The Proffitt Podcast
Are you thinking about starting a podcast? Launching a YouTube channel? Repurposing your old blog content into something fresh? Hi, I'm Krystal - host of "The Proffitt Podcast." And I'm happy to say you've come to the right place!
Business owners and content creators dream of building a platform where they can connect deeply with their audience, and marketing feels easy. But I also know what it's like to feel confused and overwhelmed.
Join us weekly as we strip down those processes and remove all the overwhelm with new tips, simple strategies, and great conversations with creators like you. Tune in to hear how I help creators start, launch, and market their content confidently. The motto here is, "We all have to start somewhere."
The Proffitt Podcast
BONUS: Turning Passion into Profit with Digital Courses | Real Stories and Practical Tips
Can turning your passion into profit feel genuine and sustainable? Discover the answer as we share our personal journey of breaking through the discomfort of monetization by embracing the world of digital courses and products. Influenced by the phenomenal Amy Porterfield, we introduce an exclusive episode from her, rich with practical advice and inspiring success stories.
Whether you're just starting out or a seasoned creator struggling with sales, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you create and market your digital products effectively.
Meet Margarita and Sarah—two incredible women whose lives were transformed by digital courses. Margarita, a former teacher, now has the freedom to visit her family in Italy whenever she wants. Sarah, known for her sourdough bread-making workshops, shifted her focus online and managed to grow her email list from eight to 1,700 people, netting nearly $18,000 from her first-course launch.
Their stories are a testament to the power of authenticity, a service mindset, and consistent effort in achieving personal and financial freedom, no matter how saturated the market may seem.
Ready to take the leap but feeling overwhelmed? Our discussion on the benefits of joining a digital course creation bootcamp is exactly what you need. By highlighting the importance of accountability partners and small group dynamics, we illustrate how past boot campers like Amy Lee went from skepticism to launching a course with 26 students.
Visualizing your future success and addressing common fears, this bootcamp promises to empower you with a supportive community and hands-on guidance, making your digital course dream a reality. Let us guide you on this transformative journey together!
Join us in this year's Course Confident Bootcamp here.
Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)
Looking for a podcast community that supports you on your journey? Check out Podcasters Connect today.
Have you been thinking about monetizing your content? Maybe you have been trying to figure out the right way to do it that makes sense for you and it doesn't feel gross and slimy because I hear so many of you say I really want to make money so that I can keep podcasting because I love my podcast, but also it feels gross and weird and slimy to promote things that I just don't know. Keep podcasting because I love my podcast, but also it feels gross and weird and slimy to promote things that I just don't know if I really want to monetize from all these sponsorships or I don't know if I can make things sustainable if I go this route or that route. Well, I can tell you that digital courses and digital products in general have been a godsend for me and my business and being able to create everything from a low ticket offer, which is my ultimate podcast launch toolkit in my one year of podcasting. In one hour like that content is 27 to $37. So it's a low ticket product but it packs so much value and I learned how to create that, plus my signature course, which is a lot more expensive and it's the one it's Profit Podcasting. It'll teach you how to start, launch and market a podcast in 30 days or less.
Speaker 1:I learned how to do all of this from my mentor, amy Porterfield, and I actually have a special treat for you today because she recorded a audio clip that I wanted to share with you. Now I say a clip, it's a full-blown episode and I wanted to share it as a bonus here on the podcast because I think it was timely and something that I think all of you should hear, and if you know Amy, you're familiar with Amy then you're probably even going to know some of these success stories and the things that she talks about that she's accomplished. But let me just brag on her for a second, because she has got it going on. I've been making a lot more like 90s references to my kids and they're just like, okay, she's all that plus a bag of chips. Okay, we're just, we're just going to keep going down this. But Amy is the host of the online marketing made easy podcast. She is the New York Times bestseller of the book two weeks, weeks Notice and she's hit $100 million in revenue in her digital course business and I am just so lucky and grateful that I get to call her a friend and mentor. I have known Amy and followed her and learned from her since 2018 and then officially got to meet her in 2019. And yes, she is as nice in person as she seems.
Speaker 1:But this episode today is just super special because it is just chock full of resources for you that you can really explore, no matter what stage of content creation you're in. So if you're brand new to the game you're just getting started with your podcast I want you to think about the possibilities of what it could look like to create the first digital product for your business. If you've never created anything. And then if you're earlier or sorry, later in your journey, you're more seasoned in your content creation and you haven't added a digital product, or maybe you have and you're like this thing ain't selling or it's not doing really well on its own then I want you to listen to Amy's advice with the lens of what could be possible, like what are the things that you could change? What are some of the strategies that you can try?
