Service Archives - The Course Consultant

Service

Course Creator, Podcast, Service
How To Protect Your Business Legally
- September 27, 2021
Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included in this site without seeking legal or other professional advice. Some of these links are affiliate links. Please read our full disclaimer.

Before you draft that contract or terms and conditions for your freelance or course based business, you need to know these important things! In this episode, I speak with attorney Amy Nesheim, founder of Artful Contracts, where we discuss the legal side of protecting your services and courses legally without the headache!

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Get Transcripts | Google Podcasts | PocketCast

Table of Contents

About Amy Nesheim

Amy is a lawyer who helps protect creative entrepreneurs, freelancers, coaches, and consultants. Amy protects people through taking the guess work out of all the legal side of your creative business, especially so that you can get paid and keep the money that you work so hard to earn.

And so I wanted to basically serve all those people who were not coming into the law firm. They were five years down the line. And they had just spent all this time getting started with just open to risks, and not even like thinking about the legal stuff or feeling like they couldn't do anything about it. And so I wanted to address that.

Amy Nesheim

Protecting Your Online Business

After spending years studying and working as an attorney, Amy saw a big need for small business owners to get access to high quality legal contracts, templates, and resources to legally protect their business from fines and lawsuits. Unlike large organizations, coaches, consultants, and freelancers weren’t able to consult with a large legal department – but still needed guidance on how to prep legal documents such as contracts and adding important legal disclaimers and policies to their website – so they could avoid legal penalties. As a business owner myself, I found that Amy was spot on when describing how hard it is to find information about legal protections, that didn’t make my eyes gloss over because of the overly-technical jargon.

[I want to] empower people to take charge of their own legal protection in their businesses until they get to that point of being able to hire a lawyer.

Amy Nesheim

Important Website Protections

Besides setting up your business structure and protecting your assets through an LLC, some other important things we discussed included setting up important protections for the types of relationships you foster as an online business owner – one for website vistors, clients, and students. While I already had experiences drafting and using legal templates for my contracts, I was particularly intrigued by the way Amy described contracts between students and coaching clients for my group coaching programs. Amy recommends having contracts for each type of relationship.
For those that don’t know, I’ve worked in a variety of business models over the years in my business as a freelancer and agency owner – and have had to learn the good, bad, and ugly about trying to trial and error about protecting my business and time effectively through quality contracts. Needless to say, Amy has some incredible insights on the subject, and I honestly wish I had known about her years ago!
Check out some of these other blog articles I wrote about the subject of freelancing, high ticket services, and my journey from freelancer to course creator.
My Journey to Five Figure Months and Beyond
My Year in Review 2020
5 Easy Ways to Pivot Into a High Ticket Service

Course Creator Legal Policies

One thing that really struck me was how Amy mentioned that having a terms and conditions policy for your courses and programs was becoming even more important. This is a growing concern among the course creator community, because obviously – you work so hard to create your course, your signature VIP day, or service and you don’t want people to steal your ideas or even resell your product!
Unfortunately, even big time course creators are seeing copycats and downright sleazy people copying courses and even reselling them.
Check out: Elise Darma’s Youtube Video About Copycats

Protecting Your Business Proactively

I’m of the opinion that “better safe, than sorry” is a good expression and that’s certainly the case when Amy and I had our chat. I’ve had bad luck in the past – including the time I got into an accident driving a friend’s car and increasing her insurance premium! Luckily the issue wasn’t pursued and my friend was nice about it- though I never drove her car again. So – ya gotta make sure that your business is protected legally, because not doing so is the equivalent of driving down the freeway WITHOUT CAR INSURANCE. Could you safely drive down the street without an accident? Yup, but the question is – wouldn’t it be safer to have protection?
I mean I’m all for living the fast and fun lifestyle – but there are some things I avoid like the plague – running with scissors, parting my hair in the middle, and working with people WITHOUT a contract.
SUFFICE to say – I’d rather be protected in my business and I’m glad Amy’s out there to help.

Guest Resources

From filing a trademark, to getting your LLC whipped into shape, or your website policies in check, Amy is your go-to for legal resources for online business owners.
Check out Amy’s other free resources:
Instagram: @artfulcontracts
Youtube: Artful Contracts

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Course Creator, Marketing, Online Courses, Podcast, Service
The Simple Brand CHIPS™ You Need to Land Clients & Sell More Courses
- June 2, 2021
This post includes affiliate links

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts
| Get Transcripts

Table of Contents

From Disney to 6 Figure Founder

Annie Franceschi is a bestselling author, former Disney storyteller, six-figure founder, and branding expert based in Durham, NC. In 2013, Annie quit a dream job telling stories at The Walt Disney Studios to start her own agency, Greatest Story Creative®. Since then, she’s branded 100+ businesses, spoken for thousands, and released a #1 self-development book (Permission to Try). Now, through her Brand Story Solution and business consulting, Annie guides coaches, consultants, and service business owners who want to use their story to confidently, clearly, and consistently market and grow their businesses. You can read about my interview with Annie on her workshop series: Branding with Friends in this episode: 3 Tips for Creating Online Courses.

