Miscellaneous

Alumni of the Digital Product Toolkit

February 2, 2021

In early January 2021, I ran the Digital Product Toolkit live round complete with co-working calls that helped students implement fast. Students had 30 days to complete the project: create a digital product or course by the end of the month! Although I had so many students join and enroll, these students went above and beyond to create their digital products or programs!

Kept Creations Monthly Membership

Kim Parkinson

Kim has been teaching art and crafts since 2004. Her teaching journey started with a scrapbooking mini-book. After her husband encouraged her to teach at a local shop, she did it and loved it!

Kim also owned and operated a small store called Kept Creations which opened in 2012 and closed in 2017. Now she helps crafters of all kinds create beautiful art through her online membership.

Don’t craft alone, it’s time to learn in a community.

With almost 20 years of experience as a craft instructor (both in-person and online), Kim has brought crafting to countless people over the years. Through her monthly membership, she teaches you how to create cards, gifts, home décor, journals, paintings, scrapbooks, and more.

She helps you create beautiful art on basically countless types of projects. Whether you want to start a scrapbook or learn how to stamp, Kim’s here to guide you and instruct you on your crafty journey.

Brand Identity Kits

Bethany McCamish

Bethany spent five years as an English teacher and graphic design instructor building a regionally recognized curriculum. For more than 7 years she was integrated into the Pacific Northwest arts community running and curating shows that tell a story, all while sharpening her communication skills. She now helps entrepreneurs stand out by creating stunning branding.

Stop scrolling on Pinterest and start building a clear cohesive brand backed by psychology.

Are you looking to make an impact online but feel drowned out by, well, everything including the endless Pinterest options?

A cohesive brand will help you carve out a niche, but a cohesive brand that is backed by psychology driven design (aka a specific archetype) will give you the power to speak with confidence in your visuals and messaging to your ideal clients. That means your effort to grow can actually work.

Each kit also comes with access to a step-by-step video tutorial that explains how to customize, edit, download, and use your logos and design elements.

Notion Planning Kit

Elena Kozliakova

Elena Kozliakova is Solution Designer that helps creative entrepreneurs to streamline their life and business with simple, smart and stylish systems so they could make money, delight their clients and enjoy what they do every day.

Notion Planning Kit: Streamline your life without putting yourself in a box.

Put all the puzzle pieces of your life together with ease all in one place. No more hours spent searching for “that important document”. Confidently organize your ideas, resources and deadlines in one powerful tool.

✔️ Notion Basics mini-training to help you navigate the tool and identify your life planning structure.

✔️ The Life Organizer Template based on my 6 step D.A.P.R.I.A. framework to design your all in one productivity hub.

✔️ Video overview of the templates included so you can examine the “puzzle pieces” you need to put in place to boost your productivity according to your personality.

✔️ Notion customization workshop to help you develop your own structure that meets your needs and suites your lifestyle.

Plus these exclusive bonuses!

➕ Notion Planning live training with co-working hours and support to help you create your life organizing structure.

➕ Tag library to use across your workspace for easy navigation and search.

➕ Custom curated icon collection to save you time and make planning process fun and enjoyable

Interview Prep Workbook

Tina Crouch

Tina Crouch is a Business English communication coach and author. Her love of language started in childhood while staying up all night with novels and a flashlight… and that led to getting a business degree and working as a marketer, copyeditor, and coach over the last 7 years.

After adventuring in 15 countries and studying Italian for fun, she started Tina Teaches English. All of Tina’s written material and courses were developed during hundreds of 1-on-1 coaching sessions with ESL learners.

You can confidently walk into your interview

Tina shares her exact steps to help English Language Learners prepare for their next interview with this quick and actionable guide to learning the essentials to landing a paying job.

In this action packed workbook, you’ll learn…

✔️ Targeted practice. Almost any Business English course is going to improve your English… but interviews are specific situations with specific needs. This workbook helps you practice the answers that hiring managers want to hear.

