All right, we are continuing the conversation about digital courses to round out the month of August. So if you're listening to this way in the future, then Hello. This is Krystal from the past, that was kind of weird. I've kind of felt like that was like a Back to the Future kind of reference, which let's just go on a little side tangent real fast because we can. I don't really remember back to the future in the way that other people my age remember back to the future than anybody else. Like I wasn't like my mind wasn't totally blown. Maybe I'm a little bit on the younger age of when that movie came out. But anyway, so this, this is Krystal coming to you from the future. If you're listening to this Later, but then I'd be in the past. Okay, now we're just getting confused. So anyway, we're going to continue on. If you are listening to this way later than August 2020, then I'm just going to catch you up to speed real fast because this entire month, every podcast episode, all the YouTube videos, and every piece of content that I've put out in the month of August, has slowly been dedicated to monetizing your podcast with a digital course. And there was a reason behind this. And that is mostly because I wanted to tell you about my experiences I've shared, lessons learned, I've shared reasons why you won't make any money. If you're not focusing on the right things I've told you about my mentor who helped me learn all the things that I know about digital courses. And the reason why is because I want you to see the possibilities ahead. Want you to see where I totally screwed up so you don't make the same mistakes that I did. But today I want to specifically tell you about some of the digital courses that I have taken. And I'm going to tell you how much money that I have invested in digital courses over the course of my online business. And I'm going to share some facts and figures with you today. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the profit podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the time saving shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Okay, so I told you that I would give you some behind the scenes Of how much money I've actually invested since I started my digital course and my online business and kind of give you like a timeline of how everything is unfolded for my business since I first started. Now, I guess we got to go back to the very beginning of when I first started trying to figure any of this out, right, like I told you a few episodes ago, like my path to podcast success. And I literally gave you a timeline back to 2009. Okay, we're not going all the way back to 2009. But if you're interested in what my journey look like, I mean, that was like from having my first child graduating college and all the things like we go way back in that episode. Today, we're not going to go as far back but we're going to go back to where I would say I first started creating content online because that would have been around The time I started blogging, which was roughly 2015 2016, whenever I first started playing around with blogger and thinking, Okay, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna try this out. And it's funny because I just remembered I left out a really important part of that piece of the puzzle. And that was I started playing around with developing websites.
On a very basic level. We're not talking about anything fancy, I am still I'm not a coder. I can like, I can figure enough things out to be dangerous like to where I could pull up the HTML and kind of look at it and see if something is absolutely screwed up. Or I can look at it and say, Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't even know what's going on here. So I'm still not super techie when it comes to online, but I know just enough to be dangerous, right? We're not the baby beginner here, but I'm willing Like, intermediate ish, like in my skills. So I wanted to throw that out there. But around 2015-2016 I had my blog on blogger, and oh, how do I even explain this? It was awful. It looked so bad. It literally looked like I opened up the notepad. Do you know what I'm talking about the app like if you have a PC, I know that there's something like that on a Mac, like the notes, the Notes app on a Mac, but it looked like I opened it, type some things up, didn't format it whatsoever. And then I posted it out online. Like you would just like an online journal. It was not pretty. It did have pictures. It didn't have anything. There's no pizzazz whatsoever behind my blog, probably one of the reasons why it wasn't very successful. But then in 20, I think it was like late 2016, early 2017. No, I would have been before that. So it was 2016 around that time, I started volunteering at our library. We lived in a really small town we had a very small community library, and they needed help with websites. So I offered to help. So I figured out Weebly, which if you even know what that is, it's kind of like a Wix if you've heard of Wix, it's like a web, a website like Squarespace, all the things there's, there's like a million of these different websites that you can choose from online. But I created a website on weebly.
