144-Audio-Audition-v1
Jacques Hopkins: [00:00:00] Regular people are taking their knowledge and content, packaging it up in an online course, and they're making a living, not everyone is successful with online courses. There's a right way and there's a wrong way. And I'm here to help course creators actually succeed with online courses. Hi, I'm John Hopkins and this is the online course show.
And off we go. Welcome aboard. Glad you're with us. I'm John Hopkins in here with me as well is our cohost. How's it go, Dr. K.
Dr. Krohse: [00:00:41] Hey, I'm doing fantastic. How are you doing?
Jacques Hopkins: [00:00:43] Just getting edging closer and closer to back to normal. Kids start back in school at about a week. And as you know, and a lot of listeners know I am a kind of between that road trip that we took and then the kids starting so able to get a lot, a lot of work, done a lot of good stuff, but it's still, you know, still kids knocking on the door, screaming, uh, won't go down for naps, this and that. You know, as you know, I, uh, I work out of, kind of the back corner of my house in my home office studio here. So getting a little back, back to normal, but not quite all the way. How about you, man? What's going on?
Dr. Krohse: [00:01:18] Oh, not too much, much. Um, again, I'm a chiropractor. My practice has been super busy. Uh, the thing that's course related that I'm most excited about. Um, way back in episode, number two, you and Nate Dotson were talking about all the reasons that you could create an online course. And you talked about, uh, Hey, a good way reason to create an online course would be a lead magnet for an in person business. And so I recorded all these different videos on just strategies to improve life in general. And I thought I need to throw those together in an online course. And so I call the course, fix the pain level up your life. And it's basically just life hacking according to David Crosy, but I do, I mean, I put a lot of videos out on Facebook and it's gotten to the point where, when my wife and I are out for walks, I mean, people will stop me and be like, Hey, are you that chiropractor? And so I do have some loyal fans in my community. It's been basically got six lessons on just how to decrease, worry and depression.
Let's see here, just understand how health problems work. I've got one about how to lose weight and I have an article in there that I think is just kind of a masterpiece. Uh, but, but all these, all these strategies, how to sleep better, I'm excited to put it out and have people, start to, to watch it.
And so, if anybody does want, if anybody listening to the podcast wants to watch the content for free. You can just go to compass, cairo.com/course and just sign up for it. And I've got all kinds of tips on having a better life and hopefully some good sense of humor in there as well.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:02:52] Very cool. compass Cairo, C H I R o.com/course. And that's just, that's a free course. And your main motivation is to get out there and your local community. And that can be a way for people to get to know you a little bit better, give them some value and hopefully a small percentage of those people that take the small course, then eventually get into your clinic there.
Dr. Krohse: [00:03:12] Exactly. And I recently started using a, your recommended service deadline funnel. And so there's this special offer that's exclusively while they're in the seven days that the course is going on. And so the idea is that there's this really valuable offer, but if they want it, they have to buy it online in this like six and a half day, seven day period.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:03:31] Cool. Yeah. All kinds of different applications for courses, obviously. Um, and yeah, deadline funnel. That's cool that you're using it here as well. The guests that I had on we'll hear from it a little bit is also a big fan of deadline funnel as am I, and lots of people that have been on this podcast, uh, as you know, so, let's talk about this podcast a little bit.
I like to always be leveling up, taking things to the next level. And you'll notice if, you know, if you've listened to a lot of, a lot of podcasts, not necessarily every one, you know, this is episode 144. Some people have listened to all of them. I think you're one of those people and, uh, you'll notice it.
It hasn't been the same. There's been progressions. In fact, there was a name change somewhere. originally it was theonlinecourseguy podcasts. And then I changed it to the onlinecourseshow and there's been different intros and in different formats and segments, and I'm just trying to make it as good as possible and the same with my courses and my websites and everything. I'm always looking to level it up. Well, I had an idea recently for a little bit of a change to the podcast. Uh you're you're ready to hear about it.
Dr. Krohse: [00:04:31] Let's here it.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:04:33] I don't know about you, man, but I subscribe to a lot of podcasts and I think you're the same. And I don't know about you. You don't have kids, but you obviously, you have a, you do a lot, you've got your, your wife and you have tons of hobbies. Um, so I don't know about you, but I don't have time to listen to all the episodes of all the podcasts that I'm subscribed to. I don't want to unsubscribe from a lot of them in case a really compelling and relevant to me episode comes out. I subscribe to a smart, passive income by Pat Flynn. Uh, choose FI. Uh, Joe Rogan. I mean, Joe Rogan's episodes are over three hours long and they come out like four or five times week. I mean, who has time for all of that? Uh, Ben Greenfield. Um, so some local sports ones, Tim Ferris. And so I was thinking to myself, man, it would be great if some of these podcasts that I like, but don't have time to listen to the full episodes, we just kinda cut out clips of, you know, five to 15 minute clips of topics that are discussed throughout the podcast and then release those on, on a different feed or on their own feed. That way, if I don't have time to listen to an hour and a half episode, maybe there's this 12 minute and 37 second clip that the title is very relevant to me in, in what I'm trying to do.