✔️ Only the most useful grammar. Simple past? Present perfect? …Continuous? This workbook has fill-in-the-blank grammar templates to help you talk about your past career experience!

✔️ No more wasted time. The workbook uses Tina’s experience, the advice of certified Human Resource experts, and the most frequently asked questions from her coaching students!

Want to learn more?

Grab the Digital Product Toolkit

Want to be my next success story? These are just a few of my featured alumni that participated in the live round of the Digital Product Toolkit! I regularly give hands on support to my students so that they can implement, grow, and succeed by making money through creating courses and impactful training programs. Join the full program inside The Business of Courses Membership!

Miscellaneous

Student Highlight: How Claudia Makes Passive Income Selling Water Color Templates

December 13, 2020

Disclaimer: Some of these links are affiliate links of which we receive a comission. I only recommend products and services I’m personally passionate about. For more information, please review my disclaimer.

In this week’s episode, we highlight student Claudia Orengo who is a mentor for artists and other creative business owners about how to gain passive income selling artistic templates on digital marketplaces.

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

How Claudia Started Her Online Business

Claudia Orengo started her online business as a freelance graphic designer and web designer with a specialty in watercolor art. She originally studied graphic design in Barcelona and Denmark and has worked as a freelancer for since 2013. Claudia shares free tips about her watercolor and making digital products on her Youtube channel and blog. Not only are Claudia’s creations beautiful, but she has a passion for helping graphic designers, calligraphers, and other creative online business owners make more money through selling their digital creations and products online.

How Claudia Setup Shop with Digital Marketplaces

As like many freelance artists, Claudia loved creating beautiful art for her clients, but she started to see the benefits of selling her creations online through setting up shop on digital marketplaces like Creative Market, Etsy, Minted, Spoonflower, and so many others. One of the most important things that Claudia shares in her course the Beginner’s Guide to Passive Income is to choose a digital marketplace that is easy to setup and provides the best payouts. She reviews extensively each of these course platforms and which platforms the most inside of the course.

Here are just a few of the marketplaces Claudia has sold digital products and creations:

CreativeMarket
Etsy
Minted
Spoonflower
Redcircle
Shutterstock
Adobe Stock
Crella
Society6
Redbubble

Converting Your Designs Into Digital Products

An important part of creating digital products is to convert your designs and creative content into a digital template or product. Claudia shares about her step by step strategy involves coming up with inspirations organically as well as doing some market research online. Although her art focuses on packaging watercolor art for other graphic artists and creative designers online, her process of coming up with ideas and packaging them up as digital products can also be used for many digital entrepreneurs such as photographers, calligraphers, graphic designers, and other creative online business owners.

She shares about the three important steps you need to create a digital product from your creations includes:

1. Have a creative template or digital product to sell

2. Sell your digital product on online marketplaces

3. Create a simple automation so you do not need to do more work once you deliver your digital products.

Pricing Your Digital Art and Creations

Online artists and creatives thankfully have many places to submit their artwork to, but each marketplace has their own benefits and challenges. Claudia shares that pricing your digital art and creations on these marketplaces is part of an important selling strategy when trying to stay competitive. When it comes to pricing products, you’ll need to consider your average product pricing based on market research you’ve done on each of the platforms and consider ongoing trends through researching competitors and through social media channels.

Additional Training and Resources

Claudia is currently a student of the Wondrous Webinar program that helps course creators build confidence sharing about their online programs through online webinars. Claudia is hosting a free training called “How to Make More Money as a Creative Online Without Working Harder or Being Famous” a free training which will walk you through how to sell your digital creations without selling to friends or family or having to be famous, the best digital product idea for you, how to get started with passive income without creating a course or becoming a guru, and how to launch a digital collection in under 3 weeks even if you’re new to business. I highly recommend this training for graphic designers, artists, and other creative business owners who creates art online and want to scale their business with digital templates to sell on digital marketplaces!

