Hi gorgeous

I want to talk to you today about changing the world. For a change.

I help ethical people start ethical businesses. Who am I to do that? I’m an author of five books including Naked Chocolate, the book that kick started the raw chocolate revolution, author of several apps totalling over a million downloads, hostess of the world’s first and only raw food TV series and founder of Europe’s largest superfood company. After turning over $20m, I sold that company in 2012 and retired aged just 43.

Woohoo.

So I know exactly how to help you get business stuff done, while making sure you don’t compromise your beliefs. My biggest business mantra is “bring your Vision Of Love to the world“. Because that’s what I did, and I was so fab at it, I decided to help other people just like you do the same. Plus I feel like it’s my duty to teach you my secret saucy sauce…

Nutritionists, healers, coaches, artists, yoga teachers, and those making ethical retail products feature high on my client list.

Now it’s time for you to get your Vision Of Love out there to the masses, just like my existing clients.  And one of the easiest ways to do this is to create an online course or membership site around the subject that you’re obsessed with the most.

And to help you make it an overnight success, here are my top tips…

1) Make your offer time sensitive and build in scarcity

For example, only launch your course or membership site once or twice a year for a week at a time. The rest of the time, build your email list and give your prospects masses of free stuff that’s super useful to them, so when it comes to relaunch time, they will already feel indebted to you and want to pay you back.

2) Offer an upgrade option that includes the personal touch

This is a great financial boost, which can be invaluable when just starting out. For example, when I relaunched my life mastery membership site (est: 2009) Shazzie’s VIP Room I offered a $10 monthly fee, a $297 lifetime option and a $1497 lifetime plus 1-1 mentoring package VIP upgrade option. It’s always worth doing an upgrade package whenever you create an online course, a coaching package or membership site.

Can you imagine doing this? Even if you only get one mentoring package during your launch, your bank will thank you for it. Be grateful for that client because you’d have had to get five extra people at the normal lifetime rate to get the same revenue as that one VIP. And remember, you’re an expert in this stuff and it’s good for you to share what you know to those who are willing to reward you appropriately.

3) Enjoy the ongoing fruits of your labour by offering a low priced no brainer subscription option

As I just said, I offered a $10 a month option on my relaunch. It’s one of those where they can cancel any time. When you do this, you’ll get the “on the fencers” joining. They can check you out without feeling like they’re taking a big risk.

Let’s look at how the figures add up when you do a monthly membership offer:

1 member = $10 pm = $120 pa (must try harder 😉
10 members = $100 pm = $1,200 pa (this amount pays for your tech costs)
100 members = $1,000 pm = $12,000 pa (this pays for some of your living costs)
1,000 members = $10,000 pm = $120,000 pa (this is more than enough for most people to live on)
10,000 members = $100,000 pm = $1,200,000 pa (this is the millionaire zone… you’ve cracked it!)

When you create a monthly membership business model, just decide what you want to earn, then figure out how many members you need to make that happen. Then work your magic to attract those members… that may mean clever launches, awesome value for money and keeping your membership site fresh so your new clients stick around.

4) Drip feed the content so people are left wanting more, and so the course can’t be bought, ripped off and then refunded

There’s a downside to being an online course author, and this is that some people will rip you off. It rarely happens, but if it does, you could quickly find the perpetrator asking for a refund shortly before discovering all your hard work is being sold for pennies on a dodgy web site. Ugh.

Luckily, most people don’t do this, and most genuine clients won’t buy from these sites. After all, there are likely no support, upgrade, community or even refund options.

I recommend to my clients that they cover their backs by not offering their whole course at once. With Thinkific (the learning management system I use), you can drip feed the content, so the majority of it comes out after your refund period, if you offer one. This also means your clients must start at the beginning (not easy for us creative types), and work methodically through the course or club, so they’ll learn what you’re teaching in the order you intended.

Drip feeding a club such as Shazzie’s VIP Room is seen as normal, drip feeding a course isn’t as normal, but I like it for the reasons I’ve just stated. Try it with your audience and ask for feedback.

5) Offer a Facebook group to avoid anything to do with VAT MOSS 😉

VAT MOSS is a VAT MESS and I’m not even going to talk about it. Avoid it at all costs by offering a significant live element to your online course or club. The easiest way to do this is to offer real time support (from you and other members) via Facebook Groups. You could also offer group calls via phone or Zoom, or even some 1-1 Skype sessions.

If you offer group support with your course, then I’d say you’re in the realms of a hybrid membership/course and you could then choose a subscription model rather than a one-off payment or payment plan. Live training is so valuable, your clients will likely want to stay with you after they’ve completed the course part of your training.

6) Ask your fans what they want from you and offer exactly that

Most importantly, when creating an online course or club, you should offer what your fans / tribe (hate that word) / gang / clients want. How do you know what they want? You ask them 😉 The best way to do this is to create a simple questionnaire on Typeform and sent it to your email list. Ask them what content they love you to deliver, what format (video, audio, live etc), and other related questions, and then you can create a course or a club that they will already want. Also the yucky selling bit isn’t such an issue 😉

Of course, there’s a lot more to creating an online course or membership site than this, but these top tips will help you get yours more visible and more loved by your audience.

And the best part? No matter what your country’s politics are doing, when you earn your money online, you become a part of the global economy. Thriving countries have easy access to your stuff, and you’re not depending on your country finding its sanity again, which feels like sweet relief for us Brits and Americans…

Bliss U

Your $20 Million Business Mentor

PS: Want to join my business clients and bring your Vision Of Love to the world? Go here to find out how!