And I just thought that would be really cool. So I was like, well, Maybe I could do that. Maybe other people would appreciate that. So maybe I can do that with this podcast. And so, uh, what I want to do, I'm not, I'm not going to commit to this going forward, but I want to try it for this episode, the episode we're doing right now, uh, with me and you, and then we're bringing on Stephanie Taylor, which, you know, by the way, I mean, you've, you've heard the conversation, uh, by now it's a, it was a fantastic conversation with Stephanie Taylor.
Very, very inspirational. But I'm going to take six clips from this, this episode. And it could be one of them could even be just me and you talking and. Release that to the same podcast feed. So on Tuesday, this episode will come out and it'll be, you know, an hour and a half, two hours long. And then every other day until the next Tuesday, I'll release a small clip from this episode.
So that if somebody can't consume this whole thing, maybe they'll want to hear a clip or two too, along the way. So what do you think about that idea?
Dr. Krohse: [00:06:47] I think it's a fantastic idea. I mean, I think, uh, yeah, doing the ones from the current episode, I was. Uh, cause you mentioned this to me last week and I was thinking, I mean, you could go back to some of the early episodes and, and pull out some of the most, uh, most fun portions from, you know, you and Nate talking or some of the earlier interviews.
That's another thing that we could look at down the road, but yeah, I mean, I don't subscribe to a lot of podcasts at this point. I really listened to this snacks daily podcast every day. It's 15 minutes. I love it. It makes me smile. It makes me laugh, but it is really valuable content for me. And so I think that this idea that you have of the, uh, the snippets will provide a lot of value and people will enjoy just hearing the, the most high value portions of the podcast.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:07:34] Cool. Well, just like anything else, the best thing we can do is try it. And so I'm going to put it out there this week for seven days, you know, this full episode and then six more clips. And I'd love to hear back from, from listeners, if you liked the format or not. I mean, you can always ignore the clips, uh, in, in your feed, if it's not your style.
But, uh, I think, I just think that this is something that I would appreciate in the podcast I listened to. So I'm gonna put it out there and see how it goes. And I welcome feedback from those listening on the other side. And so speaking of, uh, upleveling, uh, taking things to the next level, you know, I've got this, this program called next level courses and I've, I've tinkered and tweaked that as well, uh, over, over the years, really.
And I just love helping course creators. I love helping people get started and make their first sale. Um, but I, but I really love helping people that have courses already and are struggling with some kind of way and just to kind of take their course to the next level. And that's, that's exactly how I met our guests today, Stephanie Taylor, because I got an application. Far from her a little over a year ago to join my next level courses program. She had a course already. She had launched, um, she was still very green. It was very recent and she applied to be a part of that program, which back then was more of a one on one mentorship.
And it didn't. It took a lot of my time doing it that way. And I could only work with a very, very small amount of people doing it that way. So I've since relaunched next level courses as a group coaching program with, with its own membership portal, with, with advanced trainings, for people that already have a courses and it's going really, really well.
It's a lot of fun, being in that group. I know you're, you're in that group. And so Stephanie, Stephanie joined that a year and a half ago now she's, she's part of the, the newer version as well. So we'll, we'll talk about that a little bit but I definitely want to extend an invitation to those listening to this that are inspired by Stephanie story.
Maybe feel like they need some. They need, they need a coach of some sort. They need some, some more advanced training on courses. That's not just beginners getting started and so you can check that out at theonlinecourseguy.com and click on next level courses to get more information or watch my evergreen webinar with even more information there.
So that's a little context for next level courses and for Stephanie Taylor. I didn't bring her on the podcast just to do a big pitch for next level courses. And the listeners will understand that when, when we share the full conversation with her, because her story is very, very inspirational.
So, we'll do a full recap cap at the end, but just right off the bat, I mean, w what did you think of the conversation with her?
Dr. Krohse: [00:10:13] It was fantastic. She's super inspirational, super charismatic. And, uh, yeah, just so much fun to listen to
Jacques Hopkins: [00:10:19] lots, lots of energy, lots of drive and found success pretty quickly with courses. And, and I don't think it was an accident. So, it was a lot of fun catching up with her and we'll talk about it on the back end. So without further ado, let's go ahead and play the full conversation with Stephanie Taylor.
Stephanie Taylor. Hi, it's good to see you.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:10:41] Oh, my gosh. it's Jacques Hopkins.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:10:44] It's, it's good to catch up with you. I hope things are going pretty well for, for you. I'm excited to finally get you on the podcast. How are you doing
Stephanie Taylor: [00:10:51] really good. Um, do you know what a Jacq. You changed our lives.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:10:57] Come on. Let's not start this out by lying to people.
I really, I really appreciate you saying that so much. Um, I don't know if it's exactly true, but what I'm excited to dig into this a little bit, because I know that I had a little bit of impact on your success with courses, but, um, I'm certainly not the only resource and I don't think I've seen anybody work as hard as you either. So you, you have way more, uh, way more credit goes to you than me. There's no question about that. So let's just kinda set this up for people listening, uh, renttorentsuccess.com. Is that right? Yes. Okay. Now I am, as you know, I, I'm not very good with real estate or property management, but is this accurate, you teach people to how to rent properties and then kind of re rent them out for a profit. Is that a fair assessment?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:11:50] Yes, that's exactly right.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:11:52] And you have a course on that. How's that going for you?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:11:56] Oh my gosh. I know. I've just got to be chilled and normal, but do you know what, when I reflect on it, I just, I just find it unbelievable.
