Behind The Scenes Of $1,000,000/Year Online Courses

1. 0:00 – 6:40

   What it's like working with Tony Robbins

   1. APAmy Porterfield0:00

      I have this, uh, student, her name is Denira, and she lives in LA, single mom, three kids, really small house, not enough rooms for everybody. Like, she is definitely doing it her- herself. She was working two jobs, and she, um, was baking, and people would come to her house, they'd pick up a birthday cake or a celebration cake or whatever, and that's, uh, one way she was making money. Long story short, cut to creating a digital course, and she became really good at caramel candy apples, so how to create caramel candy apples. And the thing is, the caramel was store-bought. It wasn't, like, her special recipe, just people didn't know what store to go to or what to buy. And so she started to create these and, um, sell a digital course. Now, a lot of my students, many of them have made seven figures and beyond, but I wanna talk about her because she's a woman who made, um, never made over $100,000 a year, and now in one digital course launch she made $260,000 selling how to create, uh, caramel candy apples. And she literally was just doing live videos in a private Facebook group. And I always tell that story because a lot of people listening have never created anything in their life online, and they would never even... They're like, "My idea can't be good enough," or, "It's not original enough," or whatever. And then I think of Denira, single mom living in LA, making $260,000 on the first time she launched anything. Now she's making way more money than that. But that's the kind of stuff that I live for, 'cause it has to start somewhere.

   2. SPSam Parr1:27

      [upbeat music] So Amy, what's going on? So Amy, uh, Porterfield, you, uh, you're part of the, uh, HubSpot Podcast Network. You're-

   3. APAmy Porterfield1:38

      Yeah

   4. SPSam Parr1:38

      ... a new-ish addition, right? When'd you join?

   5. APAmy Porterfield1:40

      Right. Uh, yeah, just about two months.

   6. SPSam Parr1:43

      Um, and so what would you say you do? I mean, you do a, a... I've read your blog for years and years and years, but we had John Lee Dumas on the other day, and I was like, "I actually don't know how to describe him." And he's like, "Is he... Do I just call him a podcaster? Is he, he, he... He's a blogger." I, I'm not actually sure what-

   7. APAmy Porterfield1:57

      [laughs]

   8. SPSam Parr1:58

      ... how I would... Like, 'cause you kinda do a bunch of stuff. How would you describe what-

   9. APAmy Porterfield2:01

      You sound like my mom and dad, who have no clue what I do 13 years in, so I totally get it. I always say that I am an internet marketing expert, and I help entrepreneurs build, build businesses online, and my expertise is to take your knowledge and know-how and turn that into a profitable digital course. So digital courses are my area of expertise online.

   10. SPShaan Puri2:21

       Okay. Amazing. And what kind of digital courses? Do you have your own course about courses?

   11. APAmy Porterfield2:26

       I do, which is so meta, I know. So basically, here's the thing. Uh, 13 years ago I worked in corporate. I worked for Tony Robbins, and I was the director of content development, got to travel the world and work on content that Tony did on stage at, like, Unleash the Power Within and Date with Destiny and all those cool events. And I was in a meeting, and I was called-- So humbling. I was called into this meeting to take notes, and I walk into this meeting in this big San Diego corporate office, and I walk in and it's a bunch of internet marketers. Now, in my world, these are, like, the grandfather of internet marketers, although that sounds very rude to, to call them grandfathers, but they're like the Mack Daddies.

   12. SPSam Parr3:05

       Like the-

   13. APAmy Porterfield3:05

       So it's, like, Frank Kern, Brendon Burchard, Evan Pagan, Jeff Walker, like, big-name internet marketers that are still doing really big things. But they were the leaders in the industry. I had no idea who these guys were, and here I am at a side table taking notes, and Tony's going around asking them about their businesses and what do they do and how are they making money online, and all I heard was freedom. Like, these guys were running their own businesses, creating digital courses about tons of different topics, and I wanted a piece of that. So that was, like, my first entry into this world I knew nothing about. And about six months later or so, I had left my corporate job and started creating my own digital courses. So yeah, I've got digital courses teaching people how to grow email lists, how to create digital courses, but ultimately, my, my, my, uh, mission is to help people leave their nine-to-five jobs, start their own online businesses, and I believe digital courses is a way to do that.

   14. SPSam Parr4:04

       Can I-

   15. APAmy Porterfield4:04

       So that's their vehicle.

   16. SPSam Parr4:05

       Shaun, you have something to say? 'Cause I, I got a-

   17. SPShaan Puri4:07

       I was gonna s-

   18. SPSam Parr4:07

       So-

   19. SPShaan Puri4:08

       I was gonna say forget courses. Let's talk about Tony Robbins.

   20. SPSam Parr4:10

       I was gonna say that exact same thing.

