Mars or I want to create a digital course, they'd say, go for it. You could do whatever you want in this world.
Amy Porterfield: We believe in you. My mom and my best friend were two and my husband, the three people that I told. However, I know that some people you have to tell. Like your spouse. So what if you [00:21:00] tell your spouse and they do not support you? I work with a lot of women who want to contribute to the household, but they've been stay at home moms for a long time and their husband would really love them to stay at home a little longer and take care of the kids.
Amy Porterfield: And they're itching to do something big. And so they share that with their spouse and their spouse is like, why let it just be a hobby. You don't need to make money from it. We don't have time for you to invest in this course and spend the time. So the person they love the most. They're not getting support from, and that happens.
Amy Porterfield: It's unfortunate and it happens. So I know this is a little controversial, but if you do not follow your dreams, if you don't go after those big, bold goals that Sarah talks about, you will never feel fulfilled. Sometimes you have to go after it. Even if the people you love most don't believe you should do it, or don't support you wholeheartedly, I would share why you're doing it respectfully and keep going.
Amy Porterfield: You've got to find a way to follow your dreams because you will resent that person in the future if you don't at [00:22:00] least give it a shot. I
Sara Mayer: could not agree more. I actually have one on one clients and I had one client whose spouse was not supportive at all and she's very analytical. Her husband is also very analytical and she took out one of those big post it papers, which I know you love post its, but she wrote her goals, three goals, not five, not 10, three goals.
Sara Mayer: And then every week she wrote on this big paper, right in the entryway to their bathroom, hers, her wins and her successes. And never said anything about it. It was, she's it was not a conversation. I just decided to do it. And then finally, one day her husband was like, you did what? And that opened the door.
Amy Porterfield: This is beautiful. I love this story. She just did her thing. She just kept going privately, but not just these are my wins, not like stuffing them in his face. Be like, look what I did. See, I could [00:23:00] do this. There didn't need that energy. Just put it out there and he came around. I love that. This reminds me of one of my other students Rachel Gainsbourg.
Amy Porterfield: She started a luxury Airbnb company, like a real estate type company that she teaches people now how to do it. And she was a pharmacist. She had a really good job and in the medical field paid well. Her parents were so proud of her. She brought in a lot of money and she wanted to change career. She was not fulfilled anymore.
Amy Porterfield: And her husband did not support her, but she did it anyway. And it's funny how he came around when the money started flowing in and he was really proud of her. Like he just had to hold on a second. And if they could just hold on for a second, they don't have to love it, but you need to move forward. You can prove them all wrong.
Amy Porterfield: Yeah. And
Sara Mayer: the first one for her was 6, 000 people watched my Tik TOK live. And he was like, you had 6, 000 people watching you talk about that. Yes. And that was like the thing. And then of course when 10, 000 a [00:24:00] month went on the wall.
Amy Porterfield: Different story. Yes. Different story. But it starts with the little stuff.
Amy Porterfield: You're right. Yeah. The views, the email list growth, all that kind of stuff matters. So good for her that she was tracking those wins that, that probably gave her the confidence to keep going.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And she did it in a little subtle way. I was so proud of her. I love it. So we talked about naysayers. What are some other worries or maybe limiting beliefs that come up for people that often stop them from moving forward?
Amy Porterfield: I think a big one is what if I create this course, I invest in learning how to do it. I invest my time in actually doing it and no one buys. What if no one buys my course? I always like to go to the dark side and say, okay, what if that happens? So about 13 years ago, I created my first digital course. I was so proud of myself.
Amy Porterfield: I had quit my job. I had created this course and I launched it to the world and I thought I'd make a hundred thousand 200.
Amy Porterfield: 67 [00:25:00] bucks. The worst part of the story is the product was 2 97, but when you took a few thousand dollars out for expenses, I made $267. I cried for a week, didn't wanna get outta bed. I was devastated. What I told myself is, I'm not cut out to be an entrepreneur or a business owner, and I do not know how to create digital courses.
Amy Porterfield: And so I made it mean that I wasn't worthy of success. I wasn't good enough. I beat myself up more than anyone else could beat me up for that failure. The thing is, luckily I had someone in my life to say, you got to get out back out there. You're not going to go back to your job. You're going to go back out there and figure this out.
