The Amy Porterfield Show

I just got back from a total immersion weekend retreat in Palm Springs with my Integrator Chloe and in today’s episode I share all the details of what went down! Unlike a typical team retreat we weren’t brainstorming ideas, we were actually cleaning up the messy stuff in our business.

Yep, I’ve got messes to clean up just like anyone else. I must say, I do believe my team and I are a gold standard when it comes to setting up systems and processes, but I think no matter how well the backend of your online business looks every single one of us has room to do a little cleaning, don’t you think?

FIVE QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK YOURSELF BEFORE YOUR TOTAL IMMERSION WEEKEND RETREAT

Answering the following five key questions will help you to set a focus and make sure you’re on the same page (if you will be with someone from your team):

MY TOP TOTAL IMMERSION WEEKEND TIPS

This episode is brought to you by Audible where you too can listen to the book I mentioned that I’m loving right now: High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard, for FREE! Members of my audience get a FREE audiobook download and 30-day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/OMME

HOW WEBINARS, CREATING A COURSE, AND A MEMBERSHIP SITE CHANGED THIS TEACHER’S LIFE IN A HUGE WAY!

I'm always in awe when one of my students shares with me how they’ve built their million dollar businesses. Anna’s story is one of my favorites and I wanted her to share it with you as well!

Anna spent 23 years as a second grade teacher but decided she wanted to make an impact on the education community in a bigger way. This decision to shift her focus led her to my programs and she dove right in, taking action after action until things clicked! She made $10k on her very FIRST webinar and she's NEVER TURNED BACK.

You won’t want to miss Anna’s incredible story as she shares her journey to success. She shares the specific steps (and consistent action) she took from making that first $10k selling 2nd grade course curriculum, to creating a membership site for teachers that brings in almost $60k per month, to her latest venture, a course that teaches teachers how to teach guided-math, which at the time of this recording had only been live three weeks and she’d already made $35,000! That’s an entire year’s earnings for some teachers!

TWO MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN GROWING YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

And to wrap it up, Anna shares the two things she would do differently had she known back then what she knows now. I 100% agree with both, so do yourself a favor and take what she says and don’t let those mistakes slow you down from the impact you are destined to make!

Alright, if you’ve gotten this far and haven’t listened in to the podcast yet, what are you waiting for? : ) I promise you, you’ll be inspired by Anna’s story and fall in love with her just like I did!

If you’d prefer to watch the interview, enjoy that right here...

This episode is sponsored by my free master class, “How to Confidently Create Your First Profitable Course in 60 Days” If you’ve been thinking about creating an online course, or if you’ve had a course idea for awhile but you are just not sure how to get started, this free master class is for you.

Neil Patel, master marketer and SEO genius, joined me on my show today to dive into the the nuts-and-bolts of some simple SEO strategies that will bring you more traffic, conversions, and revenue! He walks us through a 3-month plan that I’ve broken down for you in a free guide that you can grab right here.!

IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

One thing that Neil dispelled immediately is the fear that so many of us have around the idea of SEO strategy, and that is, that SEO is too complicated and we’ll never understand what exactly to do!

Here’s what he had to say about that:

“SEO is not rocket science...it’s not hard, and as long as you follow this plan, which is broken down into three main steps, you should get results.”

And let me tell you the plan is not complicated...it’s very doable and this guide is going to help!

WHAT IS SEO AND WHY SHOULD I HAVE AN SEO STRATEGY?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and Neil explained that it’s really all about making your site compatible for search engines. Now of course we create our content for our audience to enjoy and find useful, but we need to understand the importance of making our content compatible for BOTH users AND search engines.

HOW SEO WILL INCREASE TRAFFIC, CONVERSIONS AND REVENUE

As an entrepreneur, you likely have a strong “why” behind what you’re doing online, but the bottom-line is that you want more people to see or listen to your content, you want to turn followers into customers, and you want to earn a living doing what you love to do. One way to accomplish this is to develop an SEO plan that has the ability to give you these tangible results.

And that’s exactly what Neil shared in today’s show! He broke down exactly what you need to do in order to get a really good, simple SEO strategy running on your website.

THE 3-MONTH SEO PLAN

I’ve outlined some of the key points Neil made in the interview here, but for the step-by-step plan download your free 3-Month SEO Guide here.

MONTH 1 - Research & Competitor Analysis

MONTH 2 - Optimize Your On Page Code and Building Content

Neil also discussed the importance of building quality content on a consistent basis on your blog. You’ve gotta have a place to use that keyword research from month-one research, right? Here are a few pointers Neil suggests you implement when you write your blog posts/articles:

MONTH 3 - Building Links and Getting Social Shares

Part of Neil’s three-month plan also includes a great strategy for gaining social shares to your content. While social sharing will not directly affect your SEO, it sure will indirectly. Social sharing builds social proof, which ultimately builds awareness and your authority.

