A Digiteachers Biz Academy transformation story with Vivian and Lindsay

Michelle Smit: [00:00:00] Welcome to the empowered Edupreneur podcast. My name is Michelle Smit, and I am an ex-teacher turned online business coach for edupreneurs. The owner of Digiteach and a six-figure entrepreneur. I am in love with empowering educators, just like you to create freedom filled online businesses and lives they love.

If you are looking to uplevel your skills, your finances, your mindset, and change the trajectory of your life as an educator and business, Then you are in the right place. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of business and mindset development to help unlock the infinite potential within you to play bigger with your life and go after your dreams.

We are going to have so much fun together. So thank you so much for pushing play today. Now let's dive in.[00:01:00]

Hello. Hello. Welcome back. Booty, beautiful boot campers. And today we are going to be doing a session, a Q& A session today, but we actually have two DBA alumni students with us today. So that's very exciting. So today we're going to be chatting to these two. It's Vivian and Vivian is a Dutch teacher and she teaches obviously she teaches Dutch and she joined DVR.

I can't remember when she joined, she's just launched her Dutch course. She's literally, I think it was like yesterday where the launch ended and things like that. So we're going to be chatting to her about her launch and her whole journey as well.

And then we've got Lindsay, who is also a teacher. She was a classroom teacher and she helps parents support and understand and sort of learn about their autistic child so they can understand the [00:02:00] diagnosis more, they can support their kids more all of that.

So very, very needed. I know there's a few people in the bootcamp who have ideas to work with autistic people. Alrighty. So let me just see that I can see all your messages and feel free to let us know you are here. Say hello in the chat. If you have questions, please drop them in the Q&A tab so that we don't lose them. As you know, with the comments and all that jazz.

Yeah, so I think let's have a conversation. Let's chat to, vivian. Vivian, tell us your story where, okay, let's start here. Where were you a year ago? Where are you now?

Vivian: Let's see, one year ago, I had a few one on one students. So let's say three years ago I worked for school.

So I was, I was a teacher[00:03:00] had a lot of classes and then I got burned out. I got burned out from all the work in classes, and it was too much. So I got burned out, and I thought, okay, let's take some rest. But now I want to work again. And the only way for me to work was to work one on one and online.

So that I can take rest between the sessions. So that was, that was such such a fun time that I could work with one-on-one students, but then I was like, okay, how do I pay my bills when I can only teach two classes a day? So that's not much when you work only two hours a day.

So it was fun, but I, I was like, I need to change something, in order for me to pay the bills. And feel like I can impact more lives because now I had four students and that was it. Right. So,

Michelle Smit: yeah. But you were, this was basically your [00:04:00] own, like, essentially it was your own tutoring business that you have started.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Vivian: Yeah. So I had my own business, but it was very, very small. Because I still felt felt burned out. And I was tired all the time. So all my energy went into those classes. And then it was just like laying on the sofa all day for the rest of the day. So I needed to change something. So I decided to take a look at some other options.

And I Already knew that I wanted to do something like online courses, so I looked into it a little bit, but I had no clue on how to sell anything on the internet. So that's when I stumbled upon your page and yeah, everything changed from that point. Right. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Did you, were you actively searching or did it just show, did I just pop up?

Vivian: [00:05:00] You just popped up, but it's like Facebook or Instagram know what I was thinking. Here's Michelle. She's for you. Algorithm. Yeah. The algorithm. Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. Okay. Cool. And I remember very distinctly chatting to you when you joined. You had, I could see you really wanted to do it, but you were really scared to do it at the same time.

Obviously it's a big leap. It's a big commitment. It's a scary leap. Everyone knows it's scary when you do any kind of investment.

Okay. Now let's hear. So that was like, I don't know, a couple, it was about I don't know, sometime last year, end of last year and now, yeah, let's hear about, let's hear about the journey of you going through DBA and this whole process of getting yourself launched.

Vivian: Well, it started out by defining my niche.

That was really the first step. But Yeah. [00:06:00] I had another plan for my course and then I came to realize that that's not a good plan to to work with because the audience was too small and I didn't feel the The spark and the joy and so the dba course helped me really a lot to define my niche. So that was the first step.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. And your niche is now?

Vivian: Dutch learners, but mostly expats in the Netherlands. So I used to work with refugees and now it's Dutch expats. So expats who are in the Netherlands right now or planning on moving to the Netherlands real soon. So that's my niche right now.

Michelle Smit: And it's honestly such a needed. As you can see, so needed. And that's why any language teachers like we had a teacher B, I don't know if she's here, but she wants to help people with French. And I was like, teach expats French. Cause in France, they don't speak [00:07:00] any English. You really need to learn French. It's like a needed thing.

And I know you can already see how much demand there is for that.

Vivian: Yeah. But there was also a bit. Scary, because I know that there are a lot of language teachers, a lot of language schools, and I felt like, okay, well, there are already a lot of schools, so why should I do this too? But I learned, I learned that there's always a market for it, at least as If, if there's one school, you can do it too.

And it doesn't matter if there's just one school or 20 or 200, you can do it. The right person will come to you. The right customer will come to you. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Yes. It's like you add your own, you infuse yourself into your stuff and people will resonate with you more than they'd resonate with maybe a corporate type school.

That's very rigid. You're a nice friendly face. People can build a relationship with you first. So it's really good. I think for teachers actually like language teachers [00:08:00] and things like that, because speaking a language, you know how scary it is. You want to feel comfortable with the person you do it with.

And the online way that we set it up is that you do build up that. That relationship and that know, like, and trust factor with your people before you're like, Hey, here's my course. Do you want to buy it? People at that point, they understand how you teach.

They see a bit about how you teach. And then when you do offer your course, the whole idea is that they're like, yes. That is what I want. It's like not this whole, who is this person and why are they trying to sell to me kind of thing. So, yeah. Okay. So you just launched. Mm-hmm. Tell us about your launch because I, I want to hear about this

We all want to hear about this .

Vivian: It was hectic and it was so much fun. It really was so much fun. It went by like in a second. You have to enjoy every minute of it because it goes so fast. It was really fun. I started with a free [00:09:00] training week. So I did a week of free training sessions. So basically it was like three videos and three Q&A sessions in between.

It was so much fun and, and now I feel confident doing those sessions because like one year ago I didn't even show my face on my Instagram or my Facebook. And now I'm doing these sessions and I have like, 13,000 people in my Facebook group. So yeah, it's a big thing, but it's so much fun.

So the training week was fun. And so that's the pre-launch week, right? Yeah. And then I opened my card like a little over a week ago, I guess, or maybe two weeks ago. And yeah, it's such a great, it's such a crazy feeling that you take a look at your phone. It's like a new sale. It's so amazing. And you cannot believe it at first.

It's [00:10:00] like, Who wants to buy from me, right? But like you said, you built that know, like, and trust connection with the people, so they know you already, and they, they definitely want to work with you instead of other, just random schools they find on the internet. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Yeah, it's like... Yeah, honestly, I will never forget the day that I had my first sale.

I will never forget that day. Like, I don't know why, but that first sale will stay with you for the rest of your life. That first person who purchases whatever it is you are offering, you're just like in shock. And you don't even know, you're just like, what? How did this happen? And you have sent me a message and you were like I'm just lying in bed and people buying my course.

Vivian: Yeah, that's so amazing Yeah, because my cart opened at 8am and I didn't set an alarm because I was like, okay I [00:11:00] will wake up before 8 a. m. because I'm so nervous and I'm so excited and I was laying in bed and I was like, okay, new sale, new sale, new sale, it's so amazing. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: And then we set goals. I remember we were like, Hey, this is the, the like normal goal. This is the stretch yourself goal. This is the, Oh my gosh goal. Yeah. And you were like, okay, now I'll be happy with this. I think it was like 10 people or something. You were really happy with 10 people.

Yeah. And then I think you had, I think you had like 20 in the first day. Yeah, I had like 20 hours.

Vivian: Yeah, first 24 hours. Yeah, I did. So I crushed my first goal already. Yeah, yeah, that was, that was epic.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. So, and then what did you end on so far? What, how many people joined?

Vivian: 33. So. It was like 10, 20, 30.

And then I got 33. So that's epic. [00:12:00] It's epic. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: And the crazy stretch yourself goal was like 35, I think. I don't know. I can't remember.

Vivian: Yeah, it was 30. But you always said, Oh, maybe you can go for 35. I'm still in contact with a few people. So it Might turn up to be 35, I don't know.

Michelle Smit: It could very well become 35.

Normally there's some late people to the party, that's normal. But you know what's awesome guys, is like, the people who maybe didn't purchase now, will purchase or join later.

Vivian: Yeah, I already got some emails from people saying, Okay, I like it so much but due to circumstances I cannot buy right now, but I will definitely join next time, So that's great, yeah.