And it was around that time that I was like, Okay, I'm going to get more serious about this blogging staff. And I realized I still didn't really know what I was doing. There was no focused approach at my writing, or I wasn't even really talking to a general audience. At that point. I was just writing and throwing it out online and saying, Hey, I guess somebody might read this one day. But then in 2017, I started following This blogger that I had been following for years, I started following her a little bit more closely in what she was doing in her business. And in 2018, I decided it was time to invest in something that would give me more structure for my blog and not to just play around with things anymore. I didn't like it's like, that was the moment that I went from. I just have this website out there. I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm just putting things out randomly to, I'm actually going to be a blogger. I remember having that mental shift in I guess I'm going to go all in doing this website doing this blog thing. And I have to say when I signed up, so it was my very first digital course that I ever took.
This was in 2018. I think it was around August, August 2018. I signed up for my very first digital course. And I remember having this rush of energy. I remember thinking oh my gosh, like I'm actually gonna do this and I'm gonna make money I'm gonna be successful it's like all the this motivation monster was released inside of me and I remember thinking, Oh my gosh, like I can do this. I remember having drive. I just remember like feeling on fire to do this thing. And then I looked at how expensive The course was. Remember, I wasn't making any money whatsoever with anything that I was doing. I was a stay at home mom. I was a stay at home mom. I had three boys at this point. So my youngest would have been around two years old, and my older two would barely be in school like my I don't even know what grades they were in at that point. But I just remember thinking, this is something I can do that is outside of me just being a stay at home mom. And so I told my husband, I really wanted to do this. And this course was around $1,000. It was like right under it was like 900 something if you paid in full. And I remember being so terrified to invest in this thing that I did not know if it was going to work. I really didn't, I didn't have a lot of confidence in myself. I didn't have a lot of confidence in my writing, because I was really the only person reading these things once I put them out. I would kind of share, you know, blog posts here and there. But I just remember being so scared to invest in this thing. But let me tell you a little something about me. And when I invest in something, I show up, I absolutely show up and this may come as a surprise it may or may not. I don't really know depending on how well you know me. Personally, but I was an A student in school in high school college like I went all out in all of my classes. I'm not gonna say, Okay, let me take that back for a second. I was not an A student all through college because there were classes I had to take that I absolutely hated. It wasn't until I got into like, my major classes that I really thrived. Political Science almost killed me. And economics was under business. And I still didn't do really well in there, which is kind of funny. But I thrived for the most part whenever I was in classes that really, really lit me up and I was so interested in what they were talking about. And so this blogging course, really did that for me. It really just opened my eyes to what was possible, and the kind of results that other people were getting. By blogging. It just blew my mind and I was was open. It was like somebody like kicked Open this door to an entirely different world that I didn't even know existed. I didn't know SEO was I didn't know what blogging advertising was or how it worked. I didn't really know. I remember this was about the time. Periscope, had really I guess it would have been in 2016 was whenever I started playing around with periscope before I actually invested in this course. But I remember the person that I was following like, all of these things just blew my mind. Because it was like this whole other world existed in the online space that I just didn't even know was there. And it's funny because I still believe like to this day that everyone knows about all the things that I didn't know about back then. Does that make sense? Like I will have conversations with friends and family members that are not in the online business space. I'll start talking about something and they look at me like I have seven heads. Because they're Krystal, we have no idea what you're talking about. Even my husband sometimes like, I've had to explain to him like what, you know, API's are and these different things and he's, he's in technology. He is in technology, but he doesn't have an online business. So he doesn't know what like kajabi is and Asana and all these other things. He's he, that's not what he does. So he doesn't know what that is. So anyway, I'm totally getting off subject here. But I just want to reiterate that I needed someone who was doing the things that I wanted to do one day to show me how they got there. And so this blogging course was the first time I actually said, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna I remember having a conversation with my husband and saying, if I'm going to invest this money, right, it was almost $1,000 I wasn't making any money. This was money that we just said, okay, at the very least, I am going to learn how to create a website by myself.
And that was going to be worth it to me because that was one of the things that was promised in the course is to show you how to set it up how to write an About Me page and all the other things I said at the very least, I will know how to have a website that is functioning at the end of this course. And oh my gosh, this course pushed me out of my comfort zone in more ways than one I remember I had to switch from my trusted Weebly which if you know if you have like a Wix or Squarespace or anything else like that, those websites are a lot simpler than WordPress. WordPress is a lot harder because it's all custom. Like if you've ever heard that saying like too many choices can be a little paralyzing analysis paralysis. If you have too many options. That's how I kind of felt with WordPress. I felt very overwhelmed because I could literally do anything with it. I could create anything I could, I could do all the things if I wanted to with WordPress, so that was a little paralyzing for me. But I got through it. And I finally figured it out. And oh my gosh, I wish that you could still see the very first iteration of my website, because it looks nothing like what it looks like today. And I'm really proud of the things that I've accomplished from taking that course. I learned how to write emails and start emailing my alert my list, I understood why it was important. Even though I didn't really grow an audience, from my blog and all the things that I learned in that course I realized I needed something different. And that mentor didn't end up being the person that I needed to follow because she built a blogging business. And through blogging, I realized I don't need to be a blogger. To be a podcaster. So, but I have her to thank for all the awesome wisdom that she showed me and she is actually the inspiration behind me starting a podcast because I saw her start her podcast. So that was that was just such an important part of my journey.
So moving on, like fast forward to February, March of 2019. That is when I made the first bigger decision to invest in myself. Okay, so I signed up for Marie Forleo B school in 2019. And it was right under $2,000. Okay, so the first program was about $1,000. And at that point, I had really just paid for my website hosting and I want to say the theme for my website, which was about it was less than four or $500 for the entire year. So at this point, I'm about like 1500 dollars into this venture. And remember, I'm not making any money, okay, I'm not making any money yet at this point. But I had started playing around with the idea of making money. I take that back. I launched my first course in November 2018. But I only made like 250 bucks. So I'm still going to call this out like I really was. I wasn't making consistent revenue in my business. At that point. I only watch my course once and wasn't making steady revenue. So b school, I signed up under Amy Porterfield. So Amy Porterfield is an affiliate a partner with Marie Forleo for B school. So it was like a twofer. Like I got a two for the price of one. And the same thing that I did with that blogging course I knew I needed to do with B school. So I went through every single lesson, every single module, I went through it whenever Murray went through it like I was live I was there, I was doing all the things that I needed to do to achieve success. And I have so much so much to think all the things that have happened in the last year or year and a half have really happened. Because of the momentum I got from B school. I learned so, so much I learned about creating a solid foundation for a business as far as what are my principles? What are my values? What are my beliefs? Who do I want to serve? What kind of content do I want to create? How do I need to set things up on the back end? I mean, so many things like Marie is absolutely a mentor that I've been following for the last few years. And I just love her personality. She cracked me up. I got to see her live last year she came to Houston. I got to see her and Bernie Brown. It was so cool to get to see both of them on Marie's book tour, but I learned so much in B school and I have so much to thank because I've met just so many online business besties through B school, and the things that I learned there and it was just so incredible, so amazing, but it was a very big investment. And I remember being very nervous, like talking to my husband again, because we always talk about money. I don't know if I've rarely mentioned that here. But my husband and I, we always like we have this rule. We went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University several years ago, and we kind of set this ground rules like okay, if we're gonna spend over $50, but either one of us then we talk about it, like there's at least a conversation about it. And so this one was a big conversation because I was so nervous to say, Hey, I'm still not making any money in my online business, but I know that this course can help me. And I remember him saying, okay, that's a lot of money. You know that that's like, are you sure Like you invested in this other thing, and you know, you've learned a lot, but you're still not making