Get to Know 7-Figure Business Coach, Laura Higgins

Join me and 7-Figure Business Coach, Laura Higgins as we chat about her journey from playing in a family band to running her own seven-figure business helping creatives. We also talk about how growing up in church shaped us. It's a cool mix of personal stories and solid tips. 

Watch The Strategy to get to 30k+ Months with Laura Higgins (releases July 10th).

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Links mentioned in this episode:

• Listen to episode 746 where Rick talks about passing the baton to me and his new direction.
• Listen to episode 720 to get to know Kwadwo. 
• Listen to the next episode with Laura Higgins

Kwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie’s Links:

• Subscribe to The Art of Online Business’s YouTube Channel 
• Book a strategy call with Kwadwo!
• Grab the Facebook Ads Lead Gen Cheat Code course to cut your lead costs and double your email list!
• Avoid the 7 Biggest FB Ad Mistakes That Course Creators Make that Burn Through $$$
• Visit Kwadwo’s website for Facebook Ads help
• Say hi to Kwadwo on Instagram

Laura’s Links:

• DM Laura: https://www.instagram.com/laurahiggins/
• Listen to Laura’s podcast: My Business Playbook

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of Before we Hit Record, and this time I am sitting next to Laura Higgins. She's the host of the my Business Playbook podcast and a business coach for creatives Don't make me laugh now. She runs a seven-figure business that she started back in 2017 when she was 23. And the first time I mixed that up, I challenged her like what is the number? What is the number that has 17 zeros behind it? And then we started talking about the math geniuses who can multiply the heck out of any number in their heads instantly. Laura, it's good to have you on the podcast, Hi.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Kwejo, I am so happy to be here and let me tell you a 17-figure business. Yeah, my brain can't really compute what that would be, but maybe that's the new goal, who knows?

Speaker 1: 0:58

Who knows, in like 80 years from now. I'll just go and say what my kids would say 80 million years from now, maybe everybody will make a 17-figure business because of inflation, or however it works, I'm going to ask.

Speaker 1: 1:11

ChatPBT while we're chatting, first some housekeeping or maybe you should ask ChatPBT while I say if you're listening to this episode. The reason we have these before we hit record, get to know you episodes are because I'm just so lonely here in Mexico and I want to know all the people that I'm meeting and seeing their faces online. That and as online course creators and online membership owners and online entrepreneurs, I feel like, from podcast to podcast, it's as if the people that I'm listening to at least, they seem like one dimensional and I know like behind the screen and behind the successful business right, laura, it's like a living, breathing human with hopes and desires and things that they don't like and things that make them laugh, and some of them are probably running 17 figure businesses. I would like to interview one. So, if you're listening to this episode for the first time and my voice is new to you, well, hi, I'm Quajo.

Speaker 1: 2:09

I'm the new host of the Art of Online Business podcast and if you want to know where Rick went and what he's doing, there is a link in the show notes below where you can see Rick. He'll tell you about all the cool AI things he is into. Same Rick, same great online business insight and just now helping online course creators and entrepreneurs use AI. Leverage that in their business to reduce overwhelm, increase impact and increase profit. And if you wanna know more about me, rick also interviewed me and that link is in the show notes below. And, of course, this is the first of two episodes with Laura, so you can click in the show notes below to the second episode where she is going to share some very good Laura, what are you going to share? We didn't actually cover.

Speaker 2: 3:00

I don't know what we're going to share. We're going to talk about business being creative. I don't know what we're going to share. We're going to talk about business being creative.

Speaker 1: 3:08

I don't know. We can go wherever the heck you want. It's a mystery, but when you get a chance to listen to somebody who has a healthy seven figure business and coaches people, it's going to be good. It's going to be good. So the link is down in the show notes below and now we can get into the conversation where you and me get to know each other. First of all, thank you for being here, laura.

Speaker 2: 3:28

Thank you so much for having me, kwejo. You came on my podcast and it was such a fun conversation that I was like oh my gosh, I'm so excited to hang out with you again. So this is just. This is just fun, so thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 3:43

This is cool. So I I mean since when we were not hitting record yet and we were thinking about hitting record and you told me you started your business at 23 you were in university at the time. How did that work?