Michelle Smit: That's, this whole model is amazing, Because you're building up an audience. That even if they don't join now, Like the next time you launch. They're like, yeah, now I want to join. That is, that is amazing. And now after your first launch, you get to get all those student [00:13:00] testimonials and you get to get all of that.

You essentially launched without any testimonials of this course. You did this without a testimonial of this course, right? This is insane. Now you've got 33 people, you're going to work with them. They're going to have like an awesome experience with you. They're going to give you some testimonials and then you're going to have that.

And it's going to amplify. And the next time you launch, it's going to be like, it's just becomes exponential. It's like, I'm not joking. Someone asked yesterday, like, is there a limit to like how much you can make? And I really do not think so. Like you can really scale this up. And if you add more the cool thing about your niche is that you're helping people move from language, a beginner to a one, right.

You're going to create another offer from A1 to A2, right? Yeah. And, and then you're going to send those students through those offers as well. So then you get these repeat customers as well. So there's a lot of, yeah, it's, it's just so [00:14:00] exciting.

Vivian: Yeah. I already did some. How do you say it? My English isn't that good all the time, but it is good. That's what I teach my students. Just try, just practice, just speak. But I already had like five course ideas, so I was so inspired yesterday. So I took a lot of notes and yeah. I mean, it's like A0 to A1, but you can also do A1, A2, but also some other low end offers and high end offers. So lots of opportunities.

Michelle Smit: So many ideas. I mean, going from nothing to going to this point is actually really, really incredible. Like You've done so much, like you've just done so well as well. Like you've really you've just taken this process and you've just gone with it, despite the fears, everyone feels scared.

I mean, it's not easy. You're pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. And it's hard, but you really did it and you just went for [00:15:00] it and it's just worked out so well for you. If you think now on what you've just done and learned, would you have been able to do it had you not learned how to launch, like say, could you wing it?

Vivian: No, I mean, you can, I had some ideas about how to create the course. So all the modules and all those things. But I had no idea how to sell it. Yeah, because you can create a course and then you can put it on the internet and say, Hi, I'm Vivian. And here's my course. But that's not how it works. Right. So yeah, the whole marketing part and the tech stuff and all those things is something really, really new for me.

So I've learned a lot from DBA.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. I think a lot of teachers find like the, a lot of people think, okay, the creating of the course is the most important part, but we have learned, we have learned that it is not the most important part. It's [00:16:00] the marketing and the launching of it, because that's what actually gets people in and then when people are in you You create the course and it doesn't need to be fancy.

Do you guys think that you need a fancy production to give someone like, your course doesn't need to be fancy. Like it can be.

Vivian: It doesn't have to be perfect. No. Yeah, well, when I first started with DBA, it was like, okay, it has to be perfect. And this and this and let's be fancy. And I'm like, no, it doesn't have to be perfect.

And my course starts next Monday. And it isn't finished yet. So that was something I thought I could never do. Yeah, that was something I thought I could never do because I like to have things ready and perfect before I deliver something. But this is actually something that works because now I get to get some feedback from the students and adjust something.

So Yeah.

Michelle Smit: So how much of the course have you created?[00:17:00]

Vivian: Three out of eight modules.

Michelle Smit: Okay, cool. Yeah, that's perfect. So now you've got three weeks ahead. Every week you can just create a module. That's it. Everyone was like, what, what do you mean by this? Like, how can I sell something that hasn't been built yet?

It's like one of the biggest brain breaking things that I tell people to do, but it works.

Lindsay: I remember when I was doing the course, you were just like, just trust me. Don't do your whole course before you sell. And I was like, what? No way. And now I completely understand why. Because you learn so much from the students.

You learn so much about what they need that you actually, so many of my ideas have come from parents. Now like, Oh, I need to do that. I need to do that where I wouldn't have if I had created my course before I sold.

Michelle Smit: There you go. And you're going to create something that people want.

People are going to want it because you're listening to what your audience wants. You're not thinking and assuming and guessing what does my audience want? Because a lot of people do that. There's [00:18:00] no, we don't want to guess. We want to literally have conversations with people and be like, what do you want, what do you want to learn?

Like, how can I help you? How can I support you? And then they give you that gold mine of information that you can then build into your course, which is going to help itself so much better. And also help them. Yeah, just get, get the help they actually need as opposed to the help you think. They need I've seen so many people create beautiful courses and spend more time on the creation of the course, then the marketing and the launching of it.

And then they, they, it's no one joins like people don't join the course or and then they're just so disheartened and you've spent a year building a course as opposed to a year building an audience and a year building, like, or, or you're setting up to launch or whenever it may be. So, yeah, it's one of those things.

I also struggled with it and I've got so much anxiety. Like I've got, I'm an [00:19:00] anxious person. So the whole idea of not having it built was really hard, but. It's totally doable, right? But then it's doable. You just do it in a certain way. You build out a certain amount that makes you feel calm in your head space.

And then you just have to it keeps you accountable. Now you have to deliver. You've got 33 people. You're going to finish this product. Once the course is done, guys, once the course is done, the most of the work is basically done. Once you launch the first time. The, you've built the foundation and the second time is so much easier because it's, the assets have been built, the product is built, the the launch emails are built, the free training is built.

You may want to improve the free training. Remember, we're always going to refine and improve what we've done. We can always get better, but the foundation's built. So Vivian, the next time you launch, it's going to be so much [00:20:00] chilled and you're. Bigger results. You're going to make more money. You're going to have more students.

And that's why it becomes this like exponential kind of impact and income booster, which is really, it's almost feels like endless opportunity, which is really, it's quite a inspiring thing to, to have, like as an educator, because we are, we lived in these limited classrooms and limited places. And now it's like, you feel like you can.

Do amazing things. Yeah. Gosh, it's amazing. I see everyone saying, you are amazing Vivian. Oh, that's awesome. If you have any questions, please drop it in the Q and A and we'll do a session. We'll do a Q and A at the end.

But yeah, let's have a chat to Lindsay now. So Lindsay, please tell us about your story. Like where were you?

Lindsay: A year ago, I was in a classroom I had [00:21:00] just found, I actually found Michelle's first course how to become an online teacher. And it just resonated with me because I was feeling very, I love teaching. It's, it's my calling. It's my passion. I love teaching things, but I was feeling.

Very undervalued and just underpaid and just everything that teachers feel these days. I think we do such an amazing job and we just completely undervalued. And I was feeling that way. And then I just, I, I saw Michelle through actually organic marketing. I know Michelle's sister and she actually shared something about Michelle and that's where it all happened for me.

It completely changed my life. I've had my idea for. Close to three and a half years now, and I wish I could show you me trying to create this idea three and a half years ago. You cannot compare. I needed, I needed Michelle's course to guide me and teach me the way to do it. I had the idea for so long. I [00:22:00] just didn't know how to do it.

So I have, I literally still have it. It's like this. Word documents, trying to give parents some advice just to understand autism. It is shocking. And then doing Michelle's course, I have, I mean, it's, you can't even compare them. So, so that was where I was a year ago and I did Michelle's course. I was actually one of the First people to do Michelle's course and I have been here throughout the that time and I'm only launching now because school was so demanding that I just struggled because it was taking up so much of my time.

So I actually took a massive leap and I decided to quit my job and I'm doing it full time because it is. Totally going to change my life. So yeah.

Michelle Smit: That is amazing. When I heard that you quit your job, I was like.

Lindsay: Yeah, so I have days where I'm like, oh my gosh, I quit my job, but I know it's worth it. And now that I'm going through the whole phase you know, I'm going through the whole motion of it and I'm [00:23:00] launching at the end of this month.

I just realized the intense need that is especially needed in South Africa. I'm helping parents with their autistic children. It is, there's such a big need. Especially South Africa. It's so desperate. So I know there's such a big need and it's all sort of every day I'm getting parents messaging me and just saying, thank you as well.

And educators are saying, can I learn from you? And I've had a parent ask if we can collaborate with a course. And so there's a huge amount of need in South Africa. And I knew that I just didn't know how to. Do it. I think that was the biggest thing I had the idea. And by the way, I changed my idea twice as, as, as Michelle.

So that stuff that happens, it's not perfect. It was not perfect. I changed my niche completely. So I had the idea for Autbloom. So Autbloom is basically going to be a course helping parents understand, support the autistic child in the household, because, I learned so much and I was in such a collaborative environment.[00:24:00]

School working in a special needs setting us and I'm, I had so many parents who didn't have the support or the understanding or the awareness and the, how to support their child at home. And it needed to be taken into the household. I knew that. So that's where the idea came about, didn't know how to do it, but then I was so scared because it is such a big.