Um, so just to give people a little bit of context, um, that I had my son when I was 18 on my, on my own, really struggled financially and then sort of built myself up and got a degree and got what I thought was a decent job. And to now be in a situation where, we make more than a month. And I used to make in a year when I thought that I was actually doing not super, super well, but well, for me, I was really pleased with where I was.
It's just such a it's it's just so crazy. And, um, but, but yeah, we're getting used to it and I love it.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:12:51] Now, what kind of job were you in property before? What kind of, what line of work were you in before.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:12:56] Well, it was a long and winding road immediately before I'd sort of fell on my feet and find a job, um, as a contractor in financial services and it was suited, uh, project management style of things.
Like getting paid by the day, you know, a really good rate but I had a little hiccup in the fact that my mum got ill and I had one of those wake up calls, moments where I just realized that I was putting my work so important and that my mum really needed me. And I just wanted you to think of how can I be able to be there for my mum.
And not only that, it just made me question other things in my life and what is the right path for me? And, uh, because at the time I was 45 and I thought, do you know whatever path that is? You've got to get out of it right now because you know, I am not a spring chicken.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:14:01] Yeah. Well, you, you like to joke that you're old and you're far from that.
We're uh, we're, we're actually pretty close in age now. Uh, you're making this transition. A lot of people come to me and they don't even know where to start with the topic. They're good at a lot of things, they have a lot of hobbies and you weren't directly working like your job wasn't this exact thing.
Like how did you first get into the whole rent or rent thing?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:14:23] Yeah, that's interesting. I, I suppose, well, what happened was, I thought I've got to do something a bit different and I started attending all these, uh, property events or real estate that's I'll translate for you. Something to send to you will be so bad.
And I was blown away Jacq is it's like when you come into the online world for the better, when you, you see what people are doing, you're like,
Jacques Hopkins: [00:14:50] Funnels and email automation and video and all that.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:14:54] Yeah. And also the results people are getting. So people are telling me that they're doing all these different things and normal people.
And I thought, Oh, maybe that's something that I could do. And I went to one particular event in March of 2016. And I was on the front row and I was listening to these two guys and they were explaining about, um, the contracts on each property and what their income was on each property and what the relationships were and all of that.
And I was just totally blown away, and they explained all their butts to me and I thought, do you know what I could do this? Um, uh, I went from, you know, I was quite diluted at the time and, uh, it just went from there and we did it and it worked out. I started telling people about it cause I was excited.
I'm quite a shy person. Um, and uh, I started doing these videos to say, do you know what? This is not a scam. This is natural thing. You know, you just do this, this and that. And then you do this, that, and the next thing. And so people, I was showing them around the properties that we were doing out and, um, explaining things to people just on my own Facebook, personal page and.
Um, it, it just all went from there.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:16:11] Now. I need you to be completely honest on this podcast. You just said that you were shy. Like why would you lie like that? That is not a word that I would use to describe you.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:16:22] Gosh, I used to cry when people spoke to me. Oh my goodness. And you said that you sat in the front row of this, uh, this event back in March of 2016.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:16:30] And that does not surprise me at all.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:16:32] No, because I was keyed. Right. I wanted to make sure I can see the screen as well. Cause sometimes when you go to these smaller events everyone's heads gets in the way.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:16:44] Okay. So you, you saw this presentation, you started getting into this property world and you started doing this yourself, right?
Like you started renting properties and then renting them. I don't know if that's a good term rerenting, but you started doing that yourself and getting results yourself, correct?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:17:00] Yeah.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:17:01] What at what point did you decide to start? I mean, you mentioned putting some videos information on your Facebook page, but when did you really think that?
So you had this new business, you weren't, you weren't working this, this job anymore. You kind of had this transition to a new business where you're doing the rent to rent stuff. When did you decide you were going to package that up into an online course and turn that into a business?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:17:22] Oh, well, like I've had many people say on the old podcast, I was, I wasn't going to do that.
I wasn't. I just thought that because we don't, you've been doing it for a short time, since 2016, it all wasn't supposed to happen so quickly. I thought you start asking for the properties and people say no, and people say no, and people say no, but it, for us, it happened quickly. And, um, so we started in, in 2016 with the, um, With, with getting the properties.
And I started doing the videos almost soon after, but I was happy to give information out for free, but I did not feel that I could be charging for the information because we're new doing this. So I didn't want to charge. And that way also, I didn't want to be going up and down and the country speaking to people, which is what I thought it meant if you were going to be a trainer.
And, uh, so I decided. To just keep giving the free information because it kind of was helping us build out brands as well. We didn't intend to the brands towards the landlords and the letting agents not, no, not for people to buy a course, but what I find was the, the videos that I put on my hate tremor, heaven, property, YouTube channel, the ones that really took off on this tiny channel were the ones that said, this is how to set up your own rent to rent business.
This is what to do when you're setting up a rental business and. Some of them had thousands of views and, um, hundreds of comments. And it was a very small channel at the time. I've now it's still this a small child live, but I've hidden those videos because it's not congruent with the, with that channel.
So. I set up a separate brand called rent to rents access. And in I'm taking a long time to tell this story in 2018, I think it was really that we seriously decided, or I seriously decided, yes, we can do this. And what happened was people were coming to ask me all the questions. I was pointing them off to various, um, trainers and then they would come back and they would say things like, but what about the offer emails to the landlord?