Speaker 2: 4:01

I well, I was a university dropout. A bit of my journey has been. I have always been creative. I've grown up in a very creative family. We've all played music. I was in a family band at one point and we traveled all around the US, all around Australia, traveled all around the US, all around Australia. And yeah, so my three sisters and myself and my two elder sisters, their husbands, were also in the band. So it was like kind of Von Trapp family vibes. It was like country folk music. It was a whole heap of fun. And so we traveled on tour buses around the Midwest. We played South by Southwest. One time we oh, you were big, oh no, we weren't big you said you toured around the us and the continent australia yeah, yeah, but like I mean, we didn't make any money.

Speaker 2: 5:01

I remember when we, when we finished up the okay when we finished up the band we were like cool.

Speaker 2: 5:08

So, like you know, we're all shareholders in this company. Right, we finished up the band and we were like my sister my elder sister had kids and it just got a bit tricky to keep going. So we finished up and, like, at the end of the day, we were like cool, like you know, let's split up the profit. And we each walked away with like 400 for like five years of of hustling and grinding. So so it it. I mean, it's not why you make music anyway to make money, but it was a heap of fun, unless you're Taylor, which maybe she, she might be making 17 figures.

Speaker 1: 5:44

We don't know we don't even know what 17 figures is. I looked it up. I looked it up it's it's 10 quadrillion 10 quadrillion. Yeah, okay so I'm gonna ask you more questions about your band, because I want to know, like did you play an instrument or did you sing?

Speaker 1: 6:02

but hold on a second. I was on Instagram and, because I'm in personal finance and I was swiping, and this one personal finance account came up that I follow, and he was attempting in a like what is this called? Oh, come on the carousel graphics to show just how much money like Elon Musk makes. Just how much money like Elon Musk makes. And so, like I think he you had to swipe like 10 squares over. And like the first square was like this is how much these companies are worth. And they're, like you know, big name companies are listed on the like the New York stock exchange or something.

Speaker 1: 6:39

And you keep scrolling and he's like and this is how much money, like I don't know, 18,000 of these jets would cost. And like you're only on square three. And you're like and this is how much money. Like I don't know 18 000 of these jets would cost. And like you're only on square three. And you're like holy crap. And you just keep scrolling and he's doing in all these creative ways expressing how much money just isn't the amount of isn't equal to even like a half of the amount of money that elon musk has. And so I wonder what? What number? Did you say something quadrillion it was 10.

Speaker 2: 7:05

10 quadrillion is 17 figures and chat gpt says this is an extraordinarily large amount of money okay, all right, well, we'll be there soon, yeah, yeah so you're bam what?

Speaker 1: 7:21

yes, first of all, that's intriguing that you were even able to. How did you vacation from life to tour around on two continents?

Speaker 2: 7:30

First of all, yeah, like, how did your parents pull that out that?

Speaker 1: 7:32

is cool.

Speaker 2: 7:33

So I would have been I think I would have been 17 when we started the band. My, my younger sister would have been, yeah, she was 15. And my two elder sisters they would have been yeah, she was 15 and my two elder sisters, they would have been 20, 22 and so pretty much we just like I didn't really know how we pulled it off. To be honest, like I think we we would get paid a little bit to do gigs and we'd figure out how to make it work. But it's interesting because we all grew up in church, where I'm a pastor's kid.

Speaker 1: 8:07

So, like growing up in church, I grew up in church.

Speaker 2: 8:12

Yeah. So like, well, it's this weird thing and I don't know if you found this, but like I think, particularly if you go, like, grow up in a Pentecostal church where every week there's, grow up in a Pentecostal church where every week there's music and there's kind of a service and there's someone delivering a sermon, which kind of feels a little bit like a keynote in a lot of ways. And it's interesting because I grew up around that and my dad was always the one who, like he, was the preacher and the pastor, and our family was always the one who, like he, was the preacher and the pastor, and we, our family, was always involved in the music, and so we grew up playing music, we grew up learning how to talk in front of people. We grew up in this context that now, when I look back, I think, oh my gosh, that was really helpful for me in what I do in my business now, because I learned how to like, I learned how to present, I learned how to talk to people who were different from me, who were older than me or younger than me, and I learned how to wing it and like, make it up as you go, because things didn't go to plan, and so I think so many of those things have given me an edge in business because I've been able to and performing, you know, in the band it also gives you an edge because you're like, oh I, I know how to hold a room or I know how to stand on stage and and be confident in front of a crowd of people.