Make sure to grab your free 3-Month SEO Guide right here, to learn all about Neil’s technique for getting social shares through Buzzsumo.

I hope you listened to the episode because Neil broke all of this down in such an easy to understand and doable fashion. But let’s not leave it at that...I want you to put this plan in action. Here what I’d love for you to do right now:

This episode is brought to you by:

Gravy—my very own 24/7 engagement team who contacts my customers within hours of their failed payment, captures updated billing information and saves the customers I worked so hard to acquire. If you have a subscription model business or offer payment plans, you’ve got to check out Gravy!

One thing I love about summer is having a little bit more downtime. This allows me to do some things that I might not always have time for at other times of the year like binge listening to my favorite podcasts.

That usually only happens while on vacation. As a matter of fact, I’m just back from a family vacation in Hawaii and I totally binge listened to a couple of my fave podcasts, The Life Coach School with Brooke Castillo and Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations. They are both soooo good! 

What made this episode extra special for me was to have some of my listeners submit their favorite episodes as well. (I’ve included audio messages from them directly in today’s show!) Let’s dive in!

YOUR ONLINE MARKETING MADE EASY SUMMER LISTENING PLAYLIST TOP FIVE LISTENER FAVORITES

I absolutely LOVED hearing from so many of my listeners and how their favorite episodes of Online Marketing Made Easy have helped move their businesses forward! 

So there you have it - you’ve got a nice summer playlist to tune into! I’m guessing there may have been one or two recommendations that really resonated with you and I want you to commit to listening to those in the next 24 hours.

Today you’re going to learn how to use one of the fastest growing social platforms, Instagram Stories, to build your email list, without using the Swipe Up feature. 

I don't know about you, but Instagram is by far my favorite social media platform. Mostly because I love Instagram Stories but also because I think the connections on Instagram feel more real than any other social platform.

If you are on Instagram then you've probably either recorded an Instagram story yourself, viewed one--or several (they are completely addictive), or you've heard someone else talk about Instagram Stories and you weren't really sure what the heck they were talking about.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Tyler J. McCall, an Instagram Marketing Strategist, who has found great success in growing his email list through Instagram Stories. He shared tons of valuable insight, tips and strategies that you will be able to implement starting today! And, don’t worry, as I mentioned earlier this strategy has nothing to do with the Swipe Up feature, which requires you have 10,000 followers to use.

So whether you’re familiar with Instagram Stories or not, we’ve got you covered here! Let’s first dive into the basics around Instagram Stories and then we’ll go ALL in on strategies to grow your email list via this platform! 

WHAT IS AN INSTAGRAM STORY?

How Stories are different than a post in your regular Instagram feed is that the content goes away after 24 hours unless you add it as an Instagram Story highlight in your profile, which is a whole different episode!

WHY YOU SHOULD BE USING INSTAGRAM STORIES IN YOUR BUSINESS:

Tyler tells us that Instagram Stories are taking over as the content of choice, and Instagram likes this, because it gives them another place to run ads. And as business owners, Instagram ads are a very powerful tool, as well. And let me tell you, Instagram Story ads are converting really well for my business right now!

In order to grow your email list through Instagram Stories (we’ll get to that strategy in a minute), you first need to know how to create high quality Instagram Stories that people want to watch. Here’s a quick rundown, but make sure to tune in to the episode for all the details!

How to Grow Your Email List Using Instagram Stories Without Using the Swipe Up Feature

I’ve found that it’s helpful for me to actually create a task in Asana (my project management tool), to check my DMs daily, and that’s working well at this point.

So here’s what I want you to do, download and work through this 2-page worksheet that Tyler created for you and don’t spend another minute on Instagram without intention and purpose.

A great big thank you to Tyler for providing such great step-by-step teaching in this interview!

Tyler and I would both love to hear from you in our DMs! I’m @amyporterfield and he’s @tylerjmccall.

All my best,

Amy

This episode is brought to you by: LBL

As an entrepreneur, your business is constantly changing—that’s the beauty of being an entrepreneur. 

And here’s the thing: YOU change too. You change your mind about things you used to be adamant about.

I’ve experienced this myself. For example, when it came to creating courses, five years ago I would have said: Concentrate on building your course, don’t worry about the selling.

But since then I have had a change of heart.

I’ve watched my students inside of my training program Courses That Convert, and I’ve seen a need that I did not see years ago. That need is around launching their course before they have 100% completed it.

