Amy Porterfield's Journey: From Flop to $1 Million Course Launch

Amy Porterfield transformed her failed launch into a $915,000 success by focusing on her expertise and building an email list.

### Amy Porterfield's Course Launch Strategy: From $267 to $915,000
* 💡 Amy Porterfield's course launch strategy transformed her business, from a failed **$267 launch in 2011** to a **$915,000 launch in 2013**.
* 📧 Growing an email list was crucial to Amy's success, as she shifted from relying solely on social media to focusing on **email marketing**.
* 📊 Amy emphasizes the importance of webinars in course launches, with webinars converting at **10-12% on average** and **up to 20% when done well**.
* 📅 Amy's launch cadence typically involves an **8-10 day cart open period**, with **multiple live webinars** during that time.
* 💬 During webinars, Amy stresses the importance of **confidently transitioning from providing value to making the sales pitch**.
* 📈 Amy's strategy involves relaunching the same course multiple times, refining it each time based on **feedback** and growing her email list with each **launch**.
* 💻 Amy recommends using tools like **Uscreen** for building membership platforms and **ManyChat** for SMS automation.
* 🔑 The key takeaway from Amy's experience is the importance of **investing in learning from those who have a proven track record**, rather than trying to **figure it out on your own**.

In 2013, she launched an online course that made $915,000. But just 2 years before that, her launch completely flopped and only made $267. What happened in those two years? I started to grow my email list, something I teach my students. When you just use social media to grow your business, you're growing your business on rented land. Her name is Amy Porterfield, and since that massive launch in 2013, she has built a $1 million education business. And in this episode, she takes you step by step through the course launch strategy she used to do it. It is not enough to email your list or social media and send them to a sales page. Sales pages, at best, convert about 5% on average; when done right, 10 to 12%. I've even had 20%. Thank you to YouScreen for sponsoring this video. When I was looking at your website, you have a timeline of your story, which I love. I love when people do this, when they put together like year-by-year.

timelines, and what really struck me is this period between 2011 and 2013. Because in 2011, you describe your first launch. You say, I have this launch. It flopped. I made $267. And then 2012 is the next bullet point where you have a $30,000 launch. And it could be easy to say, 2012, I quit. So talk to me about 2011, this first launch, and why you continued. So when I left corporate, which now it's about 14 years ago, I truly left because I wanted to be my own boss. I didn't want to be told what to do, when to do it, or how to do it. And I had a really cool boss, Tony Robbins, for about seven years. And I got to travel the world with Tony and work on the content that he does on stage. So, and I got paid well, so that all was good. But there was this desire for more freedom that really I couldn't shake. So I left my corporate job, and my goal was

to create digital courses and teach people how to do online marketing, which is what I did there. And so I went out and I looked around on Instagram and Facebook, and everyone else seemed to be making $100,000 with their launches, so why wouldn't I? And I was so naive. So I created this digital course on a topic that I wasn't an expert in. So now I teach people how to create digital courses, and one of the things I teach is to find your 10% Edge. Where have you gotten results for yourself or for somebody else that you could teach how you got those results inside of a course? Well, I was teaching people how to launch a book using social media. I had never launched a book in my life. I don't know why I thought I needed to do that. There was this desperation I had. I need to be, I need to put myself on the map. I need to niche down. So I decided to teach book launching through social media. I knew social media well. I didn't know

book launching. So, when I went to go sell it, I had zero confidence and a very small email list. And so, I made the $267. I made a little bit more, but once you back out a few expenses, I didn't even make enough to cover a unit. A course was $297. I didn't even make enough to cover one unit. Cried for a week, told myself I wasn't cut out to be an entrepreneur, this is never going to work, I'm a failure, I'm going to have to gravel back for my job, like it was bad. And thank God I had my husband in my life at the time, still do, but he was really a huge support where he's like, you need to shake this off. Do you want to go back to your job? And that's where that idea of freedom, no, I left because I wanted to be my own boss. So, he kind of pushed me back out there to try again. Ah, that's so great. Um, having a spouse is such a game changer, and one of the things