Amy Porterfield: And fast forward 14 years. And I did. I wouldn't be where I am today with 85 million in course sales, helping over 50, 000 students create courses and create businesses. If I didn't allow myself to have that stumble, I'm going to call it a stumble. Sure. You could call it a failure, but what happened was I went back to the drawing board and I said what did not go right here?
Amy Porterfield: I [00:26:00] didn't have an audience that was engaged. I was teaching a topic where I did not have a 10% edge. I knew social media well, so I created a course to help people launch books with social media. I never launched a book in my life. I haven't launched a book until this February. So like it was going to be a long time till I had that experience.
Amy Porterfield: I felt desperate to find something and I chose something where I didn't have a 10% edge. I should have just taught social media. Which I did with my next course and made 10, 000 and then went on from there and it only grew. But imagine if I said, okay, this failed. I'm done. You, it might flop, but the chances of it flopping are very low when you follow a proven roadmap.
Amy Porterfield: So whether you learn from me or someone else, I didn't learn from anyone. I hunt and pecked all over the web, trying to figure it all out and didn't have all the information. So made all the mistakes. But if you learn from someone who said, look, I've done this before, and I am willing to tell you everything I know in the [00:27:00] order of how you should do it.
Amy Porterfield: Step by step here's my framework. Learn from them because it sidesteps all the mistakes and really decreases your chances of that one objection. What if no one buys very unlikely when you have a proven roadmap, another objection that comes up a lot is I don't have the time I do, especially people listening with a nine to five job.
Amy Porterfield: Families busy life. I don't have the time. You don't have the time. That is true right now. If you looked at your calendar, I bet it's totally full. You have no time to create a digital course. However, it's not about the digital course. It's about what do you want? Do you want more money in your business? Do you want more freedom?
Amy Porterfield: Do you want to have that white space where you can give it your all, but step back and take time off as well? Do you want to go from one to one to many? What do you want? And will a digital course get you there? And all those things that I said that you want, yes, a digital course will get you there.
Amy Porterfield: So we have to find the time. We have to make the time. One of my [00:28:00] students is a she's a single mom and she had a toddler when she created her first digital course. She absolutely did not have the time. She had a nine to five job as well, but she carved out a little time in the morning before he woke up.
Amy Porterfield: She stayed up later when he went to bed, not ideal, but it was a season of her life. Once your course is done, you have an asset and you get to launch over and over again. One time you create it and my motto is we're going to launch it for years to come. So that season of hustle and getting it done and making sacrifices is worth the type of impact and money you can make with your course.
Amy Porterfield: You have to find the time. It will not come to you. It's not on your calendar right now, but you can find it if you want it bad enough.
Sara Mayer: Oh, I agree. wholeheartedly. I launched my first course on my own before I was introduced to Amy. I made two 97. So I don't know what's with the seven and the two.
Sara Mayer: And I was like, I don't understand because I've done [00:29:00] this in person and what happened. And then I stumbled upon. You through Steph Taylor, actually. Oh, I love Steph. Yeah. And that's how I got into digital course academy. And I really followed the whole thing. Every single step I went to everything. And at that time, Steph was doing like.
Sara Mayer: Work sessions together. So I had an accountability group and then I launched again in the end of January, middle of December course started in January and that's where it started kicking off and now my course is on evergreen and then I do a live launch once a year, but. I never imagined I would have 700 students when I first launched it and I think I had five.
Sara Mayer: I almost canceled it. And then I remembered one time my mentor told me in training, he said, focus on the people who are there. Because they showed up don't worry about the people who are not there and [00:30:00] they had a great experience those five still they keep coming back for more and more things. They're still a part of my community today.
Amy Porterfield: Okay, this is such a big lesson. You had five people your first time that is now and you said two years, 700 people, right? Imagine if you discounted all of those five people and told yourself you weren't good at digital courses, you would not be where you are today. We have to normalize. Starting new. We have to normalize not knowing what we're doing and figuring it out as we go.
Amy Porterfield: I don't know any successful entrepreneur that didn't have some rough starts in the beginning, but for some reason, some new entrepreneurs, maybe some that are listening, they look around, they see you and me, and they think it needs to look like that out of the gate where we didn't even make 300 on our first digital course.
