Lifestyle Business School

There is a real “trend” at the moment of creating offer after offer; course after course. At best, it’s a tired approach to “doing” an online education. At worst, it has the potential to cause reputational damage and operational chaos. Here’s why. 👉🏻 Multiple Offers Dilutes Focus 👉🏻 Multiple Offers Hinder Student Results 👉🏻 Multiple Offers Eradicate Leverage 👉🏻 Multiple Offers Confuse Your...

You'd think that hitting $100k, or $500k, or $1 million in online sales would mean you've MADE it, right? I mean, all of your revenue goals have come true! You're awesome! You did it! Everything is PERFECT! Only... so often, that ISN'T actually the case. In fact, experiencing that "first taste" of success is often a dangerous place to be in. It's very easy at this point in your online course busin...

Welcome to the LIFESTYLE BUSINESS SWEET SPOT.  Our new business brand, The Course Cartel, is hellbent on achieving it, in living in it, and in helping other like-minded, ambitious good humans live in it too. It's our ethos. Our unique approach to "doing" online business. Our mission. And now, the focus of our 2.0 Podcast, aptly ALSO named the "Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot". Today heralds the begi...

Well, this is (really) it. After today, Stevie Says Social as a brand is officially no more. It's been five years, a million cheers... and if I'm honest, a few tears. Anyone that has started a little business from a seed of an idea in their mind and a knowing feeling that they were made for more will resonate with me when I say that it's a mighty effort. At the beginning, it's exciting and exhilar...

"You need to build an audience of people to sell to!" Says every marketer, ever. "BUT HOW?!" I hear you cry. Building your audience - especially when you are just starting out - can feel overwhelming, frustratingly slow and plain difficult to do. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to build a larger audience, it's useful to remember that EVERYONE starts from scratch. You. Me. Gary V...

Next up in our Throwback Thursday session, we revisit How I Swapped Clients For Courses! "I don't have time...," says everyone, always.  We're all busy. Ten busy.  Throw a business and kids into the mix and you can dial that baby up to eleven and beyond.  But there's one thing I know for damn sure: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result isn't going to change that for y...

Growing an online course business is SIMPLE, but not EASY. If you want to supercharge the growth of your online business, there are FOUR core levers available for you to pull on. The secret to BIG success? Taking FAST action, knowing which lever to pull based on the data you receive from the action you take, and continually optimising. In today's podcast episode, we are breaking down the FOUR leve...

Next up in our Throwback Thursday session, we revisit Why a $400k Sales Month Broke My Business, My Brain and My Bank Account! We’re gonna kick this one off with the big, fat elephant in the room. I mean, title. Namely, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU MADE $400K IN A SINGLE LAUNCH?!” Well, dingbat, it means I made a $400k... ish... launch. In December 2020, I made $400k-ish (actually, it landed at $370k or...

It's one thing to create an online course; it's entirely another to build the "business" behind it.  Processes, team, finances, SOPs... all things I like to call "operational elegance".  Because, the truth is whilst the gurus will tell you that an online course will give you freedom and flexibility, the REAL truth is that TRUE freedom comes from the systems, routine and operations that you build B...

First up in our walk down memory lane, we revisit for Throwback Thursday what FIVE things Successful Online Course Creators Have in Common! ❌ Unpopular opinion: Not EVERYONE is cut out to be a course creator (despite what the online gurus might tell you). In my experience, there are a number of attributes that define a successful online course creator. In this episode, we break down FIVE top attr...

Ever wondered what it's like once you've "made it"? Well, let me tell you... New levels, new devils, as they say 👹 And let me tell you, there are a few things that I wish people had been real about before I embarked on my digital course business. Champagne problems, if you will, which I have always defined as those very real problems that come about as a BY-PRODUCT of something for which you are,...

The secret to making $40k with our lazy course launch? Simply, this: A content plan focused on avoiding the "sea of same" 🐟🐟🐟 by continuing to create "commodity content" ❌​​​​​​​​, and instead sharing our unique perspective. The definition of "commoditised" is: "to render (a good or service) widely available and interchangeable with one provided by another company". Information is a commodity....