that I feel like a lot of creators who are having success don't talk about enough. Like, I look back at where I was before I met my wife, and the business was essentially nothing. And I don't think it's a coincidence that, you know, today it's grown quite a bit. Like, having a supportive spouse just goes so, so, so far. It really does. So, what was the difference in 2012 when you went from this $267 launch to a $30,000 launch? What changed? The number one thing—actually, two big things changed. Number one is that I decided to teach on my 10% Edge, which was I took the book launch part out, which I wasn't an expert in, and I taught just how to use social media to build a business. So, specifically, it was mainly Facebook at the time. And so, I went really with my core competencies and doubled down there. The other thing is I started to grow my email list, something I teach my students. I really do believe that you don't have a thriving, viable business, or it's very

hard to create one if all you're focused on is a social media presence. Having an email list is one of the most important assets in your business that you own. I always say when you just use social media to grow your business, you're growing your business on rented land, and at any time, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk can change that algorithm, and boom, the way you did business will change overnight. So, I started to grow an email list, which gave me more confidence. So, and then I started to put myself out there in an area I knew well, and that changed everything. 100% agree, building your business on rented land is a huge problem a lot of creators run into, and that's why I love today's sponsor, Uscreen. Uscreen is an all-in-one membership platform built for video creators that helps turn your video content into a thriving business. With Uscreen, you can offer subscribers direct access to your own membership community, digital wellness studio, or dedicated streaming platform that allows you to have a more consistent stream of revenue without

having to worry about algorithms or quickly changing trends. It's just you and your audience, and you can create the exact experience you want. A Uscreen membership includes an on-demand video library, live streaming capabilities, and your own community space, all in your own branded site, along with mobile and TV apps. Get all of this alongside top-tier support from a team of experts who are here to help you plan a winning strategy to launch and grow your membership. For those with an existing membership, Uscreen even provides hands-on migration support. Trusted by Yoga with Adriene, Amy Landino, Filmmakers Academy, and many others, Uscreen has helped creators earn more than $150 million each year. Running a creator business is hard, but with the help of Uscreen's simple monetization features, it's never been easier to start making more consistent income through subscriptions. Uscreen is offering you free access to a workshop that I personally did with their team, all about how to build a premium membership community. If you're interested in starting your membership journey with Uscreen, check out the link in the

description the next point on this timeline. I guess it's technically two points ahead, but 2012 $30,000 launch. 2013 $915,000 in the year. What happened in that year? So here's exactly what happened. One, I decided that I was going to do less but make more money, and this is something that I live by in my business now, 14 years later. I knew that, okay, I actually created a digital course, and I'm pretty good at doing webinars and selling online. Who knew? I didn't. So I started doing that more and more, and I got really good at selling my digital courses through webinars. And so I thought, you know what? I'm not going to create another course. I'm going to take this course, make it better based on what I learned in my last launch, and because I'm getting better at webinars and selling and showing up, I'm going to launch it again. So I launched the course again, and then I launched it again, and the course changed each time. It actually

I changed the title and the topic. It used to be all social media, then I got more focused on Facebook, so I got really dialed in. And so, I launched the same course over and over and over again, and every time my email list got bigger. Because when you launch something online and you do something like a boot camp, a challenge, a webinar, you start growing your email list organically while you're launching. So, after every launch, my email list got bigger, and so as my email list got bigger, so did my revenue for each of the launches. So, was I did less to make more, and I took what I was good at, and I just got better at it, which is really hard for a lot of multi-passionate entrepreneurs. Most of us have way too many plates spinning in the air. We say yes to way too much because of FOMO. We don't want to be left out, and we're trying to figure it all out. So, maybe that's good. Maybe that is. Maybe that is. But we don't become really good at

anything and so early on. I became really good at one thing, and I stayed in my lane. I really acted as though I was a racehorse. When you're in a race with a racehorse, they have blinders on. They can't look left or right, only forward. So, I stopped looking at what everyone else was doing because I would be so tempted to try it all. I just kept looking forward, and it really made a huge difference. How many launches would you say you did in that year? I think I did four or five in 2013. Wow, wow, wow. And what was like a launch cadence? How long were you doing the launch? So, when I first started out, I remember my very first successful launch was 21 days. I will never do that again, nor will I ever teach that. It's just way too long to be in the game. One of the things I love about teaching people how to create digital courses, one thing I personally love about launching them, is that you're in and you're out. I love white space. I