It is such a big topic. It's enormous and it's sensitive and it's scary. So I actually decided to do it and then I was like, no, I can't do it. So I did a completely different niche topic. I was going to go into the health industry because I'm quite I'm quite passionate just as a side passion with nutrition and.

How nutrition helps with mental health and all of that. So I was actually going to do that and I was going to help women reduce sugar in the, in the diet. And it's a brilliant niche. If anyone wants to do it, do it because sure. I would have done very well with that niche, but this. Thought Bloom kept on pulling at me, and it used to wake me up in the middle of the night and it was just my [00:25:00] intuition that was just killing me.

It did not leave me alone. And I was like, you know what? I can't let this go. This is what I gotta do. So I completely changed my niche and I email. I was like, you won't believe .

And by that stage, it was probably like, wow, what are you doing?

Michelle Smit: And you felt so like, what am I doing? Like I've built so much. It felt like you had come a long way with the first niche and then you were like, am I being crazy by doing this?

But I was like, look, when your intuition speaks.

Lindsay: It wasn't leaving me alone. So I was like, you know what, I got to do this. And I haven't looked back. I, sometimes I wonder, I was like, sure, I actually would have done really well in the health industry because there's a big need there as well. But this is my calling and I do not look back on it.

Michelle Smit: I feel like that's a serious impact that you're going to be having on people's lives. Like this is next level. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Very fulfilling actually.

Lindsay: It is. Yeah. And I mean, I have been [00:26:00] passionate about special needs teaching for so long, especially autism. Oh, I was just my amazing place to be within teaching.

And I just, I just saw, especially in South Africa, the absolute desperation of need to just get support or understanding. And the biggest problem in South Africa is there's lack of schooling. There's a lack of support, there's lack of funding, there's lack of everything. So it's actually like piled on me and I'm like, Oh my gosh.

But then the interesting thing as well is cause it's such a specific niche. I actually have quite a small email list as well. So it is going to be interesting when I launch to see how I do, because there's a massive need, but I've got maybe about 350 people on my email list. So it's a small. Yeah. So, I mean, it's not like thousands, but it's going to launch exactly.

So I am, I'm taking this launch as I'm launching to launch and learn. I'm not putting any pressure [00:27:00] on myself. And I'm just going, I'm just launching to launch and with absolutely no pressure. And I'm just going to go for it and learn because. When you launch the first time you then have your course and all you do is you just get better at it and you grow your, your, you grow your email list and you grow your following and you nurture and nurture, nurture, nurture.

And that's all I've been doing is nurturing, but that's all I'm going to do is I'm just going to launch to learn and that's the mindset you need to go in.

Michelle Smit: You've got an amazing mindset, Lindsay. You've honestly got the perfect mindset to go into this launch in February. When you put a lot of pressure on yourself for a launch, it's not good.

No, you do not. It's not a good situation. It's a first time thing. There will be mistakes. It will not be the best. You can do it. Guaranteed it's like, it's [00:28:00] literally about going through that launch, like in the trenches of the launch and like, at the end of it being like, Oh, I can fully understand the process now.

Like I can fully see how it works. I can, I've done it myself. It's like such a deeper level of understanding when you're just doing the theory and watching the launch training on DBA, like it's quite, I tried my best to make it as visual and not abstract, there's a lot of things going on and I tried my best, but really the best way you can learn is to action on it and just to do it and then by the end of it, I honestly feel like you've got nothing to lose.

People are like, Oh, but what if I fail? But I mean. What does that even mean in that sense? Like think about how much you grow in the process. How is that a failure? Because you're learning so much. You're learning incredible skills to make money, to sell anything you want [00:29:00] ever. You can launch any offer you want with this.

You're developing yourself. I mean how much have you guys grown?

Lindsay: Oh, I cannot even compare myself now to a year ago. I cannot, I have upskilled in so many parts of my life. I didn't even know I could upskill it. One of the two biggest things is mindset that was massive, massive, massive.

Tech . I'm like, an old tech was, now I'm like, oh, I, I got this . Whereas before, I dunno what I was doing. And now I'm like, because I dunno. I, I told the Charlotte story and I think Vivian, you would've seen I had to change my name about three weeks ago. Three weeks.

Michelle Smit: She had a name that was like, someone else had a similar name and they said to her, we need to change the name.

Lindsay: So just like advice wise, when you get to like choosing your name, don't like spend months choosing your name. Don't do that, but also just do a background check to just make sure [00:30:00] someone doesn't have the exact same name as you as in the industry.

And I had done that back check, a background check, they had the same domain as me. But their business name is different. So when it came to Google, both of our names came up and we're both in the same industry. So I was just like, you know what, I'm not building bridges. I'm, I'm baby still, they are big. I can collaborate with them later.

So I just decided whilst I'm little, I'm going to do this. So I had to change my name. And that means going and doing all the tech that you've already done. So By the end, I was like, okay, I can do this. I'm really good at tech now.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. You do it once. And then it's like, when you do it again, you're like, okay, cool.

Like I've done this. I know how to do it. That goes with anything.

Lindsay: I actually found the tech very rewarding. Cause I like problem solving things. So. You problem solve, you problem solve, you hit a wall and then suddenly you go over and you actually tick a box and you're like, I did it. Oh my gosh. And then like something's not verified or something's [00:31:00] working and you're like, I did that.

Michelle Smit: It's so satisfying. And it's like, like these skills are skills that no one can ever take away from you as well. Right? Like no one will ever be able to take that skill or that knowledge away from you and you can continuously build on it. That's just the first year guys. You are going to be. Like just imagine in a few years time, like after launching and refining and getting better and growing your audience and the impact you're going to have, like, think about it.

And you know what, Lindsay, someone mentioned that your audience is worldwide. I know you're focusing on South Africa, but what you.

Lindsay: It is so worldwide. And as soon as my, one of my biggest goals is as soon as I sort of make some money and like start getting some money and I'm going to put it straight into advertising for international.

So I started South African cause that's where it's such a big need there. But then also it's so [00:32:00] important in the beginning, as you know, Vivian and Michelle is keep your costs down. Don't spend all this money in the beginning launch first. So advertising wise, I'm doing it sort of locally.

And then as soon as I'm sort of generating some income, I'm going to put it into advertising internationally. Because I know I can reach so many people.

Michelle Smit: Yes. Yes. And I do say like people are always like worried about, Ooh, do I need a huge. Like people think you need to spend lots and lots of money to get launched, but actually you can bootstrap it.

Like you can use PowerPoint presentations. You can record a PowerPoint, you can just get a webcam. You just need the, the one piece of the puzzle is the system, right? You can't do it without the online. Business system. But other than that, like the first launch, you don't want to necessarily, it's a, it's a launch to learn as well.

And then once you've got that launch done, you can be like, cool, what did I do? Well, let's double down on that. What did people respond to? [00:33:00] Well, it's doubled down on that. What did I. Mess up. What mistakes did I make? Cause we always make mistakes. We're all human. How can I take that out? Refine it. Let's look at the whole launch from start to end.

And let's look at our numbers and let's see how can we improve that. And then it's just like, Rinsing and repeating it. And then you feel more confident and then you're like, cool. Let me drop some ads and let's scale up this thing. You can't skip that learning phase. You can't go from zero to a hundred thousand dollars or a hundred. Like you have to go through the journey, you have to learn the skills, you have to develop the mindset and you're becoming such an empowered person in the process.

Just, and that's why I always say, what is there to lose? Because if you think about it, okay, it's some money, maybe, maybe it's a little bit of money, but money just keeps making more money. The person you [00:34:00] become in the process is. Invaluable like waking up and feeling passionate about something that you're doing.

How invaluable is that? Like waking up and being, being stoked to do your own thing, your own project, not someone else's, something that's your own, your own business that's going to make you money, not someone else's money. Yeah, exactly. That is, that is the magic. Honestly, you guys have done so well and Lindsay, you're going to be launching end of this month.

Yes. Amazing. So you're going to have your free event. Yes. As you know, we've got the free event that we do. And then how long is your program going to be?

Lindsay: So oh my gosh, there's so much I want to teach. Actually, it was so hard. I'm. I wanted to, so because of the nature of the course, I know parents who buy are going to want the information quickly.

So I've condensed it [00:35:00] into, I was going to do a four week course, but I just, I put it into five weeks because I'm just, there's too much.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. And you know what actually overwhelm five weeks is still Exactly. Yeah. Perfect.

Lindsay: Yeah. So I want to make it a 10 week course if I can, and I'll probably keep developing it and making it bigger and maybe more weeks or so, it's just developing the course, but I'm doing it as a five week course 'cause there's just five very, very important components that I just want to do separately as well.

Michelle Smit: Amazing. I feel like you can totally make it like the first time you do it, you can, you know, it's not set in stone, right? Everything can you do it for five weeks? You can say, okay, maybe I felt like that was too rushed. I'm going to change this to, and do you have, is it all pre recorded or are you going to have a live component?

