Marie Larsen:                      00:01                       What's up everyone? This is Mary Larson and you're listening to the audio entrepreneur. I spent the last year and half doing podcasts and content creation for some of the fastest growing entrepreneurs today. Their strategies and tests have been life changing once I took action, so I decided to take my audio industry to the next level by building a seven figure company that teaches people how to create, strategize, and repurpose their content like a throw. The question so new people are wondering is how is she going to do it? This podcast is here to give you the answers. Join me as I explained marketing strategies to grow my online business. My name is Marie Larsen. And Welcome to the audio entrepreneur.

Marie Larsen:                      00:40                       You also have everyone Marie Larsen. I'm so excited because today I have a friend on here with me who is just a rockstar. She's just extraordinary. And so I wanted to get in and just explain a little bit, um, why I wanted to have her on here. And she has been able to create a business and with very small budget from her bed and um, and has done extremely well with it. And so I wanted to bring your on here. For those of you who are looking how to start a business on a very tight budget. Um, she's extraordinary. So this is Wendy. Wendy, thank you so much for being on here. We really appreciate you and if you wouldn't mind introducing us to you and what you do and how you got started into everything, that will be so awesome.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             01:20                       Sure, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for having me here. And it's great to be chatting on your podcast. I love your energy. I love what you do. So for those of you who don't know me, my name's Wayne Dickey, laid low on from Scotland. I am. I was very ill for a couple of years. I ended up bedridden with our medical condition that affects women, called endometriosis is a big mouthful of a word, but basically, you know those who have it know about it and those who don't basically pain with your monthly cycles the normal. So anyway, so I ended up bedridden very, very ill. I was an entrepreneur. I had my own answer, bricks and mortar business before now that had to be wound up buttons. I was just so incapacitated, became a recluse, couldn't do anything. Basically he could barely walk and a thing. So I knew that I the medical machine that I was, oh and I had to do something differently.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             02:07                       So I started to retrain from my bed. I thank goodness for the Internet and nutritional therapy, psychotherapy, psychology, all these different realms because I knew I needed to understand what was happening in the body. And then I developed the little protocols with which ultimately got me out of bed and got me back out of pain, reduced or eliminated the symptoms and put my conditions intermission. So, so on this journey I was taking notes and writing a journal all the time because it was like the only thing literally it was keeping me sane. It goes to the doctors, the medical profession to wash their hands of me. So as I started to crack the code and figure out why my body was in so much pain and why I was bedridden and why it wasn't killing itself, because our bodies are amazing. Literally they're trying to heal themselves.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             02:52                       We don't consciously go and body, could you please go and fix my finger that I caught yesterday? It does. It all by itself starts to scab and come over. So I knew that I needed to share what I was learning with people and what was stopping the body from healing. And then I, I on the, my main, my main thing was I didn't want anyone ever to have to go through what I went through to be bedridden for three years. It just wasn't me. You know? And I, I even look back when I say bedroom for two years, it's like it just seems almost incomprehensible that somebody could be. That did incapacitation for that period of time. And so that's been my motivator in my drive is to make sure that no woman ever has to go to those levels to have to be in that dreadful state.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             03:36                       I'm from my journal. I decided I was going to write a book, um, so that basically if only helped one woman and then what I've been through it, it wouldn't be an innovative at adobe for a purpose, a greater purpose. Um, but obviously I needed to get my book out there. So once I, I've written my book, I needed to get it published. I needed to get a website, I needed to get a coach, I needed to send marketing. I was in real estate broker to before, so I knew nothing. They totally schooled the Internet business. I knew nothing. So am I did read Russell Brunson's Dotcom secrets, which is a great book and was kind of like gave me this framework and foundations on sound, what, what, what was going on in the Internet world. And then I decided, well, I knew what I wanted to achieve and you will.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             04:23                       My aim was was to get my coat to women and to help them so that they can be empowered and you know, get this information because it's crucial to their health. But it's like, how on earth do I get out to them? And I, I kind of joked with you earlier before we came on here, but you know, I literally built a business from my bed on a budget I had had to wind up my previous business. I had little or no income coming in. Um, it was a really frightening time, you know, to feed me my kids to pay the bills, but I knew I needed to like, claw my way out of where I was and the only way for me to do that, not realistically it was via the Internet know to build a business that way, which could then at that stage, early stages work or in my health is cloud.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             05:05                       So I can let you work from my bed on my laptop. I mean, thank goodness for these progressions in our society because I don't know what else I would have done. So that's kind of where I started out. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. I think it's so interesting. Um, I've, I've had so many people in this last little bit when he who, who've reached out to me, um, whether, whether college friends, uh, you know, I'm just this 22 year old little kid and, or I've had adults, I've had it, I've had all these other people and reach out to me and say, how are you making money online? Like, please tell me what you're doing. And uh, there, there are so many ways to go about it. And I actually did a podcast episode a little bit ago that was about some ideas that people could think about in order to make money online. Now, whether or not they wanted to make thousands and thousands of extra dollars or just a couple extra hundred dollars a month, there are ways to go about that.