6 Profitable Funnel Ideas

That You Can Use Right Now

Grab my funnel ideas

A Beginner's Guide to Passive Income by Claudia

If this article was interesting to you, Claudia goes into more depth about her process of how she’s made thousands selling digital creations through online marketplaces inside her course The Beginner’s Guide to Passive Income. Claudia’s course called The Beginners’ Guide to Passive Income is an in-depth course covering everything you need to know to start selling your creations over and over as digital downloads. You’ll learn how to start selling digital products and automate your process to work less and earn more. Claudia will share her personal experience with multiple marketplaces, with real stats and numbers so you can decide which ones to start with. She’ll also share her step by step process to create digital products and how you can adapt it to your own talents and business. And during 3 weeks on January 2021, Claudia will personally help you create your next digital product collection and publish it online so you can start getting sales on autopilot while you sleep.

Conclusion

No matter what type of online business you have, now is the perfect time to start creating passive income for your business with courses and digital products. Have an idea but need someone to walk you through the course creation process? Join me for a Strategic Course Framework call. During this time, we will discuss your ideas, come up with plan, and discuss what you can do to make and sell digital products to convert your ideas into a money making course!

Miscellaneous

How Andrea Made Her First Course on Social Media Marketing

June 24, 2020

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts

Andrea is an Online Marketing Strategist who owns and operates AM Creative, a boutique marketing agency located in Wollongong Australia. She started developing her course on Instagram Marketing last year and recently revealed the lessons she learned while developing her Master Course.

Identify Your Ideal Client

Andrea points out that by speaking to everyone, you speak to no one. This is one of the first things she learned while cultivating messages through social media channels in her agency. She also says that to create messages for your ideal client, you must think through the common things that are pain points for your clients or customers in order to show them the value that your business provides. She says that this is actually one of the first activities she includes as a Customer Avatar Worksheet in her Instagram Marketing class. Creating a course can be difficult, but this is something that Andrea worked on before developing her online course curriculum.

Complete Market Research

One of the biggest things she says that other marketing agencies aren’t speaking about is the importance of market research. Andrea discusses how powerful doing a competitor analysis is before creating any digital content for marketing, especially on Instagram. She says many people fall into the bad habit of developing posts simply out of necessity and not being strategic. She states that by setting SMART goals, you’ll be able to create small and large goals for your marketing campaigns that will drive awareness and revenue into your business.

Share Valuable Content

Andrea continues by saying that your Instagram posts should “Educate, Entertain, or Inspire.” By doing behind the scenes videos, documenting a live event, or promoting a digital product or new service or program, you can create a nurturing relationship with your audience and prospective customers. These kinds of posts can help you showcase your authority on a subject or topic and share the success your clients have. Building trust around your digital products is definitely something that is supported through an online marketing campaign.

Quality Isn’t Always Expensive

Andrea says it’s less important to have experience photos to show up on Instagram and more important to show up with your authentic self. She says that many of her photos are taken from her iPhone. She says that if you have the budget to take higher quality photos, that is wonderful but not required to show up online!

Use Strategic Hashtags

Andrea says that niche hashtags are a strategic way to gain more visibility online. Niche hashtags, especially local hashtags, act as an Instagram version of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). She says researching keywords for a list of hashtags that are local or niche based will help you gain visibility when you post photos through the social media channel. Key points: stay away from really popular hashtags that are too broad because posts can get easily lost in a sea of other competitors.

Create a Course Roadmap

Andrea discusses how important it is to create a course roadmap for your course including finding tech, finding course platforms, creating powerpoints, and finding the time. She says that outsourcing to professionals has significantly decreased the amount of time she needed to create her course to help while she runs her business.

Conclusion

Make sure you check out Andrea’s course to learn more about leveraging social media marketing through Instagram in her course Instagram Marketing Academy and use discount code “melody30” to save 30% at checkout. Need some help with putting your course together?

Schedule a free consultation to see if it’s a good fit.