Lindsay: Yeah. So I'm going to, it's all going to be pre recorded. And then I'm going to do a live Q and a every thursday for five weeks with the parents and then I'll do it in the Facebook group. Or a [00:36:00] webinar. So then that week that they've completed, then we talk about that week as well, and the topics of that week.

Michelle Smit: Yeah, exactly. No, that's perfect. So it's like pre recorded with live and you're going to have built a portion of it currently you're working on the launch, right?

Lindsay: I am. Yeah. I, so I haven't even started week one yet. My gosh. No, totally fine. Like I'm trying to sell something that I have got everything planned out and next week I actually start week one actually pre recording week one.

Michelle Smit: Good. I love your setup.

Lindsay: I think. Yeah. Three weeks of pre recorded and then I'll have like two or three weeks. After that.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. You totally got this. And in terms of the launch stuff the free event and things like that, I saw you have already set that up and stuff.

Lindsay: Yes. So I've done all my, I've prepped for the free week. It's all been done. I've got three videos that are prerecorded that I'll send out on Monday, [00:37:00] Wednesday, Friday. And then I'm actually doing three live Q and A's. I'm doing that. Pre Q and a before the, the week just to get everyone excited. And then on Tuesdays, Thursdays, live Q and A's on the, on the videos.

Michelle Smit: Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's exactly how we teach it. Well done!

Lindsay: But I think my next launch, I might actually, depending on how this launch goes, I think I might do it all live. Cause I love teaching. I love teaching. So I did, I was struggling with that. I was like, should I do pre recorded videos? Or should I go all live?

I was like, well, let me try pre recorded videos first and then let's see how it responds. And then the next launch I'll try live and see which one's best. I think I will be better live. But you know, I'm launching to learn.

Michelle Smit: Yes, I love that. No, I think you'll be excellent live. But I like that you're going to try, you see sometimes often people are like, okay, but what should I do?

What's better? And it's like, Really what's the best thing to [00:38:00] do is try both and see which one your responds to best. I think that's it. Yeah. And some people are really great live and other people are like, oh no, it's not my jam. I'd rather be rerecorded. Like takes the pressure off. Yeah. So it also just depends on your style.

Yes. But you've got the perfect mindset going into this. Tell me what has been your favorite part of this journey?

Lindsay: I think my favorite part is seeing that I can actually do it. And I was so scared. I actually, early on, I told Michelle about this, I got. Quite a nasty troll who came into my Facebook group and it happens.

I think it just, it can happen to people. And it just swayed me because I was fresh. I was new. I was just so excited about my idea and so proud of it. And I just got completely swayed and it took, it completely knocked my confidence. One silly, horrible troll that had probably [00:39:00] doesn't know anything about my topic.

Swayed me completely. And it took me a long time to get over it. And how city is that? And I spoke to Michelle about it, but then, and I was scared to I was actually scared to advertise because I was so afraid of it happening again, but I've been advertising now for four weeks and I have got nothing but positivity.

I haven't got one bad thing and there's parents just. Saying thank you so much. I've got educators. I'm talking at two different schools next week and the week after. I've just got so many people reaching out and just so many positive things. So it's completely taken away from that. That's that fear of mine of someone saying.

I don't agree with what you're doing because it is a very sensitive topic. It is. I know that. And I'm very, very, very, I treat very lightly but it's the internet and you are going to get people having their opinion and yeah. So I think the best thing is just knowing that I am serving. I'm [00:40:00] serving parents who desperately need the service.

And that's the most amazing thing that that's what, when, when I have tough days, that's when I'm like, okay, that's, what's getting me through. And also I lived teaching because I was feeling undervalued. And I was feeling underpaid and now I'm not feeling undervalued at all. I'm completely, I feel so highly valued and I know I won't be underpaid.

Michelle Smit: I mean, you'll make sure of that. Yeah. You will make sure of that.

Lindsay: All those things that teachers feel. And I think teachers are just so sold down the wrong, the wrong river. Honestly, we are the most, we do the most incredible stuff. And I think. Lockdown taught me that more than ever of how amazing we are.

And we've all know that we just don't give ourselves enough credit for it. So we need to be able to be feel valued and, and actually paid for what we deserve as well. And what we do.

Michelle Smit: Yes. Preach [00:41:00] sister. Absolutely. That's what I'm saying. And it's amazing people. Yeah. That's why this process is amazing.

That's why starting the journey is amazing to building your own business because you're valuing yourself. You're actually saying, Hey. I am actually valuing myself and my work enough. Yeah. I'm taking the leap on this because I believe in it. I have a vision. It's, I have a calling. I want to impact more people.

Exactly. I'm tired of being in a situation that isn't serving me, that's not keeping me happy, and it takes a lot of courage to do that. It takes a lot of courage to take this leap and do what you're doing. More courage than ever before, but it is. It's just something that is, if you look at how you feel on a day to day basis and how your life has changed and who you've become, like you've just gained so much already.

And it's only going to continue. It's [00:42:00] only going to get more. It's like, and also your, your boyfriend also joined DBA. You guys do it together. That was awesome. Yeah, and he's launching in March, I think.

Lindsay: Yeah, so he's supposed to be taking a bit longer, but he will be launching. He's got an amazing idea as well.

So that's very exciting.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. You guys are like little online, like me and Mike. Like, let's talk about this. Exactly. So cool. Yeah. That's amazing. And Vivian, what would you say your favorite part has been?

Vivian: The fact that I can now work because before I couldn't work because I was so tired all the time.

And now I feel like I can help so many people and working less. It's , it's amazing. And as a teacher like many years ago, I was like, no, if you're a teacher, you have to work one on one and you have to work all with groups, but you have to give them a lots of [00:43:00] attention. And especially as a language teacher, you have to be there for them all the time.

But it's a, it's a mindset because I can, I can be there for them, but in a different kind of way, I guess. So I don't have to put like 40 hours a week into it. I can still help them, but also take care of myself and work less. And yeah, so there's a balanced life right now. So before I got burned out and now I'm like completely zen.

So it's amazing. I can enjoy my life and work.

Michelle Smit: You can have both. You can make money and you can impact people. It's not a one or the other. I can have impact. I can have income. I can have time in my schedule and make money and impact. So you can actually have it all in this model. That's why I'm such a fan of this one to many model.

It's a really smart way of taking your knowledge and [00:44:00] helping people with it, but not on this, like. One to one very limiting. I mean, we're, we're all trying to, essentially the goal is to free ourselves with this, we're not trying to entrench ourselves in more like work. So I mean, that's such an amazing thing Vivian to have made.

In your first launch have really seen like, oh, wow, I can make an income and impact in a big way. Yeah. Without teaching a zillion hours. Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay: And also such a, such a cool thing. This is the one of the coolest things is that you are online. All you do is you take your laptop. I got sick of home last week, so I took my laptop to a coffee shop and i was like oh my gosh.

Vivian: I actually booked a trip to Spain to celebrate this successful, so I can work from Spain, [00:45:00] so it's, it's amazing. You can just take your laptop and do conversation sessions from Spain. So yeah.

Michelle Smit: Vivian, you said to me like right at the beginning, I remember you said you wanted to get to a point where you can live in Spain in summers. For when the winters are here in the Netherlands, you want to go to Spain. And I was like, that is what we are doing too. Like that is the dream, you know, and chase the summer and you can just bring your laptop.

Lindsay: I felt quite cool as well. I was like, I'm working in a coffee shop.

Michelle Smit: And you can change the coffee shop and change it up. I feel like that, like limitless opportunity. Also, when your business is making enough and you can, quit whatever job it's like on the day you can wake up and be like.

Where do I want to work today? Or like, do I want to, like, you can just set your whole schedule. You can be like, Oh, I'm going to do calls in the mornings and then the afternoons, I'm just going to take it easy, maybe chill, or I can just take Fridays off every Friday. Like I want a three [00:46:00] day weekend every, every week.

Like you just call the shots.

It's so worth it. It's so worth it. The journey you guys are on, it's, it's worth it. It's not easy. It's, it takes courage, but it is worth it for sure. I see. We've had so many comments. I haven't read any of them, but I'm going to open up the Q and A now. Let's have a squiz at these questions. I'm going to read the question.

Let's see. Let's see. All righty, what distinct, I think this is Maren what distinguishes the expat niche from the normal language learner? In the, in what way are expats different from others that they want to learn the language? I'm teaching German. Okay, so she teaches German. This is for Vivian.

So should I focus on expats in Germany? How did you get the idea to focus on expats? I think it makes a difference. [00:47:00] I'll let Vivian see what she has to say first.

