Digiteachers Biz Academy student case study with Jessica, Mary Beth and Lucy.

Michelle: 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.

Hey, we are Live. We are officially live. Hello. Hello. Hello. My beautiful boot campers. I am so excited to have this call with you today. Today I have my DBA alumni. Some DBA alumni students are joining for a conversation where you can actually ask them questions because that's very helpful for you. And you can basically just get your questions answered.

Sort of like perspectives, I guess, from different educators who have gone on this journey of selling a course of starting an online business, creating their own audience, like all of the things that I am asking of people basically. All of the things you need to do to sort of run a business and make money.

So if you are tuning in, please say hello in the comments. I want to see some faces, well, names rather than faces, but it's always nice to see the names of the people coming in. I see, I see some peeps joining now. Oh, hello, Sabrina. Hi, Amber. Yay. Let me just fix my chat. Hello, Carolyn. Hi, Sarah. Hello, Kelly.

I'm excited to hear more. Yay! Welcome, welcome, welcome. Please say hi in the comments. Let us know you're here. This call will be yeah, we'll just chat to each one of them, listen to their story. Hi, Jessica. And then you get to ask questions. So as per usual, you can drop your questions. Hello, Mary, in the Q& A.

Tab at the bottom, and then I will, I will answer, well, I won't answer, they will probably answer the questions at the end. We'll see what, who the questions are for, I guess. Hello, Sunita, welcome, welcome. Say hi, let us know you're here. And yeah, we are available for the questions. You can ask whatever you want regarding online business and the launching and DBA and yeah, we are here for it.

All righty, cool. So we've got Marybeth, we've got Lucy, we've got Jessica. And they all joined DBA at different times or actually, I think Marybeth and Jessica were at the same time, but Lucy was different, but yeah, essentially, they all joined in the last year or so. Yeah. Jessica is helping people declutter and live and in an organized stress-free space, a peaceful space, which is such a win.

Lucy has moved to helping educators and coaches create impactful curriculum. So that's her thing. And Mary Beth, her business is helping people overcome performance anxiety. So that is. Those are the kind of niches we are that they're doing and businesses that have sort of started in this journey, which is so cool because you can see how different each one is just shows how you can go into so many different things.

It's crazy. Alrighty. So let's start with, let's say Mary Beth. Let's listen to your story.

Mary Beth: Hi. Hi.

Michelle: Okay, tell us what teacher you are.

Mary Beth: So I am a voice piano and acting one on one coach. So yeah, voice piano and acting coach, I perform all of those as well as a professional and I've been teaching one-on-one in my studio for about 21 years in person. And then about, gosh, it's like 12 years now online. Which is great because I was able to move to LA and pursue my acting career there and take all my students with me.

So that was really cool. But the issue is that it got capped as we know, as one-on-one online teachers, you can only teach so many students in a week before you are totally burned out. And I found when I was in LA that I was Just driving around at students houses or teaching online and kind of losing focus on being able to do my performing career.

So the reason I started creating this course in my head was twofold. I had students who were coming to me that were so nervous or had such a bad experience with the previous teacher that they couldn't even. Look at me like they couldn't face me they had like singers would ask to turn and face the wall so they could sing.

I had pianists who are shaking so bad that at their first lesson that they would just, I would have to like, put my hands on the piano with them and just play a few notes just to get them to breathe. I had one poor little seven-year-old who had such a horrible experience at a previous studio. He went to one lesson and came out crying and wouldn't touch the piano for a year after that lesson.

And I still don't know to this day, the mom never shared with me what actually happened. But it's just one of those things where I started, I kind of became a magnet for all of these people that were struggling with performance anxiety to come to my studio. And through working with them, as well as working with my own performance anxiety that developed after losing my voice for a year and losing my opera career. I kind of became an expert in, in this, and since I've done some courses, I've done a lot of research and just in the field experience.

And I came up with this course. And the other reason I wanted to do it is because, well, I'm a performer and I don't want to just be teaching all the time. So I wanted to be able to focus more on the performing and filmmaking side that I do in my creative world. And so that's why I came up with this course.

And then I found Michelle. Last year, the bootcamp and I took the bootcamp and then I waited six months and then I was like, okay, I'm going to do DBA and I am now eight weeks away from launching my first course. So

Michelle: that's so exciting. That's so exciting. Yeah. So let's see in terms of the stuff you've done during this DBA journey. What are some of the things that you've learned or skills that you've sort of developed, like what are the things that you've created and done already?

Mary Beth: Okay, so there were a lot of skills I already kind of had basic skills for just because I am a filmmaker as well as a teacher.

So I had a lot of the like recording videos and I'm an actress. So like being in front of the camera is not a scary thing for me. Writing scripts is not hard. Here's what was hard for me, CCK. Building of the website, all that like tech side of the, I'm still in the middle of doing that. But I kept telling myself, you can do this.

Like you've built your own business. You've done this. You've gone and been on television. Like you can do this.

Michelle: It's just a new skill. That's why. Anything new is hard.

Mary Beth: Yeah. And working with Michelle and then working with Eddette from CCK. They really helped to break it down into manageable bites and like, okay, just one thing at a time.