The Brand CHIPS™ by Annie Franceschi of Greatest Story Creative®

How to Use Brand CHIPS™ by Annie Franceschi of Greatest Story Creative®

And CHIPS™ is is an abbreviation, it's an acronym. So it stands for your category, your hook, your ideal client, the biggest problem you solve, and the most valuable solution you offer for that problem.

Annie Franceschi Tweet

Clearly Share What You Do

Annie says, “You want to be a card in somebody else’s deck, you want to be played at just the right moment. Melody, I’m looking for the person who does this and you go, ‘Oh, I know just the right person.’” Through this method, you clearly identify how you help people by giving referral partners the right information upfront. By clearly explaining to people your “category” such as a specific job title and how you can others- you can make organic referrals easy peasy. Now you can stay top of mind for referring new clients or courses. One great example I share in this episode is Angela Tan where we talk about Webinar Funnels.

Nail Your Elevator Pitch

Nailing your elevator pitch is key to grow your referral system of people who can refer you more clients and course sales. Make it easy and quick for your referral partners to refer you by sending them an email with important information such as your biography and your contact information so others can easily get in touch with you.

I also recommend putting it in the body of the email because I know that when I am thinking about somebody, I go back to that email and what what one of the templates will do is actually gives you a little script so that, you know I can equip melody to easily refer me she can just copy the bottom of that email and say, Hey, you might want to meet my friend Annie. Here's what she does. Here's how to get in touch with her. So you never have to spend your precious mental bandwidth to introduce me and that making it easy is what it's all about.

Annie Franceschi

Don't Overthink Your Hook

Are you confusing people with trying to be too unique? Yes- it’s a good strategy to find out how you stand out from the crowd- but honestly – it’s much better to tie your unique approach to a bigger bucket of interests. Annie says the “hook” is really important but it’s not as important as tying it back to what matters most to your customers and referral partners. This closely ties back to understanding who your “ideal client” is and what they need and want to achieve in their business and life.

Everybody who wants to brand themselves is so worried about the hook. How do I stand out? What makes me special? How am I a special snowflake, you know, all of those things, wonderful. The hook matters, that twist on whatever it is you do. But if you don't pair it with that larger category, people don't get that it's valuable to them.

Annie Franceschi

Bottom Line

By making it simple for other people to promote you- you can book out your services without having to rely on constantly posting on social media or investing heavily in paid advertisements. Make sure to check out how to brand yourself as an expert in your field with Annie’s great resources below!

Annie's Resources

Annie has a great resource for figuring out how to create a winning referral bio to land more clients and sell more courses. So if you’re still figuring out how to pitch your brand –these elevator pitch templates are perfect for you!

Annie has other great free resources and training on her website and social media channels!
You can find out about Annie’s trainings: Branding with Friends right here.
Follow Annie on social media here:
linkedin.com/in/anniefranceschi
facebook.com/greateststorycreative
instagram.com/annie.franceschi
From Clients to Courses

Learn how to attract the right students, grow your list, and promote your course all with one winning strategy!

The Course Consultant Resources

Are you a service based and creative business owner that wants to make an impact in your students life and grow your income with courses, without adding more clients to your to-do list? I love to help my clients grow their course income through creating clear marketing messaging with live webinars. If you’re looking for some support, why not check out Course Impact Mastermind? Course Impact Mastermind is my group coaching program where I offer both group and 1:1 support to help you create and sell an impactful signature course or group program. Have a question? Pop your question inside my chatbox and I’ll get back to you!

Learn more about Course Impact Mastermind

Need other help creating a referral program for your courses?
Check out this episode about affiliate marketing with Zoe Linda.
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Podcast, Service
Book Retainer Clients as an Introverted Freelancer
- May 24, 2021
In this week’s episode, I interview one of my clients Sam, the co-founder of How to Fire and Fire Up Freelance. We talk all about how to book clients as a freelancer, even if you’re starting out, are an introvert, or hate posting on social media.

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify| Anchor| Google Podcasts | Get Transcripts

Table of Contents

About Sam from Fire Up Freelance

Samantha Hawrylack is the Freelancing Coach behind Fire Up Freelance and the Co-Owner of How To FIRE. She quit her finance corporate gig back in 2019 to pursue her side hustles full-time, and has taken her freelancing business, SJ Digital Solutions, to six-figures. Now she helps apsiring fireelancers book retainer clients so they can successfully transition from working full-time.

Finding Clients as a Freelancer

Clients can be challenging to get, especially if you’re just starting out. That’s why during our chat, Sam shares her process of making online connections in a way that fits her personality. What I love about her process is how introverted friendly her process feels!

Using Facebook groups to find clients

Sam shares that she uses Facebook groups where her ideal clients hangout so that she can make connections with others that would benefit from her freelancing services. By sharing valuable tips and answering questions, she was able to find repeat clients. Over the span of two months she was able to actually replace her income after quitting her corporate finance gig!

Yeah, so it started off with just one client, very small client client I made about, I would say, probably $300 a month from that first client. And from there, I was then able to use the work I was doing for them as a reference for my next client, which was my first big ticket client. And they were roughly about I would say, $3,000 a month. And I got them in month two of after quitting my job. So that's when I was able to replace my income.