Miscellaneous

5 Steps Towards Diversity and Inclusion in The Workplace

June 2, 2020

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor

5 Steps Towards Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Diversity and inclusion training for the workforce might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of race relationships, but here’s why it’s important. As more and more stories of tragic murders of people like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Abery begin to surface it calls to question not only the brutality of certain police tactics but of a system of socioeconomic and racial divide amongst the American population that goes beyond simple ties to political agenda or religious affiliation. Employees, contractors, and even customers and clients feel the weight of these significant historical events. Yet, many wonder what is the right action to take as an organization, agency, or even solo entrepreneur? In this blog and podcast, I’m going to outline several training and actionable recommendations you can consider when beginning the conversation about race and culture in the workplace.

Acknowledge Current Events

While it can be easy to disengage with the political climate and news coverage as an organization, it is better to consider the ramifications of not taking any action at all. By acknowleding current events, you take a stand towards change. Send an email blast to your community to express your values, what you plan to do, and how you want others to take action towards change. Allow people to message you directly via email, social media messaging, or via Zoom calls. Many people are hurting right now and it is imperative that an organization takes every measure to allow for honest conversations.

Encourage Conversations

Many people worry that by beginning to speak about topics like race, gender, and even sexuality will cause a ripple effect of larger problems within an organization. However, these concerns are already top of mind for many employees and customers. By refusing to have these critical conversations, not only will the morale of minority groups and individuals within an organization plummet but some may feel inclined to leave and other customers may consider taking their business elsewhere. Encourage managers and other leaders in the organization to provide open communication channels where contractors and employees can voice their concerns both privately and in group settings such as Q & A sessions.

Educate Yourself and Your Team

Diversity and inclusion training is not the complete solution. On an individual level, educate yourself and encourage your team to invest in books and other media about race and privilege in America. If your budget allows, invest in diversity and training initiatives that elevate the stories for people of color and other minority groups that feel comfortable sharing. Do not force people of color or minority members of your organization to fulfill a role of advocate if they do not feel comfortable doing so. Understand that bringing up traumatic personal experiences related to racism is painful for many and requiring someone to dig through years of systematic oppression to cater to my feeling of guilt is wrong. I feel that in some ways I may have done this in the past, and for that I apologize to my error. For those that are willing to share their experiences and stories, allow them to do so and expres your support.

Create a Plan Of Support

Continue to cultivate a culture of support and inclusivity. Qualified leaders from all walks of life, should be represented in your staff. Marketing messaging, images, and values should be communicated to your internal and external partners. Consider your price structure and ask yourself how you can contribute either personally or through your organization to nonprofit organizations making a difference in antiracist efforts and diversity initiatives. Ask for feedback from staff about measures that can be taken to ensure that the workplace is inclusive and an enjoyable place to work. Provide support systems of mentorship and training for employees and contractors that are looking to advance and need guidance.

Resources

Facing Race, Equity, and Diversity in the Coaching Industry

What are Employer’s Responsibilities For Diversity in the Workplace

In partnership with the Podcasters for Justice Campaign, please support these organizations.

Donate to any of the following:

- George Floyd Memorial Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd
- Minnesota Freedom Fund: https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/
- Black Visions Collective: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
- Campaign Zero: https://www.joincampaignzero.org/
- Black Lives Matter: https://www.Blacklivesmatter.com
- Minneapolis NAACP Branch: https://www.paypal.me/mplsnaacp4050B
Sign A petition & Ask Your Audience To Sign:
- Text “Floyd” to 55156 to sign a petition a demand justice for George Floyd
- Sign-up at Color of Change: https://colorofchange.org/ to be notified of more opportunities to take action