Speaker 1:But I can't wait for you to hear this. I think it's just just I'm grateful. I'm so grateful that I get to share this special episode with you. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the profit podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal profit, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time-saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Speaker 2:Well, hello there. Thank you so much for having me. Friends, I'm so excited to jump in here and talk about digital courses because, probably like a lot of you listening today, for most of my career I'd never even heard of digital courses before, and, for the sake of the rest of this episode, let's get super clear on what I mean when I say the term digital course. So a digital course is an online training that someone signs up for, typically paying for a spot in the program that teaches them how to get a result in a step-by-step format, and this could be on anything from something as simple as how to make a delicious vegan curry to something as complex as how to file your small business taxes or repair a broken marriage. But for most of my life, I knew none of that. I just didn't know what this world was all about.
Speaker 2:I went to college, got my degree and I got a nice, normal job in marketing, and I can tell you exactly where I was, maybe even down to what I was wearing when everything changed. So one day I was working in my marketing job. I actually was working for peak performance coach Tony Robbins, which was a very cool job, to say the least, and a very hard job as well. But I was actually invited into a very special meeting with other internet marketers. See, tony was starting to get out into the online world more with digital courses. He was starting to explore that landscape and so with that, he wanted to bring in some internet marketers who were doing big things with their courses and programs and just get some insight. That's what I loved about Tony he always did his research. Well, I was brought into the meeting not to contribute but to take notes. Yes, very humbling, but I was in the room and that's when everything changed.
Speaker 2:So Tony asked these guys they were all men to go around and talk about their businesses. Now, each of them had digital courses or some kind of digital program. One of them was about dating, another real estate, another finances, another leadership, another relationships. It was a lot of different topics in the room, but they all had similar formats in digital courses. And so they went around and they talked about their businesses. But here's what was so interesting they all shared about freedom. Here's what was so interesting they all shared about freedom. They talked about having time to be with their families. They talked about having the freedom to be more creative. They talked about the freedom of location, where they could go on a trip with their family and carve out a little time to work, because they didn't have to be at their desk at home all the time.
Speaker 2:So as these men went around and talked about their businesses, all I heard was freedom. They weren't working one-on-one and trading time for dollars. They didn't have a service-based business. That would always reach a cap, because you can only take so many clients and there's only so many hours in a day. And so when I realized, holy cow, these men have this freedom because they have digital courses, I was hooked.
Speaker 2:I was obsessed to figure out what do you do? How do you do it? What does this look like? So to me, I just knew I needed to learn this world of digital courses because I wanted what they had, which was freedom, and in that case I was working a nine to five job. I was anything but free to call the shots. So at that point, I had to figure out how to make this work. So pretty soon after that, I worked up my courage and started a side hustle. Then, eventually, I left my corporate job and in the last 15 years, I've launched eight digital courses of my own. I've taught over 90,000 students and I've generated over a hundred million dollars in my online business. Oh, and my team and I, we work a four day work week.
Speaker 2:Now, mind you, I started from scratch. I started from zero. I wasn't an influencer that didn't even exist. Back then, we never used that word influencer. Instagram barely even existed. I didn't have an ounce of online business experience for my own. Like I had dabbled with Facebook and Twitter. At the time, we were starting to market online in my department for Tony Robbins, but I didn't know how to build an online business at all.
Speaker 2:So if you're listening and today is a bit of a revelation for you too and you think that maybe digital courses are something you'd like to explore, I want you to hear that you do not need a big audience, you do not need a bunch of marketing experience and you definitely don't need a bunch of money to get started. In fact, in just a minute, I'll explain what you do need to get started with a digital course, but first I really wanted to tell you about a few of the digital courses that my students have created, just to give you a little inspiration. Okay, first I want to tell you about my student, margarita. She was an Italian language teacher at her local university and she loved her students, but then traditional schooling was flipped on its head in 2020, as you probably recall, and this really made her question if a university setting was still right for her. So she decided to explore online teaching by way of digital courses. With my help, margarita launched her first digital course with a goal of enrolling 30 new students, and she smashed that goal with just a pre-sell, meaning she had students enrolling before her course was even finished, which is something I teach. So by the end of her first launch, she had enrolled 136 new students and made over $45,000.