I can do this. And I loved I love the fact that Michelle, you provided templates for the email nurture sequence that really helped to spark my Creativity and what I wanted to write about because there were some things that I was like, I don't know what to write in these emails. And once I re-read through your templates, I was like, oh, I do know what to write. So and then,

Michelle: That's amazing.

Mary Beth: Yeah. And then the marketing. I do market for my studio, but it's different. It's like more word of mouth, you know, sometimes I have a website, but rely on Google search for that, but like really learning a lot of marketing skills, especially on the social media side. I've always kind of shied away from social media and this has really forced me to be like, okay, I'm going to post on Instagram every day. So, yeah.

Michelle: Which has been really cool to see you doing as well. Also just building that skill of creating content on Instagram or social media. And building an audience, an email list, which really is the essential thing of it is really key to any business is actually just having someone to sell your stuff to, you know what I mean?

Actually having human beings that I think is one of the most important things that I share to people. Like don't wait to do that. Like start growing your audience, start creating content, start now. Like it’s now the time. But yeah, it's awesome that you are launching in eight weeks.

That is super exciting. And tell me um, were you scared to go on this journey? Like, were you terrified when you made the DBA investment and were you like, oh, what am I doing with my life? Yes,

Mary Beth: absolutely. This had been just an idea in my head for like two years. And anytime you bring an idea to fruition, there's so much that goes into it.

And yeah, you grow, you learn it's a terrifying thing, especially when there's skills that you're like, I never wanted to know how to do this. And now here I am learning how to do this, you know, and I'll definitely be delegating website tech stuff to a person that I hire later. But learning how to do it is helpful because now I know, and so when I do delegate, I'll be able to say, hey, can you do this?

And I'll know what they're doing. But yeah, I'm still scared. I'm still, I'm more scared now than I was when I started this course. But what's different is instead of waiting six months to do it, like I did to start DBA. I'm like, nope, one foot in front of the other. Let's just, I love your in your final video.

I hope you don't mind me. Mentioning this, but you mentioned this road with the mist and how you can, like, when you have a misty road, you don't stop driving. You keep driving, but you only see a little bit in front of you. And then the mist parts and you see more, that's where I'm at right now. So, and I'm just going to keep driving.

Yeah.

Michelle: That's exactly the analogy. I often use it when I speak about clarity, how sometimes when you're sitting down and you're trying to think yourself to getting clarity, it doesn't really work. So I'm always like, take some bit of action, take a little bit of action, just get some momentum, movement forward.

And often when you take a bit of action, just one little step forward, the mist sort of clears a little bit and you can see a little bit further and you can see a little bit further. Every step you take. You don't, you never see the whole road ahead of you. It's not ever possible. Like you cannot see the whole road ahead of you, but you can, as you take steps forward, baby steps.

There's a clearing ahead, like that mist and you just keep taking those steps. And I always say, if you get into a state of overwhelm, don't think of the whole mountain to climb or the marathon to run. Just think of your next immediate step, because that's all you have control over. And that's kind of how I built Digiteach.

I didn't build Digiteach going into thinking about this entire venture. I was like, cool, what is my next thing I should do? What is the next thing I should do? And then I would just do it and I would do that consistently. And then over time you've built this asset, you've bought something that can free you, that's going to help you escape that one-on-one teaching trap. Which I mean, teaching one on one is amazing, but it being your soul, your soul income.

That's not great. That's not a great sustainable model. And so many educators live under that. And smarter finding ways of selling value instead of time, which is what you all are doing. And it's not like I keep saying, DBA isn't a quick, rich scheme.

This is a journey that you go on that is deeply transformational, but it takes time. If someone's going to sell you online and you can build a business in like two months, they're lying to you. You know what I mean? That's not how it works.

So marybeth in terms of how you feel now in terms of launching with the guidance of DBA, do you feel like you've got, I mean, you probably wouldn't have known how to launch. You would have just wong it. I don't even know if that's a word.

Mary Beth: No, I wouldn't have launched. I would not have launched. So I did research other platforms that don't do a course like this that just literally are like, hey, sign up for the platform and put your course on it.

Yeah. And they have training videos on the platform, but there's like thousands of training videos and you don't know where to start. And there's no one there to guide you. And even with the training videos, it still doesn't make sense. And it's like, there's no, like, nurturing. It's just like, here, plop your course on here and just try it.

And with that I was deciding between the two platforms when I signed up for DBA, because I was like, okay, I really need guidance here. I don't want to just be spending thousands of hours watching training videos and not do anything or learn anything that's like keepable. So absolutely this course made it so that I feel like I can launch in eight weeks. So yeah.

Michelle: That's so exciting. I'm so stoked to hear that. Yeah. So if you have any questions for Mary Beth at all, you must just drop them in the Q&A, and we'll look at them all at the end. To

 those who have just joined. For sure.

Mary Beth: I just want to say the other thing that has helped me, and you encouraged this so much in your life calls, Michelle. Is to get accountability, have someone you can be accountable with that happens to be Jess and I like she and I have just, yes, she and I have really supported each other through this process.

And I couldn't like. Thank you for the suggestion, Michelle, because holy cow. I wouldn't be here without an accountability and without Jess. Without accountability partners.

So, yeah.

Michelle: Yeah. You can't do this in isolation. If you want to make it a success of selling anything online and building any type of business, you can't do it in isolation.