Sam Hawrylack

Making the Full Time Leap to Freelancing

Sam says that she was able to make the leap to freelancing, but it was really nerve wracking since she quit her job without having any clients lined up. Thankfully, she says that she had some funds set aside and was able to replace her monthly income with her first few clients. Now she recommends that others having an emergency funds before taking the leap to freelancing full-time. Before quitting her job, Sam connected with others via networking events where her ideal clients were attending. After answering questions via Facebook groups and reaching out to clients via email, clients booked her services. Her clients enjoyed working with her so much that they wanted to continue working together! This meant less searching for more clients each month!

Sam's Resources

Sam shares alot of valuable tips when it comes to freelancing online. Access some of her free resources!
Sam’s instagram account: http://instagram.com/fireupfreelance
Visit Fire Up Freelance

The Course Consultant Resources

Access monthly trainings and resources inside Clickworthy Courses so you can successfully create and promote your courses with time saving templates!
Join Clickworthy Courses

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Marketing, Service
Power Up Your Power Hour as an Aspiring Course Creator
- April 14, 2021
Table of Contents

Some of these links may include affiliate links.

Why Power Hours Still Work for Aspiring Course Creators

Power hours can be a valuable way to get paid in your online business, even if you’re an aspiring course creator that wants to move into creating a signature course or group program. As someone that’s notoriously averse to getting on free discovery calls, I found that paid consultations are much easier to setup and sell versus trying to give my time away for free. Not only are power hours a great way to transition away from only offering proposal or project based work, it gives people a taste of what your 1:1 offers or group programs offer if you plan on launching higher touch services later down the road. Did I mention that power hours are very easy to setup? If you’re not quite ready to hit “launch” on your group program offering or your signature course, power hours are a great way to get testimonials as you grow your business from “freelancer” or service based business owner to “consultant,” “coach,” or “strategist.” In order to setup yourself to accept payments and book your consultation calls, you’ll need a clear-cut strategy to drive traffic, sales, and connections.

How to Setup Power Hours to Get Paid

To get paid in your power hour or consultation calls, you’ll want a way for people to book time on your calendar and communicate with you. The setup is quite simple really, but you’ll want a way to follow-up with your clients so that they understand the expectations for the day of your consultation as well how to communicate with you. I’m going to share some super simple and easy steps to setup power hours in your online business.

Booking Platforms

To get paid in your power hour or consultation calls, you’ll want a way for people to book time on your calendar and communicate with you. The setup is quite simple really, but you’ll want a way to follow-up with your clients so that they understand the expectations for the day of your consultation as well how to communicate with you. I’m going to share some super simple and easy steps to setup power hours in your online business.
Calendly

Calendly is currently what I use to book my consultation calls. I like Calendly because it currently offers a wide variety of features including:
Zoom Integration
Calendar Integration
Custom Availability Hours for Calls
Customizeable Follow-up Text & Email reminders
Group Meeting Setups
Collect payment options
Customizeable and required questionnaires
Embeddable full-page options, pop-ups, and widgets
You can easily set custom availability for events for your power hours if you don't want to show your entire calendar availability

Automatically send reminder emails and texts (pro) to your clients

Acuity

Acuity offers a free and paid version and allows you to also integrate with your calendar as well as receive payments. I’ll be honest and tell you that I didn’t really like the user-interface from Acuity. I previously used Acuity on my website for another business, but it really didn’t seem to have as much customization options as Calendly in my opinion.

Book it like a Boss

Book it like a Boss is another popular platform which allows you to setup and integrate with your calendar as well as provide options for payment for Stripe, Paypal, and square. You can also customize your Book it Like a Boss page for multiple services as well as exchange messages directly with clients using their platform.

Payment Gateways

So why would you need a separate payment gateway if you can already accept payments directly from your booking system? Well, I’m going to share with you exactly why I believe considering alternative payment gateways can be beneficial for your business even if you’re not tech savvy.

Go from Clients to Courses!

Watch this free training where I’ll break down how to uplevel your course sales without hopping onto Instagram Reels or showing up in front of the camera.

Thrivecart

Thrivecart is currently my go-to payment processing platform for my courses, power hours, programs and services! Many people are surprised to find out that you can get paid for services on Thrivecart. I like to use Thrivecart to customize my customer workflows. Thrivecart also allows me to connect up my email marketing platform and provide an additional offer beside my 1:1 power hour session. It also gives me a chance to reinforce value by giving me the option to add student or client testimonials to the page. You can also see many different examples of things to sell with Thrivecart in this article.

Thrivecart lets me redirect people to my calendly booking page which also includes an application form.

Samcart

Samcart is another fabulous software which provides people with the option of paying you and offering a highly customizable ways to collect emails and follow-up with people after they book. Samcart is a great resource to use if you’re just looking for something with a monthly payment. I go over my full review between Thrivecart and Samcart in this article.

Honeybook

Although I do enjoy using Honeybook for project based work, I don’t really like to use it for power hour consultation sessions. I do however find it valuable to setup invoices, send contracts for signatures, and setup recurring payments for clients. It’s much easier than tracking clients down for a payment!

You can setup a call in Honeybook and assign your call to a specific project.

Honeybook allows you to create contract templates so you can easily change information and automatically send it via email.

Honeybook gives you the option to automatically send and store your client emails in one place.

