Transcript of Episode

Leah Gervais: Alright guys, welcome to the Your Biggest Vision show. I am your host, Leah. Hey Alyssa. Awesome. So glad to see you here. Sorry I was having some technical glitches. I am very happy to be here with you guys on this Monday, this beautiful Monday. Oops. And um, we have lots of things to talk about today. So first before we dive into the content of today, which is going to be a review and I’ll look at the different e-courses and entrepreneurship programs I took over the year and why I took them, you know, if I would recommend them, all that kind of stuff. Um, and then, yeah, and so that’s what we’re going to talk about today. But first I want to give you guys a few announcements because there is a lot of new things that I needed to share with you. So first things first, this is a, the last live on a Monday that we will do of the your biggest vision show in 2019 and that’s because we have finished season one. 

I can’t believe it. We’ve done something like 80 episodes, um, this season so far, which is just incredible to me. That means that there was something like 40 interviews that we did. I did 40 different lives. Um, and I’m really, really proud of how this show came together and the guests we’ve had and the content we’ve shared and the things we’ve taught. And so we have had a great season one and we are going to spend the rest of the year reflecting on season one seeing what you guys like, seeing what you want more of, seeing what didn’t really resonate and coming back in 2020 with season two revamped and fresh and ready to go. We already have some amazing interviews lined up for that. Um, and so I also want to be clear though that that does not mean that for the rest of the year I’m leaving you guys hanging. 

That’s not what this is about at all. One of the things my producer and I thought would be really helpful to you all is if we went back to some of the episodes throughout the year and picked out one of pigs out, some of them that we thought would do the best job in supporting you as you plan for 20, 20. And as you reflect on this year and as you Uplevel whatever it is that you’re hoping to do next year. So a lot of the episodes that we did earlier on a words marketed that much. And that’s just because it was the beginning. I didn’t know what I was doing and it was sort of me doing it all by myself. But some of them are really amazing and so we want to make sure that they are getting the, the um, we want to make sure that they’re helping people in the way that they have the power to do so. 

All this is to say that for the rest of the year, for the next eight weeks, starting next week, um, we’ll still have episodes released on iTunes and on the podcast app Tuesdays and Thursdays, like usual. It’s just that they will be some of the previous episodes we’ve done and, but there’ll be pulled out specially. And with each one there’ll be an introduction from me, a brand new introduction where it kind of explained why I chose this episode to highlight what I think you should listen for when you’re listening to it and what you might want to consider as you think about 2020 from that episode. So they’ll still have a new element to it every single week and you’ll still have new content every week. It’s just going to be me helping you and encouraging you to look at it in the lens of planning for a new year reflecting on this past year and listening to what I think are some of the biggest takeaways from these different episodes and how a lot of the lessons in them impacted my journey. 

You know, and I know listening to other podcasts and even just listening to other people’s stories, sometimes I will, I will hear it and I will get one thing out of it, but then I’ll hear it a different time and because all be at a different place in my life or in my business and my journey, I’ll get something completely new and completely different out of it. So I want to share with you guys what I’m getting out of all these interviews or how I think they relate to what I’ve done or what I did wrong or any of that. So, um, you can learn in the context of, of me and my own story since that’s what I share so much about on this podcast. So that’s something to look forward to. Next week is a really vulnerable one, um, that we’re doing on Monday. 

So please keep an eye out for that. Uh, we do have, I think, two exceptions within there for, for the rest of the year where there’ll be totally new episodes. And so we’ll let you guys know where there that is. But all this is to say that the next few months the episodes will be kind of remixed and done with my commentary and John in supporting you for planning the rest of the year. And then we’ll have a new season next year and I will not be live with you guys here on Mondays anymore for the rest of the year just because of how we’re doing this. But those will still be coming out to you two times a week. 

So that is announcement one, number one. Um, okay. And now it’s my number two is that on Wednesday I am hosting an Encore presentation of my most popular, uh, digital class. It is called create your quantum leap. It is all about entrepreneurship mindset and specifically it goes through the three biggest mindset, mindset shifts I believe successful entrepreneurs need to go through and the three biggest shifts that change things for me. So I’ve taught this class before. I get great feedback on it every single time. Even if you’ve already signed up, um, even if you’ve already heard it but you’re just looking for another Justin inspiration or if you’ve never heard it, definitely go sign up. It is in the link in my bio there will be a replay so you don’t need to worry if you can’t make it live. Um, but hopefully you can make it live and it will be this Wednesday and it will be really, really great. 