We need our tribe. We need people to support us. The DBA community is a really supportive space where you have that support. But you need to find a buddy in the community, and you need to hold each other accountable. The buddy system is really helpful.

Obviously now gold calls, they last for eight weeks. And then after that, the buddy system is really amazing. And that's where you form the friendships and the connections that will become your tribe. Because if you speak to other people about what we're doing, they're like whaaaat?! If you literally share what you're doing with anyone who's just like normal work, got a nine to five.

They don't understand and you're not going to be stimulated from that conversation. You're going to have very different interests. You're going to be wanting to talk about this thing and no one's going to understand you. So to find people who are in the journey with you is very important and makes a huge difference. I love that you mentioned that, Marybeth, that is absolutely essential.

 So Jessica, hello, hello, hello.

Jessica: Hi. Sorry, I'm having like a froggy throat thing going on.

Hello, everyone.

Michelle: It's okay. It's all good. Alrighty tell us, Jessica, you are interesting because you were starting with one niche, but then you had some passion brewing inside, the energy was very much for another thing. Tell us.

Jessica: Yeah, yeah. So a quick, quick overview. So I lived in Japan for 13 years. And I moved back to the U. S. I'm actually still living with my parents. That's a whole thing. A big reason why I'm doing DBA. My husband and I are here. And I was a teaching English, and I was actually doing theatre on the side.

And I came back and I'm teaching online, teaching English. I like it. And I'm also working in an office and hoping, someday I'm going to have enough time and money to perform, which is actually another reason why Mary Beth and I connected quite a lot.

So I saw Michelle’s ad randomly. I didn't know who she was, and I was like, what is this woman talking to me in my room?

I was like, what's happening? So I did the bootcamp and I was like, okay. And then I just did the plunge. I did DBA and I was terrified. I'd never dropped that much money on something for myself, business wise in my life. Like I'd had opportunities in the past and I just, I was too scared.

I was like, why would I do this, blah, blah, blah, but it just everything lined up. And so I joined, and it was amazing. And to get back to your question. Yes, I was planning to do this course on English teaching and then I thought more and more about it, and I just switched to organizing and decluttering. Which is nothing I'd ever thought about doing in the past.

You know, I was interested in in theatre and acting. I did some acting teaching. I wasn't ever planning on doing that online, but I thought, well, I'll just teach English to make some money. And then I switched over and I love it. It's so fun for me to do this. So thank you.

Michelle: Yeah, I remember you were like, oh, the teaching thing is what I've done. You've got the experience in it, but the decluttering thing was that little whisper of energy inside that was really like. I remember asking you the question, what do you see yourself doing and loving five years from now?

Which one is it? Which one's the long term excited one? And it was very clear as day that it was the organization and decluttering. You were just lacking the confidence at that point. But then you went and started finding just one-on-one clients in it, in your area.

Jessica: I did, yeah. So I'm kind of doing a double track at the moment. Ultimately, I want to be online, but I need money. And I need to practice to be honest, because I only work with a couple of clients. So I have a few clients now. I've had three this month, and then I'm posting that stuff on my Instagram. Yep. And I'm developing my course at the same time.

So I definitely chose the hard path. I remember you said that, and I think probably once a week, I'm like, should I have done English teaching?

But then I just like to go back to what I had originally.

Michelle: It's not necessarily the hard path. The hard path could also be the one that you're not that excited about. So at least you like the thing that you're doing, when you're in alignment with the thing that you're teaching, you're going to enjoy the journey, especially in your business.

You want to enjoy that journey. You want to be in alignment with the thing that you're teaching. If you're just doing it because you've done it in the past, but it's not really the thing that lights you up. That's hard. That is hard. That's going to make the business journey a lot harder.

So I think you've made a good call with being brave and courageous and going for the thing that lights you up. And remember I said you start now, you start building the confidence now. Instead of never doing the thing and just doing something you don't fully love.

Jessica: Yeah, exactly.

So yeah.

I've done like a virtual session with somebody, so I do online and in person, but I haven't got my course yest. I'm launching at the end of June.

It's interesting because the course itself is a lot. It makes me think a lot and quite deeply. And organizing and decluttering is such an emotional thing that I have to be really thorough and make sure I get it right.

Michelle: Of course. Totally. It can't be perfect. Yeah. Perfectionism.

That sneaky little mofo, right? Yes, exactly. Alrighty. So you are going to be launching, Jessica, your organizing course. When do you planning on launching that?

Jessica: So, June 26th is my launch date. I'm just looking at my little calendar here, which I've posted and so right now I'm trying to build my Instagram up and I'm in the middle of DBA courses.

I've watched the whole thing, but I'm in the middle of creating the course at the moment. Yeah.

Michelle: Yeah. It's good to watch it a few times. I like to say it like clicks a bit more the more you watch it because it's almost like watching a hectic movie, like Inception.

You don't understand it the first time, but then the second time you understand it more. And then the third time you're like, Oh my gosh. That's it. It makes sense to my brain. I feel some of the DBA stuff is definitely like that. Because I'm teaching you stuff that's very foreign to you.

Like business strategy stuff. You're not going to fully grasp it. But as I said, there's no timeline. It's not like the course is going to go away. So you have the time to at least rewatch, go back to it. A lot of people who launch, go back to it. Even after their first launch, they go back to it to refine, to look at things, to improve it and things like that.