If there was ONE thing that I would class as "constant" in the Online Education industry, it would be change. Digital education is a billion dollar industry at the forefront of the "move online" movement that we have experienced in fast-forward over the past two years. With more people comes more opportunity... And also, more competition.  The things that might have worked a few years ago, the "le...

Polarity is a word that I have used a lot lately. It accurately depicts most of my days in business and in life. Life as an online business owner, in my current season of business, requires navigating the mental load of hundreds of humans on a daily basis. Clients, team, prospects... all of it. And with that comes polarity, which is the subject of today's podcast episode. Polarity is the term that...

Asking for — and having the objective ability to hear — frank feedback from your clientele on your business and their experience with it is one of the BEST ways to improve and become the VERY best in class. Is it always easy? No. But is it oh so worth it? Abso-freakin-lutely. Especially in small business — where we personally invest our blood, sweat and tears into our offers — there can be a tende...

Babies, toddlers, business, oh my! I’ve always said that running a business is the biggest lesson in personal development that you could ever undertake… but throw a 2-year old, a 4-month old, 100 clients and a founder with BIG dreams and high expectations of yourself, and you’ve got yourself a right ‘ol recipe for... well, a good time, actually! Betcha didn’t expect me to say that, did you? Becaus...

What do you do when you start to feel that your brand no longer reflects the evolution and growth of your business? When you start to feel, dare I say it, self-conscious when you’re asked about your business at a party, sure that the name “Stevie Says Social” will diminish your authority or how seriously you’re taken at networking events? When friends and family still ask you to try and help them...

We’re not gonna lie — online business over the last year or two has required the navigation of some choppy waters, and it looks like the headwinds for ALL businesses (both online and offline, course-based and otherwise) are here to stay for a season or two. And, when things in the online business landscape are more challenging (think IOS changes, increasing ad costs and increased competition for a...

“I don’t have TIME to start a podcast..” “The tech is overwhelming, I don’t know where to start..” “But what if I run out of topic ideas?” If you’ve EVER considered starting a podcast, it’s likely that one of these “buts” have stopped you dead in your tracks. And, I get it. In a world where we’re all frantically trying trying to run a business, maintain a social life, juggle family, drink enough w...

Starting my podcast is hands down, without a doubt, the single most powerful and highest ROI marketing strategy I have ever adopted in my business. It is almost single handedly responsible for 40% of enrolments into our Launchpad program, and for the remaining 60% it is a significant warm up strategy for people who “found” us through other means. We know, because we ask. In today’s podcast episode...

Tough love-bomb 💘💣 — Without authority, you will find it incredibly tough to sell. And without authoring content (literally, the “author” in authority), you will find it incredibly tough to build authority. It’s as simple (and as difficult!) as that. Think about the people that you buy from and work with online. Most likely, you decided to do so because you had developed a sense of rapport and t...

Posting on social media is the LAST thing you should do. And no, I’m not about to get all “you don’t own your social media accounts” or any other boring, generic advice like that. What I quite literally mean, is that when you are building out and implementing  your marketing strategy, the “posting on social media” bit should quite literally be the LAST thing you do when it comes to the order of wh...

Would you like to know what strategy Cat Skreiner used to double her best launch results?  Cat Skreiner was already a successful course creator when she joined Launchpad in 2022, and had launched her flagship course multiple times before joining us. Cat explains the strategy she used to double her best launch results within months of starting Launchpad.  Cat is an energetic business strategist and...

To sell a course, the right people need to see your offer. Period. Without eyeballs, there aren’t sales. Luckily, the process of GETTING eyeballs isn’t confined to a life spent slaving away on social media trying to build an audience. Because at the end of the day? Audience and leads are actually two very different things. Audience: A group of people to whom you deliver free content and thought le...

Delivering a killer launch — you know, the ones you see online that feel flawlessly executed, that make you DROOL for whatever they’re selling and  have you WAITING for them to throw open their doors and offer you their course or program - is both art and science. In reality?  I liken launches like that to a beautifully serene swan.. gliding effortlessly across a lake, but underneath paddling like...