Speaker 2: 9:43

And so there have been moments where in my business I've been like I don't know how I've ended up here, but I feel comfortable for the most part in front of large amounts of people, because I've been doing it my whole life.

Speaker 2: 9:59

So it's this weird kind of mixed bag of. I think musicians have a really special ability to create and to perform and I think for me, growing up in church as well, it gave me this experience and this depth to be able to go all right, how do we run this? And especially being a pastor's kid, there was a bit of like you had to. You kind of owned it in a lot of ways.

Speaker 2: 10:33

Yeah there was a bit of pressure, but it's also this like you own it and you feel responsible for it. And so there's this like yeah, I don't know, I think it's just helped me in more ways than I realized when I started my business, for sure, Wow, okay, I did not know any of this, we're just really getting to know each other.

Speaker 1: 10:57

So my dad was a minister, not a pastor of a church. Dad was a minister, not a pastor of a church, but a minister, and so I guess, I guess when?

Speaker 2: 11:13

when I was young.

Speaker 1: 11:14

Oh no, I was just saying wow, that's really cool. Oh wow, I heard when I was like well, I think, I think he was ordained when I was seven years old.

Speaker 1: 11:22

So so technically I I did, too, grow up in a Pentecostal church, so my dad's from Ghana and he was so as as he was sharing with me about becoming a pastor. Like he's telling me, he's from Ghana, and I never really had context for this, because even though my name is Kwejo and you know it is a Ghanaian name, I was raised in the States and so I know nothing of.

Speaker 1: 11:53

Ghana, right, and that was until I went to China. So then I was a lot, well, kind of closer to where you're at in the world yeah, at least closer to the same time zone in the world, at least closer to the same time zone. And there was tons there are still tons of Ghanaians over there because China gives scholarships to like the best and the brightest people from different countries in the continent of Africa to go over to China and, you know, pursue their degrees, and so I'm meeting tons of people from Ghana and kind of just really learning as an adult, maybe like a glimpse somewhat, a sliver, of like how my dad grew up. And so, anyway, he told me that he was in Ghana and he went to like this Christian event and I think he said it was like run by Baptists Christian event, and I think he said it was like run by Baptists and he was talking about. The thing that my dad said really struck me, because he actually has this ministry where it's a healing ministry and he just goes around and he prays for people and he has the like.

Speaker 1: 12:59

I don't know how much you believe in healing, but my dad has all of these stories where it's like he's the guy that people will call in and he'll go pray for cancer. And then, like the doctor comes in the next day and it's like tumors are gone and they're like, well, you need to run a report for this, you know. And so like they're looking at x-rays and it's like it was there, it was here before and it's gone now. The doctors are like what? And you know, and so it's like very, not just like hearsay, miracles, if you will, but documented stuff. And so he was telling me that in Ghana, where he was from though he didn't grow up, I guess, knowing God when somebody came to have like an event, like so, my dad, it's my dad, he's like almost 70 now, could be sorry, dad, if you're listening to this, but he was.

Speaker 1: 13:53

He was at like a tent revival kind of event in Ghana, right, and he was telling me he knew and everybody where he was from knew if you were sick or something, you would go to the local voodoo priest and they would do their things and their chants and their incantations and sometimes you would get better, sometimes you wouldn't. But he was very okay with the, let's just say, the supernatural right. Plenty of people are spiritual and they're into different things. He was okay with that and I never really had context for that until I was in china and just met a bunch of people who, like culturally, like they're like, yeah, you know, we got the local shaman, cool, okay, and so, and when these preachers came and he went to this event, what caused him to decide to follow Jesus was he saw things like he saw power being demonstrated as people were praying for other people to get healed.

Speaker 1: 14:57

That was greater than what he was used to growing up and he was like, ok, well then, this is legit, let's go. And so he became an ord's go. And so he became an ordained minister, and so many stories could come out of that. But that is interesting that we both grew up in a church.