So Jess, in terms of your life and where it's going now. How do you feel it's different to where it was?

Jessica: Well. It's totally different. I'll just share a little bit. I moved to the US after 13 years in Japan. And about 3 months after that, I had a really terrible situation with my eye which is a crazy thing to happen right when you get to the United States, the worst place to have a surgery. And I had eight surgeries on my left eye.

I Know. And I was just lost. I was like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I wanted to be an actor, but I realized, I got to get myself together here and I had to find something else that could support me because I didn't know. At the time it's looking much better, but at the time it didn't look great.

And so I was completely lost and then I took DBA and I just felt like everything clicked for me and I actually started to, off course transform into a new person, but I also felt like I got myself back from pandemic, huge move, huge health problems. And then I was like, oh, I'm still here.

Like I'm, I'm in here. But on top of that, I could learn something completely new and not just think like, oh, I'm this person. I'm this person. And this person. I can do all of these things. So, Sure. Yeah.

Michelle: Joh. So it really came at an important time in your life and for more reasons than just launching a course. It was more meaningful in that sense.

And I often think that it's like re-energizes or hope, I guess. Hope like there is more, this isn't it. And having a little bit of control, I guess, getting back into control.

Jessica: Yeah, and, and having hope that I could make money. My passion so far has been acting and teaching. Like, why couldn't I have a passion for finance, and so you gave me the hope that I could actually make money, it's something I was good at.

Yeah, you know. Yeah.

Michelle: I mean, if Mary, is it Mary Kondo, right? Yeah. Exactly. Like she's crushing it. Literally the exact same niche. Like I'm pretty sure she does really well. Exactly. Offering stuff in that. There is so much hope. And I often think that we're sitting on so much potential as well, but we just don't know it yet and I see that with people, I see them start out with low confidence and then I see them flourish. I've seen you already flourishing a lot more. I remember the first time we had our gold calls together.

You were really struggling with the idea of getting visible on social media and stuff, and you were really struggling with the perfectionism thing, really worried about deciding something. The Instagram handle. It was causing you, but I mean, you did the thing and now you're creating reels on Instagram and you're speaking on your stories and like the, that's not something that.

That's growth. That's you facing your fears and digging deep and doing scary stuff and growing, right? Which I think is so freaking cool to see and be a part of and witness. I think it's amazing to see that. Well thanks. Yeah. And I just think the transformation, it might not be within eight weeks.

I often say the transformation, you can't put a timeline on it. It's going to ripple and it's going to continue for you. You're going to keep transforming. Because this business is going to ask that of you. You are going to have to keep relooking at stuff and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

So there's no end to the evolving. You're going to keep expanding and growing. And I think that's why we're as humans are on this planet. To evolve and to grow and not stagnate, have a purpose, right? That's something that's also important is to wake up in the morning and know that you're working on something that's in alignment with what you want, that's energizing.

I Don't know about you guys. But for me, in my one-on-one teaching thing, I woke up every day in dread. I was like, I can't do it anymore. And then even just starting the business venture was energy. I was like, oh, let me wake up early and work on it. Let me wake up early and do stuff. There was energy and that's really something that I think is overlooked. As we often are living out of alignment and we don't have energy and we think, oh, it's this, this, this. But it's probably because you're not living your true potential. And you're probably doing work that's not lighting you up. And where have you developed?

Jessica: Okay, well, skills. One skill is messy action. I don't know if that's a skill.

Michelle: It is. It's a skill.

It's an art form.

Jessica: Yeah, and just throwing it out there, letting myself be not perfect, whatever that means. That was really a struggle. Forgetting what people might think about me, that was huge. I literally don't care anymore. I don't care.

Michelle: How insane.

Jessica: Yeah. If people don't like my stuff, I'm like, well, it's not for you.

So that's okay. Unfortunately, I'm getting good feedback from the people that are there. So that's great too.

Michelle: Yeey!

Jessica: Yeah. I mean, of course, I haven't had, like, true trolls. I don't have that many followers yet, but when I get there, and I will, I'm sure that somebody will be rude, and hopefully I'll be ready for that.

But just the act of putting it out there is, is huge. Yeah, I guess other skills would just be business skills, like learning all these terminologies learning about I'm just looking at.

Michelle: building an email list.

Jessica: Yes, my launch workbook is here, just.

Michelle: launching selling.

Jessica: Exactly. Yep, selling. I'm learning how to ask for money, really struggling with that.

It was my in-person clients I'm like, oh, could you possibly pay me this amount that's not even enough. And I'm working on that.

Michelle: Definitely working on that. That is going to change. Getting better is the key. Baby steps, consistently improving by 1 percent every day makes a big difference.

That's so cool. Getting the confidence and it takes a while to build up the confidence. I also in the beginning, my first course is like a hundred bucks and that's where it was at. That's where the confidence is at. Yeah, you just start small, and you just build up from there. The key is to start, okay?

That is the key in all of this. Just start and take the steps.

And Lucy, hello, hello, hello. Lucy in the house. I like your little flower jersey. It's great.

Lucy: Thank you. Thank you. Yes, it's one of my favourite.

Michelle: So lucy, tell us about you, what you were doing when you came into DBA and all that jazz.