Forms

Having a way to collect important information can be handled directly through your booking link such as Calendly or Acuity, but you can also use other platforms to collect important information such as website url’s, documents, and other files. I find that having a strong formbuilder helps me keep track of multiple types of files and important information.
Paperform

I like to use Paperform to collect important information including images, email addresses, and links to files. What I specifically like about Paperform is that you can embed these forms on your website giving you the ability to add forms anywhere including your website and even your course platform! All of my services are currently application based so I collect details from potential and current clients and get an automatically notified anytime it gets filled out. Alternatively, you could use a system like Dubsado to streamline your lead generation and workflow automations if services are the primary percentage of income you receive. Since services only play a smaller role in my business – I think Paperform works pretty well for me!
Here is a list of all of the features I love to use with Paperform!
Payment options for services or products
Advanced conditional logic (perfect for those that offer multiple services or want to only show questions if certain criteria is met)
Embeddable Code
Image options for multiple choice responses
Customizeable fonts and brand colors
Automatic email notifications
Customizeable redirects
Typeform

Typeform is another beautiful form builder which allows you to customize a step by step experience for potential clients or customers. Typeform has some beautiful features, but I prefer using Paperform because it’s a much simpler user interface instead of a multi-step option for client/customers.

Other Resources

I’ve written a ton about my journey in online business so just in case you want to know who’s talking here – you should go on and read these other posts. And these are accomplishments I’m celebrating for myself. So please just read these as such and not as any indication of me being super full of myself or rather “less cool” than others. 🙂
My Journey to 5 Figure Months and Beyond
My 2020 Year in Review
How to Pivot To High Ticket
Sweet Service Success
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Marketing, Online Courses, Service
15 Things to Sell with Thrivecart
- February 10, 2021
In this week’s episode, add intro here……
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor

add embed code here from Anchor

Table of Contents

My ThriveCart Review

This post may contain affiliate links. To learn more read my full disclaimer.

I’ve used Thrivecart over the last few months selling courses and I think it’s my favorite when it comes to creating a seamless checkout experience for my course customers. I wrote another article comparing Thrivecart vs. Samcart and why I ultimately chose Thrivecart. After doing a lot of research and trial and error with many digital product cart checkout softwares, I decided to use Thrivecart and I’ve been really surprised about the many different things you can sell using this software.

Having a great cart checkout experience for your customers can mean the difference between someone clicking away or actually getting a digital course sale, so investing in a software, especially one that’s a lifetime fee (yay! no recurring fees) is definitely a worthy investment. Thrivecart does come with a standard account and a pro account (which include affiliate marketing, sales tax calculations, and JV partnership features). I currently have the Thrivecart Pro account.

1. Courses

You could probably guess that courses would be number one on the list. My favorite feature about Thrivecart is their powerful affiliate marketing tool which allows me to create unique affiliate links for everyone that promotes my products that result in a qualifying sale. To create your course cart checkout platform you’ll need to integrate your course platform with Thrivecart. Some platforms like Teachable have an integration built within Thrivecart. Other course platforms, however rely on a third party software like Zapier to connect up Thrivecart to allow the cart checkout software automatically enroll your students into the course platform. Think of it this way, your course platform is Pam Beasley (she gets all the admin stuff done with a smile), your cart checkout software is Jim Halpert (Jim is on the phone making sales), and Zapier is like Ryan (he is kinda pretentious but checks to make sure everyone is doing their job…kinda).
If your course platform isn’t inherently integrated with Thrivecart, whenever your cart checkout software makes a sale (Jim), Zapier (Ryan) will need to send tasks to the course platform (Pam) to make sure that the enrollment gets processed automatically. This makes your enrollments less manual tasks for you to complete.

Here are just a few examples of the course platforms integrated in Thrivecart

2. Memberships

Memberships are yet another way for people to purchase a subscription from your business. The great thing about Thrivecart is that you can set up a membership one time annual fee or even monthly fees. This makes it easier to help people make a financial commitment dependent on their budget and how they prefer to make payments. Thrivecart integrates directly with payment processors like Stripe, Paypal, Google Pay, Applepay, and even Authorize.net (good for international payments). Although I don’t currently have a membership. I have actually purchased or enrolled in memberships where the course creator developed their cart checkout software directly through Thrivecart. I chatted with Danielle Corbett about her membership setup using Thinkific on my podcast.

You can even limit a number or enrollments for a specific price based on quantity limit

I invested in the SOP Success Lab to learn how to optimize your Standard Operating Procedures to level up your team

3. Group Coaching Programs

If you’re a consultant or coach, you may currently offer or want to offer group coaching program. One easy way to enroll your students is through using Thrivecart. I suggest that once your students enroll into your program, that they be provided an onboarding workflow or email sequence. For example, if your coaching clients need to attend an orientation session, an onboarding call with you, or identify the information regarding their group coaching or live Q & A sessions, you can integrate Thrivecart with most major email marketing platforms to deliver the important information via email. Although some “all-in-one” platforms like Kajabi and Katra offer email marketing sequence automations, I believe that it’s best to give your students a simple customized welcome or “orientation-type” email that let’s people know how to find out the most important FAQ about the program. I talked more on my podcast about high impact group programs with Kelsa Dickey

Group coaching programs are a great way to support your clients in an ongoing and structured format. One of my mentors, Theresa Baretta had an amazing group coaching program called Consultant to CEO Accelerator that helped me better understand how to optimize my standard operating procedures, have a clear onboarding and offboarding process for my clients, and strategically hire my team members, a skill that I’ll be able to carry out throughout my business. During my time in her program, I made over 5 figures in under 6 months. I was amazed at how professional and supportive Theresa was during my mentorship with her.