Miscellaneous

Work from Home Tips During Quarantine

May 7, 2020

Create a Routine

Figuring out a work from home routine during quarantine is anything but normal, especially if you have a growing family and business. In this episode I interview online consultant Kristin Arilus, a veteran, business owner, and mother. Working from home during quarantine is something that we are all trying to understand how to navigate the “new normal”. Kristin recommends that the best way to help your kids and your business is to create a repeatable routine, even if it’s something small at first. She recommends that finding small “sandwhich” moments will help you break up the different responsibilities you have as a parent and a business owner. During some moments you might be the role of a parent and the other moment you might put on the hat of a salesman or customer service agent. No matter what type of business you run, trying to manage these expectations is anything but easy! Kristin says a typical day for her starts at 6 or sometimes 4 am with a quick read in her Bible and then focusing on the top three things in her business before the kids wake up. While that may not always be something that all parents can apply, she created a system that worked for her.

Have Teachable Moments

For most parents running a full-time business from home and managing your children’s homework is something you’re tackling for the first time. If that’s the case, your’e not alone. According to a Gallup poll, 42% of parents worry that the pandemic will have some negative consequences to their children’s education. Kristin recommends that you create teachable moments in the midst of a hectic day. Counting numbers and creating special individual moments for each of your children will make your time at home special, even if things aren’t ideal.

Automate Your Processes

Save time by automating processes that are repeated consistently. Kristin says one of the most repeated tasks she does in her business is send emails. That’s why she created a series of emails or automations that will outline her background, ask for referrals, as well as showcase her services and digital products. Kristin utilized much of this same system to automate her client’s workload within her go-to favorite tool Kartra, an all in one marketing platform for website, emails, digital products, and more. She believes that having systems in place for your business will help create sustainable solutions for you while you try to manage the many hats of a business owner.

Utilize Technology

Technology plays a huge part of our work day. Zoom in particular, the online webinar platform, has been the go-to platform for many business owners. One easy way I’ve helped scale my business is through an automated system for scheduling client calls, podcast interviews, and Facebook live streams through Calendly and Zoom. It’s so much easier to followup with clients with email and SMS reminders without manually doing this on my own. Because really, who has time for that?

Create Repeatable Systems

Repeatable systems for contractors, inquiries, and other internal operations are incredibly valuable to save you time and headache. It’s something that has taken me awhile to understand myself. But finding a repeatable system comes with time and experience. As a freelancer, now agency, I’ve had to find things that I repeated over and over again such as proposals, invoices, and client deliverable timelines to see what worked and what didn’t. That’s why it’s important to create a system that is truly unique and works for you. Finding your rhythm takes time to figure out, especially when working from home with family. What systems do you have in place to keep yourself sane during this time?

Miscellaneous, Podcast

How To Use Social Media to Grow Your Online Business

March 13, 2020

This post may include affiliate links. For more information, please review our disclaimers and privacy policy.

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor

The chances are that you already know that social media is incredibly important for online business owners, especially course creators. But, you might not know why it’s important. The why is simple: you need an audience. Here’s how you can use that and use social media to actually grow your online business.

1. Increase Emphasis on Video

A huge trend in social media for growing business is an emphasis on video. You’ve likely heard about the streaming video wars with all the biggest names in the business, but that also translates to your online business. Video is trending and you should incorporate it into your marketing strategy. Some of the ways you can do this include:

Creating a YouTube channel
Incorporate stories on social media platforms
Create videos on Facebook or Instagram
Go live on Facebook or Instagram

As a blogger, or even a consultant or service provider, you may not feel comfortable going on video. You can overcome this, though! Have confidence and practice often with yourself so that you get comfortable talking to a camera. Or, consider hiring a videographer (even just for a short term) to help make sure your videos are helping increase your confidence.

No matter what type of creator you are, getting out there and publishing video content is essential!

2. Focus on Authentic Stories

People don’t always want a suit and a tie. They want a personal connection. If you open up to them, get vulnerable, and share authentic stories with them, they’ll be able to make a stronger connection with you.