Lucy: Yeah, so, I, during the pandemic, like, a lot of people started an online teaching business. I've been a classroom teacher for now, 7 years. And when I, when schools shut down, I just found myself with extra time. And there are a lot of people sitting at home wanting to learn things. I am sitting at home wanting to teach more. My now husband works in the travel industry. So he was working around the clock, trying to figure out how to stay afloat.

And I was like, all right, I'm tired of trying to cook bread. So I'm going to make a business. And so I started an English teaching business, did that one-on-one. It really was a huge balancing act because I live in the Netherlands. We went back to school a lot earlier than I anticipated.

So all of a sudden, I was working full time and trying to figure out how to run a business and grow a business. I did that for a year and a half, and then it came across Michelle. I honestly don't remember how Michelle, but came across, did you teach in DBA and Decided, you know what, this, this is so great.

I have thought about making a course before. And thought about it, but I'm not techie didn't really know what to do. I've recorded some things and kind of put it on my website like, here, take this for $2. Selling myself so short, didn't market. I had no idea what I was doing.

So came across Digiteach and Michelle and I was like, all right, this is amazing. At first, I just couldn't make the investment that I did.

And I think I was literally on like week two, I had it in my calendar week one, week two, week three, week four, I'm going to get it done. I'm going to do this kind of simultaneously with my summer break.

I got to the niche part, and I was like, I don't know if I can do this. And I really had to take a step back and be like. What lights me up. What do I enjoy doing? And I couldn't get away from this. Well, I have my master's in education. Why do I not want to teach English? Why is this just not, I would sit down and think, okay, what angle do I want to take?

I also speak Spanish, could I take that angle? Like Spanish speakers learning English, but nothing was doing it for me. And I actually went back to my master's coursework, and I was like, what did I enjoy here the most? And it was actually the curriculum part. And it was the teaching parts. And while I was doing that, while this was all happening, I got a promotion at work to start the intern program.

So the teaching mentoring program at the school and it just was like, all right, this is something that I'm really enjoying doing. I'm enjoying helping teachers. I'm enjoying working with them. And I'm also enjoying putting the classwork together. And I should say that every classroom that I've taught it and I'm in my 3rd classroom. I've had to create some part of the curriculum.

And I love it and I really like doing it. And so I was, I don't know, it just didn't even crossed my mind of like, oh, that's what I can do in my course. Or that's what I should do instead of teaching English. And then I'm doing the niche part of DBA and it just kind of like light bulb. This is this like, perfect, but. For a lot of teacher training programs, it's to a specific.

Like I can't run my own teacher training program because if you're a teacher in the UK, it's going to be a lot different than the U. S. versus the Netherlands. So I was like, all right, what about online teachers and helping them with their lessons, with their curriculum, with how they teach?

And that was probably end of 2022 was when that finally clicked. So I did take, two or three months to really think about it while I was still working full time while I was also still teaching English in the evening. So it was a lot. Then I get engaged and start planning a wedding. So basically, I've been very busy working on balancing all the things, more promotions at work.

I've stopped teaching English and now I'm coaching teachers in the in like post work, that's what I'm doing. I'm not teaching English anymore, unless I get an amazing client, but I actually haven't done one-on-one English teaching for five months now. And I'm really diving into, okay, what do I want to teach?

How can I help these teachers of any, not just English teachers, but any teachers create this program, whether it's going to be one on one or a course. Like, how can that happen and how can I take a course and be able to meet online teachers, which is a massive group. So obviously I still have a lot of work to niche down more.

But I would literally have never even been able to contemplate doing that. Had I not done DBA and even with all of the life events that work and personally, like. It has, it still lights me up even when I have, you know, I have to talk to my mother about the florals for the wedding. And I also need to write student reports like I love, I'm enjoying, kind of similar to Jess, like getting the experience of coaching one on one with teachers to then know exactly how to make the course.

As it should be my hope is to launch this summer, but we're having a lot of life things and more professional full time work things. So I have not completely finalized that, but I have. Finished my course workbook and now it's on to more email lists, building the freebies and the like videos and like bulk of the course.

Michelle: Amazing. I actually remember you writing to me. I think it was on Instagram DMing me. You were starting in the English niche and then you had this like light bulb moment. You wrote to me in the DMS, and you were like, Michelle, this is what I'm doing. No, you told me everything. And I was like, Okay.

And you were like, what do you think? Must I continue with the other thing? Because obviously that made more sense logically.

Lucy: I was like, I can tell you, I was literally sitting in the bathtub having my Sunday afternoon bath when it was just like, oh my gosh. And I like got my phone from, I like, I'm like, okay, no phones.

When I'm taking my sacred bath time, I got up, got my phone, was on my phone on DBA in the bathtub being like. Is this possible? Oh my God, I think so. And then I thought about, I thought about it and then I was like, I have to ask Michelle. I was not in the bathroom when I DM'd you, but I was on DBA in the bath.

I was like, oh my God, I think this can happen.

Michelle: That's so great. I remember that. And I remember being like, that sounds amazing. Like go with the thing that's really energizing you. If that feels like the right thing, because there was a reason why you were not moving through that niche. There was something holding you back.