I took Theresa's Group Coaching Program and made over 5 figures under 6 months

4. Ebooks

Ebooks are another great example of sharing the step by step tips and strategies and perfect for content creators like bloggers or podcasters that don’t want to step in front of the camera. Simply add images, content, and a nice cover image and viola! You have an ebook that can be sold on repeat to potential clients or course content. You can easily repurpose content from your blog posts and identify some frequently asked questions and compile an ultimate resource. Canva is my ultimate favorite resource to design and create my lead magnet and social media assets. It’s free, but there are some definitive advantages to have the pro account. I talk more with Michelle about how to create an ebook.

A previous ebook that I created about personal finances

A great ebook by Passive Income Superstars about List Monetization

5. Canva Templates

Canva templates are my all-time favorite type of resource to sell. I actually created an entire product called Profitable Presentation Pack based off of Canva and it is one of my favorite resources! You’ll want to preferably use Canva templates which will allow you to share a link directly from your Canva assets to create a template. Make sure that you remove all the custom information and your branding so others can benefit from your template! I also like to use “Cupcake Ipsum” to create fun template type of wording instead of bland “Lorem Ipsum” for my templates.
My good friend Leanne Scott over at Passive Income Superstars actually has an amazing 30 page ebook template pack that’s perfect for just starting out on a new ebook.

You can copy a direct link to share a template via Canva

6. Audio Files

Audio files like .mp3 files are another interesting asset that you can sell directly from Thrivecart. So if you’re a podcasters, Youtuber, or social media influencer repurposing content you already have is going to be a great way to make money using videos or content you may already have on hand. One way to host an audio file without a course platform is to use Google Drive or Dropbox and send purchasers directly to the thank you page which links back to Dropbox file.

7. Photoshop Files or Graphic Assets

If you’re a Graphic Designer you can use your design skills to create graphic assets using Photoshop. You’ll want to make sure that you package up your file and provide specific directions on how to use your file for their needs. If you have many different digital assets to sell, you can apply to open a digital shop on Creative Market. One of my student’s Claudia Orengo actually has an entire training on the Beginner’s guide to Passive Income which shows you step by step how she creates digital products to sell on many different creative marketplaces.

Claudia's training shows you how to paint and sell digital clipart

Claudia's training shares how you can create digital assets to sell on creative online marketplaces.

8. Stock Photos

I’ve spent a lot of money on stock photos while working on client projects or updating my website. Quality stock photos can be time consuming to search, especially if you’re looking for stock photography that’s specific to a certain niche for your website or social media like Instagram. I like using IvoryMix for my stock photography for my website and I like they they offer Canva graphics for my different social media posts on Instagram.

I use IvoryMix for stock photos for my website

9. Books

If you’re an author, you can sell digital versions of your book or you can sell physical copies as well. Thrivecart allows you to obtain full mailing address information to mail your book.

10. Services

Most business owners aren’t aware that you can sell services in Thrivecart! If you’re a freelancer or an agency, you can even sell packaged services that streamline your onboarding process so that you can send someone a one-time payment or recurring payment instead of an invoice and having to follow-up if something doesn’t get paid. I learned so much from my time in Theresa’s Consultant to CEO Accelerator Program, that I created a workshop on how I landed high ticket clients called Sweet Service Success.

My winning workshop for landing high ticket clients

11. Consultation Calls

Consultation calls are another thing you can sell using Thrivecart. I’ve used Thrivecart to sell one hour consultation calls in the past using Zoom and Calendly. For example, if you send someone to book a consultation call using Thrivecart, you can send your customers immediately to the booking link to schedule a time with you rather than going back and forth trying to confirm a time to speak. What I like about this is that I don’t have to schedule discovery calls and I use my service page to share with people exactly how they can book a session with me.
I currently offer consultation sessions via Voxer through my Course Coach for a Day package which allow me to customize my training reccommendations to my students and clients. Below are some nice things that my clients have said about working with me.

12. Google Documents

Outside of Canva templates, Google Documents are my favorite resources to sell. I’ve sold different templates over time and personally I feel that Google Documents are the easiest to create as well as the simplest to implement. Templates make it easier for the student to take action because there is a step by step system to follow so that you can clearly follow a framework or plan.
In December 2020, I made the Podcast Planner to help you plan and organize and streamline your podcast production process. In January 2021, I decided to run a live round of the Digital Product Toolkit teaching students how to follow my step by step strategies to create templates and featured some amazing alumni.

I made the Podcast Planner templates and resources with Danielle in December 2021

Here's an example of my Digital Product Toolkit Template made with Google Documents

The Email Closer by Dani Paige is a great resource for sales email templates

13. Physical Products

Although I primarily work with selling digital products, it’s important to note that you can also sell physical products like books, makeup, clothing, and anything that you want to sell online!