Speaker 2:But it's never just about the money, is it? So here's what she wrote to me in an email. She said life as a course creator has allowed me so many more freedoms in my life, aside from my financial success. I can now visit my family in Italy whenever I want, and I'm no longer limited to only seeing them during school vacations. As I continue to grow my business as a course creator, I'm excited for my future. The possibilities feel endless. Ugh, how good is that? Remember she was a local teacher, not a professional marketer, not a tech whiz, not a YouTube star, not an influencer. If she can do it, my friend, so can you. Okay, here's another one I want to tell you about my student, sarah, and I love to tell Sarah's story because Sarah teaches how to make sourdough bread. It's why I've affectionately started calling her Sarah Sourdough. I know my creativity has no bounds, but I love telling her story because about one search on YouTube will return 10,000 videos on how to make sourdough bread. But listen to this Sarah had been leading in-person workshops that taught people how to make sourdough bread, been leading in-person workshops that taught people how to make sourdough bread, and these workshops required a lot of prep and a lot of her time and attention, because Sarah was just a one woman show and needed to keep these in-person workshops full and happening regularly in order to help bring in income for her family.
Speaker 2:But one, her son, came to her crying, begging her not to go to her workshop. If there's any parents listening, especially of young kids, you know what it feels like when you're leaving or you've got to work and your kids are like no, please don't. It's like heartbreaking. And Sarah knew that when she was home with him she kind of wasn't, because she was always anxious over the next workshop she had to create, so her mind was always on work. Can you relate?
Speaker 2:Now, this was a huge turning point for Sarah. She saw how her time and her mental load had been completely consumed by her work, and it was at the expense of her son, who she loved most in the world. But she couldn't afford not to work. So Sarah put her thinking cap on and decided to try and see if her in-person classes would possibly translate into something online. Her question was could her digital course compete with the thousands and thousands of free videos that are on YouTube teaching people how to make sourdough bread, and they're easy to find online? So Sarah linked up with me and she got to work on her first course, and I love this. Sarah grew her email list from eight people to 1,700 people and she sold 60 courses at $297 each, meaning she earned $17,820 in total during her first ever digital course launch.
Speaker 2:I want you to really hear that, yes, plenty of people will opt for the YouTube route, but there are still plenty of people who don't want to hunt impact online when they're serious about getting quick results or proven results, or both. Look at Sarah. It only took 60 people. There are over 7 billion people in this world. She needed 60 people to come into her community and say yes, I want to learn from you. So what I am saying is your market is not too saturated. I promise you that you will find your people. They will want to learn from you exclusively as long as you keep showing up for them. You are authentic and you do it with a service mindset. You are there to serve and support. They will find you and they will want to learn and purchase from you.
Speaker 2:Now Sarah understood this and knew her sourdough expertise could make home baking easy for her students, and she knew she had built a community where they wanted to learn from her. And again, it wasn't all about the money. Sure, she needed it, but not even two months after her first launch, she wrote to me about her inbox full of love notes, people saying you changed my family's life. Your course is just what I needed so clear and precise. I would YouTube sourdough all the time, but I would just get overwhelmed. You are the best teacher and I would recommend this course to anyone I talk to. And here's what Sarah told me. I get emotional every time someone sends in a review. This has changed my life and now, in the new school year, I get to be present with my kids every morning as I get them ready for their day.
Speaker 2:Yesterday, I was at the beach with my kids and I realized something powerful. This beach time would have normally included constant thoughts of OMG, we have to pack up and leave, I have to get to a workshop or who knows how long it's going to take on the road, so I better get on the road now. Let's cut this short. But this time, she said, I got to enjoy it. I had nowhere to be, but right here. I love that. So you can see why I am so passionate about spreading the word about digital courses. It allows families like Sarah to have financial stability without sacrificing that precious time together. It allows business owners to stop burning the candle at both ends and enjoy their businesses again without constantly chasing new clients or worrying about how they're going to cover the bills at the end of the month, and I know someone listening right now is desperate for that. Maybe it's you.
Speaker 2:I created my first digital course in the dark. There wasn't anyone to teach me what to do, so it was a lot of trial and error. My first course launch was not like Sarah's or Margarita's. I didn't know that there were things I needed to do first or next or in what order, and I made a whopping $267 on that first launch. It was disheartening, to say the least, but now I've been doing it for 15 years. But now I've been doing it for 15 years, so I know what you need to do first and then next, and I know every action item you need to take in, the order you need to take it in. I've taught all of this to Margarita, I've taught all of this to Sarah and I'd love to teach all of this to you. So if you're listening and you want to know exactly what creating and selling a digital course entails, I want to invite you to my upcoming bootcamp.