You weren't a hundred percent in alignment with that thing. And you found it, it like downloaded and it was there, and it was like, hello. And

Lucy: I think what's super exciting to me is, you know, we are not set in stone where we're living, where we're going to be teaching in. No matter what country you're in, it can be really different.

But I have the professional at work experience. I have this professional entrepreneurial experience. And I think with both of that. My husband could say you know what my job's moving me here. I'm going here. And I feel I've really set up and we have no idea if or when that's ever going to happen.

We could be in the Netherlands the rest of our lives, but I feel this sets me up for success anywhere. Whereas if I have my niche more set, in the Netherlands, but then I'm living in like Thailand, that doesn't really go, but there's online teachers everywhere and then that also allows me to step away.

Be like, okay, maybe. Again, future is so unwritten. Maybe one day I'm not in the classroom, but I still have something that I love and not could be transferable if then one day I go back to a school or anything like that.

Michelle: Yes. Yeah. Amazing. So cool. So cool. And I know that you've done some pretty epic.

audience growing in this new niche. I mean, you've been smashing it on that. You've got,

Lucy: Well, I have to admit I won. You're going to ask me what skill I've learned. I've learned to outsource social media. I do not do it.

Michelle: Oh, good. So you get, but it's working for you.

Lucy: Yeah, I have an awesome Instagram manager.

I don't know what you would call her. She's fantastic. I tell her, hey, what about this? Hey, what about this? She did tell me the other day, she's like, you need to make reels if you really want to do this. I'm like, I know, I know, I know. Social media to me is like correcting spelling tests. I have to correct spelling test every Friday.

I hate it. Coming up with what to make. I just, I can't.

Michelle: But amazing that you've outsourced that. What? It's so, it's so amazing that you outsourced it and just solved that problem. Like just solve the problem. Get someone else to do it for you. There we go.

Lucy: Exactly. Exactly. And to me, it's worth the money.

If you would ask me two years ago, if it was going to be worth the money, it wouldn't be. But I think it's because I see this potential that this could happen. Now I personally need to show my face a little bit more, I recognize that.

Michelle: But what about your Facebook group? I remember you started the Facebook group, right?

Lucy: I have a Facebook group. It's not super, super big yet. My Instagram's what's really big because she's just doing Instagram and I yeah, I need to work my Facebook.

I'm really good at having ideas. And then something will distract me at school for at my primary school, for instance.

And then, 4 weeks later, I'm like, oh, yeah, I need to do that. But it's good. She holds me accountable. And she's like, make this real post this on your thing. Do this. And I'm like, okay, thank you.

Michelle: That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So in terms of where you've come since doing DBA and stuff, do you think there's been massive change?

I mean, it sounds like you've started in a whole new niche, so you've definitely changed that. Yeah. What else?

Lucy: I've started in a whole new niche, and I think it's honestly made me more confident. And this is not a bad thing at all, but I wasn't feeling like I was in my full potential being an English teacher.

I was like, I can do more. And it was really kind of serendipitous that right when I switched my niche, I started doing more at my primary school around this and now have even more leadership roles. And I'm in the management at primary school now, and I think it's just as a person helps me be more confidence and because I feel so fulfilled.

But also so much like I can do this, and I can do this, and I have proof in my human life and my online business life. Yeah.

Or like my in-person profession and my not in person profession. Amazing. So now it's just like I need to get the time in the day to do all of the steps I need to take.

But I know that that will happen. And I know that matter of time. Like you said, if I just do bits by bits. I didn't tell myself I needed to get the investment off of DBA back in X amount of time. At first, I was like, I'm going to get this back in six months, but what I've gotten in return is so much more than the investment.

And so I know that the investment will come once.

Michelle: The monetary one.

Lucy: Keep doing that. Yeah, because it's also sustainable, right? I found something that I love. And so now it's sustainable to continue to do if that makes sense.

Michelle: Yeah, totally. And you have been focusing on the right thing. I know you say you haven't done a lot of the things, but you have been building the audience onto social and that is the most important thing actually.

Lucy: Yeah. Yeah. Because you say, hey, look, I'm doing this. Join my Facebook group. There you go.

Michelle: Yeah, that's key. That's really key. Because when you do launch, you have human beings that you can launch to that actually want what you are offering. And that makes a huge difference in the success.

Lucy: I also have classroom teachers who are following me, which is super interesting and an interesting thing to think. Like, how to make a smaller units, a lot of districts, at least I know in the U. S. give them, okay, you have to teach this topic, but don't give them the outline for that. And I know that's way down the road, but then it's like, okay, could you do that? And could you make this for a classroom teacher like, teach how to teach a book or how to teach a math unit or things like creating a math unit and a lot of like backwards planning and all of that stuff. But I can see that happening. So I think that also energizes me.

Michelle: Amazing. That's awesome. It's also scary. Terrifying. Look, if you're scared, that's a good sign.

Can I just tell you, being scared is a good. having that fear is good, there's two types of fear. There's the irrational fear but then there's that excitement fear. That lit up fear, that energized fear, that bubbling, like, that’s a good fear, lean into that. It's guiding you to where you desire, it's guiding you the whole way.

Do the things that scare you, I promise you, it's guiding you to living a more aligned life. It's finding your, your purpose, it's doing the thing you should be doing on this planet. They're almost always going to be the things that scare you.