14. Bumpsell

Upsells or bumpsells are a really great way to showcase other complementary products that will help your customers achieve their learning goals.

15. Website Assets

If you are already designing websites for your customers, why not sell website templates? I currently like to use Elementor Pro to design my website landing pages. You can actually save files and then your customers can import the designs and customize them as needed to fit their website needs. Below is an example of a Holiday Salespage template created by Kimi Kinsey. Her designs are easy and simple to import and customize using Elementor. She also has other amazing resources including her Tools and Resources page tutorial to design and create a helpful page for other entrepreneurs.

The Course Consultant Resources

I hope that this blog post will give you an idea of how to create and sell a digital product and how Thrivecart has helped me make money in my online business. If you decide to invest and purchase Thrivecart through my affiliate link, I offer a complimentary one hour session to help you customize your Thrivecart workflow so that you can get any questions answered on how to use this powerful software.

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Service
5 Easy Ways to Pivot Into a High Ticket Service
- September 28, 2020
Table of Contents

What are High Ticket Services

In a world filled with tiny digital product offers and low-priced services, it can be challenging to find clients that are willing to pay the high price tag for services. In this blog post, I’m going to share what are high ticket services, high ticket services and product examples, and how to sell ticket consulting services. When it comes to high ticket services, these refer to pricing generally between $2k – $100k. As you can see there is a huge range in pricing for what is considered “high ticket”, but needless to say it is essential to consider that anything over $1k would be considered on the higher end of the pricing scale.

How to Sell High Ticket Consulting Services

If you’re a solo based business owner, agency, or startup organization, it can be a real asset to your business revenue to consider adding a high ticket consulting package or product to your organization’s roster of services and product lineup. But, even if you understand this, you might be wondering how to actually sell people on a new product or service before you’ve had time tested data, feedback, or testimonials. I’m going to share a few examples of ways that you can start this process, even if you’re new to consulting or you’ve been in the online business space for several years.

Create an Application Form

One of the biggest problems that I see is that people try to cater to every single prospective client that seems interested in their services. This can often lead to frustration when a potential client hops on a phone call with a sales representative or you (if you’re a solo business owner) and they instantly lose interest once a quote is provided. Sometimes you need to find the right fit for your service or business, instead of trying to make your service or product “fit the client”. One way to minimize this constant cycle of low conversion sales processes is to create an application form in which the prospective client provides essential information to determine if they are a good candidate for your services. This application form will deter those who are merely curious, to those who are very serious about your program therefore increasing the likelihood of converting your prospective client into a buying customer. One of my favorite types of embeddable forms is Paperform, but there are several out there that offer comparable customization options like Airtable. The main benefit for using these types of software is that it allows you to create custom redirects to another part of yoru website as well as create an email summary immediately sent to your and the prospective’s email.

Application
Create an application form for your salespage so only those prospective clients who are seriously interested in your packages will book a consultation or application.

Make Your Services or Product by Invite Only
If you’re just starting out packaging your service or high ticket product, like a certification program or group coaching program, you may want to offer a limited time and exclusive beta testing price to those who have shown an interest in your services or products. You can send an email or personal email message to your “short list” of potential buyers. This short list will include those who have worked with you in the past and are willing to provide feedback in return for exclusive first-time access to a high ticket coaching program, digital product, or 1:1 coaching experience.
This should not be available or marketed to everyone, only those that have shown an interest before based off of criteria such as:
Signing up for a waitlist for said product or service
Past purchase history with similar related products
Interest in related products, services, or free content
Someone that has personally engaged with you via social media or email
Increase Your Service or Product Pricing

As a busy online business owner, you’ll find that if your month is booked by clients, there might not be space enough to add any additional 1:1 work or a intensive support for high end products like a coaching program. In cases like these, you’ll want to consider increasing your service or product pricing. Raising your rates between 30-50% more than your current rates will allow you to not only work with a dedicated group of individuals, but you’ll be able to finance more business administrative support and outsource tasks you might not have time for such as social media engagement, email management, and customer service. Always review the market estimates to see what competitors are charging. That being said, I wouldn’t hesitate to charge higher than your competitors if you know you offer something unique.

Require a Large Down Payment

Don’t be afraid of requiring large down payments between 50 – 60 % of the total balance due up front. Having a larger down payment will help you create a big buffer room for hiring on additional support or prepare for business investments you’ll need to deliver a superior experience for your clients. Larger investments typically indicate that a client is serious about achieving a certain goal and in confidence in you to support achieving that goal. Ultimately, this down payment will serve as a “good faith” amount towards supporting this endeavor and so the right candidate will often find a way to work with you even if it means dipping into savings.
Alternatively, you can offer a larger monthly payment plan for those who can’t afford the one time or two month payment plan. I personally provide payment plans for all of my clients. This is a great way to spread funds over a longer period of time. For recurring payments you can use a payment cart checkout software like Thrivecart or Samcart. I discuss different course platforms for digital products in this post.