Marie Larsen:                      05:57                       And so I wanted to kind of pick your brain as far as what, uh, what initial first steps you took by sitting on your bed. And, um, I, you said you read Dotcom secrets that you got into the clickfunnels world, which I am too. And, and for those of you who are listening, please go check it out on it. Seriously is one of those things that completely changed my life and helped me really realize and recognize that, um, I didn't have to train a trade my time for money anymore, that I could really become something outside of that, you know. And so I wanted, I wanted to really pick your brain as far as the first initial steps that you took as you were sitting in bed. Um, as you're learning about all these different medical things, um, how you decided to turn it into a business, um, as you were learning about this content and this information and what steps you did in order to do that.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             06:50                       Sure. Yeah. I think, um, I think when you, you're, you're mentioning Russell Bronson, clickfunnels and Dotcom secrets, that's a great place to start because it gives you, if it depends where your, your educational knowledge is on the Internet world, if you're just starting out or you know, life has really thrown a little lemons your way. This is the time to turn those lemons into lemonade. You know, use your experience, however project troublesome and however awful I'm niche, don't what it is that you want to do. Let your passion drive your carcass, you know, let, let that be your business model because the reason I say that is because it's, it's tough sometimes, you know, getting, you know, getting your business up and running and you're going to have bad days and you're going to have days where you think, I can't do this or you hit a wall or whatever, but if you got us purpose for your, your passion, for your purpose, that will keep you going and you'll be coming from a place for your bills.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             07:40                       Really empathize with people. So whatever. You know, really, I would start with journaling and I say journaling because journaling can be a great way to get the different levels, the different pieces and parts of your psyche and your soul and your characteristics and what really motivates you. What really drives you forward. So for me it was like I, I mean, I still get emotional not, I've never won any woman ever to have to have gone through. I went through, it was brutal, there are no words really to explain. I lost almost everything, you know, and it was, I felt such shame and impotence and you know, failure at that particular time. So for me it was like that was my motivator. So I was able to have my journals to go back to. And that was when obviously I started to write my book. I knew I needed to have a vehicle to get that out there.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             08:29                       I'm not swear. Oversee Click funnels is again, insane building the business on a budget because you can start off, I think they're opening a level, like $97 a month and you can create this amazing vinyl, you know, I mean you don't have. I got quoted at the time in the UK something like 8,000 pounds to build a website and I was literally, and I have no technical knowledge, but it's so intuitive. Click funnels and I'm, by the way, a disclaimer here. I'm not being paid to promote. Click funnels are awesome, but the thing is for me, I was lost. I was alone. I have little or no money coming in and I needed to start somewhere. And so if someone's thinking like, well, where do I start on? Maybe I've got a job already and I don't have much money and many resources. It's a great place to start.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             09:16                       So for $97, you know, what does that update virtually nothing. You know, what you'd spend going out for a meal or the new iphone now is like one and a half. Those that, right? No, but anyway, so even just starting there, that will help and you will become the way that it's all set office. It's really user friendly. So it was very intuitive and you can, you know, in a short. So I was quoted 8,000 pounds to build a website. So for that money now I didn't have that money then, but I look back and I did get a coach because I needed someone just to keep me motivated and keep me going. Did. I'm just kinda like to be honest, believe in me because that's the other thing. When you start a business, you're like, can of really do this and what do I have to do?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             10:00                       What? Oh, and someone's being horrible to me and I've had a tool or a hater, you know, um, you know, just to, just to run alongside you. But for me it was just starting with click funnels, reading the book. I'm being really clear on what my message was and that I wanted to help women out of pain with endometriosis. I wanted to share what I had learned. I knew I needed to get marketing help. Set it on a clue where to start. So click funnels was the cheapest, most inexpensive, simplest. Um, I'm really user friendly way because if you even get someone to build a website for you, then how then you're tied into them for life to make any small changes or as click funnels, you just go in and go, actually, I don't like that word. I don't like that photo of me or I can just, when you change it in seconds, you know, and there's something very empowering.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             10:45                       But having that capacity with this vehicle to go in and do these kinds of things yourself. And so from there, yes it was, you know, uh, men also gave me the contacts and the information you have because there's so much information out there as well. That's the other thing. Why don't you start going online and it's like information overload. You need if I get where you're going to consent them, what you're time onto. Yeah. So, um, so I don't know if that answers your question. I don't know if I've gotten time to know that I have to add in there as far as like, if you guys are looking for a way to really budget out a business, I cannot agree more. Um, click funnels has everything that you're going to need to get started with, um, with, with your ideas, with stuff that you just want to try. Even if it's like you want to try something else, you want to try something new, like when he was talking about you're not going to have to go through and pay someone else to go create a new website for you can, you can split test a new funnel, right? And you can, you can try something else. And so, um, that, that right there are these skill sets. I've been completely life changing for me now. I will tell you when either what you said about having

