So, I don’t think this will come as a shock to anyone that knows me personally, but I’m absent-minded.
I have a terrible memory. I can’t leave the house without having to come back inside at least once, often twice to find my keys or my phone or my laptop charger.
I’m awful at simple math, not because I’m not smart, but because I’m impatient, not wanting to take the time to really think it through. And when it comes to anything tech, my attitude is “try it and see what happens.”
And I accept that’s who I am. Sure, I’d like to improve, because I often create more work for myself, which on one hand is totally inefficient, but on the other hand, I often learn quite a bit when I have to fix something that I’ve broken. And that’s why I know so much about WordPress!!
But about a month ago, all of those qualities culminated in one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. More on that later.
Unlike the big stuff, like my decision to leave my day job and take my side hustle full time, I typically don’t carefully consider the outcomes of my decisions. I just decide and get to work.
And that’s what I did with the latest launch of my Web Designer Academy this fall, my proven step-by-step system for people that want to turn their web design and coding skills into a profitable business when they have no clients, no portfolio and a severe case of imposter syndrome.
Let me pause here and say that even if you’re not interested in building a web design business, like the majority of people in the WP+BFF’s community, there’s a lot of actionable info you can pick up from this experience, so if you’re not a wannabe web designer I invite you to keep on reading!!
It was never my intention when I started this business to ever teach anyone else how to do exactly what I do.
But last fall, my BFFs Sara and Cristina over at One Woman Shop had recommended me to their friends at Skillcrush to do a presentation on how I built my WordPress business for one of their online summits.
If you don’t know who Skillcrush is, they have a product called the WordPress blueprint which teaches people who want to become web designers how to actually CODE WordPress from the ground up.
Thankfully I have an amazing business coach, Vicki Fitch, who when I told her about this opportunity, gave me a vision of how I could leverage it for more than just exposure.
Our plan was to invite attendees to a free webinar that expanded on how I built my business with WordPress and affiliate marketing, and on the survey signup page, I would ask them what 3 things they struggle with the most. I had about 300 people sign up for the webinars, and I put them on a separate list in my email marketing program – and almost all of them filled out the survey.
By the way, I would have never thought of doing that on my own.
I would have presented on it, put that on my list of cool things that I did to build my credibility, and moved on with my life – and that’s why I think everyone should have a coach – because we have so many blind spots that we can’t see. What I’ve earned from that one suggested has given me a significant return on my investment in coaching.
The information I got back from that survey was so enlightening! It was like I had hopped into a time machine and went back to 2014 when I felt the exact same way those 300 women felt – like a total imposter who didn’t know enough to say I’m an expert.
Two more topics emerged from that survey – how to overcome imposter syndrome and how to build credibility when you’ve never built a website for a client before. Um, yep, been there, done that, got the t-shirt!
So after reviewing this information, Vicki convinced me that it was time to coach others on my expertise on how I actually built this business. How I flipped the traditional freelance web designer model on it’s head and ended up with amazing clients (more than I can handle at times)! I was more confident about this offer than anything else I’ve ever offered before.
So we took the information from the survey, turned it into a 3-part live webinar series and offered it to the Skillcrush people, and I shared with them my experience of how I was able to overcome imposter syndrome and build credibility and actually earn money with WordPress while working full-time and without having to have clients.
And then at the end of that webinar series, I invited people to join a live, 12-week group coaching program where I’d pull back the curtain and teach them exactly what I’ve done to build my business.
My content wasn’t created at the time I made the offer, but I knew exactly what I was going to teach, and I felt very confident that I could provide TONS of value to anyone that wanted to learn what I was teaching. I knew that if they implemented the steps I was sharing that they’d recoup their investment in the program fairly quickly.
I knew it because I’d done it myself, and I’m not special. I just take action.
So before I tell you what happened, let’s talk pricing for a minute. My pricing structure was $1049 for early-bird signups – people that took advantage of the offer right away on the webinars, $1197 for people that missed that early cut-off, and then if people took advantage of a payment plan, they paid a little more than if they paid in full up front.
For something that didn’t even exist. Just for the promise that I would teach it to them.
It takes a LOT of trust for someone to open up their wallet and give you a thousand bucks for a promise to show them something, and I spent a lot of time building that trust. And being on that Skillcrush webinar gave me a lot of credibility also.
At the end of the live webinar series, I had 6 amazing women join the coaching program.
From an email list of 300 people, I earned roughly $6000. Or to put it another way, for the 12 weeks of work, I earned an extra $500 a week, or $2,000/month.
Are you starting to see the possibilities here?
Some of the women chose to move through the content at their own pace while others chose to be on the live sessions and participate in the group coaching calls to get their specific questions answered. We held a live class every Wednesday, and then office hours to answer questions on Monday.