Create an Exclusive Training

Selling high ticket services or group coaching programs can also include creating free workshops or webinars. These trainings help to provide the overall framework for accomplishing your ideal client’s goals, but don’t always provide the complete step by step process. One of the easiest ways to provide an exclusive training is to record yourself presenting on a topic that you are familiar on and share the best tips and strategies that you have on the subject. During the training, you can then pivot to different solutions that you have to offer such as a paid product, such as an online course – certification program – or high ticket coaching program, or service such as customized work.

Conclusion

Creating a high ticket service can help you bring in more highly engaged potential clients that are more than willing to pay higher ticket pricing. You can build engagement with prospective clients by reaching out to your short list through your email list, social media, and network of professionals. Consider creating an increased price based off of market research, overhead expenses, and what you need to support a higher touch point program, product, or service. There are many ways that you can create engaged interest and sell your high-ticket services. What’s left is building your confidence in your pricing so that you can actually get your idea into the market.
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Online Courses, Service
My Journey to Five Figure Months and Beyond
- September 19, 2020
Table of Contents

My Journey to 5 Figure Months

I’m trying something a little different this week and share some of my thoughts as I reflect about what’s happened over the last year. I’m a little nervous about sharing this because I’ve never been interested in blog income reports. They made me feel heavy and anxious about my results. So please just take this blog post as a reflection about my journey and an encouragement! If I can do this, you can absolutely do this too! So here’s where my last few months or year has taken me.

Shift from Corporate

In July 2019, I quit my full-time job in Corporate Training and Development. At the time, I was working as a full-time Instructional Designer, attending an online Master’s Degree program, and oh yea…moving to an entirely new city and renovating our home to sell. All throughout 2019, I had been working on an entirely different business model which I no longer operate.
You can see my cubicle in my picture. Even though I’m smiling here, it really wasn’t a good fit for me.

With the impending move and my passion for having an online business, my interests had shifted. It no longer felt right to sit at my desk stuck in a literal cubicle, hoping one day I could actually be a full-time business owner. I wanted to be free and excited to work in my business. I had big FAT imposter syndrome because my dreams seemed bigger than my income.
Business Income: $145.04

Pivot to Freelance

Fast forward to August, 2019. Once I made a strategic change to work full-time on my business, I had to take a big mental shift from “employee” to business owner. At this point, I had already invested in a business coach to help me understand how to create more income through digital marketing. Even still. It felt strange at the time to say, “I’m an online business owner.” I actually felt awkward telling people what I did for a living because I truthfully didn’t feel confident saying what I did. I honestly didn’t know what to call myself. Freelancer? Consultant? Coach? Podcaster? Youtuber? Blogger? It seemed like each phrase had some sort of story behind it, none of which felt like fit me and my personality.
Business Income: $717.52

September 2019. During this month, I felt like I was right on the verge of understanding this whole “online marketing thing.” I started showing up more consistently on social media and blogging more consistently. I had a few coaching clients and I was making a few hundred dollars, but nothing really substantial. I was just starting my podcast (totally different from the one I run now) and also blogging as much as possible. My spouse and I were very fortunate because we had saved consistently while I was working full time. I had the opportunity to create more income while also having a safety net. I’m incredibly grateful and realize that this comes with a sense of privilege because not everyone has the ability to save funds each month or a partner that can help support them.
That same month, I attended an event called FinCon in Washington D.C. and I met some of my closest online friends. Many of which I’ve worked with personally and paid to help me run my business! I also invested in a monthly membership with live streaming trainings and a mastermind. To this day, I still am connected with many of the ladies I met! During that time I started to get questions about making online courses. I realized this was something I was interested in helping people develop, especially because of my degree in Instructional Design. I felt like I was on the verge of something exciting and magical.
Business Income: $238.00

Growing With Freelancing

During this phase, I started actively seeing income growth with freelancing. Building off of my network as well as identifying freelancing opporunities through Upwork and other platforms, I was able to get enough income to start feeling like I was making progress. Sloooooow progress, but still progress.
I started recognizing my strengths and leaned into them through my specialty of Instructional Design and Technology while supporting people in their online course creation.

Things were starting to click into place and I realized that I needed to make a strategic shift. So….I shifted BIG time. I created an entirely new website from scratch with a new domain. I planned on developing a new podcast, new social media handles, and entirely new branding. I knew this was an investment that would pay off and it absolutely did – over time. I was in serious hustle mode! Check out my funny and totally serious face!
During this time, I was developing a mastermind for my other business to see if that might be interesting. I was also workshopping the idea of me creating a course as part of my Instructional Design Master’s Program. I was also trying to keep my dog Layla happy. You can see she’s such a sweetheart sitting on my lap while I tried to figure this stuff out.
October Business Income: $1,072
November-December Income: $1,977.47

Between January and March, I dedicated myself to really working on my marketing, outreach, and networking. I also focused on my freelancing which at this point had grown to a somewhat more liveable wage. In March, I attended Social Media Marketing World and met some lovely people there. I volunteered and to this day still am connected with amazing people.
January, my spouse and I started talking about potentially moving -YET again so he could explore other career opportunities. You can see why traditional employment was tricky for both he and I. When we were constantly moving, it felt frustrating trying to figure out my employment while also feeling excited about the work I could accomplish. Most weekends we spent commuting between our old house that we were renovating and our new house ( a hefty three hour drive).
At this point, my Master’s Degree was nearing its final stages and I began to put my ideas together into a course while also freelancing full time. In February, we had finally sold our house. YAY! No more commuting!As you can imagine, I was quite busy, but I was finally nearing replacing my full-time income and was averaging a little over $2,300 a month. I then started sharing that I was creating online courses for others and leaning into my specialty in understanding platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, and email integrations with Mailchimp and Mailerlite. I also started receiving a Top Rated Upwork status based on my high ratings which led me to receive higher visibility with clients.
January – March 2020 Income: $7,088.77