any money. And we just had this conversation around, like, is this really going to work? And I remember saying to him, I was like this, like, I'm going to make this work. I'm going to make this work. And so we invested, we were still like, I was so nervous because we don't put things on credit cards. Like we don't just say we're gonna put it on a credit card and pay it off later. Like we try to pay cash for every single thing that we purchase. And so I remember like, we'd we didn't have the money for it, we did not. And so I told him, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna make this money back before the end of the year, and it was February or March, whenever we invested the $2,000. It was right under two grand I remember, I think it was like 919 hundred or something. And so, we did that and I made that money back well Before the end of the year, and I just remember thinking, Oh my gosh, like I did it. I did. I did all the lessons, I implemented all the strategies, and I did all the things and I made it happen. Even though I had no idea how I had no idea how I just knew the what the what was, if I sign up for this course, I'm going to make the money back. That's what I promised myself. And I didn't know how I didn't know what that was going to look like. Exactly. I just knew that I was going to make it happen. So then, after B school was over, and I learned so much and actually I did a hot seat with Amy Porterfield. And because we have Marie has her huge Big B school lunch and she has like a big she does Facebook Lives and YouTube lives and all these other things. That that kind of felt intimidating because It was such a large group of people. And Amy had a smaller Facebook community. And I don't know, I just felt like that was a safe community where that's where I found my business besties. And we just kind of shared and we would share ideas and strategies and we'd give each other feedback. I'd say, Hey, you know, here's a new web page. What do you think? And people would say, That's fantastic. Look at my freebie, and we'd like we was just an awesome community. And Amy had these hot seats. And I applied and I was so nervous. Oh my gosh, like I really am. If you're on my email list, you know, because I wrote about this recently, like, I thought I was gonna throw up I was so nervous that I was just gonna screw everything up. Because here is Amy Porterfield like she has been one of my idols for a while because she has built in a super successful online business. And I had a conversation with her. I told her all the things that I was doing and this was before I marketed or rebranded my business to what it is today. I have to thank Amy Porterfield because of the guidance that she gave me. So I, my whole brand, everything that I was doing was centered around the rookie life. And I'm sitting here like air quotes the rookie life because that's what I had been doing up to that point I had. My blog was about rookie devotionals my book was about rookie devotionals I had the rookie life podcast, and that's what everything was around. But she gave me this advice. She was like, you know, I don't know about you, but most people want to get through the rookie stage as quickly as possible. And it was like this lightning bolt moment of inspiration and motivation that just really hit me. And I thought, Oh my gosh, you're absolutely right here I was playing it safe and embracing this term rookie like it was a badge of honor. And I kind of turned everything around and was like, Yeah, you're right. I want to get to the pro level or you know, pro status as quickly as possible, but also gain the knowledge and the fundamental things that would help me get to where I wanted to go in the future. So we had this awesome, it was a 30 minute coaching session, like she helped me and then it was, I don't even know exactly, I think we had our conversation in April. And by the first of May, I had rebranded and changed my entire business to what it is today, like She challenged me to get laser focused on one thing, and that one thing was podcasting. So you would not be sitting here listening to this podcast today, had I not had that conversation with Amy about going all in on one thing, and that one thing was podcasting. So that was my B School experience. And then so I had made enough money to cover the cost of B school on my next course launch. So I had created my course, which was rookie podcasting back in 2018. I've launched it once in 2018, once in 2019, which was I had one student. And then in August of 20 hours like August, September, I think I opened the doors at the end of August and close them in September. And I had made the money back from B school and from the other course so we're like around $3,000, right. And I remember thinking, Oh my gosh, like this is awesome. Like I'm starting to make money and I don't know about you. I was that kid like when I got my first job and I realized I could make money. I just oh my gosh, it lit me up. I used to love it like being you know, working in the corporate world like I got paid pretty well. And like it just always made me really excited it was motivating money is a motivating factor for me.