Speaker 2:The bootcamp is called Course Confident. It is live and it starts on Wednesday, september 11th, and I'm going to teach you the four things to tackle first to set yourself up for digital course success. You're going to discover what you should teach based on your expertise, your knowledge and your 10% edge. We'll get into all of that in the bootcamp. Once you come up with your profitable and impactful idea, I'm going to help you figure out what to charge for it so that you can do some course math to see what's possible. I'm also going to help you figure out what type of course to create. There's different types of courses, so we're going to make sure the type of course you create matches your bandwidth, your knowledge and your revenue goals, and I'm going to teach you how to steadily grow an audience that's eager to buy from you. I'll teach all of this in four live trainings that happen inside a private community. There will be replays of each training, so every statistic, strategy or story will be available to you, even if you have a busy calendar. Also, by the way, the whole bootcamp is only $47 to attend one of the cheapest offers I have all year. Oh, and I only offer Course Confident once a year, so it's either now or a year from now. Why would you ever wait? And here's the thing After 15 years as a course creator, one thing I know for sure is that the steps to getting started are important, but what's also very important is accountability and focus to get the work done.
Speaker 2:Everyone is just so busy, right? You might say, amy, I don't have time to create a course. You do, but you've got to get strategic about it. So a major element of this live bootcamp is one-on-one or small group accountability groups, where you'll work in short spurts of highly productive time and really have someone to hold you to it. In fact, one of the first things we'll do is to help you pair up with an accountability partner or group. I hate that when you sign up for something, something you're serious about, and then you have to rely on the Facebook algorithm to get your questions seen or answered. So this is our solution, and bootcampers last year loved it. I recently read some of the comments from last year and one of the women said that their small group not only aligned in terms of business model and goals, but they brainstormed together on individual next steps. This boot camper said their accountability partner was their ideal client and had literally just become a paying customers of theirs. That's kind of over the top, but I thought that was really cool. And another bootcamper said that they finally connected with someone who understood their B2B offer and was really able to help. This is what I love.
Speaker 2:When people think about starting an online business or creating a digital course or taking on any big project for themselves, you kind of picture yourself in your office or at your kitchen table thinking in a silo, figuring it all out with Google or some expensive consultant. It's easy to not want to move forward because that's just not fun, right? That's overwhelming. So now you can start to create this really empowering tool in a virtual cowork-working space with people all over the world who are sharing their experience and totally rooting for you. Plus, I'm very much involved every step of the way. The goal is to safeguard you from slipping quietly into the background or allowing overwhelm or intimidation to keep you from something that could genuinely change how you work and earn a living forever.
Speaker 2:I want to tell you about Amy Lee, my boot camper from last year, because she summed it up perfectly. This is what she said. Had you asked me a year ago if I'd ever consider being a course creator, I would have told you you were bonkers. It wasn't in my plan. Then I signed up for Amy's course creation bootcamp and found myself engaged in a community I'd never heard of or considered before, showing up for lives, completing each step inspired and curious about course creation. Fast forward to two months later. I launched my first ever course to 26 students.
Speaker 2:If you're considering Amy's Bootcamp, you've got nothing to lose, but you have a whole bunch of possibility and freedom to gain and a community where you can learn and be inspired. I love this, amy Lee, so thank you if you're listening. That means the world to me and really she said it so perfectly Even if you've never considered a digital course, get into the bootcamp, because this is your opportunity to see if you and your business, or your future business, is a good fit for a digital course. If you're serious about a digital course, get into the bootcamp. But also, I created this for those of you who are course curious. It's a safe place to bring your questions, your doubts, your hesitations and your uncertainties, and I think you would agree with me. That's how all entrepreneurs start.
Speaker 2:But in the bootcamp you're going to discover whether a digital course is realistic for you, if it would be profitable for you, if there's an audience for your digital course idea, and you're going to make some very serious decisions to move you forward. We're going to wipe out the doubts and the hesitation so that you feel confident about moving forward. So to kind of wrap up, if it's okay with you, I want to invite you to close your eyes. I know, I know kind of cheesy, but just for a minute, if you can. If you're driving, okay don't. But if you can right now, close your eyes. Let me walk you through this real quick.
Speaker 2:Your course title is written across your office whiteboard, circled with a bright red marker. You know you can teach it, that your audience wants it, and you've started pairing your know-how into steps for your future students to follow. You count down the days till you launch, because you know what you're going to charge and how many students you need to enroll to blow your nine-to-five paycheck or that one-on-one hourly rate out of the water. You're clear on what your course promises, so too much content or too little content isn't a concern for you. You take 15 minutes a day to execute your audience growth game plan, the one you understand, that doesn't overwhelm you and that grows your following in step with your future sales goals. And you're proud of yourself for doing what so few are willing to do. And while you still have the occasional moment of imposter syndrome, you know you're capable of creating a digital course that your audience cannot wait to engage in.