So that's always a good sign, guys. If you're feeling the fear, lean into it. It's counterintuitive, but I promise you that's how it works, especially when it comes to building a business. Cool. I've got some questions. If you have any questions for these lovely ladies, please drop it in the Q&A.

Jessica, how did you get your first client and are you charging them?

Jessica: Yeah, so actually that's a little bit of a story. I'll make it short. I had an office job, which I quit last month.

Yay. I loved working there. But in order to focus on this, I did quit that job. But my boss there, one of my first jobs was to clean out this closet for her. And I was like, yep, I'll do it. I love it. All day long and she, she loved it and she's like, well, I've got this craft room in my house.

Can you help me with it? So I was like, sure. So I just charged her 20 bucks an hour and we worked on it when we could, and it turned out to be really amazing and she really encouraged me to start my own business. She's also a business owner. She owns a small travel agency. And so I was like, ah, no, I don't really want to do that.

Blah, blah, blah. But then when I started DBA, I decided to go for it. So, she was my first client. And then I had a friend who also I was helping for the same price, just really 20 bucks an hour, because I didn't have the confidence. And then after I started DBA and I started my Instagram, I started being a real professional coach.

I decided to start charging packages. So, I'm now charging by package, a little bit like yours, Michelle actually. I got some ideas from you. And as much so it kind of varies. I'm still not very good at this. But for example, I charged somebody 77 dollars, which is not enough. I'm embarrassed.

Michelle: You still need to increase it, but I know incremental increasing is good.

Jessica: I charge them just for a virtual session. We've met just a couple of times so far, and then I'm charging someone else 277 for a package of five hours, that type of thing. So it's really in flux at the moment. It's kind of just word of mouth at the moment because of yes, it is more than $20.

Michelle: It's more than 20. At least you're going up. Keep going up.

Jessica: Yes, I am. So that's how I've found my clients in person. Just word of mouth through my boss. And so far, got someone just from my Instagram, but I'm still really working on getting followers there.

Lucy: Can I add something that Jess said that really, I think is really an important piece on this journey is, for me at first, I was so nervous to talk about what I was doing and be like, yeah, I'm going to start this.

I'm going to do this and the amount of people that are so supportive and so into it. And so not like in awe isn't the right word, but like, wow, I wish I could do that. Wow, I'm also doing that. You really, and this is like not people in DBA, obviously in DBA we cheerlead everybody.

But even in my personal life, it's just a really cool thing to talk about. And I was so scared, but that reminded me, Jess, of something I want to say. Just talk about what you're doing. And people are so supportive of it and want to hear about it and want to promote you. I had someone messaged me the other day.

Are you still teaching English? I have someone for you. You just have to get over that fear, I guess.

Michelle: Claim it. Claim it. Yeah. Like own it, own what you are doing.

Lucy: Yeah, exactly.

Michelle: Yeah, owning it is important, but that's a confidence thing. It comes with time. But once you are owning it and you're like, I'm this, I've got my own business.

I'm doing this thing. People are like that is inspiring. That is very cool. Tell me more. You get a lot of wow people, but you got to own it. Takes time to get the confidence to do it, but you're very much all built so much confidence already compared to where you were. The things you've done are pretty wild compared to where you were whenever it was a year ago or whatever.

It's amazing how much you can grow and change within just a year and that's going to keep happening. It's going to keep compounding.

Another question, Mary Beth, you said you are launching your course in eight weeks. Do you feel like you are not ready to do it earlier? You're still working on it. How long has it taken you from the time you indulge in DBA and started building your course to the time where you felt like, yeah, I'm launching it.

Mary Beth: I still don't feel ready. I feel eight weeks is like, Oh crap. But I'm going based on what you feel already.

Michelle: Like no one really feels ready, ready. That's the thing, like ready. What does that even mean? It's like perfect. It doesn't even mean anything. I know, yeah. Especially the first launch its you're going to be nervous.

That's why you don't feel ready is you're terrified.

Mary Beth: Yeah. So, I'm doing what Michelle recommends. I mean, even in DBA, you recommend even four to six weeks, but I'm doing the full eight weeks and just because based on my own schedule with performing teaching, to get all the things done, I think I need eight weeks for that.

Michelle: Oh yeah. Yeah. You've got to work.

Mary Beth: Yeah, but also my list building is going slower than I would like it to. And so I'm hoping that because as I mentioned, I did the PDF the freebie. And I'm hoping that in switching now. I'm going to be putting the link as this free week of training. I'm hoping that's going to garner some more interest.

And there's also a part of me that is just like, no one is going to sign up. I'm going to fail epically fail. But then I'm like, Nope, just do it. Because if you epically fail, you're still learning something. So, yeah, that's why eight weeks I basically I'm going at the recommendation of what Michelle's course says, which is to do eight weeks.

So, yeah.

Michelle: And you started DBA. I mean, the reality is that Mary Beth has other work. So DBA was on the side of her other work. And so that's normally what happens. It's okay. That's normally what happens is you guys are going to be building your businesses on the side of your current jobs.

Don't quit your job because that's going to put you under financial stress. You work on this on the side of your job and some people have more time than others. And so it just depends. Like for Marybeth, you've had to juggle that and the business thing. You don't have the whole day to work on it. And so it does take some time.

I think you started DBA, like six months ago maybe. Were you in June last year?