love when I'm not promoting. Right now, I'm not promoting anything. I just get to put out really great value content and do my podcast. I love that. And so, the Cadence that I teach now, and I've been doing for years and years, is about an 8 to 10-day cart open. So, I teach 30 days of leading up to cart open, and that's when you've got freebies, you're giving amazing value, you're going live on social more, you're maybe getting interviewed on different podcasts, you're really putting yourself out there, all free value, you're not mentioning your course, you're not selling anything. And then, once the launch starts for me, it would be, that's when I start doing my live webinars, that's when the cart opens, and for 10 days, you could buy my program, and at the end of that 10 days, you can no longer buy it. And so, that scarcity and that urgency and that Cadence makes a huge difference. Now, I also teach Evergreen. I have a digital course. I have

two digital courses in one membership. That's my product suite, and one of my digital courses is $500. It's all about list building, and that's on Evergreen. I sell it every single day through automated webinars. And now, once a year, I do one really big launch with a course teaching you how to create and launch a digital course. And I do that one for 10 days once a year. And then I have a membership that I do all the time. So, I love the cadence of live launching and Evergreen. During those 10 days of launch, you said that's when I do my webinars. Are we talking a daily webinar here? What does that 10-day period look like? Great question. Yes. So, I start out my launch with two webinars on day one, usually two webinars on day two. I usually open a cart on a Tuesday, so two webinars on Tuesday, two webinars on Wednesday. And then I'll let a few days go by, and I'll usually do one on a weekend like a

Saturday or Sunday for those that can't make the weekly. So, I usually do five live webinars. Now, this is the question I always get asked: Is it the same webinar every time? Absolutely. I'm just giving multiple dates and times. There is a higher perceived value when something is live. It's incredible. If I do the exact webinar live and then record it and then put that exact webinar on automation, when I'm live, all I hear is, Is this live? Is this live? Is this live? It could be the exact same thing on evergreen, but people want to know that you're there with them live, especially since COVID. That connection is important. So, I do the exact same webinar five times at least live throughout 10 days. But the secret is, every time it gets better. There's a nuance. I'll remember, like, get off the webinar and think, Oh, I didn't like that transition. Right away, I fix it. Or, I will never remember. Or, Um, during the Q&A, I've noticed this question keeps coming up over and over again. I need to address it earlier in

the webinar. I always want to get to the selling point of a webinar at 45 minutes. So, I'll go 45 minutes of pure value. At that 45-minute mark, I want to transition into selling my digital course for at least 15 minutes before I get into a Q&A. And so, if I can't hit it at 45 minutes, I tighten it up. So, every single webinar just is getting better and better. Let's stick into this a little bit because I hear this a lot from my audience as something they struggle with. They'll do the 45 minutes of the webinar. They'll give so much value away. They get to the point where they know they should sell, and they stay in that sale for like 60 seconds. They just kind of breeze right through it. How do we stay in that and actually make this become the compelling opportunity and pitch that we want it to? The first thing is it's a mindset shift for the person doing the webinar. You have to believe that you

have earned the right to sell. And so, what I mean by that is I just gave 45 minutes of amazing value. And I have a motto on every webinar. I say it to myself before I go live. No matter if they buy or not, they walk away today feeling excited, inspired, and driven to take action, no matter if they buy or not. So, that 45 minutes, I'm giving you something that if you walk away and do not buy from me, you still got immense value. But then, after I hit that mark, and I always do an obvious question transition, something like, Okay, now that you know how to create a digital course, you see the big picture. Do you want me to virtually hold your hand through the process and go through this with you step by step? If you answered yes, I want to invite you into Digital Course Academy. So, I practice that. It's very natural for me to do an obvious yes question into, Let me invite you now. I tell my students, This is where you're going to slow down the people that are