And then the final announcement we have for this week is that it is November as you all know, happy November. And that means that this month we are starting to take applications for our mastermind in 2020. And for those of you that don’t know, my mastermind is my highest level of support that I offer and for my clients it is one of the things I’m most proud of in the world. My clients have gotten really great results from it. It’s a fabulous community. All the women in it are very close and it’s, it’s a really great way and close way to work with me on your business growth. And this next year we are doing something new, which I’m really excited about. Kind of a new addition where we’re having two different masterminds. So I’m not gonna give too much away right now because a lot of it’s still in the works, but I want it to make the announcement because, um, the two different ones are different by design, meaning they’re meant for two different people. 

They’re two different price points and they’re two different offerings. So if you are interested at all, excuse me, in any sort of mastermind support with me, if you are interested in joining my absolutely most successful clients, uh, please reach out to me and we can discuss if one of these would be a good fit for you. There are quite a few early bird discounts that are happening when you joined this November, so you do not want to delay. Um, and, and these spots will fill up. I’m very, um, I take my job very seriously with the mastermind as making sure it’s a very good dynamic and a really close group and a really supportive group. So, um, it is invite only, it’s not to my entire audience or just to anyone. Uh, and if you are interested in seeing, if you could be a good fit for that, then please reach out and we can discuss and see if that would be, um, a good place for you. 

Uh, it’s going to be really, really special with all the things we’re revamping next year where we’ve got some great things in store, including great guest speakers and um, new ways of supporting you and some in person stuff. So that interests you at all. Please reach out to me and let me know. You can email us at help at urban 20 something and we can just have a conversation. There’s no strings attached. You have absolutely nothing, nothing to lose by reaching out, but you could lose out on a lot if you don’t take action because you could miss out on a spot that could change your business and your life. So that is w is what is new this November over here. And without further ado, now let’s hop into the meat of today’s episode, which is reviews and kind of explanations and my thoughts on some of the different e-courses and programs that I took this year. Um, let me take a sip of water and then we will go ahead and dive in. And in the meantime I’d love it if any of you listening that are here live, want to let me know, uh, any program or course or anything you’ve, you’ve taken that has really been great for you or your business. 

Okay, let’s dive in. So I want to just start by saying that I am not an affiliate to any of these e-courses. I am not getting paid to talk about any of these e-courses. Um, at this moment I am not an affiliate. I just want to be clear because maybe one day I would be, I don’t know, I don’t want to put myself in any corner, but right now this is just meant to be really transparent and really honest with you guys. Um, when I started my business I was so, like obsessed with e-courses and I just, I wanted to take everyone that I saw, I watched so many webinars I would get so such shiny object syndrome, I wanted to take them all. They all look so great and some e-courses really did help me and some really did not. And there was even a time where I got kind of burned or kind of salty about taking these courses because I just felt like they weren’t really helping. 

Um, and that I was spending all this money on them and then I wasn’t implementing them or I didn’t have support. And so then I went kind of the opposite direction where I only hired coaches or was part of service based support because I wanted the direct help and I wanted the implementation. Um, and that was great. But I think I’ve kind of come to a place where I know which one is good depending on which place I’m at, I will never stop taking either because I very much believe in consistent learning and continuing to up level my business and myself. And so, uh, there is, it, I, I think it’s valuable to hear at this point. Um, you know, I’m not in the beginning anymore, but I’m still doing this what I’m doing, why I’m taking them, who I think they’re for, et cetera, and really hoping that this can help give you some clarity on where you need support. 

Uh, I think that entrepreneurs, that’s the most important thing you can know the answer to is where do I need help? So where can I get it? And that’s what I want to share with you today. So let’s go ahead and dive in. The first program that I took in 2019 was in January and it was an in person event, so it wasn’t an eCourse, but it was, I still wanted to mention it because it was a program and it was an event called pitch please, with our news Turabi and Susie Moore. And this was for pretty established entrepreneurs. I do think you’d be welcome there if you are newer. But I think that it was more made for and tailored for people that were, that were newer or I’m sorry, that were more established. And what it was was about nailing down your pitch for media, nailing down a strategy for how to pitch to the media more, knowing how to leverage media once you got into it, et cetera. 