Speaker 2: 15:12

Yeah, I think it's that. I mean, that's amazing. What a cool story of your dad and your family. I think that's so, so beautiful. And it's this interesting thing I feel like when you grow up with a certain frame of reference or a certain you know we have these belief systems and everyone has them, regardless of whether you're a Christian, like regardless of your background, we all have these belief systems and I think we don't often hold them out and go. This kind of informs a lot of how we make decisions. This informs my values, this informs how I show up, this informs how I work Like it's. It's really kind of amazing to think, okay, I this thing that maybe I take for granted because it's always, I've always been like this or I've always this has been my context.

Speaker 2: 16:06

I think, it's kind of amazing to step back and go oh, that's kind of rare and unique and has more of an impact than I would potentially think it would. I don't know. I feel like, yeah, we don't really talk about it that much, I don't think know I, I feel like, yeah, we don't really talk about it that much.

Speaker 1: 16:26

I don't think we don't, and that's why I like having this kind of episode, because we just get to talk and share and relate about, like, our past and where we came from and what we believe, and it's it's a really cool thing because that's what we would be doing in person, hopefully you know, and yeah, for me, I just I love traveling around the world and I love meeting people, especially like people who came from places that I didn't come from and believe things that I don't believe, like I love learning languages for that exact same purpose, because you learn a language and you learn a culture like you can't separate language from culture and you learn a new lens through which you can see and interpret the world and it's. It's a beautiful thing, it's a beautiful.

Speaker 2: 17:08

Well, I love that idea of you can't separate language from culture. I think that is so such a cool way to think about that, yeah yeah, that's beautiful they have this.

Speaker 1: 17:19

So I did linguistics when I was in um college, and so the the thing about linguists. If you're listening and you have a linguistics major, you're like me and you probably know that you ended up doing something completely different with from linguistics. But it's just what did you major in you? Well, you dropped out. Well, I dropped out oh okay.

Speaker 2: 17:40

Well, the thing for me was I I started studying communications, so journalism, and I think in my head I I loved writing. So I was like, oh cool, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna be a writer or gonna end up on tv as like a news presenter or something. And then I got about. I never went to uni, I always just wanted to write music, and so I would skip uni and go write music with my friend. And then I remember one day I finally showed up to a tutorial and the lecturer was like is journalism even a profession anymore? We don't know. And I was like I'm done, I'm out of here. And I never went back. I was like I'm out of here, this sucks. Like what am I doing? So that was my. That was like literally it. But you were going to say something about linguistics.

Speaker 1: 18:30

Oh, just an example that really impressed me, or was impressed upon me, that left an impression in my brain, was in one of my intro linguistic classes. The instructor was talking about possibly a tribe, not a tribe. Well, I guess you could say oh shoot, that's native americans in alaska called the inuits. Yeah, and how? Because they are in an environment with snow most of the year, like they have lots of different words for snow based on how quick, like the kind of snow, like how it packs, how quickly, like it melts. There's a ton of different kinds of snow and they have lots of words to describe it, whereas I can't even describe with my limited vocabulary the different kinds of snow. I'm like it's snow, maybe there's sleet or there's like whatever you call hail, I don't know, and this is precipitation, but they got all these words for snow and they see the world in a different, in a different way.

Speaker 1: 19:31

Like then, then we would, at least for snow and so it gets.

Speaker 2: 19:35

That's really cool.

Speaker 1: 19:35

It's cool, yeah, so back to your story, because you were telling me how you went from touring around two countries and you said that wasn't super successful. But I'm like you gotta have some amount of success to tour around as a band, like on two different continents, because you had to fly from Australia to the states and back and I've never been to the continent of Australia. And then you started a business. You started a business, you started this business. Was it this business or was it a different one? At at the age of 17 yeah, well, at the age of 23 in 2017 yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:13

So I, yeah, so I kind of was making coffee, I like I just was like I don't know what I'm doing with my life. Really. I had kind of dipped my toe into studying at university. I started studying graphic design. I also realized for me I would like.