Vivian: Well before, when I was in the classroom, I worked with refugees. So that was a whole other, another system, right? And right now I'm focusing on...

expats. It's, it's not the same as teaching Dutch to Dutch people, right? So you're focusing on teaching a language, in my case, Dutch, to non Dutch speakers. And I chose the expat because it defines my niche. And it's it's a little bit more specific. But basically So expats are people who come to the Netherlands for work, for example, or it can also be people who are going to marry a Dutch person like you, Michelle.

So I focus on expats, but I've noticed that in my course right now, a few people [00:48:00] who aren't really expats are in it as well. So it's not like I do not help. other people, it's just like, this is my marketing strategy, right? To focus on the expats, but basically everyone who is who wants to work on their Dutch can work with me. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Very good. Yeah. So that's a little bit similar to me. Like I speak to teachers in my marketing, but I've had coaches and other kind, not teachers in DBA. So I don't just have teachers in DBA. It's just, I In my marketing speak to teachers because you can really resonate on a deeper way when you do focus on a particular subset of people, when you get specific, that's why being general and broad doesn't work.

That's why we have an ideal student avatar because then you can really map out your, your messaging and your offer to speak to that person. So then it really resonates. And then they're like, that is for me. So it really helps. To get specific. So I think teaching like focusing just the messaging [00:49:00] on, like a Vivian's in her Instagram biases.

I help expats learn. Dutch so that they can, I don't know, thrive in the Netherlands or so that they can whatever it is in the Netherlands. It's, it's very specific and clear. So if an expat ever lands, a Dutch expat ever lands on her thing, they're going to be like, Oh, this is someone who can help me. So I do recommend if you can, Maren, if you can You don't have to limit yourself.

You can help anyone who wants to learn German. But it will, it works well, as you can see, it does work well to focus it a little bit more specifically, just so you stand out a little bit more, you speaking directly to people as opposed to just everyone. So I would recommend that. Jules said Vivian, was your free training week live or prerecorded?

Vivian: Both. So I did three prerecorded videos. So I created something and I used PowerPoint and Canva. That was my was my thing. [00:50:00] I also did q and A sessions, so it was basically a video on Monday q and a on Tuesday, video q and a, video q and a. So that was the whole week. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Yeah, so it was both and that's kind of how I teach it.

It is a pre recorded element and a live element. But if you do want to just do the whole thing live, you can. I know some of our DBA peeps have done the whole thing live. Another question for Vivian regarding topics, this is Marin as well that are incorporated in your teaching. Did you tailor these specifically towards expats?

Or are these more general? So think about your course now.

Vivian: More general. So it's just like the A1 level in general. And it's just the messaging and the marketing that says expats.

Michelle Smit: Yes, yeah, that's it. Exactly. So whoever joins your course. Essentially, she was helping beginners. The course was Helping beginners become confident [00:51:00] in a one level Dutch.

It was, that was, that was the, it was super specific. It wasn't a big jump, like from a one to B two, cause that would just be crazy, but it's an eight week course helping beginners grow, get, become confident in a one Dutch, which is like daily Dutch situations. And then her marketing and her messaging would be speaking to that.

And then in the course, it was just. Whatever she taught was just helping them understand how to speak a one Dutch, no matter whether they're expats or anything. It's literally just teaching the Dutch language. Yeah. A one level.

Lindsay, what is the duration and cost of your course?

Lindsay: Okay. So I said my duration is five weeks. I think in the launches, my future launches. I actually am probably going to make it an eight week course. But at the moment it's five, just because I know that the parents I'm working with and contacting me really want the information like quick. And then the [00:52:00] cost of my course is 197.

So that's sort of, I think Vivian, I think we sort of similar, I think yours was also, so yeah. And then Michelle will teach you about sort of cost pricing. I don't know if she's told you about it, the psychology around.

Michelle Smit: Yeah, that's all in DBA. DBA goes way deep in that kind of stuff. Obviously I've done a little bit of the pricing stuff though in the bootcamp, which I think a lot of people had a lot of like aha moments of pricing.

But generally I say, okay, your first launch, you can maybe do a find founding members price and then maybe boost that price afterwards because it's definitely I wanted to match the value and things and the first launch, it's okay, get your belief behind it, just get it out there into the world and then when you do for the second time.

Increase the price, double, whatever it is.

Lindsay: Yeah, so in my pitch, I've said this is sort of founding members price. And then the next time I launch, I'm doubling it and I am going to double it. I'm going to back myself. I'm going [00:53:00] to double the price.

Michelle Smit: Yes. Good. Yeah. If you tell people, then you gotta, you gotta do it.

That's why you must tell people. It keeps you accountable. A few questions to Vivian. Is your course only pre recorded? Or do you have live sessions as well?

Vivian: Okay, so it's an eight week course. I would say 80% of it is pre recorded. So the pre recorded stuff are videos, but also worksheets and online games and lots of fun, cool things I already prepared.

So that's done. So 80% of it is done. And then I had I added some bonuses. So I will do a live Q& A session every week. And another aspect would be conversation sessions because it is a language I'm teaching so I have to offer some kind of live practice sessions. So I'm going to do weekly conversation sessions.

So basically. Two sessions [00:54:00] a week. So the live Q& A and the conversation sessions, and I added some short assignments in the course as well. So I'm going to give some personal feedback. That is a kind of. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that next time also, because it takes up more of my time. But right now I'm offering lots of bonuses.

I'm doing basically everything to test it. And then I'm going to see what works and what doesn't work. So for the next launch I'm going to change some things I guess. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. And your cost for your first launch? I mean, first offer?

Vivian: 167. So it's, it's really a founding members price. And I've made sure to say that and to put it on my sales page to say, okay, this is a founding members offer.

Next time I will double the price. It's never going to be this cheap. So, so you have to join now. Yeah, yeah.

Michelle Smit: No, no, no, for sure.[00:55:00] That's always key. Like say it so you can, you can make sure and people must know, like, this is the, the cheapest it'll be. So if you want to join now would be the time.

Vivian: Yeah. But the thing is, I run some numbers and I so I'm doing those two sessions a week, right? So that will be 16 sessions in total. And my price per hour so the money I'm making doing those live sessions will be more than 200 euros. So I'm going to do a live session. Yeah. And then it feels like, okay, I mean, I had to do a lot of work before I had to do all the pre recorded stuff.

Yeah, but the life things. It's amazing. It's amazing. So it's not anymore like, yeah, yeah. So it's not like I'm earning 20 per hour or something like that. That's amazing. It's huge. It's huge. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: You're basically like 10x your hourly rate.

Vivian: Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. [00:56:00]

Michelle Smit: That's awesome. That's what I was telling people.

Like you can like 10 X, 20 X, and you can keep, this is just your first launch. So just watch it go. When you double your price, you're going to see your conversions probably stay the same, and you're just going to double the amount you make and the double the amount of people that come in. It doesn't, I'm telling you, like it's incredible.

So it's, it really is a scalable. Income scalable thing. That's why I called it the educator's income booster bootcamp because it like does boost your income. Yeah, totally. Yeah. I see Maren said, Lindsay, what did the nasty troll do?

Lindsay: So, I'm actually so grateful for this troll because it just taught me how Silly they are, honestly, like, because I was new and I was excited and stuff, this troll did knock me, but it also made me realize that when it happens again, it is just someone with an opinion.

It has got nothing to do with the value of who I am [00:57:00] and what my course can give other people. And I learned so much from it. I'm very grateful it actually happened. And it wasn't too, it wasn't too invasive. They just went into my Facebook group and just sort of said, who are you to talk about this topic and, and so completely sort of like made me question myself already going into quite a difficult topic.

So it just hit that sort of soft part of my heart that I needed it because the next time it happens, I know exactly how to deal with it now and Facebook and Instagram. They very, very, very good at protecting you. When trolls, if trolls ever come and it's really probably won't happen to you. It's, it just sometimes does happen.

And I remember speaking to Michelle and she told me there was some couple of funny things that happen and you honestly just take the value out of the troll. They mean nothing.

Michelle Smit: And it's like, you've made it when you get your first troll, it's like, you've made it in exactly.

So I noticed people are noticing my work, even if I'm not happy with it, at least it's a [00:58:00] reaction.

Lindsay: So it was honestly just, I needed it to happen because then it happens next. I know what to do.

Michelle Smit: And it's very rare guys, it doesn't happen a lot. I've had like maybe on one hand and I've done this for four or five years. I don't know.

Lindsay: And you just don't entertain that. Just Facebook, Instagram,

Michelle Smit: delete, block, erase from memory.

Lindsay: Block.

Michelle Smit: You won't ever see them again. Just block people. Yeah. You won't see them again. It's a great, great vibe on the internet. You can just erase them completely.

Lindsay: You'll never see them again. So, so really,

Michelle Smit: and and you can block them so they don't actually see anything you create.