It was really just all about media. And Farnoosh and Susie both have, are very well connected in the media world. They’ve both been featured in the media quite a bit and they talk a lot about how they’re so into media features because it’s, it’s great at essentially, you know, you can pay for Facebook ads, you can pay for promoted pins, you can have a Pinterest manager, you can pay for SEO or you can do SEO free too, but that can take a lot of work. Whereas once you’re in a media outlet, it is, it’s free. And if you do it right, it can be free lead generation. So I went and um, you know, the whole thing and it was a really great day. I actually did a whole YouTube video review of it and my biggest takeaways about media on it from, from the day on my website. 

So if you go to pitch please on urban 20 something, you will find that. But I definitely can’t think of people that are better to learn media from than Susie and Farnoosh. They are from very different backgrounds about media, like our new, she’s a formally professionally trained journalists and Susie kind of pulled herself up from her entrepreneurial bootstraps and did this herself. So having both of those lenses, having it from like the very official side, but then having it from the very like DUII side is really great because I believe entrepreneurship is a mix of both. I believe that you’re, you’re going with what you’re great at and you hopefully have expertise in something or some things, but at the end of the day you’re just trying to make your way through it and figure it out just like everyone else. And so having those two were really helpful. 

Um, I definitely recommend learning from them if getting featured in the media is your main goal for the year, for the quarter or anything like that. I do think that they are right in that media is free and that’s hugely amazing. But the strategy of media is a kind of job in itself and I think it’s a hugely valuable job, but that’s kind of where I was coming from at the beginning when I said that though, I think that they’d welcomed beginners and you’d get a lot out of it because you know how to go into media from the beginning. You’ll get more out of it if you’re at a place in your business where getting into the media is a big goal. So just think about that for a minute. In the context of your own business, what would it mean for you to be in a place for getting into the media is your big goal? 

Well, it would mean that you should be in a place where you have somewhere for the media to go to that you’re proud of, which means you either have a great blog where you want people to start subscribing and start reading and get really hooked when they go over there. Or you will have a great funnel where once people sign up for your email, they go through the sequencing and then they buy something or even a great product and you want people to learn about that. Or you have a great podcast and you want more listeners, but if you are getting into the media just for the sake of getting into the media and you’re not really having a great place for them to go, once they found you, then you’re not going to not get something out of media features but you will get more and it will probably be more efficient with your time if you have that, at least some, I don’t want to put too much pressure on a new one cause I don’t think that the backend’s ever fully built out, but you want to have something there for people to go to. 

So, um, I highly recommend this workshop. I highly recommend learning from Farnoosh and Susie. They do multiple different weight, like they have a lot of different options for um, supporting you and getting more into the media. I think Susie has a, a, um, an eCourse and I think they do an even more elite mastermind on it. So if you’re wanting to learn, if you feel like you’re not chatter, I definitely recommend learning from them. I just recommend being honest with yourself about whether or not you have the capacity and the logistics for that strategy to be a central focus for you right now. Okay. Let me take a notice of water. I’m sorry you guys, I kind of have a little bit of a cold so I kind of had the sniffles. Let me make sure everything is okay if you refresh it. 

So hopefully that’s okay. So still can’t see the views, but it’s cool. Okay. So that was the first program that I took. The next eCourse I took was boss’ pitch with Erica Gwen from coming up roses. So boss pitch is for learning how to pitch brands as an influencer, Instagram or blog or whatever it is that you want to call yourself to partner with them and to get sponsored posts or items or like things from them, whatever it is that you will make sense for your business. So I took this because one of my goals for the year was to start partnering with brands in a different way. I had done some before last year and I really liked it. Um, and it had gotten to a point last year where I had felt like my e-courses were excellent, my group programs were very good, and my mastermind was, was going well. 

My mastermind was a big focus of the year, but another one that I wanted to focus on this year was branching out my message in a different way, which I was curious to see how I could look with partnering with brands a bit more. So I took boss peers to learn how to pitch brands to learn how to know which brands would, would be a good fit for me and to know more about that side of online business and marketing. Um, and Erica has a successful blog, which she look, it looks like funds pretty much exclusively from brand partnerships except she obviously makes money off of this e-course. And it was also recommended to me by a friend, which always helps. I’m actually looking at these, a lot of these are recommended by your friends. So it was recommended to me by a friend and I went ahead and pulled the trigger. 

So I, um, that’s why I took it. I recommend boss pitch to bloggers and or Instagrammers and influencers. It definitely was a helpful course to me in terms of what I wanted to learn, which was very much that side of all my business because it was a bit new to me at the time. Like I said, I had worked with some brands but brand partnerships was still not the core of my business. Um, so I definitely got what I wanted out of it. She knows what she’s talking about. It was a great learning experience and I have partnered with more brands since then. Um, however it’s not even really. However, and I would say that the course is definitely meant for people that are specifically bloggers or influencers, um, people that really use that kind of way of communicating with their, with their audience as their primary focus, which I, which I don’t. 