still on your webinar, are genuinely interested in working with you, and so you're going to talk about more of the benefits than the features over the next 15 minutes. The features are: I've got six modules, under each module 5 to 10 videos, I've got PDFs, I've got AI prompts, I've got it all. Those are the features, and I'll breeze through those, but I'm going to focus on the benefits. Benefits: you're no longer going to be like, What do I put into my digital course? You're no longer going to be wondering, How do I sell a digital course? You're going to feel confident. You're going to have more revenue. We're going to talk about the benefits of what a digital course will do for you, and I really hit those home. I also answer every single objection in those 15 minutes that I know they're thinking: I don't have enough time, I don't have enough money, I don't have enough knowledge, I'm too busy, whatever it is. I address all of them with, Okay, but

inside the, of course, here's how I'm going to help you overcome that. So, I slow down, and also, I teach my students to have slides for all of this, so they're not going to rush through in 60 seconds. They've got to get through their slides. And the other thing is, so that's 45 minutes. So, you slow down, you talk more about the benefits than the features, and you answer every objection that you know. Like, you have a list of five objections, you're going to address all of them in that 15 minutes. And then, you're also going to bring them back to, Okay, click this button or go to this URL, multiple times. You need to let them say no, no, no, many times before they say, Okay, maybe I will check this out. All right, I hear you, Amy. I'm going to check it out. And then, after you get through those 15 minutes, and you've offered them to go check out the sales page many times, you get into your Q&A. And your Q&A, every question you answer, you're bringing it

back to where they can find that answer in your course, where they're going to get that solution, so you're always bringing it back to the course as well. So, the Q&A is a huge selling mechanism when done right. Help me speak to the emotions that I often feel in this situation where it's like, Okay, I start the sale at 45 minutes or whatever it is. I see that the number of participants in the call starts to drop. People are dropping. I'm panicking. I'm saying, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Stay, stay, stay, stay. All people don't like this. And I go from I'm giving, I'm giving, I'm giving to I'm selling, I'm selling, I'm selling, and I just feel uncomfortable. How do I feel comfortable during this? Because I imagine if I'm feeling uncomfortable as I'm trying to sell something, the people on the other end aren't having a great experience either, right? Yes, that when I sold that course that I made $267, I absolutely had no confidence, felt

very uncomfortable, and it comes through in your voice and your presence. So, the first thing is another mindset shift. You have to believe that this is their next logical step to get the results thereafter. Like, you have to believe in your program, and you have to believe that this is what they want. They've told me this, so I'm going to help them understand why now is the perfect time for this. Now remember those 30 days of pre-launch; those are very important. When people get on my master class, I am not talking them into creating a digital course. They're already sold on the idea that they want to create a digital course. Now my job is to say, But I'm the girl that will teach you. You want to trust me? Let me tell you about my success, my other students. Let me bust through the objections so you know I understand where you're at. So, that 30 days of pre-launch, it gives me more confidence because I know I've helped them come to a place of I'm ready to do this now. I want to see if you're

the girl I want to do it with. So, 30 days of pre-launch makes a big difference. Also, that fear of selling a lot of it goes away the more you do it. It's like riding a bike. And so, I had to show up on 10-20 webinars before I started to feel more confident in my ability to sell on a webinar. So, also, it's just practice. Your first few are going to be terrible. My first webinar, I forgot to put the URL in a slide deck. No one knew where to go to even buy. And so, I've made many, many mistakes. And so, just knowing that you're going to get better as you go is a big deal. And then finally, this idea of feeling scared to sell and people dropping off. Number one, let's just not look during the webinar. It's not worth looking. We look at analytics after. We look how many people started on the webinar, how many people were still on at that 45-minute mark. If I didn't hit the pitch at 45 minutes, how many people were

on when I did hit the pitch. How many people were on when I first said the URL of where to buy? Like, we are absolutely looking at that, but later in the moment, you have to stay focused. The people that are there deserve your full attention, and so we're not going to worry about people dropping off. It always happens, and you have to remember the people that are there. They genuinely are interested, so give them the best experience you can. A lot of times, people will do one of these webinars or maybe two, and they'll conclude, Like, this isn't working. Maybe it's time for a new strategy. How do I test this? How do I know when it's time for a new strategy? Or are you saying, Hey, this webinar strategy works. This is a strategy. Figure out how to make the strategy work for you. I mean, I'd like to say that I know that. Um, that's really hard for people that they're like, Amy, I've done 10 webinars, and I've sold five units. Well, then I'd say, Okay, we