I love doing the live group coaching. Seeing people change their mind about their skill set and what they have to offer is really rewarding. I built relationships with my students, and I’ve even hired a couple of students that were major action-taking go-getters to do some projects with me!
But weekly group coaching takes a ton of time, and I still had a full-time job, so as I was creating the content and presenting it week by week, it was always with the intention that it would be offered again as pre-recorded sessions with live office hours.
So when it was time to launch it again, I named it the Web Designer Academy instead of the WP+BFF Group Coaching Program, hired a copywriter to help me tweak the sales page and sales emails and hired a graphic designer to help me design the sales page. I think I invested about $1000 in those two items.
In the spring of this year, I invited anyone on my 5 Day Website Challenge list to get on the Web Designer Academy list, sent the three free pre-recorded webinars via email, and followed it up with a launch sequence that directed anyone interested in the program to a sales page.
I didn’t do any live webinars that time – it all was pre-recorded and sent via email.
Now I knew for sure that there were interest and value in the program, and I knew how much time it took to run the program, I updated the pricing to $1997 for base access (which didn’t include the live office hours), $2397 including office hours and $3497 for office hours plus lifetime access to office hours and additions to the program in the future.
I was scared to raise the price, but I believed in the value of the program, and I know that people can make much, much more than that if they implement what they learned, so I just went for it! And after taking advantage of fast-acting bonuses, 7 amazing people paid between $1500 and $2400 for the program – for a total of over $11,000!!!
That launch was the one that was the tipping point for me making the decision to leave my job at the end of the year. That showed me that my expertise is valued and that I’m able to generate substantial income from it.
I had 2 people take advantage of the group coaching component, and while I loved our sessions together, I feel like I missed out on interaction with the rest of the group. My favorite part of this program is helping people overcome their own limitations and hurdles and helping them see things differently, and a Facebook group just doesn’t cut it!!
I want to make sure people get results, and while I can’t do the work for them, I can certainly help them over the hurdles that are stopping them from progressing!
So here’s where it gets interesting… And maybe I got a little cocky, I don’t know. You’re my BFF, you tell me
I had planned to launch the Web Designer Academy again this fall. I decided to do it a little earlier than planned, at the beginning of August, due to my insane work schedule and travel plans.
I also decided that I wanted to run Facebook ads to grow my email list for the launch. I figured that if a list of 350 could generate $11,000, with a list of 600 I could maybe hit $20,000!
So I invested about $1200 in Facebook ads targeting women between the ages of 25 and 40 who have an interest or a job in web design, and also targeting specific Facebook pages of entrepreneurs like Chalene Johnson and Marie Forleo where I hang out to find people that need WordPress help, so I know other people like me are hanging out there too! With Facebook ads, I grew my list up to 695.
If you’re keeping track of the math there, I paid about $3.50 per person added to my list. That’s actually very, very expensive for a Facebook ad. Not a great return on investment from a business perspective, but if you’re one of those people that came from Facebook and you’re reading this blog post, to me you’re awesome and priceless and I’m glad you’re here
Anyway, I sent everyone to a landing page to sign up a for a free video series, “How to Start a Freelance Web Design Business” which was my introductory webinar series, and on the thank you page, I asked the same survey questions, just to make sure that I was covering the challenges this new group of people who came to me through ads.
And as I predicted, yep, they all indicated that imposter syndrome and credibility were huge barriers to them taking the leap to chase their dream – so I knew that these people would be perfect for the Web Designer Academy (and that I did a good job on my Facebook ad targeting).
Finally, I changed the pricing to $1997 for base access, no office hours, $2997 for office hours and $3997 for Lifetime Access. I offered some fast-action discounts to sweeten the deal, and I also offered a monthly payment plan this time, just in case…
Here’s where it all started to go wrong…
Remember when I told you I’m absent-minded? I didn’t think my whole launch sequence through from a technical perspective. I thought I did, but I should have had someone double-check my work. I’m having flashbacks to high-school calculus class right now… Anyway.
I used the same campaign as I had in the spring, so people that had already run through it didn’t get added to it again and they missed the initial email sequence. Thankfully a bunch of them emailed me to tell me, so I quickly cloned the whole sequence, created a new tag for everyone and dropped them all into the new sequence.
Thank goodness I’m techie and knew exactly what to do to fix this, but I feared I may have damaged my credibility by not following through on what I said would happen.
Strike one.
Then, remember how insanely busy I said I was when I launched? Well, so was everyone else I knew because it was Back to School time. “I feel bad for my friends, and I’m kinda glad I don’t have to deal with that,” I remember thinking…
#duh!!! If my sisters and my BFFs are going through back to school insanity, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that my community would be too!! Ain’t nobody got time to watch a 3-hour video series or the budget for a $1997 course when they just had to buy a bunch of new clothes, school supplies and pay a ton of school fees!
Strike two.
And then the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done happened… This one is a combo of absent-mindedness and living my life on autopilot.
The new thing I did this launch sequence is to add a Facebook live lesson as the fourth broadcast where I would recap all three lessons and invite people to join the Web Designer Academy.
I promoted this Facebook Live throughout my launch sequence. I created a Facebook event and invited people to RSVP. I took the day off work to prepare for going live at 3PM EST. I found an awesome new tool call BeLive.tv which would let me do a Facebook Live using my laptop to screen share and toggle back and forth between me and my presentation.
I was going to totally rock this final live broadcast, and I was going to get at least 12 more amazingly awesome people to enroll in the course and I couldn’t wait to meet them!
So I sit down at my desk, throw on some of my favorite Buxom lip gloss and press the “Start Broadcast” button and I just dive right into my presentation.
First thing I notice is that attendance is super-low. I had about 70 people say they’d be there live, and I’m seeing two people on, one of whom is my business coach.
That’s okay, I think. Just keep going. People will join.
Then I see an old co-worker say hi. Cool, I think. She must follow my business page.
So I’m just to the point where I’m going to talk about how much it costs, which already has me feeling weird because it’s the most expensive thing I’ve ever sold… (and just as I wrote that I realized it’s not true, I’ve sold websites more expensive than that so let’s put this on the list of things to work through with my biz coach…)
…and my high school band director says hi in the comments. And that’s when it hit me. I went live on my personal facebook page!!!! Are you freaking kidding me right now???
I totally got nervous (my face actually turns red in the video), I botched the sales piece and finished it as fast as I could.
One, I’ve never publicized my side business on my personal page and I felt totally like a fraud Did my high school boyfriend just see that? Why am I friends with him on Facebook? I really need to clean up my friends list… (add that to the list of things I need coaching on).
Two, I didn’t show up for the people waiting for me on my business page!!!!!!! It’s like I was speaking at a conference, walked into the wrong room and starting giving a presentation while the people who were there to see me were in a different room like “What the hell? Where is she? Flake. No way I’m giving her my money.”
Strike 3.
So I message Vicki, my biz coach, and tell her what happened.
If I didn’t have this support system, do you know how discouraged I would have been? I mean, seriously, I would have probably told my boss that I was going to just stay at my day job. I’m not even kidding, I might have rescinded my resignation and stayed right in my comfy little comfort zone.
Here’s what Vicki said:
Perfect accidental marketing goldmine…
Also known as just freaking be yourself, imperfections and all!!
Don’t not try because you might feel embarrassed! Don’t pretend like these things don’t happen! Don’t quit if you do feel embarrassed! (And by the way, all my friends had really nice things to say about that presentation even though they didn’t know it wasn’t for them.)
I’m human, I make mistakes, and I still know my stuff when it comes to using WordPress to build a business online.
So despite all of those hurdles, this time, I had 3 amazingly awesome women join the program using my payment plan option (hi guys!!!!) and I immediately recouped my investment in Facebook ads.
And what I learned from this experience? Priceless.
Did I meet my goal of 12 students? Nope. Am I disappointed? Nope!
I’m totally grateful for any opportunity I get to inspire someone to take action toward their dreams. And I can’t wait to see what my latest round of students do!
I sent a survey to everyone that didn’t buy asking them why they chose not to enroll, and that was also extremely enlightening.
I got feedback from only one person that I had damaged my credibility due to those mistakes. Perhaps more people felt that way, and guess what? I’m okay with not being “for” those people. Because I’m never going to be perfect and I’m always going to make mistakes, but I’m also always going act in integrity and admit them and fix them.
The two biggest reasons people didn’t buy were timing and price.
Did I price it too high this time? Based on previous sales I know people are willing to pay that much, but this time, the three enrollees used the payment plan.
I’m using that feedback to be more creative with the pricing and meet people where they are while still selling the program for what it’s worth.
And as far as timing is concerned, I’m also playing with that. I’ll be testing out launching it as two tracks, one marketing and one development, and making an always-open course without a live-coaching component. If you’re on the Web Designer Academy mailing list and wanted to join but the timing or pricing wasn’t right for you, you’ll be getting more info the next iteration of the program in the next couple of weeks.
So what I want you to take away from this experience is:
- Survey your dream client and see if what you want to offer is in alignment with what they need.
- Consider offering your program in a small group format and create the content for an on-demand course during the live course, it’s a big time-saver.
- Test different pricing structures and course formats.
- Timing is key.
- It’s okay when things don’t go as you planned them as long as you learn from it and keep going.
- Just be your-freaking-self, imperfections and all. Don’t hide, whether that’s hiding your side-hustle from your personal social media or hiding that you screw up from time to time.
Thanks for being my BFF!!!
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