   21. SPShaan Puri4:12

       [laughs]

   22. SPSam Parr4:12

       I was gonna, I was gonna say, uh, I was gonna ask you about a couple of the people you mentioned, including Tony, and I was like-

   23. SPShaan Puri4:17

       [laughs]

   24. SPSam Parr4:18

       ... how much does his empire bring in, do you think? Is... Does this guy just knock it out the park, or what?

   25. APAmy Porterfield4:23

       I mean, it's seriously... What I always say about Tony is how... If y- Have you guys ever been to one of his events before? Have you ever seen him on stage?

   26. SPShaan Puri4:29

       So I've been to two, maybe... Actually, I've been to f- yeah, I've been to two Unleash the Power Withins. Um-

   27. APAmy Porterfield4:35

       Okay, cool.

   28. SPShaan Puri4:35

       And I'm, I'm a-

   29. APAmy Porterfield4:36

       So-

   30. SPShaan Puri4:36

       ... Kool-Aid drinker. I love Tony Robbins, and I-
2. 6:40 – 9:45

   What Amy has learned from other great marketers

   1. SPShaan Puri6:40

      like, like, the back of his hand or whatever by now. Um, so it's not, it's probably not the material that he's, like, trying to remember. It's like he's just getting himself into that state. What about-

   2. APAmy Porterfield6:49

      Exactly

   3. SPShaan Puri6:50

      ... what about besides the performances? 'Cause I think performing is definitely, like, a high-intensity thing. What about just, like, work, like the office? Or w- or were you not around for that part?

   4. APAmy Porterfield6:59

      Uh, meaning Tony in the office?

   5. SPShaan Puri7:01

      Yeah, just like on a normal day-

   6. APAmy Porterfield7:02

      Yeah

   7. SPShaan Puri7:02

      ... non-performance.

   8. APAmy Porterfield7:04

      So on a normal day non-performance, Tony's not in the office. He was, when I was there, he was at his house. He did all the stuff from his own house, but he's always on. So I think o- one thing I took, what I learned from Tony and I brought into my own business, is that, one, always be prepared, over-prepare, care deeply about what you're creating. He cares deeply about his content, so that's why he's always giving it in his body even though he's done it 100 times. And when he's not in the office, he's still always, always learning, always, um, meeting with people, learning new things. Like that meeting that we had, he just wanted to know how they were selling their digital courses online because he was gonna start doing that in a bigger way. So he's always pulling from different places.

   9. SPShaan Puri7:46

      Y- it-

   10. APAmy Porterfield7:47

       It was an incredible experience.

   11. SPSam Parr7:49

       What about, um, so Shaan, I've told you about this guy before. His name's Eben Pagan, and we talked, uh, we're, Shaan and I, Amy, are good friends with, um, Craig Clemens.

   12. SPShaan Puri8:00

       Clemens.

   13. SPSam Parr8:00

       And he was a copywriter, and when we had John Lee Dumas on the other day, I, I was like, "John, tell me about some of these marketers. They're so fascinating to me," and you just named a bunch of them, and I'm gonna ask you, I wanna ask you about them. But Eben Pagan's the most interesting. So basically for the listeners, Eben Pagan, I knew him as David D'Angelo. When I was 14 years old-

   14. APAmy Porterfield8:19

       Yep

   15. SPSam Parr8:19

       ... I was a nerd.

   16. APAmy Porterfield8:19

       [laughs]

   17. SPSam Parr8:20

       I wanted to learn how to meet girls. He had an e-book called Double Your Dating. And what he would do, if I remember correctly, and Amy you can correct me, I think he would s- uh, if I, he would send these really long emails. Like, it felt like 10,000 word text-based emails about how to meet women, and at the end you could buy like a $14 book. And I think Craig told us that he was selling like $30,000,000 a year of this book on, called Double Your Dating.

   18. APAmy Porterfield8:45

       Wow.

   19. SPSam Parr8:45

       Have you heard about this?

   20. APAmy Porterfield8:46

       Yo, absolutely I've heard about it, and I know he's a legend in, in that area. And when he came to the table, hon- I think he had moved on from, um, that part of his business. But that's how he was put on the map. And the one thing that I learned from Eben really early on is he teaches this strategy that you've gotta coin your own content. Like, you've gotta name it. You've gotta put a, a title to it. You've gotta own it. So one of the things that I've always done when I've created content in my own business is, like, I've got the Porterfield Process for Outlining Your Digital Course-

   21. SPSam Parr9:20

       Mm

   22. APAmy Porterfield9:20

       ... and The Sweet Spot for Finding What C- Topic to Create for Your, Your Course. I name everything and own it, and it sets you up as an expert, and that absolutely came from Eben.