Or what about the letter to, so and so, uh, what about the contract of such and such? And I says, well, did you not go on the course with. No, blah blah. And they would say, well, yes, but they're not sure about this part. So they paid blah, blah, blah, all of this money, but yet they're coming to ask me for the information.
So I'll just thought, do you know what, actually, we could do something better because. Part of the reason is, is that you need help when you're implementing. And a lot of these courses were one or two or three days, whereas really you need help when you're putting it into practice. So I thought, well, if we had a longer course, initially it was eight weeks, but since then we've made it three months.
I think initially it was six weeks. The very first one say we made it six weeks, the live call every week, but you get all the information recorded and step by step with all of the documents that you need. And there's a Facebook group attached to it. And our obligation in that area is Monday to Friday.
So that was the package. And say to answer your question after we'd been doing the actual business for a year and a half, 2006. Yeah. So yeah. Cause it was 2017, 2018. It was two and a half years that we've been doing the business. When we set up the course at the end of 2018 and we launched it at the beginning of last year.
So January, 2019.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:21:15] Amazing. So you started this company, HMO heaven, and that was, was your actually rent a rent that was your rent to rent business. And you were just being very transparent by posting all this stuff on social media about what you were up to, which by the way, we're obviously friends on Facebook now.
And, and you're doing that about your course and your podcast, which we'll get to and all that. Now it sounds like that's just kind of your style it, whatever you're into you share that with the world and that. Really turned out to be a great thing for you because you had all these people, not, not just asking about your business, but, but for the, for themselves, like, wow, look what Stephanie Taylor is doing and her sister, which we'll talk about in a second. And, uh, and they, and they were coming to you for questions about how they, how they could do the same. Now you are based in Wales, correct. And your market is, is just Wales.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:22:05] Well, it's just the UK. So England, Scotland and Wales.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:22:09] Yeah. Okay. Amazing. So you launched your course in January of last year, 2019.
And, um, and by the way, how do you, you know how to launch a course.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:22:23] I have no idea about it. I didn't know how to make a course. Right. It's hard to remember back now because now I know quite a bit, but I had written, I didn't know how you translate this whole process from having the idea of a business to setting up all of the aspects of the business negotiating all of the things to do with the property, putting the tethers said all the rest of it and the systems and everything. I didn't know how to make that into something that somebody else can just download and use. And that held me up for quite a long while. So that was 2018. When I decided we had the chance to work with someone else, he was helping us to plan out what would be in the course and also to make it into a cool, so I just had a word document. I went away for a week to a retreat. I was just drinking green juice all week. I thought I can kill two birds with one stone, a few pads. And, uh, I write the course, uh, so I wrote the course and in this week, but it was just a sort of bullet point style sort of outline with a little bit here talk about this here. Talk about that. So I had the whole thing in a word document. I did not know how to get from there to having a course. And, um, it was. National party. It was a, it was a nightmare.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:23:51] Well, you launched your course and people bought it. You know, I, it took me, it took me months and months and month to get the number of students that you got with your initial launch. So you were, you were on some level successful, right from the start. And so, um, I mean, what do you attribute that initial success, that initial launch a success to.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:24:14] Yeah. I think what it was was it was not being a professional basically. I think that's was, is the reason. So I was there and excuse me, most of the video,
you know, uh, people, just, people just liked it, that I would know the trainer and that I don't know about the training as such and they liked that they'd seen us from the first house, uh, and seeing what the transformation was with each house. And they saw the excitement of like be rounds each property.
And now that I've put this thing together, there was a few people who were, who were excited to give us a try.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:25:07] You had 24 people pay you for that, that, with that first launch, where did those people come from? Did you literally just promote it on Facebook? Like you had done all these other things or did you, did you have like an email list and a lead magnet or any of that yet?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:25:21] Well, at the end of November, 2018, I set up, or it was at the end of the year, November, December, 2018. I set up a Facebook group called rent to rent success secret
Jacques Hopkins: [00:25:34] smart.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:25:36] And the, obviously at this stage, the group was very small, so it's maybe got a few hundred people in, you know,
Jacques Hopkins: [00:25:43] and it is just UK people. Are you letting people all over the world into it? It's just UK people.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:25:47] Well, people who leave the welcome come in, but largely it's just UK people who would buy this thing. So it's just UK people who really want to come in and in fact, it's not called rents rent anywhere else, as far as I know. And so it's just a UK thing.
So I had this little Facebook group with a couple of hundred people in at the same time. I said, I believe magnets which was, Oh, I think it's called it's the guide to getting your first deal. Something along those lines. I can't remember the name a bit, the six step system to get your first deal. I think that's what it's called.
So around the same time we set up that lead magnet and I had a few random people that signed up for other things. So altogether I had, it was 600 people, but I don't think some of them were like tenants or things. Say they weren't all for the launch. Yeah. If you will. Uh, so I had a few hundred people that are on an emailing list.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:26:47] Excellent. I think creating a Facebook group is a great, a first step or one of your first steps cause it just starts building a little community. That's one thing I would have wished I would have done much sooner with my piano audience, but I did it pretty early on with my online course guy and of course community. Um, audience and it's, it's a, it's a great way for people to just feel like they're a part of a tribe and they're in this together. And they're, they're all kind of learning from this, this guide. And in that case, that was you. And, um, and I would imagine that not only did you have this lead magnet and then you launch your course in January, but sometime between creating the group and launching the course, you probably offered a lot of value in that group.