Mary Beth: It was yeah, we had DBA. What, what did it start in August? I think.

Michelle: Yeah, August, August. Yeah, it was August. You're right. Yeah. So she joined in August last year and she's launching now.

So it's about 7, 8 months. And normally what I would say, I get this question a lot, in terms of what is a realistic launch time. If you've already got an audience and you can launch within three months to them, that's doable. But if you have a starting from scratch, which most people are in DBA, they start from scratch in terms of everything. They've got like zilch. Then you're looking more realistically at six months.

If you've got a job and you're doing it on the side of the job, it depends how many hours you put into it in the week. If you put in more time or energy or money, whatever you want to do, those are the 2 leavers you can pull, you can speed it up or slow it down, but there's no rush.

And yeah, there's just no rush. Mary Beth,

Mary Beth: I did want to say also, and this is a bit of a personal share and Jess knows about this. But when I finished DBA, our group basically stayed together for a while, and then it’s kind of fizzled apart and. I was also going through a period where I had not booked anything with my agent for an entire year, which has never happened to me.

And so work was very low and all I had was my one-on-one teaching. It was winter. It was dark. Anyway, I went to a bit of a dark place, and I lost. Pretty much all of my confidence and stopped. I completely stopped working on DBA. Yeah. And for about a month and a half, I just put my freebie PDF out and then I just stopped for a while.

And then in December this group helped to lift me up again and I was able to get back to it. And now I'm like, okay, here we go.

Michelle: Amazing. Yeah. Life happens guys. There's like so many things that can happen, but the fact that you're still on the journey and you're launching is phenomenal. And that's just something to be massively celebrated.

All right. I have a question from Sunita. How it would work if I wanted to launch a course to teach kids young to age two to four different topics every month, maybe five kids per course. Do I have a course running every month, that's going to be quite challenging.

I think you need to decide the niche, instead of teaching them different topics. Sunita, I recommend you choosing a niche and focusing on a particular area of expertise. Like don't teach everything to everyone kind of thing. It doesn't really work very well. And also when you are marketing, you need to market to the parents because the two- to four-year-olds aren't going to buy the thing.

The parents are going to buy the thing. So you need to really think about your positioning and marketing to serving the parents. Maybe you can target homeschooling parents because they're ready to more invest in things to help their Children at home. And then I would recommend zoning in on a niche.

And yeah, maybe you can enrol students in every month into your program. So those are some things that I recommend you thinking about. To simplify and make it a bit easier as well.

A question to all three girls. Have you made pages in several social media? Are you choosing one media like Instagram?

Is it possible to just go with one social media? Do you think Facebook is necessary too? So she's asking, is it worth doing social on lots of different social media platforms or is it just one?

Jessica: I have Instagram and Facebook at the moment. So they're connected though. They're literally. Pretty much the same thing.

 I mean I've heard the advice and I agree with it. It's just focus on one. Until you get good at it and then expand to another. Unless you're really good at it and you already use it. But I struggle with even just Instagram and Facebook recently. I get on there. I'm like, what is this?

I'm like an old lady. So, I just use those two. And my Facebook is funny. It's all like my mom and my aunt and my husband's mom. But the reel I posted yesterday someone shared it and I was really excited. I was like, oh, someone shared my reel so first time for everything. So, yeah. Definitely.

 I just do those too. And I do use Facebook. I don't know, Michelle and Marybeth, if you have anything about Facebook, I just decided to use it because it does hit another demographic, but I don't know if it's necessary or not.

Michelle: Yeah, Marybeth.

Mary Beth: Yeah. Since my niche is geared towards adults and particularly the adults that may have taken lessons prior or have just always been too afraid to take lessons and want to come back and try.

I do use Facebook because that's where my generation and older go. But I also use Instagram because I, I do have the older teens to are kind of my demographic. So yeah, and Instagram is kind of where I live as an actor. And a performer. So it was easy because I already knew how to use it, somewhat.

Reels are interesting people. Take some time when you're learning how to do reels.

Michelle: Yeah. Reels are interesting. I have a love hate relationship with them, I can love them and then I hate them and then I love them again. But it's just right the way if you just take one reel at a time practice to start creating content.

Don't get in your head about it, like perfectionism all that jazz. But yeah, in terms of what's necessary, you need to choose the platform that you can be consistent on that you like and that your students hang out on. And don't choose multiple because you're going to spread yourself too thin. Just choose one and become good at one and be consistent with one.

And that's going to serve you a lot more than doing all of the things and not being able to do any of them well. That's not going to work.

All right. That is it for all the questions. Thank you so much for coming and sharing your time for these Bootcampers. I think these calls are always really cool for other teachers to see, what the journey looks like in DBA and like the realistic, from the horse's mouth kind of experience.

It's also very inspirational to see that you guys have grown and expanded. And it's inspiring. Yeah. Jennifer says this was beautiful and inspiring and that's really amazing. So thank you guys for being here and asking questions and tuning in. DBA is open for another two days.

So if you want to join, that would be magical to have you. Thank you for sharing your stories. It was really helpful. Such an awesome event. Thank you so much, ladies. It was so good to hear your stories and how you found your passions. It was so fun.

Thanks, ladies. Thank you. And we'll chat soon.

Ciao. Yay. Bye. 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 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.