Now I talk about the benefits of pre-selling your course, or selling it in advance of the course being done, then delivering your content each week via a LIVE workshop to a group of founding members who have already paid.

So this episode is going to walk you through the exact steps that go into pre-selling a course. I am going to walk you through the pieces you’ll need to make your offer, get your first students through the door, and deliver your content.

There are a few reasons I like this strategy:

By the way, this episode was brought to you by Courses that Convert…I teach a much more robust version of this process in that course, with step-by-step plans and templates. Learn more by attending my free masterclass “How to Confidently Create Your First Profitable Course in 60 Days.”

So if you’re as excited as I am about pre-selling your course, here are seven steps to get you started.

The 7 Steps to Pre-Selling Your Course

Step 1: Determine Your Course Offer

Step 2: Set Up Your Early Interest Page.

Step 3: Create Your 30-Day Content Blitz

Step 4: Set Up Your Checkout Page

Step 5: Set Up Your Live Workshop Components

Step 6: Promote a 48-Hour Flash Sale Offer

Your 48-hour flash sale offer will include two emails:

In this step, you also have the option to include a webinar training as part of your pre-sell strategy.

Step 7: Deliver Your Content

Links mentioned in this episode:

Course Creation Resources:

Episode #49: How to Know if Your Idea is ProfitableEpisode #107: How Do I Price My Online Course?Episode #133: How to Get Unstuck in Your Course Creation ProcessEpisode #206: The Post-It Content Creation Mini Training

Webinar Resources:

Episode #130: How to Sell on a Webinar (Without Being Overly Salesy)Episode #145: 13 Questions to Nail Down Your Winning Webinar Topic and TitleEpisode #211: 5 Things I Said Yes to In The Early Years (But Say No to Now)

Today we’re going to discover something that has the power to majorly change the trajectory of your business! We’re going to uncover the three main roadblocks that sideline many entrepreneurs (and people in general) and cause them to get stuck in inaction. You will learn specific ways to take massive action, get more done, and get those big results you desire.

“Taking action...” seems easy enough, right? “Just do something!” As you and I both know, it’s not as easy as it sounds!

If right now what you’re doing in your business is not leading you to the results you desire, then this episode is for you!

To shed some light on WHY we’re not taking action and to help us understand how to turn that around and become massive action takers, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brooke Castillo. Brooke is a Life Coach—I actually call her a Life Coach Extraordinaire— who has worked with thousands of people (including yours truly) who have been stuck, are not reaching the goals they’ve envisioned for themselves, or ultimately just need a coach to shine some light on a path that can lead them to the promised land of getting a lot done and achieving big results.

Quick note before we move on: I mention that I’ve worked with Brooke personally; I get more into it on the podcast, but in case you were wondering, I’m part of her Self-Coaching Scholars program. You know I’m on a mission to up-level my life, including my health and my weight, but I’m also on a mission to up-level my mind, and Brooke really gets into this in her program. I know that focusing on how I think about things will change both my personal and business life, and I believe it could do the same for you. Because I stand behind what Brooke does, I have become an affiliate for the program, so if you are interested in joining her program, too, click here, and let Brooke know I sent you!

MANAGING YOUR MIND

Brooke began with the idea that so much of starting and building a business is about managing your mind. She said, “There's no way around it, because you can understand how to do everything, you can study all the material, but until you understand that what you think about is going to create the emotion that either drives the action or the inaction, you're never gonna take the action.”

Did you get that? This is important: What you think about creates the emotion that drives the action or inaction.  If stress, fear and panic are fueling the action, you’re not going to be able to produce results at the level you want to produce.

Brooke shared three entrepreneurial roadblocks—things that are keeping you from taking massive action.  

Reason #1: YOU’RE STUCK IN THE BUSY HUSTLE

Reason #2: YOU’RE GIVING YOURSELF TOO MUCH TIME TO GET SOMETHING DONE

Reason #3: YOU’RE AVOIDING FAILURE AND DISCOMFORT

What would be the activities or non-activities that you’d have in your comfort-time? Schedule it in! And remember: this time is non-negotiable. Agreed? Work hard, play hard! : )

If you’re reading this and have not listened to the episode yet, I highly recommend you do. Brooke gives some great examples, insights, and encouragement that you’ll only hear by tuning in. Plus, Brooke is so fun! I guarantee you’ll not only learn a ton, but will enjoy a few laughs while listening to this episode, too!

Thanks for spending time with me today!

All my best,

Amy

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in these show notes and on the podcast episode:

I’m the first person to admit when I’ve made a mistake.

But I can promise you this, when it happens: I learn something new every time.