Is that fair to say?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:27:28] Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, The the, the, the, the, the, the picture that's coming to mind shark is that horrendous webinar that I did. And it was in November and December. We had been leading up that we're having this webinar. It wasn't called a webinar I can't remember what we called it, but we said we were having this big training date was something like the 4th of January.
And I had gone away again to another green, green juice retreat. It was absolutely freezing. It was a big old house in the country. Um, luckily the wifi works, but I didn't realize that. To do. I was doing it as a Facebook live and this was before everybody knew about zoom and so on. And when I went live on Facebook, I couldn't get them to share my screen.
It just wouldn't work. So I had to create a video of me doing the presentation behind the slides. So I w my idea was to go live on Facebook and then play this video that I'd already created, but creating that video. Well, when I was somewhere else and I, I had two computers and yeah, the one with the slides on that I'm recording.
I had to have the whole screen taken up. So all the words were on another computer and unfortunately, Uh, excuse me. I didn't realize that by turning my head reading that the sound would just be gone because I didn't, I wasn't wearing a microphone, so the sound was hideous, but I was not rerecording. It took me hours to get all of that redone, but I realized what's happened with the sun.
So it's, it's cool that we got anyone it's very cool that he wants to join.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:29:22] You don't strike me as a tech person. Is that fair to say?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:29:32] Yeah. Yeah, yeah, no,
Jacques Hopkins: [00:29:35] I don't mean that negatively. We've worked together extensively, but is that, is that I'm going somewhere with this? Is that fair to say? I mean, based on the story I just heard, but. You've every, every step along the way you, I figured it out. And I think that's a lot of, uh, that tricks a lot of people up that are getting into this because people have an expertise in, you know, helping people to write short stories or teaching people to, to cut hair, like all these random things, but they're not necessarily good at live streaming on Facebook and doing webinars and using zoom and using click funnels and using, you know, Thinkific and all of these things. You're not a tech person. How, how have you managed to get through that? The tech hiccups?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:30:15] I just, what you said, really? Uh, I just, I, I don't know what happened to be shot because I feel like I had the last 20 years where not a lot happened.
And then in the last, you know, four to five years, it's like, it's like, there's a fire in my belly. And I, I just, you know, I was going to say, nothing's going to stop me, but yeah. I'm obviously not going to let you know, not knowing how to do something technical me back when you know, everybody in its mother knows how to do it apart from me.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:30:49] Well, I, you know, when we were working together, I remember every time I would, I would say, okay, Stephanie, I would recommend you do this, this, this, and this. And you would just look at me like, Like you would have this look on your face. Like how, how am I going to do that? Like, I don't know this, like, I don't know this tech, you would do that to me every time.
But I knew like at that point I knew you and I knew you would get it done. And every time you'd come back the next week, and not only would you have it done, but it would be, it would exceed my expectations. So, um, it was just, it was always funny to see that, but I knew that you would get through it. So to me, the biggest thing is just persistence and believing in yourself.
You, you would get kind of hung up at first, but eventually you would say, okay, I can do this or we can do this. And, and you would always get through it. You always would. Is that, do you think that's a fair assessment of you?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:31:34] Um, I think it's, it's the, it's the power of having a coach. He say, I think that if I was on my own. I wouldn't, I don't think I would feel like I could do it and I don't think I would know what to do.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:31:48] Well, accountability, accountability, and coaching is very important. We'll get into that a little bit. Um, by the way, um, today's my youngest, daughter's third birthday. And, um, and I can hear her screaming right now.
I don't know if you can hear that. Uh, I think that she probably doesn't want to take it that today cause it's her birthday. So, um, my wife is, is probably tending to her right now. So if you hear some screaming, it's okay. It's okay. It's her birthday. I promise she's had a good day so far. Um, okay. Stephanie, how did we get connected?
Where, where did you, where did you, where did you hear about me?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:32:23] Could I just say happy birthday to your daughter? Nothing happy. Well it's which one is it?
Jacques Hopkins: [00:32:29] Uh, Zoe that she, Zoe just turned three. My oldest just turned five a few days ago, but today is Zoe the three year olds birthday.
Happy death day, Zoe.
I will tell her, you said that. Thank you so much.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:32:39] Um, say, where did we meet? Well, I was driving from Wales to Scotland, which is a long, drive not to perhaps not to Americans. It's about five hours. It's a very long drive in the UK.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:32:52] I just, I just drove 6,000 miles all over the United States. That doesn't sound like much.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:33:01] Yeah. You call a big country though, but that sounded like an awesome trip. But I was drawing this. I was on this journey and I was listening to Pat Flynn as podcast. I listened to both of them, but on this particular occasion, I was listening to you. I was binge listening, ask Pat. And when we got to your episodes and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is incredible.
And then of course I went across to the online course. A podcast and just, I just listened to them all, not, I mean, I, I, it was five hours, so it probably didn't get through the whole podcast. It was a few days of bingeing. I was listening to all the way there all the way back and for quite a few days afterwards.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:33:48] So. You first heard about me on Pat Flynn's podcast. And then you started listening to this very podcast, the online course show. Um, and I guess at the time you're probably thinking, okay, I've tasted success. I launched this course, but I don't really know where to go next. Right. And then. You reached out to me and you actually applied to two, my high level program for people that already have courses.