   23. SPShaan Puri9:30

       That's like, uh, so me and Sam both teach courses on Maven, and the, uh, Wes, who runs the, the, the course platform for Maven, she, she has one that she calls, she goes like, "You need your spiky point of view." It's like, "What? What's your spiky point of view?" And she's like, "It's-

   24. APAmy Porterfield9:43

       I love it

   25. SPShaan Puri9:44

       ... it's your point of view that

3. 9:45 – 17:30

   People who are making a shocking amount from online courses

   1. SPShaan Puri9:45

      stands out that not everybody would agree with it." It's like it'll poke some people the wrong way, uh, because it's different than, you know, everything that they've heard before. And so, you know, that was like the core of when she's like, "If you're gonna teach a course, you gotta have a spiky point of view. Otherwise, like your course doesn't really have a, a sort of angle to it-

   2. APAmy Porterfield10:01

      Love it

   3. SPShaan Puri10:01

      ... or a hook to it, um, that you, that other people are gonna attach with."

   4. APAmy Porterfield10:04

      Yeah, I love that.

   5. SPSam Parr10:05

      Do you, um, w- the other day Shaan and I were talking about this guy named Sam Ovens 'cause he ha- he had this YouTube video called Consult- uh, he has a business called theconsulting.com, and he revealed all of his numbers. And he was like, "We got to 30 million in revenue, and then we r- uh, decided to just be really profitable, and we do 10 million in sales with five million in profit with like a team of four people." And we were just fascinated because that's just like a, that's a great, great business to, to own that. Um, what are some other people who, who you've worked with or that you know of that are like shockingly, uh, that, that you would tell people and you're like, "I can, you would not believe what this person does. You would not believe how much revenue they make or that they sell a course, uh, in this space." Are there any shocking ones like that?

   6. APAmy Porterfield10:48

      So one of the ones that always has shocked me, I have this, uh, student. Her name is Danira, and she lives in LA, single mom, three kids, really small house, not enough rooms for everybody. Like, she is definitely doing it her- herself. She was working two jobs, and she, um, was baking, and people would come to her house. They'd pick up a birthday cake or a celebration cake or whatever, and that's, uh, one way she was making money. Long story short, cut to creating a digital course, and she became really good at caramel candy apples, so how to create caramel candy apples. And the thing is the caramel was store-bought. It wasn't like her special recipe. Just people didn't know what store to go to or what to buy, and so she started to create these and, um, sell a digital course. Now, a lot of my students, many of them have made seven figures and beyond, but I wanna talk about her because she's a woman who made, um, never made over $100,000 a year, and now in one digital course launch she made $260,000 selling how to create, uh, caramel candy apples. And she literally was just doing live videos in a private Facebook group. And I always tell that story because a lot of people listening have never created anything in their life online, and they would never even... They're like, "My idea can't be good enough," or, "It's not original enough," or whatever. And then I think of Danira, a single mom living in LA making $260,000 on the first time she launched anything. Now she's making way more money than that, but that's the kind of stuff that I live for 'cause it has to start somewhere.

   7. SPSam Parr12:16

      What's her course name? How do I Google her?

   8. APAmy Porterfield12:19

      Um, let's see. If you d- um, Google Danira caramel candy apples, you will absolutely find her.

   9. SPSam Parr12:24

      So how do you spell Danira?

   10. SPShaan Puri12:25

       That's so cool.

   11. APAmy Porterfield12:26

       D-A-N-I-R-A. We call her the caramel candy apple queen. She's got tons of press written up about her. Like, she's a, she's a big deal.

   12. SPShaan Puri12:33

       So how did she get her customers? So who bought this course? How did she go sell... How much is the course?

   13. APAmy Porterfield12:39

       Uh, I can't remember. A couple hundred dollars.

   14. SPSam Parr12:42

       Okay.

   15. APAmy Porterfield12:42

       And the way she got her customers, this is what's cool, she made a lot of videos, she did a lot of social media where she'd show in her tiny little kitchen, with not a fancy camera or lighting, like what she was doing. And the thing is, so if you own a bakery, a caramel candy apple is like 10 bucks or more, uh, to sell, which is really good profit for a bakery, and these bakers wanted to find more ways to make more money. So she appl- uh, she appealed-

   16. SPSam Parr13:09

       Mm

   17. APAmy Porterfield13:09

       ... to the, uh, small business owners who had bakeries or sweets to sell, but she also appealed to a lot of hobbyists. A lot of people are like, "I just wanna do that. That's cool." So she had a, a mesh of two different audiences.

   18. SPSam Parr13:22

       But her-

   19. APAmy Porterfield13:22

       Wow

   20. SPSam Parr13:22

       ... she, she basically just made free content, and then-

   21. APAmy Porterfield13:25

       Tons of free content

   22. SPSam Parr13:26

       ... sold the course

   23. APAmy Porterfield13:26

       Lots of videos. Yep.