Inside my private Facebook group for all of my students, my students often ask me to troubleshoot their challenges with launching their courses. Our FB Live chats and their questions inspired me to create this specific podcast episode for all of you. Based on my experiences with thousands of students, I’ve uncovered five core reasons why most online courses fail. My goal is to help make sure you don’t make these mistakes, and if you do, I want you to be able to learn from them and turn them into opportunities.

In this episode I also talk about the importance of a validation blitz, and knowing all about your potential student’s hopes and fears, and what may be holding them back. I go into step-by-step detail about how to conduct a validation blitz in my Courses That Convert Program. You can learn more about that program and how to get started with an online course with my free Masterclass—“How to Confidently Create Your First Profitable Course in 60 Days.” It’s a fun and comprehensive training that will help you get well on your way to creating your first training!

Also: if you've experienced any of these mistakes or if you've made a big mistake that I haven't mentioned here, I want you to come over to Instagram and DM me.

Check out these highlights:

Links mentioned in this episode:

Episode #206: “The Post-It Content Creation Mini Training”

As entrepreneurs, creating multiple streams of revenue should be our goal. After being laid off from a software development company in the year 2000, today’s guest, Jennifer Allwood, discovered firsthand how using her creativity and passion could create not one, but six different revenue streams in her business.

One of the things I love most about being an entrepreneur is how we are able to use our passions and creativity to build a business that has many layers to it—and Jennifer has done just that!

So whether you are just starting out building your online business or are already doing amazing things but looking to up-level, you’re going to find lots of inspiration and actionable tips in this interview!

Never Say Never

Jennifer’s first foray into an online business revenue stream was through creating and selling a handful of short videos teaching people how to do fun DIY painting techniques on cabinets and furniture. After just a year, she had earned six figures...from simple painting videos! 

Jennifer was at first confounded to discover she could sell stuff that could be easily found online for free via YouTube videos; yet she also came to understand that people will pay for shortcuts, and they prefer to pay for something from someone they know, like and trust, rather than go searching for something on their own.

That was the beginning of her online business journey. In the years since, she has launched a couple membership sites, teaches others how to run their online businesses, is writing a book, and is enjoying engaging with her nearly half-million online social media followers.

Jennifer admits that even just five years ago she would never have dreamed she would be where she is today! Let this be a lesson to all of us!  

It’s Not About Working Harder: It’s Working Smarter That Makes The Difference

Jennifer works mostly with creatives: painters, artists, makers, DIYers, and repurposers. She says these type of entrepreneurs have a hard time getting past the idea that they don’t always have to trade time for dollars; yet Jennifer teaches them they can share their gifts in a new way by adding revenue streams to their business. The opportunities she identified (which can work for anyone with an online business) are:

Where to Start?

If you are just beginning your online journey, Jennifer suggests you begin with something on the simpler side. Test the waters first, to see what you enjoy doing and what works. She highlighted some great examples from the list above that I hope will inspire you with some new ideas!

What I loved about talking to Jennifer was seeing how strategic she was—even from the beginning, when she didn’t even realize she was being strategic!

If you tuned in and listened to today’s episode, I hope you were as inspired by Jennifer’s story as I was. She was following her passion. She was hustling. She was doing what she needed to do to make things work, and look how it came together for her! I hope the same for you!

This episode is brought to you by:

Gravy—my very own 24/7 engagement team who contacts my customers within hours of their failed payment, captures updated billing information and saves the customers I worked so hard to acquire. If you have a subscription model business or offer payment plans, you’ve got to check out Gravy!

Most of you already know I’m all about list building.

In fact, one of my favorite mottos is “always be list building.” But not everyone knows that an indispensable element of any successful list-building effort is an effective lead magnet—a freebie—that’ll stand front and center and draw crowds to opt-in.

But then the question becomes:

How do I know which type of lead magnet to create?

That’s why you can’t miss today’s episode! I’m sharing the ultimate guide to choosing the right lead magnet for your audience, covering the seven types of lead magnets I think are working best right now.

And what I’m sharing is not only from my experience. I’ve prepared a bunch of examples of lead magnets from some of my good friends and peers—all of them list building pros—and I’m also covering the pros and cons of each, to help you decide which lead magnets are right for you and your audience.

To make it even easier for you, I’ve prepared a freebie with every one of the examples of lead magnets I’m going to discuss in the episode, so you can hear about them, but also see what I’m talking about as clearly as possible.

This episode is brought to you by:

My free Masterclass, The Ultimate List-Building Catch-Up Plan. If you are struggling to get started with list building or if you're not attracting new subscribers to your email list every single day, this is the free masterclass for you!

Check out these highlights: