VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, my name is Jennifer Maker!

When I started my blog in October 2016, I was pretty dead set against having "products."

Even the word "products" seemed dirty to me. I was coming off of an 18-year-long career where the main goal had been to sell my books. I'd built up an entire empire around my books. So I'd been selling products for a LONG time, had been earning less and less money, and felt very burned out on it.

I thought "Information online is the way of the future! I want a blog, not books!"

So for 11 months, I sold nothing on my blog. This is despite being in enrolled in an amazing course, Elite Blog Academy, that had already convinced me that I needed a product to make decent money. I had learned that products account for 90% of big bloggers' income in most cases. And I had started a blog to make money, after all. And yet, I took no action.

Still, I was starting to warm up to the idea of creating a product, but I just wasn't sure what to make. I wanted to steer clear of e-books because of all the books (I calculate it was over a million!) I'd sold in the years before. And I am too protective of my time to offer a service-based product.

The only vague idea I'd had was a course. I'd taught online courses before when I ran an online training school for America Online. I used to teach their employees, remote staff, and volunteers how to do things like build communities, create sites, and manage message boards. I had enjoyed it and I helped a lot of people.

Here's what I'd wrote about it on my resume 20 years ago:

It sounds impressive, and it actually was. I taught people at the start of the Internet, and I see the echoes of those lessons all around me to this day in various communities. It's amazing the sort of trickle-down effect teaching can have.

The funny thing is, though, is I had no teaching degree when I was asked to create this academy. I just had a passion for helping people. Much like you. That and some patience are really all you need to teach, despite what anyone else says.

So, I could teach people.

But... what the heck would I teach a course on for my craft blog?

That was my biggest stumbling block.

I realized in my 11th month I had to do something. My mortgage was due and I had no money to pay it. I was behind in my car payments. But most importantly, my daughter needed a crazy-expensive medication and insurance (which I was SO lucky to even have at that point) was only going to cover 90% -- leaving me with a $5000 bill just for that. I was desperate and needed to take action on this.

So I began to ask my people how I could help them. After trial and error, I found the answer to this question. It surprised me -- it wasn't what I expected. My people told me they wanted me to teach them how to do what I did on my craft blog -- design patterns for cutting machines.

Fueled by motivation to do this and earn money, I took the leap and offered my readers a course on designing SVG files.

I worked very hard. Harder than I had up to that point on anything for my blog. I toyed with the idea of giving up, but I had already told everyone I was doing it. Our word is our bond, right? I used this to push myself through the tough spots.

The course released in October 2017. It received an amazingly warm reception and I enrolled over 100 students, earning $15,000 that week.

That was the point at which I knew my blog was going to make it.

By October 2018, the course had earned me over $100,000 and many amazing students.

Here's that screenshot from Teachable showing my course's sales and enrollment as of October 30, 2018:

By September 2020, that same course had earned over a million dollars.

It's pretty amazing. I can now pay my mortgage and my car and all of my other bills and -- best of all -- take care of my daughter. And I can grow my business -- I now also support a group of amazing and talented women on my team, too!

And not surprisingly, people ask me how I came up with the idea, how I made it, and how I marketed it. Now that I've made enough money to afford to hire a team to help me with my blog and business, I have enough time to share my techniques and experiences with you!

And this is really what offering a course is all about. You have knowledge that others need -- really need! -- and when you're able to share it, you should! And if you're able to address their pain points and offer it to them in a package they can follow, they will thank you. AH-mazing!

I'm SO excited to share everything I know about creating courses. We're going to go really deep because I want you to succeed.

Love,

Jennifer

Meta: Always lead with your own transformation. You are your course's first student and your success story IS compelling.