got to look at this and see what's going on, but I think at least what I tell my students. Let's go through two launches where you've done at least three to four webinars at least each launch before we make a decision if webinars are your thing or not. Not everybody is going to be great on a webinar, and there's other things that I teach, like a boot camp. You could do a 5-day boot camp, and then at the end of the boot camp, you sell. I like to sell with webinars still at the end of a boot camp, but you could do it with a sales video and then lead into having people buy your course, your membership, your Mastermind, whatever it is. So, I think two launches are ideal to kind of work out the kinks, and I always say the first launch is as much for you as the marketer as it is for your students. You just got to get through that first launch. It's awkward, it's messy, it's scary. You're so much better on that

second launch, and you have to pay attention to what worked and what didn't so you can make those tweaks. But I also love, you know, different ways to sell as well, like a boot camp or a challenge. But I want everyone to hear me here: it is not enough to email your list or social media and send them to a sales page. Sales pages, at best, convert about 5% on average. Webinars, when done right, 10 to 12%. I've even had 20% on a webinar. And so, it is important to know that students will come to me and say, Amy, this isn't working for me. My course isn't selling. I said, What did you do? I said a few emails and sent them to the sales page. Never works. So you've got to have a vehicle in between the sales page, uh, in between your emails and sales page. Do you think that's true regardless of price point? I get this question a lot. I always say if it's $97 or less, we can use social media and

email the sales page. Anything over $97, I'd like to see a webinar. In my beginning years, I created a product called FB Influence. This was after my failed launch, and I did it with Lewis Howes, which is so wild, but it was so many years ago. He had the audience, and I had the content, and it was $97. We promoted this program together for a year, made over a million dollars on a $97 program that I did with webinars. So, I'm a big fan of webinars, no matter what price point, but I think today you can get away with skipping the webinar if you want for that price point. You said something that I think a lot of people listening to this probably turned their head at. Let me give you a scenario that I see happen a lot. People will do their launch, it'll go great, they'll wait a few months, they'll do another launch, it'll go okay, they'll wait a few months, they'll do another launch, and they're not getting sales anymore because they

are not growing their list with their launches. They are just hitting the same people, and they're hitting diminishing returns. So, you mentioned every time you do a launch, the list grows. Yes. How does that work? So, first of all, I have this motto, and I really believe it: double your list, double your revenue. And I've seen it over and over again. We just had our big launch, our biggest launch of my career after 14 years. We just launched in SE September, and we have focused on that email list growth and strength six months leading up. Bigger focus than I've ever had, and I know it was a direct reflection. So, first of all, just knowing the value of an email list, again, a mindset shift. Growing your email list is something you do in your business every day. It is not something you do once and move on to the next thing. Now, I don't think about growing my list every day. I have things out there that are helping me grow my list, but I'm very conscious of the

fact that it is an integral part of my business. So, that's one thing. The other thing is, how do you grow your list with a launch? Well, with a webinar, let's say a webinar, it is free. So, if you're going to sell something on a webinar, usually you want your webinar to be free, and then you sell. And so, with the webinar, it's free, and you're going to email your list, you're going to run ads, you're going to talk about it on social media. One thing that worked really well for us in this last launch, we did tons of Instagram reels, and we also used the DM strategy that most people are using right now. DM me the word launch, and I'll send you a link to sign up for the free webinar. That tends to work really well on Instagram right now. And so, we focused on filling up this webinar for free. Now, let's say 10% of the people that get on the webinar buy, 90% did not buy. We will follow up a webinar with a very

intentional email marketing strategy to anyone who signed up for the webinar and didn't show up or attended the webinar and didn't buy. So we do a big email push to the sales page after the webinar. But to answer your question, the reason why my list is growing is the 30-day pre-launch is all about freebies. Sign up for my list, get this freebie, and the webinar is free. Sign up, you get a free webinar. All those people that didn't buy the next launch, I've nurtured them every week. I've given them a podcast every week. I've connected with them on social. They're more likely to buy on my second launch. This automation you're doing on Instagram, is that with ManyChat? Yes. Okay, okay. Just wanted to call that out for folks who are like, How do I do that? What automation? Because I've seen it as well, but I think it's still very new to most people. I think most people would be surprised to know that that's a

thing that's a great point. Let's talk about that. So, when I said a lot of people are using it, I'm thinking of my peers, but if I think of my students, you're right, this is very new to them. So, many chat is the tool I use. I actually hire someone to do it for me, but you could do it on your own, and that's where you're going to program responses. So, if someone comments the word launch in a comment, automatically they get a note that says, Hey, so glad you're interested in launching a digital course. Here's my free webinar. Click here to sign up. So, all that is set up on the back end so that when I put out a reel saying, Comment launch, it all kind of works for me, and it works ongoingly. So, it's not just a one-time, uh, one-and-done. What can you tell us about this ad strategy you mentioned? You said when you're doing the webinar, you want to run ads for folks who are listening to this who have

never run ads before. It seems like there's a risk of just lighting money on fire if I don't know what I'm doing. So, how should I think about, okay, I want to do ads so I can grow the webinar? There's absolutely a risk of lighting money on fire, and I think everyone who has ventured out to use ads of any kind has experienced that, including me, for sure. So, the first thing is when I'm running ads during a launch, I focus about 80 to 85% of my ad spend on it. It used to always be just the webinar. So, let's say I had $100,000. That's a lot. This is all relative. I've been in the business for 14 years, but if I had $100,000 to run on ads for a launch, I'd take 80% of that and focus on just filling up my webinar because it comes back to that idea that it's not enough to send people to a sales page. So, I'm not going to spend my

ad dollar saying here, click here and check out my sales page, click here and get a free training from me, and an interactive Q&A. That's a whole different experience. So, that's the first thing: thinking about where you're going to spend your ad dollars. Spend them on a selling vehicle like a boot camp, a challenge, or a webinar, or a three-part video series. If you know Jeff Walker, you know that style: your three valuable videos and then one sales video. You could send your ad dollars to that first value ad video, and then they can go through the rest. So, that's the first thing to think about. The second thing is you really have to test and experience. Sometimes a static image ad with captions is going to work well; other times, it's a video direct to camera of you talking about something. It might be a b-roll video where they see you in your kitchen doing something, but you have a voiceover. You never know what's going to work, and every year it feels different for us: what's working, what's not, and so

We do a lot of testing to see what's going to work, and that takes a lot of time and focus. So, having someone on your team really focused on the paid ads is very valuable to do so. A lot of people will hire it out. Now, when I work with my students, they're all beginners. They've never launched a course before. Many of them don't have an email list yet, and so we're focusing on growing their email list and launching their first course. They're not using paid ads on their first launch, nor do I want them to. I want them to focus on getting good on a webinar, writing really good copy for emails, building your sales page, focus on all of that for your first launch. When you make a little money, reinvest back into ads. Do you have a figure where you say, Okay, if you are thinking that ads might be for you, I recommend until you can spend or budget this much. Do you have a figure like that when you're thinking about running ads?

how much you should spend when you're just starting out as long as you're making some money, and that money is going to be reinvested. Even $500 could go a long way, you know. Right now, it's for many years we saw very high um cost of leads. So like I've paid $20 a lead many times with my launches, but this year we've seen it come down. I was paying three to $5 a lead per webinar registrant, or I also do a boot camp, so boot camp registrant, and that felt really good. So right now, at the time of this recording, we are seeing that it's more manageable. And so if you had $500 and it's $500 a lead, you could get a good handful of leads into your webinar or whatever it is. So I think that's a really good number to start with. You mentioned that the conversion rate for people who are on the webinar is going to be higher than people who get the recording afterwards. So what do you do or how do you think about increasing the

show-up rate to the webinar once I've registered for it. Your questions are so good, and these are all the things I love to talk about, so this is like the best interview ever. So yes, let's talk about a show-up rate. One of the things that we do is we promise a special bonus if you show up live. So in all of our marketing for our free master class, we will have a mention of show up live, and you'll get that XYZ checklist to do whatever it is. Ours will always be focused, obviously, on the topic the webinar's around, and so, or if my webinar is around how to create and launch a digital course, a really good freebie would be how to grow your email list quickly. Because you have to think, where are they right now? They're thinking, Amy, I can't create a course, I don't have an email list. So with my bonuses, I always try to meet them where they're at right now. So we do a show-up live bonus. You have to talk about it. You have to talk

about it um in the post about signing up for your master class. You have to talk about it in the emails that are leading up to the master class. We send a series of emails saying, Okay, your master class is in three days. Here's something that I want you to think about, or Make sure you've got your questions ready, or Don't forget, PS, don't forget, we've got your freebie ready the minute you show up live. And when they show up live, we usually put it right there in the top of the chat where they can click it and download it right away. I don't make a big deal of it on the master class because what happens is people will show up, and I'll say, All right, so go get your freebie, da d da, and then the recording. People feel like they miss something, so I just don't make a big deal because they know it's there. I might mention it once really early on, and then it's not. We've moved on from it, but it

Absolutely helps to get people on so the show show up live bonus is a must. And the other thing is that email sequence leading up to the live master class. And now a lot of us doing webinars are starting to use text messaging. And so having a text message, All right, your master class is starting in 10 minutes, that is a very big deal. That absolutely does help show up, right? Is the text message tool integrated into the webinar tool, or is that a separate tool entirely? No, great question. It is on the opt-in page. When you sign up for the master class, we give you an option to give us your phone number to also get text message reminders. So they don't have to do it, but it's on the opt-in page. What do you use for your opt-in pages? We do ours custom. We just have WordPress. We do them custom, but I highly recommend just using very simple templates. I have a team of 20 people. We've been doing this for a long time. My students, though, I'm always encouraging

them just to use templates. Like if you sign up for ConvertKit, one of my favorite email service providers, they have beautiful templates for webinar registration pages, freebies, sales pages. So, I highly recommend using a template. I was asking because I recently went down the SMS rabbit hole because I'm like, you know what, I haven't explored this enough. And there are managed platforms that really do a lot of the nuts and bolts behind-the-scenes stuff for you. Then there's Twilio, where you basically build your own front end of it. And I'm realizing that in the SMS world, if you try to do it, if you try to build it with Twilio, there are so much more compliance hoops to jump through than I realized. And so, I was wondering if you're using SMS to tell people, Hey, this is coming up, if you had a platform that was handling that for you that other people could learn from and use. Well, we use HubSpot. So, HubSpot has a text messaging option. And so, we had to

integrate it, and it was definitely not something I would recommend to like a first-time webinar. Someone doing a webinar and building this out, and that's another thing I probably wouldn't recommend. SMS for your first launch, this is something you got to be careful of. The extra bells and whistles not only will slow you down but will freak you out. Like if we're new to this, well, I remember vividly being brand new. If you told me I had to do a fast action bonus to get people on live, I had to do SMS, and I was doing five webinars in the very, that's way too much. I'm sharing with you what I do now, but what I want my newbies to think of is this is something I'm going to lead up to. The first one, not a lot, a lot of bells and whistles. I have this motto, keep it simple, get fancy later. The next one, we might add one extra thing. The next time, now we're going to add two. So that's how

you stay in the game, and you don't get burned out and overwhelmed, but you're moving forward, taking action. The people that don't launch for the first time try to do everything in the kitchen sink in their first launch, and then they're like, This is too much. So, you got to be careful with that. We've spent so much great time talking about the course sale process. Was there any other essential bit of that that you feel like people listening to this, they should absolutely know if you are about to launch a course, some critical part of the process we didn't touch on? Yes, and that is learn from someone who's gone before you that has a proven track record. It could be me or someone. There's many people who have proven track records with creating courses and teaching you how to do it. What I didn't do early on is I tried to piece it together on my own. My $267 launch was hunting and pecking all over the web, hoping that I understood what someone was doing, but I had no clue, and

It was really, really frustrating when it didn't work out. And so, I'm a big proponent of investing in myself and in the training I need. What you don't know, you don't know. So, find someone who's willing to pull back the curtain and say, This is everything I do to create courses and launch courses. Follow my model. When I worked for Tony Robbins, it was probably the biggest lesson I ever learned: you never need to reinvent the wheel. Find someone who's willing to show you what they've done and literally study step by step what that is and do that to a tee until you find your own rhythm. I think that's the best advice I've ever been given. I live by it in my business, and I teach my students that as well. To continue learning about selling courses from someone else with a proven track record, watch this video where Mariah Cause shares her secret to selling a $10,000 online course without making free content. [Music]

Meet the Woman Who Built a $100M Online Education Empire

Creator Science helps you become a smarter creator. 

It's never been easier to become a creator, but breaking through the noise gets more difficult every single day.

The only way to get ahead is to learn from other creators who are playing (and winning) the game right now. Creator Science gives you that edge. 

Every week, we explore what's working right now to help you grow your audience, generate more revenue, and break through the noise. You'll hear from today’s top professional creators, including James Clear, Ali Abdaal, Tim Urban, and Codie Sanchez.

Creator Science is a Signal Award-winning podcast hosted by Jay Clouse.

The team behind Creator Science:
Host: Jay Clouse / @jayclouse
Producer: Conor Conaboy / @conorconaboy
Thumbnails: Jonathan Sippel / @thumbnailgrail

🎧 Podcast starter playlists: 
https://creatorscience.fm/playlists/

📬 Send love letters and ideas to:
jay@creatorscience.com

🧪 Join The Lab
https://creatorscience.com/lab

© Creator Science®


Jay Clouse

Amy Porterfield's Journey to a Million-Dollar Education Business

Amy Porterfield's first launch in 2011 flopped, making only $267, but she persevered and grew her email list, leading to a $30,000 launch in 2012.

She shifted her focus to teaching social media for business growth, leveraging her core competencies.

Since her successful launch in 2013, she has built a million-dollar education business, emphasizing the importance of a strong email list and effective course launch strategies.

The Importance of Email Lists and Focused Launches

Building a business solely on social media is risky, as algorithms can change unexpectedly.

Growing an email list provides more stability and confidence, leading to increased revenue through consistent launches.

Focusing on one thing and improving over time, rather than spreading oneself too thin, is key to success in entrepreneurship.

Effective Launch Strategy for Digital Courses

The speaker enjoys providing value content and running a podcast without promoting anything.

They use an 8 to 10-day launch cadence, offering freebies and live webinars, with a sense of urgency and scarcity for program enrollment.

The speaker also has an evergreen digital course and a yearly big launch, using multiple live webinars to engage with potential customers and improve the selling transition.

Mastering Webinar Sales for Digital Courses

The webinar focuses on the benefits of creating a digital course, addressing common objections and offering solutions.

The presenter emphasizes the importance of a 30-day pre-launch to build confidence and trust with participants.

Practice and experience are key to overcoming the fear of selling, and it's recommended to avoid checking participant numbers during the webinar to reduce anxiety.

The Importance of Webinars and List Growth in Launching

Webinars are essential for driving sales, with a higher conversion rate than sales pages.

It's recommended to conduct at least two launches with multiple webinars before deciding on the effectiveness of the strategy.

Growing and strengthening the email list is crucial for consistent revenue, and it should be a continuous focus in the business.

Growing Your Business List Through Launches

A free webinar is a key strategy for growing the business list, with promotion through emails, ads, and social media.

Instagram reels and a DM strategy have been effective in filling up the webinar.

Following the webinar, an intentional email marketing strategy is used to nurture leads and encourage future purchases.

Effective Strategies for Launching a Course

Focusing on paid ads is valuable, but beginners should prioritize growing their email list and perfecting their launch strategy first.

Reinvesting as little as $500 from initial earnings into ads can be effective, especially with the current lower cost of leads.

To increase webinar show-up rates, offering a live bonus, sending reminder emails, and using text message reminders can be highly effective.

Using templates for tasks like webinar registration is highly recommended.

SMS marketing can be complex, with compliance challenges, so it's better to use a managed platform like HubSpot.

For a successful course launch, it's essential to learn from someone with a proven track record and to keep the process simple at first.