So whenever Amy's digital course Academy came around in the fall of 2019, I remember thinking, Oh my gosh, I think this is my next step. Because I was podcasting at that point. And I knew that there weren't going to be thousands of people that wanted to know about podcasting for me. And that's not to say this was like a confidence thing. It was just, I hadn't been doing it long enough. Why would you trust me if I had just pivoted? Right, so this was last year. This was May of 2019. All of a sudden, I put my stake in the ground and said I'm going to be the podcasting expert. There wasn't a lot of people lining up at the door to like beating like Krystal, what are you going to open up your course? When are you going to coach us boy, can we throw our money at you know, That was not happening at this time last year, and rightfully so I had only been podcasting for a year. And I was still trying to get my act together trying to figure things out. So I don't blame anybody for not throwing their money at me. But I knew that having a digital course was going to be something that I really wanted to improve. I had already done it. I had done it. So I had launched it three times before digital course Academy ever came into the picture. And I didn't have great results. I really didn't. I mean, it had been okay, like I'm sitting here like going, it was so so but I knew that it could have been thousands of times better. So when Amy's digital course Academy came around, I said okay, I felt that feeling in my gut that I needed to go all in again. And I am so glad that I did because the relationship ships that I made in B school have been fantastic. The relationship that I made in digital course Academy and it's funny because they've kind of overlapped people that signed up for B school with Amy went on to sign up for digital course Academy. And I feel so honored to know some of the people who have had incredible success with both of these programs. But really, let's be honest, I'm talking about digital course Academy, because I know so many people like I see their names like I see Jamie troll, and I see shentel Martin and I see just all these people that I have met in person or I have seen them we've had this online relationship and to see the success that they've had in a relatively short amount of time. Absolutely blows me away, and I am so impressed by their courageousness of being able to put together a digital course that has helped so many people, so many people and I think about my friends, Heather Sager and Melanie Dyanne Howe like I look at these people, Bobby Klink, like they have gone on to have amazing success with their online businesses after they've gone through a program like digital course Academy. Now, I'm just gonna be really honest with you. I love all of these people, but they don't have anything special about them. Okay, hang on, because I know you're like, well, Krystal, that's kind of harsh, but it's true. They're not super special in what they do, or, you know, their topics and the different things. They have absolutely fantastic topics and they have a servant's heart to really help people. I think that is one thing that sets them apart from just anybody else. But they put the steps into action. That's really what happened there just like me in the sense that they bought a course and I They put it into action. They did the work, they showed up and did the lessons worked through the things and figured out a way that having a digital course could work for them and for their business, whether it was scrappy, or it was perfect, or they had Facebook ads, or they didn't spend any money on advertising, whether they had a big email list or a small email list, they put themselves out there. And they said, You know what, I'm going to show up for my audience because I know that I can serve them. And I just feel so blessed to be among these people that are doing absolutely incredible things. And I cannot wait to see what the next round of digital course Academy students do, because I just have a feeling it's been such a freakin crazy year, right? It's been an absolutely massive year. And I think that because of that, people are just going to rely more and more on online businesses, online courses, digital learning. I mean, I know most schools across the country are doing digital learning as they start a brand new school year. So I'm going to encourage you to think about trying digital course Academy with Amy Porterfield.