Exactly. They will never see your page again.

Lindsay: Yeah. And I think what it did is just question. I was like, am I doing the right thing? Am I being controversial? And I'm absolutely not in any way. I have a huge sort of Sort of fitting and just sort of giving that autism awareness and listening to the autistic voice.

I'm so big on that. So I'm doing absolutely nothing. Actually, the awareness that I'm giving is so much [00:59:00] more. So, that's just what it was.

Michelle Smit: Nothing. Yeah. How do I separate my Facebook group from my personal profile? So you got to, so guys, there's two, there's a confusion here. You've got your business page on Facebook.

That's like your business page. It's almost like a business card. Create a business page. And then you want to have a Facebook group. And that's your community. It has nothing to do, I don't think it connects to your personal profile. Does it connect you? I think they'll be able to click your name and go look at your personal profile.

But it's not really connected.

Vivian: No, I created another personal profile. So I have my personal personal profile. I have my teacher personal profile, and then I have my business page and my Facebook group. Yes.

Michelle Smit: Yes. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. If you do not want your personal profile at all connected, then you just create another.

Personal profile as your, it's more like a [01:00:00] business profile, but yeah, that's in general, you would have to have a business page, which helps you do advertising and whatever. It's like your business card and then you want a group just to build a nice, warm community of people. That's how I generally teach it.

For pre recorded sessions, what software do you use for editing? So what editing software did you use Vivian?

Vivian: I used PowerPoint and Canva for all the slides and stuff. Yes. I used I guess it's like Audacity. It's like a voice recording thing. Also free. Also free. And Shotcut for my video editing.

Also free. So, only free software for me right now. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Audacity for recording, Shotcut for editing.

Vivian: And also another thing would be OBS Studio. Great tool. OBS Studio.

Michelle Smit: Yes, we've used that. OBS Studio. Yeah. [01:01:00] Yeah, you guys, you can use free tools.

Lindsay: Yeah, I'm literally using PowerPoint and Canva, that's it. Canva is my life.

I'm loving it. And it's all, I mean, PowerPoint's for free. And if you want to get Canva Pro it's so cheap. That's all I'm using. I'm not using anything else as well. There's no need to, to spend on anything at the moment, except the course platform you're using and a few little small things.

Michelle Smit: Yes, for sure. I see. Someone says, I'm wondering if I will get help finding out exactly what my course topic should be like and what I should do at each step of the road with the DBA first year. Yes. You will learn everything in the DBA first year. You're going to, it's. In depth training. Like I map out, I help you with the niche.

I help you with the actually mapping out your offer in a much more detailed way than what we've done in the bootcamp. It goes deeper and then actually launching it. You get everything in that basic tier. The only thing you don't get is the group coaching [01:02:00] calls and the audience accelerator, which is access to the our Facebook ads man who helps you with ads, but you will learn.

You will, you can literally learn how to launch just with the first year as well. You get all the training, it's just, you don't get group coaching with me. So you certainly can benefit in a huge way just from joining DBA one as well. Okay. For pre yeah, I got that questions for Lindsay. How do you deal with teaching about a sensitive topic where many people have strong views?

I'm also creating a course around a sensitive topic. She's helping people helping teachers support and like support their LGBTQI students. Okay. So yeah, she's going to be creating that course to help teachers with that. So she asks like, how do you sort of, Deal with teaching a sensitive topic.

Lindsay: So I stay as authentic as possible. And I try and keep my own personal views out of the space. I look at what is needed [01:03:00] and that is what I'm serving. Obviously I'm going to have my personal views and I will sort of sort of express it here is that I've seen a lot of parents and sort of putting their children into therapies that doesn't necessarily.

Benefit the child later on, and you're actually seeing that a lot now there's a big voice for, with autistic adults saying that a lot of the therapies they did when they were younger, didn't benefit them, and it gave them quite a lot of trauma and all of that. And that is a big voice at the moment, and I do follow it as an educator.

But that is something I'm, I'm not going to go and throw my opinion. Everywhere I am serving parents and I'm, what I'm doing with my course, I'm creating that awareness. I'm giving them options and teaching them about sort of the different interventions that they can, they can do, understand behavior management, their child's sensory needs, their communication needs, creating resources for their, their, their house.

So I'm very authentic and I say every [01:04:00] time I come on video, I am a teacher. That has experience in special needs settings. I'm not saying I'm a doctor. I'm not saying I'm an OT, a speech and language or anything. I'm saying I'm a teacher with special needs experience working with autistic children. This is what I've learned.

This is what works. This is what doesn't come follow if you want, but you don't have to, if it's not for you either. So very authentic and just. Just saying who I am. And yeah, I think that's it. It is tricky having sensitive topics. It's but it's also,

Michelle Smit: It's needed.

Lindsay: It's very rewarding and very, very needed.

I think the minute you realize it's needed and just stay authentic and don't just say who you are as well. Yeah. And be tricky yourself comes from Yeah, exactly. And the minute I have a parent who wants OT advice, I say, I am not an occupational therapist, please can you consult with. A clinician an OT or a, or a physician or anything like that.

I'm not giving that type of advice. I'm saying I'm a teacher and this is my experience coming [01:05:00] from me, if you want.

Michelle Smit: Yeah, that's very, very helpful. Amazing. Maren said, would you be happy to say, share your. Your web pages, as I said in the chat, I really, really appreciate you sharing your experience with us seeing you do it.

My brain suddenly can make the shift to, Hey, if they can do it, I can do it too. Yay. Awesome. It would be great to see if how your how your pages look and your websites and things like that. So, yeah, I'm sure it's up to you guys if you want to share your website links and stuff. But yeah, it's up to you.

Lindsay: I would gladly do that. I'm going to be finished with my full website on Monday. I'm so excited. Yay. So I can share now I can put my link to my sales page and my funnel if you would like to see that. And then I'm not quite done with my full website.

But I can share that on Monday when I'm done, but I'm sure Vivian you have done your website. So if you want to share yours as well.

Vivian: Yeah, I don't know if I can type it somewhere here, but it's [01:06:00] vivodutch.com.

Michelle Smit: Something like that. You'll find it.

Vivian: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my sales page is online right now, but I will take it down in a few days because then the cart is closed. So if you want to take a look at my sales page for my A1 course, you have to do it this weekend. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. Okay. So do you have, do you know the whole, okay, it's fine.

You can maybe give it

Vivian: Yeah. If you go to my courses, you will see my course and then you can, yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Okay. Yeah. It's on the website and you'll see it.

Lindsay: My website is www.autbloom.com. It's not, if you go look now, it doesn't look like anything. So give it till Monday and then we'll all be there. My my funnel, because I'm obviously in the funnel stage, is on my Facebook and my Instagram bio.

So you can just click there and you can see an example of a funnel.

Michelle Smit: And your Instagram is autbloom right?

Lindsay: Autbloom yeah.

Michelle Smit: And [01:07:00] Vivian's is vivodutch. Yeah. So you can also just go to their instagrams and then you can look at their bios check out their stuff and then to both of you, how many launches do you plan to do this year or have you planned that out yet?

Vivian: Maybe three, I guess three of the A1 course, but I'm also going to work on some low end offers such as a pronunciation course, which is live right now. And I'm going to work on a speaking exam prep thing. That only that's only going to take me a few weeks, I guess, two weeks per course to create. And then I'm not going to launch those courses.

Michelle Smit: They're like evergreen. There are some all the time on your website.

Vivian: Yeah. And because I have a large following, so that will be fine. I don't launch those courses, just the level courses, just the A1, the A2, etc. Yeah. Those I'm going to launch.

Michelle Smit: Perfect. Sounds awesome.

And Lindsay?

Lindsay: So exciting. So I'm going to launch every three months. This course [01:08:00] specifically. And then I've actually had been in contact with a parent. She has a autistic child, actually teenager. She's about 15, 16 now. And she actually wants me to create a course for carers because what she's finding, she's a doctor, she's very much high in her career and what she found the biggest struggle was that.

Her because her child has such high care needs that she had to take a step back from her career. So she actually has really wants me to create a course to help carers and train carers so that moms can go back to work. So as soon as I launched this. I'm going to create that training. I don't know what's going to come out of it, but I'm very excited for that.

So I don't know what it's going to look like just yet, but this course specifically that I'm launching, I'll do every three months and then, yeah, and then I'm going to do one on one consultations as well.

Michelle Smit: I love that. I love how all these little opportunities arise [01:09:00] once you're actually in it. It's like amazing that you wouldn't even imagine that come up in your life.

This is amazing. All these doors are opening.

Lindsay: Yeah, it's amazing.

Michelle Smit: So cool. How many people do you hope to have in your first course? Okay,

Lindsay: so let's launch Lindsay. So numbers game, if you're looking at the numbers game and what I've learned from Michelle is that 1% or there's, there's a rule of thumb that 1% of your email list will convert.

So I've got about. 350 on my email list, so I'm hoping three people.

Any more than that will be a win because I'm honestly just launching to launch this time and honestly, if one person buys it verifies it and I'm like, what's next, how can I learn, how can I get this data?

Michelle Smit: I love that. Vivian had a also was like, okay, I was like 1% is this amount. And then but she, I think, I think she did like two and a half or 3% actually.

So it's [01:10:00] certainly, it's even though the 1% rule is what we say, it's just sort of, that's the rule that validates your idea. That doesn't mean that's all that's going to happen. You could do much better. And if you've got a really warm audience that people you really connected with them, you've really helped them in some way then it can be quite a bit better as well.

Lindsay: Also the South African economy at the moment, isn't that great. So the minute I go international, I think things are going to be life changing as well for me. But I can access people out of South Africa. The need isn't, there's a mass, there's a need everywhere, but there's a big need in South Africa.

Michelle Smit: I totally feel you. Yeah, a hundred percent internationals will open all the doors. Mia, vivian. I believe you said you have a Facebook group of 13, 000. How long did it take you to build that group?

Vivian: Yeah, 13,000. It's mind blowing, right? 13,000 people, it's amazing.

Well, I started this Facebook group, I would say, two years ago [01:11:00] as a kind of hobby. It's like, I want to help people, I'm going to share some stuff, but I did nothing with it. So, it was a quiet group for a year, I would say. So, I actively... Shared some contact in it, content in it, I would say 10 months mo 10 months ago?

Michelle Smit: Yeah. So like when you started? Yeah. Like just before DBA maybe.

Vivian: Just before DBA, right.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Sure. That's grown fast hey. And she said did you use paid ads? You did it pretty much organically though.

Vivian: Yeah. The Facebook group stuff is all organically. I did use some ads, but I didn't spend much money on it.

I did an ad for my free guide, so my freebie, and I did one ad for my free training week, just to test it. Just to see how it goes, and just to see...

Michelle Smit: And how many people opted in through ads?

Vivian: I would say three or four hundred. So [01:12:00] yeah, yeah.

Michelle Smit: So just predominantly organic and amazing. Cool. Love that.

Lindsay: That organic marketing is so powerful. Oh yeah. You can get it if you can master the organic marketing.

Michelle Smit: It is powerful. And it's a deep, it's a deep relationship as well when you build organically. It's much deeper. It's worth it guys, it's worth it, the labor of love and it's like about consistency and all that jazz, but it's really awesome actually when you do build in your own community and like, it's like, you're like, wow, man, I did that, that's pretty rad.

Okay. I'm planning to launch, I'm planning to create an online course for LGBTQ students. Do you think this would work? Yes. I mean, I don't know. That's very vague. I don't know what course it is for them, but I think depending on what it is for them, it certainly can work. I'm sure LGBTQ people need help in certain, I think there's certainly a desire for it.

I just, I don't really know what course it is and [01:13:00] exactly. Things like that. So it's, but it sounds, yeah, I think it could certainly work. Vivian, those testimonials, are those from the free week course you did prior? Which testimonials are you talking about there? Oh, maybe she looked at your website.

Vivian: Oh, yeah, I have like two testimonials on my website.

And those are one on one students. And also. It was, it was really, I, I thought, okay, I need to get some testimonials on my website, right? So I had some one on one students and they also filled in the Google review thing and the Facebook review thing. But there's one specific person who always is in my DM.

She always says, Oh, I need some help. What does it mean? And in English, can you translate it for me and how to conjugate this verb and stuff like that? So I always send a quick response and it only takes me a few minutes every week, [01:14:00] but she's so grateful for my help that she wrote a whole testimonial for me.

So, and she's actually very proud to be on my website. So that's a good thing too. You can just connect with your followers and ask for a testimonial. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. If you help people, people are always happy to give testimonials. It's super. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Awesome. Would you recommend adding some sort of community to your course?

Oh yes. Yes. 100% recommend adding a community to your course, like a Facebook group. But what if you only have one participant? It might be quiet in that community. You can just invite a few people into the community, like some friends and staff. Just to get it started. So it doesn't look like it's completely quiet.

Like it's, yeah, so that is possible. And if you're in DBA, you can always invite some DBA students to come into the community because we do that. We go into people's groups and then when they're launching, we like. Add a little bit of, like, hype. We [01:15:00] like hype girls. Woohoo girls on the side. Yeah. So you don't so that's like for that.

And then when you have your paid community if, if you only had one person, it's pretty, I don't think it's. It's likely, but you could invite a few people into that community just to make it feel like there's more people. How long did you take both from inception to launch, inception to launch? Yeah, of course, idea.

The thing is, Lindsay had a course idea like three years ago.

Lindsay: I just didn't know what to do with it. It was literally a weird document. Like it was almost like a little PDF thing.

Michelle Smit: It varies guys, different vibes for different people. For me, it took four months for my idea to launch other people, it takes a year, other people take six months [01:16:00] Vivian.

What was yours?

Vivian: Well, I guess I joined DBA in June, but then with another niche idea, so I switched niches. So I would say July, but I didn't spend much time working on the course idea in the beginning. So after the summer, that's when I really got to work and did all the, all the things. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: Maybe like six months.

Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay: You could definitely do it in four months, but you, you'll work hard, but you could do it in four months. Yeah. I think mine was about a year. Just, I just needed to get out of school just taking everything from me, so I needed to take that out of my life so I could focus solely on this. But you don't have to do it that way.

Don't have to quit your job. Please don't quit your job.

Yeah. It was just my journey. It's, it's, it made me accountable as well. So,

Michelle Smit: Yeah, I mean, for sure. You don't have to, you can do it on the side of your job. It just will take maybe a bit longer but it's better than doing nothing. So [01:17:00] it's really, at least you're working on something that is going to get you out of your job, better than not working on anything and then staying in your job and be like, ah, yeah, forever.

Okay. This all sounds amazing. I'm concerned as to how all these platforms and marketing will work. If your course is designed for children. Problem solving, you'd have to have the marketing geared towards parents, I think, because they're going to see the benefits and how you're going to help their child.

And then you need to create a course that obviously engages the child. So like it has to be somewhat engaging and stimulating for them. And then potentially the parents have to facilitate. them, their child actually showing up. It's like how kids go to online school and the parents are like, Hey, it's class now, like go and do it.

They'd have to facilitate the child doing the course themselves, but it's certainly possible. There's quite a few people in DBA who are creating courses for children. We've got a student who's creating a really interactive phonics. It's like a sing [01:18:00] song phonics princess theme phonics program for children of like three to female children from like three to five in Asia, and she lives in Cambodia.

So she has all the contacts to be able to do it. She's got, she works with tons of families already, and she's going to help the, the young little girls. With this princess themed phonics, sing song program. And then we've got another lady who's doing sensory play, helping awesome stuff, like creating awesome things from home that you can create for your child to help them play with things.

And so there's that that's being made. There's another student who's helping. Children with French reading, it's French immersion in Canada, and she's helping them with the French reading component of it. And she's also helping the parents help the children with the French reading. So yeah, that's it.

How do you say face? If you [01:19:00] launch and there's crickets like no one wants to buy well, that's very rare to, well, if I, if you, if you, if you wing it, that could happen. If you try wing your launch and you don't get anyone to show you what you're doing, then you can potentially have that experience. If you do follow like down to a T, what I teach, it's just, I don't think it's that common.

And if it does happen, then there's nothing you need to say face for no one will know. No one will really know that people didn't buy. Only you would know that or you'll, Family or whatever.

Lindsay: Something that stuck with me, Michelle was what you said, don't cut corners, do it by the book. What Michelle teaches you, you do it that way.

Michelle Smit: I mean, there's a reason why I teach it that way. It's not just like, I'm like, Hey, you should try this. It's like, I've literally done this so many times. Like this is the recipe. It's like when you make a cake. Put [01:20:00] four eggs in, put a cup of flour, don't put like 10 eggs in, the cake's going to flop. So like, if you think about it, like the, the training that I give in DBA, it's like a recipe and you just want to apply the recipe.

And that is like, you're much more guaranteed success if you apply a recipe that's been tried and tested. Yeah. Alrighty. So for those who are, I think that's it for questions. I think the last thing I can say is for those who are like on the fence and are like, Oh, fearful, or they just, they're just not sure what would you say to them?

Lindsay, like in this place where they're like, they've got a crossroads. They're not sure. What would you say?

Lindsay: It is a game changer. It's going to change your life. If you commit to it, 100% your life's going to be completely different. I can't believe where I am now to where I was a year ago. I can't believe that I'm doing it.