And at the time it was, it was, um, it was very one-on-one and, and I've since transitioned it to a more group coaching and that program is called next level courses. And so you, uh, you applied to that, it was application only, and I actually have your application up, right here?
No. No. And no. Do you mind if I read part of it?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:34:38] Yeah. Well, I, I'm going to sound like a stalker probably.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:34:42] No, no, I think it sets up pretty good context to where you were and this, so this came through on my end on March 6th of 2019. Right. So you had launched your course in January and, uh, and I think this just, this is a good, um, Just provides really good context and I can leave some things out if you want, but I don't think there's anything that's yeah.
You told me you're an open book. Um, so it says, it says, tell me about your current business. All right. So this is a year and a half ago. And, uh, and by the way, we haven't really talked about Nikki much, your sister and I, and I do want to get into that and your relationship with her. And she's very involved in this business as well.
It's not just you, but you start by saying with my sister, Nikki, I run HMO heaven. Which is the, the business that you have, that, that you actually doing the thing that's not your core business, a property refurbishment and management company based in Wales, in the UK. Our specialism is transforming house shares from hellish to heavenly.
We provide beautiful affordable homes to young professionals, guaranteed rent and freedom for tenant management and total peace of mind to landlords and investors. We've been so excited when growing this business under three years. That our inbox is filled with people asking for coaching and mentoring for a long time, we provided free content online and directed inquiries to other trainers.
So that's, that's exactly what you you've been telling me. Like that's, that's the same thing for paid courses. So you're, you were sending people, um, to, to, uh, to others and, you know, it's, it's not unlike me. Like, I, I started piano in 21 days back in 2013. And so I started to find success and, um, people would hear, hear about my story and they would.
Ask me for advice. And I would give them a little advice here and there, or, and then I would maybe send them off to some other online course, course. Right. So eventually like people ask and ask and ask, and I mean, as entrepreneurs, we gotta, we gotta make the thing that helps people that they're asking for.
So I definitely resonate with that. Um, and then it says, eventually I thought, what if we served our community better? And in the way they want. I like that line right there. And then you said in January, this year, yeah, we launched our first online course. We hoped for 12 people. We had over 30. We accepted 24 and are just finishing the first course.
It's been fantastic experience. It gives us so much joy to see the results. People are getting our our courses called rent to rent Kickstarter. It's for people wanting to escape the 95 and create their own profitable, profitable property business without a huge pot of cash to start. You remember writing all those words?
Yeah. Next question. How much in monthly revenue and profit are you currently making from your course? You sold your beta course. You remember what you sold your beta course for? 65. This says six 2,625 pounds. Yeah. Yeah. Six, six, two, five. Okay. I thought you said 65. Yeah. So 625. And so you made about 15,000 pounds from this, which I'm sure.
I mean, how, how did that make you feel when you, when you brought in 15,000 pounds like that?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:37:41] Um Tina, who I was at, the whole thing has been unbelievable. I was delighted. I was more delighted. Uh, by having the 12 people wanted to do it. Yeah. I that's what I was really, really thrilled about.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:38:02] And then the next question is how much in monthly revenue and profit do you want to be making from your course? You said the sky's the limit initially, but then you said initially 10, 10,000 pounds per month revenue, which I think is a very, very reasonable it's. And it's great to have goals too. Like if you would've just said the sky's the limit.
Okay. That's hard to work with. And some of the people in next level courses right now that I'm working with from a group setting, I'll often ask them like, Hey, you know, what's, you're making $2,000 a month from your course right now. Like where do you want to get this? And if they tell me just like, As high as possible.
Or if they tell me like $150,000 a month, it's like, look, let's, let's get more realistic. And you can't hit 150,000 until you hit 10,000 a month. And so, um, you had a goal of, of going to 10,000 pounds per month, which I thought was that really jumped out at me when I was looking at this application. Um, at the time, the next question, what goals have you not reached, but think you could with Jacq mentorship program.
Very very early on. And I think John can help us get started in the right way and grow faster then on her own. Yeah. Why do you want to work with Jacq?
Sometimes people who've watched me on YouTube write beautiful notes to me as though they love me and know me. I'm often surprised by the intensity. Do you want me to stop? Are we good? I love this. I love this. I should have told you ahead of time. I was going to do this, but I was really excited about this.
Uh, I'm often surprised by the intensity of feeling expressed. Now I get it. That's how I feel about Jacq. I like the way he does things, his philosophy ever since I first came across him on a smart passive income podcasts, I liked the way that you serve your community, um, and that you focus on maximizing revenue and profit while being ultra efficient.
So you can enjoy your life with your family. I just resonate. Um, Oh, goodness. I hope this doesn't sound creepy.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:40:00] It does.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:40:01] Oh, I could tell it's going to be fun working with you just by reading this application. Uh, so almost done here. Um, next level courses cost $5,800. Can you and your business support this investment?
It's a lot for us, and yes, we can support this investment because we understand how transformational it will be for us personally, and for our business, as we go further in business and embark in the world of online courses, we're growing. And it's an incredibly exciting, we'd love to work with you. Um, yeah, back then.
Um, and the, the current group format doesn't cost that much anymore, but when I was working one on one with people like I did with you, or in your case, you and Nicki, um, I did charge, you know, a higher amount for that. Um, Cause I really wanted, uh, I wanted to be paid what I thought I was worth for my time, but also want it to come across to people in your situation that it was, um, it was going to make you that much or more back.
Right.? I think if I would've charged a hundred dollars, like it wouldn't, I wouldn't have that wouldn't have even attracted you. And I would assume that, um, that the higher price point made you feel like you were actually going to get that, uh, and more in return. Did you, did you, is that kind of what was going through your head when you saw that number?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:41:12] Um, I remember it being more because, but I think each stage of business. You break through a little bit, you break through a little bit. Yeah, that was quite an early stage and said we weren't used to spending that amount, but I suppose the more times that you spend that about the less that it seems relatively.
And I think that I was said I was so keen to work with you was seeking to work with you. Then I took me ages to actually press the button after that partially. That was because I have to. Not have to, but we choose to justify, justify to each other, the spend, if it's going to be expensive. And because I'm the more one he wants to buy things which sometimes turn out to be not a good buy.
Um, I kind of thought, Oh, is it the right thing? Because I need to justify the spend. And, um, but in the end, I just thought, you know what? I can't, we can't not do this. Um, so that's why it, and it's worked out to be, uh, an incredible, be good investment.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:42:18] Well, I very much appreciate you putting your trust in me.
It was, it was just so much fun working together. And, um, when we started working together, you had a course already, obviously, and you had made sales, right? So we worked together for essentially eight weeks. And, um, what was our focus? What was our focus during the eight weeks? And what did you come out with at the end of it?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:42:37] Well, our focus was to create in Africa in front of, but if you remember, because I don't like to do anything simple. I wanted to, first of all, launch again with all the bells and whistles, and then after that launch, it was so much that I decided to do the evergreen funnel as well, also within the eight weeks.
So we actually did two pretty big things together.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:43:04] Um, yeah, but we were able to reuse some of the stuff from, um, from the live launch too. So I helped you kind of redo your, your webinar, your script for your webinar. Right. And, um, you went through, you guys went through expert secrets and we, we put some secrets together and, um, some stories and, and recrafted your offer.
And so you were able to relaunch with that script, but then also turn that into an evergreen funnel as well. Um, So how did that next launch go? Uh, if you, if you could refresh my memory and tell the audience, and then, um, once you, once you turned on the evergreen funnel, uh, what happened?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:43:41] That was exciting.
So then the second launch, um, I'm a bit crazy. So I just thought that because we'd done the first launch and this launch was going to be better, we have much better stuff like a proper webinar, as opposed to the sort of car crash that we had previous. And, um, and so I was thought, Oh, well, how do people get the choice this time?
I don't know why, but anyway, thrity people joined the second time and actually now reflecting back, I'm really happy with that, but I was a bit disappointed at the time. And then we decided to do the evergreen funnel. And again, I find that quite right. Oh, that's okay. But maybe, maybe it isn't especially can source a lot of things, but I was trying to do myself.
Um, yeah, so we did the green button and the best thing about that was that we switched it on in July. And the first sale was my mum was staying here and we'd gone to, I live on the river in Newport and we gone to a restaurant that. Oh, on the other sides of the river. And it was a lovely day. We'd had a lovely time together.
We do, because you've been telling her all about the course and she was excited for us. And, um, we walked back across the bridge and came back, uh it's in the house. And, uh, and so that we'd had a sale
and it just was like a magical moment that, uh, when you just, enjoying your self with your family, that people are buying your calls because they've seen, you know, they've got to know you through the videos and the emails and all of these other things, and they bought the course.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:45:39] So for the first time you had sold a copy of your course without doing a live launch.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:45:44] Yes.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:45:45] And that was an amazing feeling. Especially in light of what you were doing at the time, just hanging out with your mother, not really even thinking about it. Right. Or knowing you, you probably were thinking about it a little bit. All right. And then did the second evergreen sale come pretty quickly too?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:46:02] Yeah, it was honestly that first month we put the price up to a nine, nine, seven. Uh, when in the evergreen, but if they bought it on the webinar, then it was eight 97. And that very first month, uh, we were surprised to, to make 8,000 pounds. So 8,000 plants doesn't sound like a lot of money now, but it was, it was like, wow.
At the time it was.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:46:33] So, so does that mean, uh, what's an average month for you that, you know, the past six months much higher than that?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:46:39] Yeah. Well, we it's been a little bit of flips. So after that we were, we, we went 10,000 pounds, so it was quite a few months of, I batched the, there was quite a few months where it was always over 10,000 pounds and, um, yeah, I've got, I've got it here.
And then we went up to a 20,000 pounds. We had full months where it was save us 20,000 pounds, I think, uh, up until February of this year. And my, well, I'll tell you minute, but, uh, I, um, and then we had a bit of a wobble because it was quite frightening. Well, for everybody, when this Corona happened, 23rd of March, it happened here in the UK that we have the, the, the heavy lock down sort of thing.
And then in April, March sales, where it's just normal, but April, you know, hardly anything. And we. But part of that reason was because we decided to turn the advertising off. We had some Facebook ads by that stage and we decided to turn it off, but then we decided to turn it back on and actually it's been absolutely fine.