Amy Porterfield: It looked just like it should look really rough till we figured it out. Give yourself the opportunity to figure it
Sara Mayer: out. I'm [00:31:00] going to share something. I'm not sure if you are okay with me sharing it, but I'm going to share it. Do it girl. I used to look at your lives and you have all this fancy cameras and all this stuff.
Sara Mayer: I'd be like, Oh, I never could be that sharp so quick. And then one day I stumbled upon YouTube where you have a video, which is still up. Do not take that down ever. And it's from back in the day, Amy Porterfield has a closet door coming out of her head, talking about social media marketing. And it really clicked to me that everybody starts somewhere and we can't compare our chapter one to somebody else's chapter
Amy Porterfield: 36.
Amy Porterfield: Thank you, my friend. Yeah. I love that you shared that. Did I have a little Bob? Yep. You did. Yes. Hardly any makeup, a little Bob, horrible lighting. You're right. This closet in the background. There was like a door. Yep. The door. I remember it vividly and I was [00:32:00] terrified to post those videos. And if you told that girl one day, you're going to have this amazing business and amazing life.
Amy Porterfield: I tell you, probably not. This is really rough. This is rough. So exactly. You cannot compare your chapter one with someone's third chapter 36. It's so true. And I used to do it all the time. And guess what? You never measure up. So be so careful with that, but thank you for sharing that. It's so true. And
Sara Mayer: I've shared that with that video with so many people who have also said, I can't do this.
Sara Mayer: No, it's great. It's great. It actually is still a great video. It's a great message too. But you looking back would probably
Amy Porterfield: be like, Oh, My team loves to tease me with those videos, but it's important. It's so important. And for those that are in chapter one, I have to tell you, when I look at that girl and she was a girl, I felt very young when I look at that girl and [00:33:00] quite honestly, I was 30, so I wasn't that young, but I look at her and I have so much love and compassion and I wish I treated her more nicely.
Amy Porterfield: I wish I didn't beat her up so much every time something got hard or didn't work. So just remember my regret. Is not being kinder to myself when it was my first few years and things weren't working out as planned.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And we all start somewhere. Yes. And so now you're on your journey. How many students did you say have been through your courses?
Amy Porterfield: 50, 000 students who have been through my courses. Wow.
Sara Mayer: What an accomplishment. So what inspires you to keep teaching your students to create digital
Amy Porterfield: courses? It's the stories that I hear. Like just today, a woman was telling me that She's a doula and she's a mom and she's super busy and she wanted more time to be at home, but she wanted to do what she loved most, which was serving these women who are having babies.
Amy Porterfield: And she wanted to serve more women that didn't know what they wanted to do with their lives, but they wanted to do something [00:34:00] significant. So she decided to create a digital course. First, she was helping moms with the birth in her courses, but then she was helping other doulas build businesses so that they could thrive.
Amy Porterfield: She's made 750, 000 in two years with her one digital course, helping other women become doulas and building their businesses around that. I live for those stories. There's this other woman that she was a stay at home mom. This is so wild. She's stay at home mom, and she taught her baby, her newborn babies.
Amy Porterfield: How to be potty trained, meaning newborns, not wearing diapers. I've never had a child on my own. I have a sweet stepson. I don't understand it, but she helps moms with newborns potty train their children. This has become life changing, right? Life changing. And for her, a multimillion dollar business.
Amy Porterfield: And she only works like 20 hours a week because her digital course has been successful. I live, I do this and I live for the stories where [00:35:00] people tell me I get to spend more time with my family. I get to take care of my ailing parent. I got to quit that nine to five job where I was never respected or treated right.
Amy Porterfield: It's moving away from you don't want what you don't want and moving toward what you do, whether it be money, time freedom to live where you want. That's why I do what I do and when I started, I did it because I wanted the freedom. Now I get out of bed because I want more women and men to have more freedom the way they want.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. So if somebody is listening today and they are like, okay, I think this is possible for me to consider creating a digital course, building my audience and to really step into a life. That allows more freedom. What would you suggest is the next step
Amy Porterfield: for that? I love this question because there always should be a next step.