Speaker 2: 20:30

I think I was just trying to find my spot, and I don't know if you've you've had this experience, quajo, where you kind of like I felt like a generalist. I felt like, oh, I'm good at, I'm good at writing, I, I can. I'd kind of started designing websites for the band. So I was like doing all the graphics and stuff for the band purely because I'd studied graphic design for like a hot minute, and so I just became the person who would figure it out. And so it would have been.

Speaker 2: 21:01

I think I would have started working for a coffee roasting company, because I was a barista. And then they came in and they were like, hey, do you want to come and sell for us? Like sell our coffee to other cafes? And I was like sure I could give that a go. I've never sold anything in my life, but why not? And so I started working for them and I was really bad at sales and so again, like my whole journey has been going, I think maybe I should try this. No, I don't like that. No, it's not even going to be a career, because the lecturer says maybe it's not even real anymore.

Speaker 2: 21:36

I just had this like trying everything and just trying to find my little spot and I started working for this coffee company, started doing sales, and my job was also to like look after customers, train them how to make coffee Like there's a big coffee culture here in Australia, so I was training them how to make coffee, all that stuff. And then I like they kind of kindly pulled me aside and they were like, like they kind of kindly pulled me aside and they were like look, the sales thing, you know, I I was like so sheepish about selling I would. I would try to like I'd walk in with my bag of coffee and be like do you want to buy this?

Speaker 1: 22:16

Like and then like I'd be like do you want this?

Speaker 2: 22:17

Yeah, like what? And I had. I just didn't know what I was doing. And thankfully, now I I am good at selling because I had to figure it out. So I but I had this like moment where they pulled me aside and they were like look, we reckon this Instagram thing might be a big deal for business, so why don't we get you in on that? You're you're, you love writing, you're creative, you're good at designing stuff, you're good at like websites, you're good at all this, like little, the things that make marketing kind of work, so why don't you give that a go? And I stepped into that role. And that's when I was like, oh, I'm good at this, like I can.

Speaker 2: 22:55

I would obsess over like learning about it. I wanted to understand it. I would teach myself how to design websites, I would teach myself how to work social media, how to get new followers, how to create content. And so I, very quickly, their social media blew up. It all went crazy. They were like, oh my gosh, the content's amazing. And I was like cool, okay, I think I found my spot. And so I started.

Speaker 2: 23:20

I had people approaching me saying can you do that for me? And so I started a social media agency and that's when I first started my business in 2017. Then it kind of went from there. There's been many iterations of my business, but I started as a social media manager.

Speaker 2: 23:39

Then I would slowly people would say, oh, can you design my website? I would say sure I'll give that a go. Can you write my website? And I would say sure I'll give that a go. Can you write copy for me? I'd say sure I can do that. And can you run ads for me? And I'd be like, okay, I'll give it a go.

Speaker 2: 23:53

And so slowly it became a bit of a marketing agency and it really went well and it kind of evolved from there. So I think it's been this journey of a lot of trial and error, a lot of giving things a go, jumping in and being okay with not being amazing on day one and not having to have things perfect. I think those have been the big things that I've had to go. Okay, I've got to like I don't know kind of. I think almost there's this thing of when you're new at something, you almost have this wonder about it, where you're like, I don't know how this works and this, this Instagram thing, is a whole new world and it's exciting and I can be creative. Yeah, exactly, exactly so, yeah, and so that's how I kind of started my whole, my whole thing.

Speaker 1: 24:54

But that's how you kind of started this what is now a seven figure business where you help creatives get to 30 K plus months where you help creatives get to 30K plus months.

Speaker 2: 26:08

Yes, and part of the reason why I moved into coaching and consulting. Firstly, I moved into consulting because I realized managing people's social media like I was working with winemakers, I was working with people in finance, people in health and fitness and it slowly, kind of I was like I can't create content for all of these people because it's so varied. And so I moved into consulting because I was like, well, why don't I teach you how to do this? Because social media isn't going away. And so that shift then turned into okay, I'm going to create a course, okay, I'm actually going to create a coaching program. And then it evolved into you know who?

Speaker 2: 26:46

I really love helping Creatives Because when I started my creative business, I was winging it and making it up and if I had a framework to follow I could have avoided a bunch of mistakes. I could have grown a whole heap quicker, and so that's kind of where I went from there and I love what I get to do now because it's so I can see the impact and I can see how it helps people and I can see like a client of mine just this week sent me a video of her with her keys to her brand new apartment that she bought in Sydney and she's like I just did this and it's because you helped my business.

Speaker 2: 27:25

And it's like this that, to me, is like why I do what I do, because I think, oh, it can. Your business can actually set your family up.

Speaker 1: 27:34

Your business can actually impact your whole life, not just be a career that makes you some okay money, like it can actually change the whole trajectory of your life yeah, I just think it's such an honor, responsibility, privilege, all of those and more to get to help others with their online business, because we're talking about, like you're helping them take their passion or their gift or just their extreme interest and serve other people with that their life, but I mean their business isn't going to be successful without impacting other people. Yeah, so it's.

Speaker 2: 28:15

It's really cool the impact that you get to have and but you would find this too, quajo there's this like it's the magic of what we get to do as coaches, course creators, is that we get? Is that we get to actually see the impact. We get to say, oh my goodness, like this person was able to buy a house or this person was able to take a whole month off without working and they could hang out with their kids every day. And it's like you get to actually see that tangible stuff. And to me, that's more important than my own.

Speaker 2: 28:56

Oh, I, I run this kind of business and I met, I've got, this many clients at that. That's not that interesting to me. I'm like I think the, the thing that drives me and I yeah, I'm pretty sure it would be the same for you is like when you see someone get it and you see them put something into practice and go, this is actually game changing and life changing for them. That, to me, is the magic, and it's not about looking good on Instagram or talking about yourself all the time or any of that stuff. I think it's like, wow, if I could impact a handful of people in my tiny corner of the internet then, that's pretty amazing.

Speaker 1: 29:40

So tell me about impact personally. What are some goals that? And he'll have to forgive me, your husband, when I I kept saying Nath, because from my neck of the world that's how I would say it, but or was I getting it right? I think I was getting it wrong.

Speaker 2: 29:59

No, you were getting it right.

Speaker 1: 30:01

Oh, okay, I thought I was getting it wrong. Okay, cool. So like, what do you? What do you? What? What keeps you guys going business wise? Like what are you trying to do as far as, like, personal goals with the freedom and the success that you've built up so far?

Speaker 2: 30:17

I think for me, it's really I feel like the impact stuff for me is being able to go okay, first, I'm able to help people. I think that's that's really important to both of us. But I so that's kind of like first thing and like I think, in the online space, I think people get the order of it wrong. They think, oh, I want to build a seven-figure business or an eight-figure business or a 17-figure business.

Speaker 2: 30:51

So it's about what I want first and if I can help people in the process, cool. I don't think anyone goes out to like. I don't think many people go out to like be a jerk in business, but sometimes people?

Speaker 2: 31:06

hopefully not, but sometimes people get the order wrong. They think I want to build a business that serves me and so, and that in and of itself is fine. Of course we want to build a business that allows you to have freedom, allows you to have flexibility, financial security, all that stuff of course. But I think if you want to do that, if you want to build a business that serves you, you have to start by serving others. It has to come from this like I want to help the this particular type of person achieve this particular type of result and, hand on heart, you're not always going to get it right, but hand on heart, can I say that I, like have shown up with integrity, have done my best to serve these people. If you can say yes to me, that's like. Okay, cool, we're on the right track.

Speaker 2: 32:01

So I think a lot of people get the order wrong. I think people can and like. Of course, there's a balance to this as well. Because you can't, I've also had to go on this journey of like well, am I responsible for people's results as a coach?

Speaker 1: 32:17

as a course creator Like.

Speaker 2: 32:17

I would get really stressed if I, if people, weren't winning, I would get really like it would keep me up at night. I'd be worried that people weren't winning. And so that is the serving others to the extreme where it's actually not healthy, and I can't carry other people's businesses on my back.

Speaker 1: 32:34

I have to be able to go if you're going to that extreme, is it really serving them? Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1: 32:46

Well, I've been there too, but there's something to be said about. It's like here, here's, here's the advice, here's the strategies that work, but I can't do it for you. And if I overextend myself to really try to, yeah, if I go past where I should in order to help you get a result, then what happens when I'm not there, like there's an element of you pulling up your bootstraps, so to speak, and taking the stuff that works and doing it.