And since then, I'm, I'm just looking now. So eight krill, um, eight pro two,
Jacques Hopkins: [00:48:09] you're looking for revenue in April, 2020. Which would be the first full month after the lockdown started.
Stephanie Taylor: [00:48:16] Yeah. But, um, Oh, that's not very good then. Uh, am I looking at the right column? This is one of Nikki's spreadsheets and it's, it's, um, kind of complicated.
So April it looks like 8,000, which doesn't. Strike me as correct. And then 20,000 in may and 14,000 in June. So it's been a bit up and down, hasn't it. And then July 17,000. And I've just started working with a chap who, um, will be managing our Facebook ads because we've, we've been doing quite well, excuse me, with, with Facebook ads, but, um, But he's going to take it over.
I'll spend on Facebook ads. It's quite small, but it brings in a lot of leads and we get a lot of sales from the Facebook ads from memory, just from a random month or month, we spent, uh, 15,000 and the sales, which is specific to the Facebook ads was 6,000, just over 6,000. So, um, that's pretty typical of my.
My ads spending, but with some professionals in charge, I think that we can do a bit better.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:49:41] I heard the numbers I heard were spending 15,000 and making 6,000 Oh 1,500, 1500 and making 6,000 so much better. I was like, ha ha. how was a negative ROI. Good thing, Stephanie. Okay. So where are you getting traffic?
You're getting traffic from Facebook ads. And where else?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:50:01] Yeah. And it's, it's, um, we're getting from organic. So we get traffic from YouTube. We get traffic from Facebook, obviously not Facebook ads, just organic Facebook and a bloke because we've got, this is a new thing. So I had all these videos on YouTube.
And so I had said to myself, I was going to make blog posts out of them all and put them on the website because the content is really good. And I thought I had to do it myself, but eventually somebody had suggested, guessing, um, ask a VA to do it. So I've got a VA to do it. And, um, Yeah, I was supposed to check them before they went up.
But in the end, I said, you didn't want to just put them up because I didn't really want to devote the time at the moment. And those blog posts have done amazing because one of them in specific particular, when you put rent to rent with a number two, the first non art is a link to this particular blog post, which is about contracts, right?
And yeah, so, so that's how we've been getting profit.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:51:16] So jumping back to the numbers, we were just talking about, it sounds like you're bringing in between 10 and 20,000 pounds a month. Is that
Stephanie Taylor: [00:51:24] I would say usually it's between it had been between 15 and 20 mainly. And I think that is still the case, although we have had a blip a blitz month.
Yeah. But normally it's. It's somewhere there, but we thought that it was going to go down and a lot more. Um, but yeah, we just had to, you know, keep going. Yeah. Because what we realized was with covid. Okay. A lot of people not wanted to move forward with. This sort of thing at this time, but then there's on the other side, there's a lot of people who will want to move forward. In the UK, we've got this thing called furlough by the government's paying 80% of people's wages. And, um, so they might, it'd be off work, getting 80% of their wages and actually be looking for things that they've been meaning to do. And this might be a thing or for some people, this is a thing that they've been meaning to do that I've been putting off because they didn't have enough time.
And now they half the time. So they want to move forward.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:52:21] What if I went back to you four or five years ago, when you were working your job. And I said, Stephanie, in about five years, you're going to be banking about 15,000 pounds a month selling it online course. Oh my God. What, what would, what would, what would have been going through your head and what does that mean to you today?
Stephanie Taylor: [00:52:40] Oh, wow. Wow. Um, I honestly wouldn't have believed you because I did have the self belief and I didn't have the, you know, one of the things that you have to do to becoming, uh, doing the online course is that one of the things that's feels most special to me is you have to become a leader, but when you become a leader, you also inspire other people to become leaders as well.
And, you know, first of all, you're a leader in your own life and then it ripples out. Uh, and that, that's one of the things that I really enjoy about, about the work that we do. That even the people who had not planning to do this particular specific strategy that they might see me as somebody who, um, previously was not especially successful.
Um, and it has in a short period of time changed a lot of things. Uh, and, and it gives other people that little spark. Maybe I could do that as well. And, uh, so that's one of the things I love about what we do now. The other things is, are that. I'll get to work with my sister. And, uh, she's, she's amazing. And we say it's a family thing that when mom, uh, once to, at the moment, my mum looks after my grand who's in her nineties and they live in Birmingham, which is about two hours away.
But when, when, and obviously my Nan is keen to stay where she is, she's part of an active church community, et cetera, and say, but when my nan is no longer here. Then my mum will move to Wales and we know we can buy her house or we can, we can do whatever we want. And my son, Alex, he's just buying his own first house and also.
We are helping them in lots of different ways, not he wants to do it himself financially, although we've been able to, um, help him to work with an interior designer, too, something you wouldn't have thought of to work it to his own budget and all of that. And, and also we're able to hope for the, I would love to be able to bring him into the business, to have him have his own rents rent company, you know, where he is in Birmingham and to become part of the business.
Uh, as, as well. So, so yeah, it's totally changed. Um, changed everything.
Jacques Hopkins: [00:55:14] You said something about, um, about how kind of you have to be a leader, you have to be a leader or in your niche and to succeed with your course. I know back in 2013, when I got the i