Amy Porterfield: Anytime you listen to a podcast or a video, how do you take action? And I've got the best way to take action. Once a year, I do the most. inexpensive thing I offer in my business, which is a digital course bootcamp. It's [00:36:00] 47. And in the bootcamp, I am live. You can see my teaching style, my personality, how I do things, and I'm going to get you started on your digital course journey.
Amy Porterfield: Even if you're not sure if a digital course will work for you, we're going to start there. We're going to make sure you're a good fit for digital courses. Then we're going to help you choose your course idea. So we're going to take you through a whole exercise in detail. Then we're going to decide what type of course you can create.
Amy Porterfield: There's three types of courses and they're very detailed and specific. I'm going to show you which one is best for you. And then from there, you're going to choose the price point of your course so that we can do some course math to see what's possible. If you launch your course, I'm also going to teach you how to use AI, artificial intelligent.
Amy Porterfield: Chat intelligence, chat, GPT specifically to get the ball rolling with your content for your course. I've never gotten to teach this before. Cause last year when I did the bootcamp AI wasn't even a thing. And so I'm not a super techie person. I don't [00:37:00] get into major like tech coding ins and outs of all that.
Amy Porterfield: I keep it as simple as possible, but to use a tool to help you generate your content for your course, so you could do it quickly. First time ever I've gotten to do that. So I'll show you how to use AI as your digital course creation assistant. So we're going to cover a lot. I've got pep talks. I'm going to change your mindset around your business.
Amy Porterfield: You're going to feel on fire. 47, it could literally be the game changer you're looking for. I really hope to see you all there.
Sara Mayer: The bootcamp is life changing. I actually had two clients go through bootcamp last year. Both of them launched their digital course. One was a photographer. And then one is an accountant, a CPA who is teaching women finances.
Sara Mayer: So if you are interested in the bootcamp, as Amy mentioned, it's 47. I have a link to that. You can go to my website, www.saramayer.com/amybootcamp and [00:38:00] check it out.
Sara Mayer: I'd love to see you there in the group so I can cheer you on as well and help you really change your life and step into what you want to be doing so that you can.
Sara Mayer: Achieve all your bold goals.
Amy Porterfield: Yes. I am so excited for this. Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about courses. Those who are listening, whether you learn from me or somebody else, really explore this for yourself. This could be the absolute game changer. I think both of us are a great example of this, but I've got hundreds and hundreds of examples of people with courses in all different walks of life.
Amy Porterfield: So give yourself at least the gift to explore it.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Thank you, Amy, for being on the show today. And we always close with a question, which I asked you last year, what are your future bold goals? And last year you said you were going to launch a book and you've done that. I've done that.
Amy Porterfield: I literally have it sitting here.
Amy Porterfield: I always have it near me somewhere. The book is launched. It became a New York times bestseller, which is beyond my [00:39:00] wildest dreams. So that was a big one and it was more work than I ever thought it was. So I'm glad that's done. So I'm guessing you're going to ask me what's my next big bull. What's next?
Amy Porterfield: Yes. Okay. So I decided in the business that I want to double down and not create anything new, not add a bunch of bells and whistles, but see if I can optimize what I'm doing. So that I can teach my students how to get even more from their courses. And so I've got two digital courses I launch, and I'm going to optimize those in new ways and teach the strategies to my students.
Amy Porterfield: So right now we're focused on nothing new, doubling down on what we do best, because I believe less is more. And I don't want my students to feel like they keep having to add. So I like to be an example of what is possible. We hired a consultant. We're working on it right now. So maybe next year I could share what we've done to prove that it is absolutely possible.
Amy Porterfield: Less is more.
Sara Mayer: I love it. Thank you, Amy, for being on the show today. I always love chatting with you and having the [00:40:00] opportunity for you to inspire others because that's truly what you do out there in the world and everyone listening. Remember you can crush your bold goals without working double time.
Sara Mayer: So let's get to it.
Sara Mayer: Thank you for tuning into the bold goal crusher podcast where we crush goals and everything that gets in the way. I always love to support my community.
Sara Mayer: I look forward to seeing you crush your goals this year.