Don’t be afraid to get authentic and vulnerable. This is one of the first things you’ll learn when you decide to create content to market your business. Your audience wants to see you as a person. They’ll connect with you if you’re struggling with a family problem, want to change direction in your business, or need people to bounce ideas off of. This vulnerability is exactly what you need to connect with your clients. In fact, you may find that relationships will blossom when you open up to clients.

Wonder why people like Rachel Hollis have been so. incredibly. successful with courses, conventions, and more? Flip to one of her Insta stories where she recounts a facial paralysis experience or goes live with a fever the night before one of the biggest business opportunities of her life! That’s the vulnerability your audience craves.

3. Overall Organic Reach is Down

Organic reach is down and paid reach is much more successful because it allows you to target the exact people you’re looking for which exponentially increases your relevancy. Many content and course creators may be reluctant to jump into paid advertisements because they’re not sure if the RoAS (return on ad spend) will be worth it, but many more who have taken the plunge realize that it is a good choice. A sales funnel is a great way to combat this and ensure you’re targeting all the right people and help you get the return you need.

4. Test What Works and Test Again

Test what works, and then test it again. The only way to know if something truly works or if it was just a coincidence is to make sure that you’re constantly testing it, learning what you can do better, and re-testing it. Each week I share about strategies to grow your influence and income using courses and digital products in my Inspired Course Training Group.

If something doesn’t perform, don’t just give up. Consider something like ConvertKit that will show you what has performed and why it has performed and then tweak it so that you can re-test it.

You will never inherently know what people will respond to. Try something out, learn about why it did (or didn’t) perform and then make changes to test it out again. Once you’ve found what works great, hone in on that and really apply that to your marketing strategy!

5. Repurpose Content

Repurpose content to save yourself valuable time and money. Solopreneurs can repurpose content in many ways including simply changing up the content or the way that it’s presented. Create different graphics with the same quotes, use images you’ve seen perform before but in a new way, try out memes or gifs on your social media.

Another great idea is repurposing actual content without self-plagiarizing. Pull content from blog posts and use it in email marketing. Pull content from podcasts and use it in your social media ads. Learn what’s already performing in a different medium, tweak it to suit a new one, and repurpose it there.

Make sure you add some value to each of the platforms so that your audience can soak in all the goodness no matter where they’re getting the content!

If you want to learn more about how to get started with your online course and use social media to your advantage, find the free creators starter outline PDF!

Table of Contents

Kept Creations Monthly Membership

Kim Parkinson

Don’t craft alone, it’s time to learn in a community.

Brand Identity Kits

Bethany McCamish

Stop scrolling on Pinterest and start building a clear cohesive brand backed by psychology.

Notion Planning Kit

Elena Kozliakova

Notion Planning Kit: Streamline your life without putting yourself in a box.

Plus these exclusive bonuses!

Interview Prep Workbook

Tina Crouch

You can confidently walk into your interview

Want to learn more?

Grab the Digital Product Toolkit

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

Table of Contents

How Claudia Started Her Online Business

How Claudia Setup Shop with Digital Marketplaces

Converting Your Designs Into Digital Products

Pricing Your Digital Art and Creations

Additional Training and Resources

6 Profitable Funnel Ideas

That You Can Use Right Now

Grab my funnel ideas

A Beginner's Guide to Passive Income by Claudia

Conclusion

Table of Contents

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts

Identify Your Ideal Client

Complete Market Research

Share Valuable Content

Quality Isn’t Always Expensive

Use Strategic Hashtags

Create a Course Roadmap

Conclusion

Table of Contents

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor

5 Steps Towards Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Acknowledge Current Events

Encourage Conversations

Educate Yourself and Your Team

Create a Plan Of Support

Resources

Table of Contents

Create a Routine

Have Teachable Moments

Automate Your Processes

Utilize Technology

Create Repeatable Systems

Table of Contents

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor

1. Increase Emphasis on Video

2. Focus on Authentic Stories

3. Overall Organic Reach is Down

4. Test What Works and Test Again

5. Repurpose Content