The most [01:21:00] amazing thing I think as well as the community that you get, because. You've got a community to fall back on. If things are hard or you need, just, just need some support, because it's great to starting a business is not going to be easy. If, if, if it was easy, everybody would start a business.

So you've got this incredible community to fall back on all the time. And then the mindset as well, you learn how to just. Change your mindset and the books to read and just believe in yourself. It is a complete game changer and you will make the money back within how many couple launches as well. It's, it's an investment in your, your life and the rest of your life.

So I honestly think that you need to do it, but then if you do it, you must commit to it as well. Fully 100% commit. You need to commit from the beginning.

Michelle Smit: Yeah. Yeah. Like you you do have access to training. As you know, you guys will have access to DBA for as long as it lives, as long as the course is alive.

So it's [01:22:00] not like you have to be like, Oh, I need to do it right now. You will, you can keep revisiting it and you will want to keep revisiting and people will be watching those trainings a lot, just especially for launch. Like you want to be going through that training a lot. So I've, you get it for life.

It's not like I'm going to take it away from you. But yeah, that is, that is amazing. Lindsay and Vivian.

Vivian: Well, I think eight months ago when I was chatting with you and saying, Oh, I don't know if this is something for me. My only fear was that it, the, the money I've spent on DBA wasn't going to bring me anything.

I was like, okay, maybe it's a course and I will work through the materials, but it doesn't get me to the point that I changed my life. Yeah. But I can honestly say I'm a completely different person. I'm completely different. It's not just a, The whole business thing. It's also the mindset. And I'm just waking up every day.

I'm so happy and I, my health improved [01:23:00] because of dba. I can yay literally say that, that I, I'm working so many hours and my doctor was like, how did you do that? So it's when you do something that you find. So when, when you're passionate about something, It will improve your life, all the things, not just your business, also your health, your, your social life.

It's so amazing. Yeah.

Michelle Smit: I loved hearing that about you, Vivian, like that you actually feel even better health wise. I remember you told us that a while ago and I was like, Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's amazing. Like, that's sort of something I didn't even think would happen. Like a ripple effect. I always say, okay, these, those ripple effects that happen when you do these things that I did not anticipate.

I was like, yeah, I'm going to help you make money. I'm going to help you launch your thing. And then it's like, oh wow, your health actually got better in this. So that was such a cool thing for me to hear because I was just like. Wow. It's so be like, so amazing to know [01:24:00] that as a teacher, obviously. I do have a question.

One more question. It says, how much time did you put into DBA? I'm quite busy now. So how many hours a week? Now I will say one thing to this question. You've got hours that you put into DBA and you've got hours that you put into your own business. These are two separate things. DBA is like training.

And all the training you need to absorb and all the action steps I give you, like I give you workbooks and things that you need to take action on for you to get clarity. And that is not a hundred million hours. The training is pretty bite sized and I think of the longest video maybe is like 15 minutes or something, maybe 20, but most of them are like 10 minutes, so they bite sized videos and then you take action, but how much time you put into your business.

Is something different that is you going and actually building out your websites. Obviously with platinum people, the, the, they will, the course creators kit will actually build the website for them. [01:25:00] But this is like, if you, you building a website, you building your emails, you creating a free event and people take different amounts of times doing all of these things.

So it's a very hard thing to answer, but I think if you're just asking about DBA in terms of just absorbing training and showing up. you're looking at like three hours a week or so. Just in training, like watching videos. That's what I would say. What would you guys say?

Vivian: Yeah, I think three hours a week.

So I, my, my Monday was my DBA day. So every Monday when a new module opens up, I looked at the content. So I would say two to three hours, maybe four, if I, Needed to brainstorm and take action. Yeah.

Lindsay: Yeah. I think every day I committed to doing it and I sort of, you're going to have DVA where you can do it in your own time, but it's also so beneficial going with the pace that Michelle goes, because you just, it's just so relevant at the [01:26:00] time and you'll see people in the same place as you.

So I tried to, I stuck with the pace that Michelle was going at and I would get home from school and I would commit to an hour a day. That's it.

Michelle Smit: You were really great with that. I mean, that was consistency at its best. I was really amazed. Like every day she came back from school and then she she was like, give me a time.

And I just want to say something like if you want to make this happen, if you want to build a business and launch a course, you're going to have to make the time. If it's important to you, you will make the time. If it's a valuable thing for you, you will make the time. We often say we don't have enough time, but actually if we can take inventory of where we're putting our time in our week, we often have these.

Seeping things that maybe we can say, okay, I can create time for this. This is important to me. I, I want to build a business. You're not going to build a business and launch a course if you don't put any time into it. If you haven't got any time, then maybe it's not, well, [01:27:00] I don't believe in that objection in general.

I feel like we as human beings have control over our time and we can say, I'm going to focus this one hour a day or on Saturdays or my DBA day will be on Monday or whatever it may be. It's like we have control over that. Would you recommend doing the first course and then do it or do it simultaneously?

I don't know what that means. Doing the first course and then do it or do it simultaneously. I don't understand that question. I think maybe you mean, do I recommend doing the first course live? But in that case, I do recommend that in the sense that you're not building it all beforehand. Oh, sorry.

DBA course. Okay. Doing the DBA course plus building the business. Yes. I recommend that I do recommend that I would like literally after the module, I'm like, okay, guys, go get your domain. Then you have to go get your domain. Okay, guys, create your [01:28:00] opt in, create your free event or whatever your freebie.

And then you go and do it. Like I do integrate the action steps for you too. Cause, and then in module six, six, six, no five module five, it's a two week module. So we do it two weeks. It's like, okay. Build up the funnel, build out the website, get the pieces of the puzzle in place. So that's a very theory, I mean, action based module.

So I do, I do recommend doing it alongside it. If you feel like you do not have capacity, that's fine. Some people just join DBA and. Absorb the training and then they go back a second time and absorb the training and then yeah.

Now I keep going back to the, to the modules just to make sure I'm doing everything.

So you, you go back to the modules when you actually starting to launch, just to make sure you've got everything in place. I'm constantly going back.

Yeah. Just double check. Yeah. That's why I was like, I'm not taking away. I'm not taking away this training for [01:29:00] people. I know it's going to be needed later.

So they said essentially by the end of the course, we will have done everything needed to start our business, except building out the course entirely. Yeah, if you stick to the pace and you do it like step by step, you will have your funnel built, you'll have your website built, you'll be ready to start building your audience.

You won't have. Launched yet. You can't launch in eight weeks. If you're going from zero, it's not possible, but you'll have all the pieces of the puzzle and all the knowledge and the skills ready to be able to launch after the eight weeks, it will have everything in that regard. Awesome guys.

Thank you so much for hanging with us. I think this has actually been such a valuable session having you guys, Lindsay and Vivian on for just to relate and let people know that it is possible to do this, what it takes. Show them that they're not isolated in their feelings of how they feel about being scared and stuff.

It's totally normal. All of us were scared when we just started this [01:30:00] journey. But yeah, I just want to thank you so much, Lindsay and Vivian for taking your time on a Saturday to do this. And I really, really appreciate it. I think everyone here really appreciates it. As I said, where can people find you?

Let's just recap that Lindsay.

Lindsay: Okay. So my Instagram is Autbloom. And my Facebook is autobloom. So if you want to go and just follow my launch journey. I start, you'll learn about this in DBA, but I start one of the big phases on next Monday and just follow and just see how.

Michelle Smit: When is your free training starting?

Lindsay: So the 21st of Feb. So I'm going into connection phase next week.

Michelle Smit: Oh, okay. Cool. Awesome. Okay. So Autblom, A U T B L O O M. Yes. Okay. And then Vivian.

Vivian: You can find me on Facebook and Instagram under the name VIVODUTCH and vivodutch.com.

Michelle Smit: Cool. Everyone is [01:31:00] so appreciative. Everyone's saying, thank you, thank you, thank you.

So valuable. And so, yeah, it looks like everyone really enjoyed the session. So thank you so much, ladies. I so appreciate it. I love chatting to you and I hope you have a lovely, everyone have a wonderful Saturday, wherever you are.

Lindsay: Thank you so much. It's been so great being here.

Michelle Smit: Awesome. Thanks guys. Bye.

Vivian: Bye.

Michelle Smit: Bye.

Thank you for choosing to listen to the empowered Edupreneur podcast today. I have such exciting news. The doors to the DigiTeachers Biz Academy are officially open. These group cohorts only happen a few times a year.

So if you want mentorship with me in growing your business and launching your courses or group programs online, so that you can increase your income and impact without having to keep trading your time for money, then DBA is for you. The doors are open now for a very [01:32:00] limited time. So join us before it is too late by clicking the link in the show notes.

I appreciate you so much and can't wait to connect with you in the next episode. In the meantime, go create a business and life you love.