Marie Larsen:                      11:54                       someone who believes in you was something so important for me, um, about four or five months, four months or so into the two Comma Club coaching nipples. So you and I are part of, um, I wanted to give up. I was really, it was, I had a really big emotional, a drawback and um, I called up my brother Stephen and I was like, Yo man, like I think I'm done. Like, this is really hard. I don't think I want to do this anymore. And he's like, really? Let me just ask you like, what else are you going to do? And I was like, oh shoot, like you have a point, like I don't know what else I was going to do. I just wanted to be done because that seemed like the easy way out, you know, just being done seemed easy, but in all actuality I was making my life harder by stopping and um, and so that was good for me.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             12:44                       But learning how to budget out just that extra, you know, tiny bits, amount of money to start with, clickfunnels was really important for me and learning those skills so that I could learn how to do a simple two step process or two step funnel, right? Because so, so easy, right? But I just started to learning and taking time, you know, a couple of minutes here, a couple of minutes there to sit down and learn, okay, now I'm going to learn how to do an application funnel. Now I'm going to learn how to whatever it was and just sit there and Russell's already done so many videos, so much content and teach you how to do exactly what you need to do to apply to your specific thing and say, Hey, all I have to do is do this today. Like, my one goal is to do this today.

Marie Larsen:                      13:27                       You know, and, and that really helped me to start my business on a very, very tight, you know, college student. Oh, so, so, so tight. College student budget and really get started. And then as I decided to pay for two Comma Club x coaching, that right there was like, oh my goodness, how am I supposed to fill out an extra 20,000 US dollars into my, into my life for this kind of stuff? But it changed my life because of it. And I always was able to find a way to improve. I was always able to go about and to do it if you know, just by, by getting my voice out there, by, by sticking my neck out there and I'm really trying it. And that's really how I was able to start paying all this off, so I was really grateful for that. But being able to do that on a small budget is so crucial now. Um, something that I think is interesting that, that you were able to figure out what was going through and establishing those tiny little principles, you know, step by step of building out, building out this company on your red, which is so amazing.

Marie Larsen:                      14:38                       Have you been able to see an impact in these women's lives that you have? Have you been able to impact or can impact by you going through and voicing your, I guess getting your voice out there because of it?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             14:50                       Well, yeah, and again I feel quite emotional because when, when you start on something that you've been through and then you think, well, my motivation is to make sure that no woman has to go through. I went through and then you think of it only helps one woman. Then it's been more fit. Well, I published my book, I pressed, I pass, publish on Amazon and then do a, drove under the bed under the bed and hit under the Doobie like, oh my God, it's so scary. Putting yourself out there like that. So scary. So scary. I mean, there's nothing like, you know. But I knew I needed to grow. I knew I needed to change. I knew that for me to impact and help other women, I had to put myself out there. So that was part of my girl. So I relate to what you're saying, you know, I'm constantly sort of reassessing and kind of what, what am I doing, where am I going?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             15:35                       But yeah. So. And then I started to get feedback from women. Women were emailing me and saying, wow, this looks amazing. I thought, I just, um, I think I shared with the two CCS group just last week, I got a message from a woman who'd said she bought my boot for weeks ago. She's been applying the principles for two weeks. When she started, when she reached out to me, she was doubled over in pain, walking like an old woman. She was scheduled for surgery, she's not the school for surgery now she's standing up straight and then zero pain on listening. When I read these things, have tears coming down my face thinking yes, like saved another woman from surgery that they didn't need. So once I published my book and I was getting some feedback, it gave me a little bit of confidence because, you know, this was a new arena for me and we all have that kind of like fragile and vulnerable sort of aspects to us that we're like, oh my God, I don't know if I can do this.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             16:28                       And then, and then I, and then more of a more than emailing me and saying that your big spray. I've made some changes, feeling some progress, but I need more help. So that's when I developed my 12 week online foundation program and I did a, you know, I've worked with eight women, you know, on a ton of kind of pilot program. I had no idea where they're working one to one with women who was going to help them either. So I literally was sort of building on the hoof, as they say in Scotland, like literally week to week and it was intense work, am recording live, you know, providing masses of value and information and content and downloads and handouts and homework because I wanted them to have everything that they need to get well. And an all eight women who started with me all came, you know, they were bedridden to varying degrees.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             17:17                       Are they all got well, they all had their pain, reduced the old we're cycling on the yard going hiking. And I got amazing testimonials. So that for me was just like, wow, this, I might be onto something here. This, this is amazing. So, and again, all I built the membership site through click funnels again, and you know, a member, I'm doing this on the low, the low level entry into funnels, you know, I'm just kind of going on faith really. I'm like, you know, and then if I needed help and support from designers or um, or, or people that you know, to do my forums and things like that, I'd go onto fiverr.com, which is an amazing resource for out for it. And I would just post, I mean when I got my book published into a couple of different languages, I just say look, post something on network saying this is my current book in English, I need to get it translated and you know, I've only got this budget, I'm just waiting to see what came in, you know, and so been able to kind of have that capacity to grow as I was able to afford to do so.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             18:23                       Whereas some people were saying, oh, well you need to borrow from the bank, can you need to do this? And I'm like, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had implants. You just get that overwhelmed. So I feel very lucky in that. Yes. To your question, you know, it was amazing. What I was doing was impacting women positively on they, you know, they were spreading that word and they were helping other women and there's a hundred and 75 million women suffer from this condition. You know, I've only just scratched the surface. I've only helped fair following sort of one to one of my groups and I was just in the, I can say thousands now. It's just been over 2000 of my own big window. But all of these aspects of the business, you know, the paper back, I mean, again, I managed to find out great resources of how to publish really inexpensively that it meant I didn't have to buy hundreds of books.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             19:13                       I didn't have to ship it myself. Um, you know, through create space which is a publishing platform of Amazon. They do all the shipping and they do everything for you, the printing, the shipping and everything. So it was, you know, and the same with kindle, getting that done and then my older books. So there was just learning as I was going. But Russell's boot can. Platform was always a great goto. If I felt I lost direction. And lost my way. Good. That's awesome. And I, I have to ask them, can you give us a little more detail on how you started talking about some of the resources that you were able to find like fiverr and whatnot to publish your book. What was that process like for you? For people who are trying to figure that out and see, uh, I guess how to go about to publish a book.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             20:03                       What were some of the steps that you took in order to do that? Yeah. Well, I, well I always say I wrote everything out myself and then I need someone to just edit it. I needed, that was my first kind of like scary, you know, pinky toe in the water of like, Oh my God, I'm going to give it to someone to read. They can be cruel and unkind. And so I, and again, I had a short, you know, very small budget, but what I did was, because I had such a small budget, I go to Edison, it's three times all the small budget because I needed just to have the confidence. So I would just post on fiverr or upwork or freelancer or whatever it was, cold at a time and just, you know, I think if you're authentic and genuine with your, with your purpose and you'll say, luke, this is my situation.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             20:45                       I'm not Bennington sell anyone. And then that was great and a lot of these platforms is, there's lots of people just starting out to like yourself and they don't have any reviews, they don't have any stars or any feedback or testimonials. So they're obviously looking and you can get some beautiful people on these sites that are just so heartfelt, you know, good quality people who are experts in their own field but maybe not online. So they want to build an online business as well through these platforms. So they will do, you know, work for you really good, cool. If he work for a fraction of what you'd normally pay for that. That was amazing. Building up relationships with people like that from a publishing the book. And then you go to get the cover designed and then you go to get the cover fit to fit the book.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             21:30                       And then, you know, like get it formatted, there's a number of different elements, you know, that you've got to go through a very systematic, um, but all of these resources are there. And I think just learning they might. I was saying to someone the other day, I think my biggest growth for me is learning. It's okay to ask questions isn't a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength. And that was a big thing for me. I think my conditioning was, oh, you were somehow weak if you asked questions. There's so many lovely. There's not a lot of nasty people too. There's a lot of lovely people out there who if you just, if you're part of a group of people who've got the same common goals and you say, where should I find this? Or what would I do there? Or you go onto these online platforms like Fiverr, upwork, freelancer, and say, post a post a job and say, can someone do this for 30 ponds?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             22:19                       Or can someone do this for 50 pounds? I don't mean to insult you, but that's my budget. I've got a lady towns and translate my, my, My boot from English into Swedish for me and she's lovely and she charged me like, I dunno, a minimal and I compare it to the mountain of time sheets. She presented to it, but I've given her a rave review. I've given their feet, cope with my boot. She's not going to be doing my audiobook. So there's this new relationship with her and I can do it as I can afford to do it all the while she's building her business from it. So it's like scratching each other's back. Absolutely. I love it. And I will tell you when I got started into the podcasting world, that's totally how I got started was via fiverr and upwork and everything like that.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             23:03                       That's how I got started. I was just at the time it'd be I needed, you know, 50 to 100 extra dollars to pay my rent or something like that, you know, so that I could, I could stay in my apartment. Right. And so that for me was the way that I was able to start making some extra cash. And so again, if people are listening to this, when people are listening to this, that make sure that you guys understand that you don't have to establish this huge giant company or anything like that online to be successful or see any sort of cash flow and it can be literally in, in small ways or you can make it into something big like he and I have aspired to go into. Right?