   24. SPSam Parr13:28

       Wow. That's-

   25. APAmy Porterfield13:28

       And then the way I teach people how to sell courses is with webinars, so she, she started to do webinars, and webinars were a way, a new vehicle to sell more. So she's gone on to do even more launches.

   26. SPSam Parr13:40

       You would do a webinar for a 3 or $200 thing?

   27. APAmy Porterfield13:43

       Absolutely. So back in the day, my very first successful course was called FB Influence. I did it with Lewis Howes, and together we created this course and launched it. It was $97, and I probably did 200 webinars to sell a $97 course, and it was a huge success 'cause we had tons of affiliates. But I would do a webinar even for a $97 course.

   28. SPSam Parr14:05

       Amongst these internet marketers, who... W- what, what's the largest course, I don't know, course, info product, what's the largest business you've ever heard of?

   29. APAmy Porterfield14:16

       Oh, geez. The largest business I've ever heard of. Um, I don't know. I feel like-

   30. SPSam Parr14:24

       Who crushes it the most
4. 17:30 – 24:03

   What podcast metrics to pay attention to

   1. APAmy Porterfield17:30

      and then some contractors on the side. Uh, everyone's virtual. We do a four-day workweek, and so we work Monday through Thursday. And, um, uh, it's, it feels like a big team. Like I feel like it's a lot of people-

   2. SPSam Parr17:43

      Oh, that's, that's a lot

   3. APAmy Porterfield17:43

      ... but I know it's just such a small business still.

   4. SPShaan Puri17:45

      Yeah, I think that's a lot. Why do you need, why do you need so many people?

   5. APAmy Porterfield17:49

      So w- we do... So I have three digital courses, one membership, and then we do a lot of affiliate marketing. And so everybody is just stays in their lane. And like I've got one person that's 100% focused on my podcast. So that's all she does. She's podcast producer. Kylie, you might have talked to her, your team talked to her. And so we have a lot of people in specialized roles.

   6. SPSam Parr18:09

      Are you running the company and being the front person? Or do you have someone helping run the company while you're focused on content?

   7. APAmy Porterfield18:16

      Great question. So for seven years I've had a sidekick helping me run the company. She's a CMO. And, uh, recently transitioned out as a contractor. So I'm running it more than I normally do.

   8. SPSam Parr18:26

      Geez.

   9. APAmy Porterfield18:26

      But when she's running marketing, I don't have my hands in all of that.

   10. SPSam Parr18:30

       That's a lot of work. God damn.

   11. APAmy Porterfield18:31

       [laughs] It's still, right now it feels like a lot of work, but it won't, it doesn't always feel that way.

   12. SPShaan Puri18:36

       And what's the name of your podcast so people who are listening can go check it out?

   13. APAmy Porterfield18:40

       My podcast is Online Marketing Made Easy.

   14. SPSam Parr18:42

       How big are you guys? We've been, we've been b- we're getting in, um, a pissing contest, contest with John Lee Dumas.

   15. SPShaan Puri18:47

       [laughs]

   16. SPSam Parr18:48

       Uh, I'm a little, like, I'm jealous a little bit with, uh, Jenna, uh, uh-

   17. APAmy Porterfield18:52

       Jenna Kutcher's totally magic. Like, she's got an amazing podcast. How many downloads total do you guys have?

   18. SPSam Parr18:58

       Um, I think in December on the podcast platform, uh, we had 1.3 or o- 1.3 maybe million on the podcast platform, and then like another 400 on YouTube, 400,000 on YouTube.

   19. APAmy Porterfield19:10

       Just for the month?

   20. SPSam Parr19:12

       Yeah.

   21. SPShaan Puri19:12

       Yeah.

   22. APAmy Porterfield19:13

       Okay. Well, that's huge. We had a million in January. That was our recent was a million in January. So-

   23. SPSam Parr19:19

       Wow

   24. APAmy Porterfield19:19

       ... um, we've had o- about-

   25. SPSam Parr19:20

       Just on, just on podcast players? Or like y-

   26. APAmy Porterfield19:24

       Uh, yes. Yes.

   27. SPSam Parr19:25

       Dude, that's huge. That's huge.

   28. APAmy Porterfield19:27

       So we feel good about it. We've had 35 million downloads. Um, I used to-

   29. SPSam Parr19:31

       Wow

   30. APAmy Porterfield19:31

       ... not download twice a week. Changing to twice a week has changed things for us, for sure. I do a 15-minute one on Tuesday and a longer one on Thursday, and that changed the game for us.

Episode duration: 24:06