Speaker 2:Okay, open your eyes Feels pretty dang doable, right, you can do this, it is. It is doable. And if there's anything that I want to leave your listeners with those of you who are listening right now. It's that you are capable of so much. Your dreams are worth pursuing and I promise you, I have seen so many people start from scratch and figure this out, and you, too, can do the same.
Speaker 2:If a digital course is part of that dream for you of growing your business whether it has been for a while or you just became a little course curious I hope you'll join me in the bootcamp. I know that I will be there, so will you be there too? We'll get more done in a matter of days than most people get done in six months. Truthfully, and remember, it's only $47 and I am so excited to work with you in the group. So thank you so much for having me and sharing this space with me, and whatever that dream is on your heart, just go for it. You are enough, you deserve it and I'm cheering you on every step of the way.
Speaker 1:Isn't she great and just so inspiring, so motivating. I mean, if you're brand new to Amy, you can see why she is someone that I've been following for a long time, because she really breaks things down to where they are manageable, they are doable, and I can tell you firsthand, like seeing her journey grow, like I still remember the year that she hit like she had made $16 million in her business and it was just. I mean, that alone was so impressive to me that she's been able to grow such an empire but to be where she is now today and still be so relatable in her approaches, her strategies, her consistency, like the definition of consistency Look it up in the dictionary. There's a picture of Amy Porterfield. Because she keeps everything so simple. She keeps showing up on her podcast. Right, Like her podcast is actually one of the things that helps her really get strategic with engaging with her students, engaging with her audience and building trust. I listened to her podcast for probably about a year before I ever bought anything from her and it just goes to show you the power of content.
Speaker 1:And if you are like man, I want some of this. Like I want to know how I can really incorporate digital products and creating digital courses into my content marketing strategy or my business strategy, then you need to join us in the Course Confident Bootcamp. I'm an affiliate. I'm an affiliate partner with Amy. I'm an affiliate for her Digital Course Academy program, which is also opening soon. But I know that the bootcamp can help you get results, because maybe you're like man, I don't know, Like I just I don't know my next steps. Well, if you have $47 that you can invest, then you need to come and see if a digital course is your next step. Right, You're not gambling the farm. You're not gambling, you know, with trying to figure out, is this going to be a good investment? Am I going to get the return? Yes, with trying to figure out, is this going to be a good investment? Am I going to get the return? Yes, I promise you. Even if all you do is network and make a good friend in this bootcamp, then that would be worth the $47. But, oh my gosh, Amy's going to over-deliver. It is another thing that her and her team do so well. They over-deliver and I it. It shocks me, it literally shocks me, how much they invest, how much they are thinking about the amount of value that they're going to pack into every single thing that they create. But for $47, this bootcamp is. I mean, it's just. I look forward to it every single year.
Speaker 1:So go to crystalprofitcom forward slash Amy dash bootcamp to sign up using my partner link, and you're also gonna see while you're there, there is an exclusive podcast bonus just for people that join the bootcamp. You can't find this in any of my other programs. It's not available anywhere and it is called Money Mindset for Creators. So this is something that comes around once a year, but I really wanted to create this.
Speaker 1:It's a three-part series where I'm going to dive into how much money I made whenever I was first starting my digital courses, because I think that that's the place that, if you're brand new to this, you want to know what's going on. I'm going to share with you how long it took me to get my investment back from. You know joining Digital Course Academy and you know purchasing other resources that I needed or thought that I needed when I was starting my digital course business. Right, I'm going to walk you through what I've been able to do since I started digital courses and just walk through the mindset blocks that I had and how I overcame them and how I was able to continue to where I am today on this journey.
Speaker 1:Because I started in 2018, I launched my very first podcast and I'm still here, I'm still kicking, I'm still teaching you the things about podcasting and content strategy. So I want you to go to crystalprofitcom forward slash Amy dash bootcamp to sign up today, for course, confident. Go check it out. Crystalprofitcom forward slash Amy dash bootcamp. Again, it's $47 and I promise it will be worth every single second. Again, crystalprofitcom forward slash Amy dash bootcamp. There's going to be a link in the description, but go check it out. But thank you so much for joining me today for this bonus episode and, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.