Marie Larsen:                      23:42                       And so, um, just know that through via Fiverr, upwork, freelancer, all those different platforms that you can easily, easily, easily make, make extra money, uh, that, that could help benefit your family and in little ways. Right? And so that's, um, that's just amazing. And so anyway, thank you so much, Wendy. Is there anything. Oh, actually will you, will you tell us the name of your book and where people can go find it and find information about you so that, uh, after they finish listening to this, that they can, they can go find your information and stuff that, uh, that they can use in the future.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             24:18                       Sure, absolutely. Well, my website's a hue. Endometriosis naturally, don't call them. I know it's a big word or just Wayne, dk laidlaw don't call them that will redirect you to the website, but my book is healing to me to assist naturally without painkillers, drugs or surgery. So if you are, you know, hitting your head over brick wall and, and you're going to your doctor and with monthly pains and no one's able to tell you what it is going into my book, see if that resonates with you and my book explains my story, but also gives a step by step guide because when I was writing my book I remember reading other books, thinking so frustrating when somebody told me their story and then, oh, and then there were, well again and I'm like, what did you do?

Marie Larsen:                      24:57                       Can tell me your pain. Tell me how you went through that journey. How did you do that?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             25:02                       So my book is also a step by step guide will work for me. So, um, and then if you read the book, you know, and you want more support, I do offer an online, a 12 week foundation program. And then after that there's a 10 week program. And, and you can apply to art with me there. So, um, but if you are building a business and whatever realm, just um, I, I heard a phrase from Steve Job said there, you know, it's, um, it takes years to be an overnight success. I love that because it takes time and I think we can all put these unrealistic expectations on ourselves. Like why am I not a millionaire yet? But you actually have to kind of go through the growth. I think you mentioned that earlier because psychologically you have to grow as your business grows and there may be elements of things that come up for you. So keep journaling, keep focused, keep determined and just never give up. Yup.

Marie Larsen:                      25:52                       I love that. I love that so much. And I'm just going off of that. Um, I love sitting down and writing, writing down my, my pain points, the things that I've struggled with, things that I've done well as, um, but another really great resource guys is to make sure that you are doing a podcast, again, like being vulnerable with your audience, letting them know your ups and your downs. And just really getting out there and sharing that with them. It's your journey. People love. It's so attractive to people to follow along on a hero's journey, right? That's why we love hearing, you know, um, the creation of the light bulb and how many times he tried before he, you know, before he finally got it, you know, after a thousand times or so, he finally figured out how to, how to make it, you know, the light bulb.

Marie Larsen:                      26:37                       So guys, uh, we, we love the hero's journey. Make sure that you're sitting down and that you're writing down all information, all the stuff that you're doing as far as yours, euro's journey to get started and how you've, um, your fails, your ups and downs, your little winds, your big ones, your big fails, your little fails, the whole, the whole nine yards. Make sure that you go and that you do that as well. So anyway, when you think you so much for being on here, we're so excited again for every. I'm so excited for the, the other books that you have coming out here. And, and, uh, we will keep the, this audience posted, um, as far as when you, when you come out with new stuff, we really appreciate it. Absolutely. Unemployment. When I, when I published him to build a business from your band on a budget, I am, I'll be offering a free book plus shipping offer. So we committed again then. But yeah, thank you. So when that happens, we'll have you back on here. Awesome. Well thanks for having me. Thanks Wendy. Boom. Thanks.

Marie Larsen:                      27:35                       Don't forget to rate and subscribe. Do you have questions for me? Go to the facebook group, profitable podcasting strategies, and I'll be sure to do an episode to answer your next question. Again guys. My name is Marie Larsen, the audio entrepreneur.