Speaker 2: 33:12

You know, Totally, and I think we don't want to build courses and programs and services that make our clients codependent on us.

Speaker 1: 33:25

There we go. We don't want to enable them to be codependent.

Speaker 2: 33:27

Yeah, no, we don't. And I think the thing I've learned more and more as I've coached more and more people is, a lot of the time people have the answers. They just need the right questions to kind of pull them out and go oh, you know what, I know what I need to do, I need to do this and I know where I'm letting my business down. It's in X, y, z area, and then you've got something to work with to kind of serve people better from there. So I think it's this delicate balance.

Speaker 2: 33:57

And a lot of people in my world and I'm not sure if it's the same for you, kwejo, but a lot of the creatives that I work with, their whole business operates from their heart. They just love what they do. They don't want to be a jerk, they want to help people, they want to do awesome work, and sometimes they can go into that extreme area of over-delivering and not looking after themselves. And so it's this delicate balance of we don't want to go the other end of the spectrum where it's like me, me, me, I don't care if I deliver a great service, I don't care if the course even works, I don't care, I just want to get the numbers. I want to get my launch goals, I want to hit my targets and if people get results, awesome, that's yuck right and we see those people on Instagram.

Speaker 2: 34:49

We see them and they, they run their ads and you're like oh, this is, this feels icky, so we don't want to be there.

Speaker 1: 34:52

I hear, I hear about.

Speaker 2: 34:53

I don't honestly I don't see that many, but I guess they're out there and they're just not in the circles that I'm in, which is good right, we're not in those circles no, and I think and you would find this you've interviewed so many incredible people, but, like the people who are truly successful, I think they're and I don't know, maybe this is a generalization, but the people that I've interviewed on my podcast and I imagine it's the same for you people who are truly successful, they, they really want to help people and it comes from this service of like I really want, I'm good at what I do, I'm competent and I also really like love and care for the people that I serve. And so I don't know, what do you feel like, kwejo, with the online space and where it's at at the moment? Like, how do you feel like it's going to go moving forward with so much volume out there? Like, how do you feel like we, as course creators, need to be showing up?

Speaker 1: 35:57

Well, way to come out of left field with a question for me Sorry.

Speaker 1: 36:02

I can answer that pretty quickly. I can answer it on the business side because that's just what I see as a Facebook ad manager working with clients. What I see is for some clients, it's taking longer for people to purchase. Once where we thought let's call it during we can't say during the heyday people keep saying during the gold rush of like the pandemic, and I feel like that was only the latest time, but there was a period of time before that too where everyone was enamored with jumping ship from the day job and starting an online business. People who are brand new to their business ecosphere go from zero to 60 in a 45 minute training or webinar class whatever you want to call it and buy a thousand to two thousand dollar product. We're not seeing as much of that anymore.

Speaker 1: 36:57

in fact, like so many clients, after looking at their launch and doing a debrief with them. We're just shifting ad spend to back to the try and true method of the lead magnet and then nurturing somebody into a launch. Okay, but you asked me where do I think this is going? I feel like it's going to be who do I connect with the most? Because, quite frankly, there's so many people like if you're in a niche and you're the only person in the niche, then you're probably in a niche that's not making money as in now.

Speaker 1: 37:34

Every I mean that's how I feel it is Like right now there's just so many I'm in the mixer mind, for example, and there's plenty of copywriters and plenty of social media marketers and plenty of business coaches, and there's even another ads manager in there. It's like we're not the only one anymore, and so where I feel this is going is just connection, connection, connection. Like do I? I have many options wherever I look for somebody who's great at what they do, passionately believes in what they do, you know, and has helped quite a few people. But ultimately, who do I connect with the most? And I guess, secondly, who has their messaging on point and is communicating the best to me.