So I don’t know. I know I’m being kind of confusing here because I would still recommend it to people that are even like me that are entrepreneurs that still want to add a side of, of brand partnership in there because I did learn so much and it did help me. Uh, I just think that the people that will make the most sense for it are people that are, are bloggers through and through. Um, and that’s just because those are the people that do the most brand partnerships and you know, you can do these, um, pitches easier when you have the sort of fundamentals and structure in place, which is what brands are looking for. And that’s not exactly how my website’s set up. I am not a blogger. Okay. The next course I took was Jenna Kutcher’s, the podcast lab, um, which was new at the time when it came out. 

And uh, my podcast right now, your biggest vision was about three months old or so, I’m not exactly sure, but it was a couple months in. I’m a big fan of Jenna’s podcast, the gold Digger podcast. She’s been hugely successful for it. And it’s obviously one of the most successful business podcasts out there. So I was really excited to learn from her about podcasting and that’s why I took it cause I had a new podcast and it was just a few months old and I wanted to know how to grow it. Um, what I could do right. You know, maybe some things that you’ve missed, et cetera. It was very new to me. So I would recommend this podcast lab class to people who have not started a podcast yet. It was very much about getting it going from the beginning. So it would have been really, really helpful if I would have bought this before I started my podcast because, um, she does talk so much about the great equipment you should be using, how to market it. 

It had a name and it had a brand and how to get it out there, how to know which niche to pick, how to put it up on iTunes. And you know, the truth is I had already done a lot of that. So I definitely recommend this course. I think it’s a good course. I don’t want it to come across as though I have any negative things to say about it. I just was a bit too far ahead for the level that the podcast lab is at. So if you are considering starting a podcast and you want to know if it’s right for you, if you want to know how to package it in the best way and start it and the best way, then this would be a great class that if you already have a podcast and you just want to know how to grow it a bit more than I would find a different course because that’s just not the focus of this course. 

Uh, Jenna obviously knows what she’s talking about and like I said, if I would’ve known that the insights in there when I started this, it probably would have been different and easier. Um, but I just had taken it a bit too late. Okay. The next course I took was called financial freedom university with Anne Wilson. And I took this course because I felt like, um, how do I phrase this correctly? Um, I took this course because I was excited to do a course that was personal. I think I had done, I’ve done so much business stuff for the past few years and I love my business. I mean, it’s like my air that I breathe. Um, and I learned, I love learning for it and it’s so intertwined with me. I have no complaints about how business focus my entire life is. And I do think it’s important to separate your personal and your business. 

Like even when you love business that much because it can, it just, it’s not your whole persona, it’s not your whole thing. So I took financial freedom university just to, you know, tune up my finances and look at my, give myself the discipline and the commitment to look at my personal finances apart from my business and in a really, you know, better pattern. I think it’s so easy to be like, well, my business is doing so well and so therefore I’m doing well. And it’s true, but it’s still important, you know, from a mindset perspective to keep it two separate. Um, and this was also highly recommended to me by a woman who I think so highly of, um, and very much trust her and her husband. So that was another reason that I signed up for it. I would do it again. I wish I had a better review on this. 

The honest truth is somewhat fortunately or unfortunately, but the truth is because this was more of a personal investment than a business investment, I, um, it just, it got pushed to the wayside a bit more this year, which is I take full responsibility too. But just with my wedding and business, it was, it was harder to make time for this one. I will say though that one of my favorite takeaways from this so far has been the emphasis on assets, which I obviously know that that’s important, but hearing it again in this way made me re, uh, or reemphasize the assets within my business I had already built. So a lot of times it’s very tempting for us to want to be in the mode of creating something new, creating something new, selling something new. But a lot of us have actually created some pretty great stuff already, which are assets. 