Shift to Agency

This. is me eating a grilled cheese sandwhich in one of my favorite little shop areas in Ontario, Canada. We love traveling and that was a big perk of working from home. Anyhow, I digress.
In March 2020, things got really busy in my business. At this point, I started slowly moving off of Upwork as a main source of traffic because I was starting to get more website traffic organically and people started to book my services straight from my website. I was spending a ton of nights working until early in the morning or late at night. Things started feeling really heavy. I wasn’t sure if I could sustain all of my services, but I didn’t want to let the quality of my services go down.

Between April to May 2020, I became even busier. I transitioned away from all of my freelance writing assignments and focused solely on my tech specialty which was course development and curriculum design and email marketing integration. I started to enlist help and hired my first official Virtual Assistant. I finished my Master’s Degree. And oh yea, COVID happened in March… so I was stuck inside. I started to see the value in hiring others. I invested heavily in coaching while I developed my second digital course, this time a much smaller digital product price! I started seeing more recurring revenue in my business and started to actively work to see growth in my small but mighty email list.
April – May 2020 Business Income – $16,441

Scaling and Beyond

At the end of May 2020, we were moving – YET AGAIN! We then started a transition to move to an entirely new state. June was an incredibly busy month and my spouse was starting a new position and had to attend training while we both looked for a new place to live with COVID restrictions.
By June, I started mapping out which people I needed to hire and started with some family. I realized quickly that I needed a better way to process and organize files, receive feedback, and generally have my business run more smoothly. I spoke at the Creatress Summit!

In July 2020, I enrolled in my first group coaching program to help see more growth in my agency and help me make the transition from a solo entrepreneur to a larger team. I started to get parts of my business organized more than I ever had before. My coach and I worked closely on identifying people to hire to help me deliver on services without sacrificing quality and delivery. I wrote about training remote teams here. I started to see things get easier over time once my team was hired and I invested in training them. I shared about my experience with podcast pitch decks as a guest speaker at Podthon.
I created my third digital product Profitable Presentation Canva pack, a presentation pack for solo based business owners and dipped my toe into affiliate marketing and started making more passive income sales on a recurring basis. I started doing more coaching and consulting work rather than only customized services. I raised my prices and started creating a standard “package” from which potential clients could review and work with me.

In August 2020, I enrolled in multiple online digital courses, invested heavily in templates, resources, and memberships. I spoke at the JBrand Summit. I then launched my fourth (technically fifth?) digital product Systematic Funnels Workshop, helping people see the steps in which to set up your digital product from start to finish including automating email sequences, creating salespage cart integrations, as well as integrating course curriculum into a course platform.
At this stage, I’ve now exceeded my monthly corporate income. I’ve handled large scale projects, developed multiple digital products, as well as managed a team of between 5-10 people. I started feeling much better at marketing my digital courses. I started to feel that between courses, coaching, and services I’d finally found a way to have a “good rhythm” in my business. I felt less heavy because I had a team behind me. It felt good to see money in my bank account.
June – August 2020 Business Income: $24,727.38.
Running 2020 Total: $48,257.04 (not too shabby for a relatively new brand during a Pandemic!)
Lessons Learned

For some of you reading this, the numbers described above might seem out of reach. For many more experienced entrepreneurs, you’ll know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve learned a ton over the last few months / years running an online business. I’m incredibly proud of the small business I’ve grown into an agency. And from my experience I’d like to share some valuable lessons I’ve learned.
Every time I’ve invested in mentorships and courses (and taken action), I’ve seen an increase in revenue the following month.
I wish I had started making digital products sooner.
I wish I had charged higher rates sooner.
I wish that I had been more selective with the projects I’d taken on and the people I worked with.
I wish I set more firm and clear boundaries on projects sooner.
Everything takes time to build. It’s important to celebrate the small wins and big ones alike.
Community is everything. Having a supportive community of friends to keep you motivated while running an online business is important.
Making large amounts of money isn’t important if you aren’t happy.
Family is more important than business.

As you can see, there are many paths to making money in an online business and none of it comes overnight. Growth happens when you have a combination of tools, resources, time, effort, and support. Oh yes, having a strategy in an online business is incredibly important as well. I believe that you can have a business you feel happy to run. I believe you can feel good about the state of your business. I believe that there’s not a single “way” to make money online. You are completely in charge of what you give to the world. Expect great things to happen for you. Believe that your dreams can become reality. Early in my business I thought earning $500 was signficant. Then, I felt that $1,000 and then $10,000 and $50,000 was a significant amount. Now, my goal is to reach $100,000 and beyond. That’s it for my rant. I hope this inspires you to see that making money online is a process. If you’re open to learning, investing in the knowledge and training, you can achieve BIG, beautiful goals.
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