And actually, as a me recording this right now, she is releasing a sneak peek of her program. So module one of digital course Academy is actually open right now. So if you're listening to this in real time, from August 25 2020 to September 2 2020, Amy has released her first module of digital course Academy. Now why should you go check this out? You know, why is this even important? Maybe you're like Krystal, I could care less about even having a digital Hang on, because there are a lot of things that you can learn from just looking at Digital Course Academy. It's not even about like, Oh look, it's free go look at it, go grab it go grab all the free stuff you can I mean first of all, yes, I am about that. But that is not the most important part. The most important part is I want you to go see how Amy teaches. And I want you to see how she shows up on her digital course platform because she's literally the best She is an expert at what she does. And it's so pretty I know if you're a guy listening to this show, I care less if it's pretty, but it's so pretty. It really is it's so well designed and I feel like I feel like it's walking into a brand new home that's absolutely totally put together and you feel comfortable there you feel like you're gonna get like you know your your questions answered and you feel like you are in the right place. Place. So I want you to go you can go to the show notes of this episode, KrystalProffitt.com/Episode181. Or you can go to Krystal Proffitt comm slash DC a sneak peek to check out module one of digital course Academy for 2020. Now, like I said, if you're listening to this in the future, then the offer has expired on September 2 2020. So there's only a week that's all she gave us. She gave us a week to go check this out, because she wanted you to see if she would be the right fit for you. If you've been thinking about creating a digital course I want you to go look at this because I want you to see how Amy's structuring her course. There's lessons and modules I want you to look at her images and the slides and the way that she's created things, look at the video options and different ways of recording and I Want you to check out the kajabi platform because that is what she is using. So if you're thinking about creating a digital course and you're like, well, what are the options out there to even create something? This is the perfect way to kind of test drive, right? It's like someone giving you the keys to a brand new Tesla, and you get to go test drive it and see if it's gonna be right for you. Hang on. Let's take that back. Okay, I don't know anything about cars, but I feel like it's like the Lamborghini of the Digital Course. I mean, I don't even know is that is that the right analogy? As a Lamborghini? Hi, I got a Lamborghini, Maserati Porsches, and that is about the extent of my car knowledge. So yeah, I drove a truck in high school. I had an F 351. In schools. So yeah, I don't know anything about cars, but you want to go test Drive digital course Academy. So again go to Krystal Proffitt comm slash DCA Sneak Peek to test drive module one, a digital course Academy and you're probably like, well, when does this actually open? Because you've been talking about digital courses and maybe you're listening to this and you are like, Yes, I already know all these things Krystal I've been watching Amy's Facebook Lives in her boot camp. I've taken her quiz, I've done the starter kit, I've done all the things. Well dcaa opens for a short period of time starting on September 9 of 2020. So if you're thinking about joining, then I encourage you there is actually a waitlist and there's gonna be a link in the episode show notes. So go get on the waitlist, get ready and I have some other fun things coming up because I am actually a partner with Amy this year. And I can't really tell you all the things that are coming but there's is going to be some fun things coming. Okay, that's just like a little teaser. I can't I can't just tell you all the things but I want to let you know that the DCA module one, again, is only open for a short period of time. So if you want to see what it looks like, go check it out. Go check it you don't have any excuses. If you're listening to this live in real time, when this episode airs, you have no excuses why you don't know everything about module one of DCA, okay, but don't wait because it's going to expire. So go check it out.
But I wanted to just tell you about my digital course journey today. And I hope that this inspired you and I hope that it kind of gave you a little bit more behind the scenes of how my businesses run and how I truly invested in myself in learning and education and just trying to understand all the facts Behind having an online business well before I was making any money, and I'm going to tell you right now, I don't have as much success as the incredible success stories that have come out of DCA. But that's okay. I'm absolutely fine with that, because I love all of the things that I'm doing in my business. And to me, that is a form of success that I'm very proud of. I love this podcast. I love creating content for podcasters and I can't wait to see what you create in you. I want to see you monetize your podcast with a digital course. I think it's fantastic, but I actually just remembered, I have a special link that I wanted to share with you and it is actually some of the success stories that I talked about today from Digital Course Academy. So go to the shownotes KrystalProffitt.com/Episode181. And there's going to be special link to DCA success stories that I want you to check out because if you're thinking about it, you're gonna want to read these because I'm freaking blown away by the success stories that have come out of this digital program. But that's all I have for you today guys. I know this last few minutes are like Krystal this was just totally an ad for DCA.
Yeah, it pretty much was like I'm gonna own up to it and call it what it is. But you know, hopefully you learned some of the things about digital courses today that you didn't know. And I if you have any questions, please reach out to me. Let me know what your questions are. I would be happy to answer them for you. But check out the show notes. KrystalProffitt.com/Episode181. And remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.