If you’ve created something that has worked in any way, if you’ve created a great blog post where someone signed up for your email list from that or an eCourses someone bought or a program that people have gone through or even a blog post with an affiliate link that someone’s bought, that is an asset. Those are things you’ve created that you can make work for you. And so I will just say from a business perspective, I think that this course financial freedom university has helped me remember how important it is to be constantly tweaking the assets that I have and not focusing just on creating new ones. I would recommend financial freedom university to anyone who is seduced by the laptop law, laptop lifestyle or the four hour work week type thing type thing and maybe falling into some of the traps of online business that make it look like you can have that just by creating a course in a year or something like this. Um, I think financial freedom university is a lot more holistic. It’s a lot more deep and it’s a lot more personal. So I really recommend it for, for entrepreneurs I guess in general that want to make sure that their business goals are in alignment with their personal goals and that their business is working for them towards their financial goals. Let me take another sip. I hope that you guys are liking this so far. I have two more courses. Okay. 

Excuse me. Okay. The next course I took was creating those six figure blogger. I am friends with Alex who is the creator of this course. He was on this podcast earlier this year and a lot of what’s in this course is, is things I had already done. This course is about creating digital products from your blog to reach six figures. I already have a lot of digital products. Obviously they’ve, they’ve done well. Um, I mostly bought this course because I wanted to make sure that I felt up to date and in the know with a lot of what they teach because I teach, they know digital products very, very well. Um, and I think when you’re an expert in a field, which I would consider myself an expert in, in marketing, online marketing, then you need to make sure that you are still learning about it all the time and that you’re, you know, not missing out on anything that could be right under your nose or something. 

So I mostly took this course as a tuneup, um, and just to kind of learn from other experts. Uh, and it is an excellent course. So if you are a blogger, I again, sort of like, um, boss’ pitch. I do think it’s for bloggers, which I wouldn’t really at the end of the day consider myself a blogger. But if you are a blogger and you want to make digital products and this will be a great, um, a great course for you, it talks about how to optimize your blog, optimize your blog posts, how to make good digital courses from the ground up and digital products, including eBooks, how to research them. It’s very thorough. Um, the, the, the creators did a great job. So who would I recommend it to? Bloggers. Um, anyone who has or wants to have digital products, I think you could still get something out of it if you want to create a digital product, even if you wouldn’t consider yourself a classic blogger. 

But I do think just as the name implies, six figure blogger is made for bloggers. Um, so yeah, if that’s something that’s interesting to you, then it’s a great course. I do recommend it. And then the final course was, is a minute right now the billionaire catalysts with Alex Charfen. Um, I took this because it is very focused on team building and leadership and a big goal of mine for 2020 is to build more of my team and be a better leader. Um, 2019 has been an amazing year personally and professionally. My business hit six figures. I, it’s my first full year self-employed. I got married. Um, I really couldn’t be happier and urban twenty-something is bigger than me now. Um, and it is, you know, really turning into a movement, which I’m so grateful for, but I have to really recognize that if I just do it by myself, I will send its own growth and that’s not what I want for it. 

Um, and also recognize that I have never really managed people before this, this, this is new to me. You know, I didn’t start urban twenty-something because I thought I was a great CEO. I started it because I wanted to start a business and I thought that it was important to talk about the things that I was writing about. So having an assistant, having a podcast producer, all of that is, is new to me and I want to do it right. And that is the focus of Alec sharpens work. So that is why I joined. I would recommend it. So far I’ve only been in it for a few weeks, but I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to scale their team, um, and who wants to do it in a strategic way and doesn’t just want to do sort of one off contractors for the rest of their life. 

Uh, and anyone that just really needs a clear business strategy plan. Um, after I would say after you get past six figures, I don’t think it’s a beginner situation. Alrighty. So to recap this year I took pitch pleased with furnish, Robbie and Susie Moore, Eric coupons, boss pitch. Jenna Kutcher is the podcast lab financial freedom university with Anne Wilson creating ghost six figure blocker and Alec sharpens billionaire catalyst. Wow. What a year it’s been. We launched a podcast. We started working with brands. Um, I started paying more attention to the assets I had within my business. I tweaked at my own marketing expertise and now I’m building out my team. Uh, and I’ve gotten featured in more of the media because I learned from Suzanne and newish. So, um, I’m really grateful for all of this. I’m really humbled that each one of these came into my life and that these people share this with me and that they’ve helped my business in a way that they have. 

And I hope that hearing this helps your business. If you have any questions about any of these courses or any course in general, I’d taken tons. This was just from this year, which was probably the lowest course year yet. Please reach out to me. I’m happy to have an honest conversation. I know what it’s like to feel like you aren’t getting a real answer from anyone. And I don’t want that for you. So, um, please feel like you can always ask me. You can email us at help@urban20something.com and I hope that you guys have the best week ever here is to your biggest vision.

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