Speaker 1: 38:20

Yeah, that's where I see this going. We're at an intriguing point and I don't really look to the future as much as I probably should point and I don't really look to the future as much as I probably should. But I wonder. I've also wondered to myself, like what happens as online businesses mature and because, like out in the normal brick and mortar world, like after a business is around for 10 years, you know, somebody could buy it, somebody could sell it, like I wonder how that affects the online business space. Like we're starting to see that and like maybe it's a bit of privilege I get as like a podcast host and like in this space, like I I've heard already two people now that I've interviewed on this podcast who have sold their businesses, their online businesses know and are doing something similar or completely different. But like I wonder, I wonder what, what, what happens in the next five?

Speaker 1: 39:15

seven years Like. What are your theories on this?

Speaker 2: 39:18

Oh, I feel like it's a really fascinating time. I think there's this interesting parallel too, because what you're saying about connection being so important, I completely agree, and we're seeing this the rise of the personal brand, which is really helping people to connect faster. I think it's a really great move, for course, creators or coaches to lead with a personal brand. The clincher is, if you do want to sell, you, you've got to figure out how to separate yourself and create an asset that is, that is sellable, right not built on you, it's not just built on you exactly.

Speaker 2: 40:02

So it's like more and more, I think, we have to build frameworks that stand on their own, and so even even now like we've got a salesperson working with us and she sells people into our program, I am very conscious of her. Not that I'm going to sell my business right now, but I like. I'm conscious of her selling it as hey, you're going to be working with Laura, because yes you're going to see me.

Speaker 2: 40:28

Absolutely, I'm going to be in there, I'm going to be on the coaching calls, you're going to hang out with me. But I also, like we. We have over a hundred clients, so there are going to be other coaches in the mix, and so we want to sell the model and the framework, not the coach. So it's this, it's this dance of where we leverage the personal brand to get the connection and get people in and we use our brains to create really awesome frameworks. But the frameworks are the things that do the heavy lifting to get the people, the results. Then if down the line, you were like I want to sell this thing, you're selling a framework, not selling Laura Higgins you know, so I think the other thing is like a good friend of mine.

Speaker 2: 41:14

He recently had a huge investor come and invest in his coaching business oh and it's it's game changing, it's like literally life-changing for him, and so I think there's also that side of things that we don't even think about. Like you know, a big investment company might go. You know what I want to invest in you guys, because it's so scalable, it's so profitable, so I don't know there's. It's a really cool time to be playing in the online space, for sure who knows what's coming too.

Speaker 1: 41:48

there's so many changes we could talk. This could go many ways, I think I think now is where we'll just forcefully end the episode and you and I will hop into the next studio and the listener well, listener in the show notes below is where you can click over to the next episode if you're listening and you're just like I, super like laura and I'm gonna click right now and you can over to the next episode. If you're listening and you're just like I, super like Laura and I'm going to click right now and you can't watch the next episode, it's because this is airing on a Monday and you clicked before the two days later, on a Wednesday, when the episode is live. So hold on and my apologies that you have to wait, but this next episode is going to be really good. I mean, it can't not be good with a seven figure business owner who helps creatives get to 30K plus months. Laura, how many creatives have you helped to get to 30K plus months?

Speaker 2: 42:36

Oh my gosh, I can't even. I can't even tell you how many. I can't even tell you how many I think we've got in all of our programs. I think we've had over 600 people go through our programs. So yeah, it's wild, yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:51

It really is. To put it into perspective, I was talking with another guy I think his episode just aired today and he's an AI optimization coach and he paused me as I was saying, so, naturally, that I work best with online course creators who want to scale from low six figures up to like $900,000 a year and he's like.

Speaker 1: 43:14

do you know how few people that is Like? And when he asked, when he said that I was like, you know? You're right. Like we're talking about, like the upper echelons of income here, like this is 30,000, helping people get to 30,000, like 30K plus months, laura, that that's life changing for everyone, even if you live in the most expensive city in the world. I feel like that is that is cool. I'm going to be asking you more in the next episode. That's what the listener can expect. Thank you for getting to know me, getting to talk about some more vulnerable things on this episode of Before we Hit Record.

Speaker 2: 43:52

Thanks so much, Kwejo. I'm excited for the next part.

Speaker 1: 43:55

Me too, me too. And until the next time you see me or hear from me, take care and be blessed. Goodbye.