Tiny Course Empire Podcast

Looking for a content marketing boost for your business? Podcasting is more popular than ever, and more and more listeners are discovering new favorite shows. I love podcasting because it gives you all the SEO benefits of a blog, without requiring stellar writing skills (perfect for the grammatically challenged, in other words). Plus, podcasts offer a level of “know, like, and trust” that you just...

If there’s one question I hear over and over again, it’s “How do I build a mailing list?” There are a few tried-and-true strategies I’ve used, such as participating in bundles and giveaways or starting an affiliate program . But there is one method that consistently brings in high-quality subscribers to my email list, and that’s content upgrades. In this episode, I’m chatting with content creator...

One of the biggest appeals of digital course business—aside from showing up for work in your sweat pants—is that it takes very little cash to get started. You don’t need to save for years, or wine and dine angel investors, or wait for an inheritance to land in your bank account. You can get started right now, today, with nothing more than a few dollars shaved off your household budget. That’s what...

Studies have shown that students learn more effectively when they take notes with a pen instead of a keyboard. I find similar results in my own life. I’m much more likely to remember things I wrote by hand. It’s also easier for me to solve complex problems on paper than it is with a keyboard. And sometimes, I just need to dump out all my thoughts into a notebook so I can see them. It makes whateve...

Let’s be honest. Creating a Tiny Course Empire is not for the tech-averse. There are just so many platforms to master, it can all feel overwhelming. You have to build and manage a website, design sales pages, master your email platform, figure out a shopping cart and payment processors, and make sure your students have easy access to their purchases, too. And you have to connect all of those syste...

It’s no secret that email marketing offers the best ROI (return on investment) for your promotional efforts. But did you know there’s a way you can earn even more from your email list… without mailing more often (although you certainly can) while serving your subscribers better using tools you already have That’s what segmenting your email list is all about, and it’s a technique every business own...

There’s no escaping the camera when you run an online business. Video content continues to outrank other formats. Social platforms prioritize reels and live streaming. And let’s not forget podcast interviews, video-based courses, conferences (both live and virtual) and the many other opportunities involving a microphone and camera. For those of us with a bit of anxiety, stepping up and being seen...

Does this sound familiar? You’ve put the finishing touches on your latest course or digital product, and you sit down to write your sales page, and… nothing. The words simply will not come. You don’t know what to include, or even where to start. You are definitely not alone. Even though writing sales copy is one of the most important skills for online business owners to master, it’s also one of th...

Did you know that knowledge workers (that’s us) waste up to 2.5 hours per day just looking for the information they need to do their jobs? That means that time you spend hunting down a password, or searching through your email for the link to a meeting that’s about to start, or wading through you Canva account looking for your logo adds up to as much as 10 hours every single week. It seems hard to...

Marketing. That’s the number one concern I hear from new (and even more established small business owners). How can they most effectively market their products—and where? It can feel like a constant struggle, and it’s one that many entrepreneurs aren’t equipped to handle. As one client said to me, “I don’t want to learn to be a better marketer. I don’t care about marketing. I care about being a be...

In a perfect world, we’d have all of our expenses covered each month, and we’d have plenty of “fun money” stashed away in case we wanted to take a last-minute trip or buy a fancy laptop or splurge on a new wardrobe. For small business owners though, income ups and downs don’t always make that possible. That feast-or-famine cycle can cause havoc in your budget, and make it seem as if you’ll never g...

Have you ever thought to yourself, “There’s too much competition in this niche,” or “I’m too late to find success with this,” or “Everyone else does this better than I can”? We’ve all had those thoughts at one time or another, and it all starts with how we think about the competition. A few weeks ago, I received an email from a subscriber who wondered if she was making a mistake by promoting her p...

I forget to add salt to my bread dough (pretty tasteless, in case you’re wondering). I wash a hot pink shirt with a load of whites (oops). I overwater the plants in my office and invite a hoard of fungus gnats to set up housekeeping. But all of those are personal mistakes. No one ever knows about them but me (and maybe the husband, if he’s paying attention). In business, it’s a whole different mat...

Want to increase your income? You don’t have to create more or increase your marketing efforts or even grow your audience size. All you have to do is optimize what you’re already doing. That’s what split testing is all about, and in this episode of the Tiny Course Empire podcast, I’m walking you through everything you need to know to create a simple split testing action pla...

I’ve created more than 80 digital courses and earned more than $1,000,000 in revenue from them. But you might be shocked to know that my first course was a bit of a disaster. As in zero sales. A true flop. Looking back, I can see all the things I did wrong, but the biggest problem was I didn’t take the time to validate my idea before plunging forward. Today, I take a much different approach. While...

Do you ever wonder what makes one small business owner more successful than another? Do they have better contacts? More education? Smarter ideas? Faster computers? For more than a decade, I’ve been working with online business owners, first as a virtual assistant, then as an operations and marketing expert, and now as a course creator and coach. Here’s what I’ve learned. Success doesn’t depend on...

If recent poll numbers are to be believed, as much as 86% of people surveyed claim to hate math. They say it’s boring or they’re just not good at it. They think it’s too rigid and cold, or that the rules are too complicated. They’re frustrated with memorizing endless formulas. The list of reasons people give for resisting math is long. Maybe some of them resonate with you. Maybe you even have your...

One of the best parts of Six-Figure Systems is the Q & A calls. Twice each month I get to chat with members and answer the questions at the top of their minds. I help them make better business decisions, brainstorm ideas, get past technical hurdles, and choose the right tools and resources to grow their business. On this episode of the Tiny Course Empire podcast, I’m sharing a few recent quest...

What exactly does an online business owner do all day anyway? What should YOU be doing to grow your business? That’s the question that came up recently on a Six-Figure Systems Q & A call, and honestly, it’s something I struggled with in the beginning. It’s something a lot of new (and even more established) solopreneurs wonder about, too. The trouble is, there are so many things you could be do...

Here’s a hard truth new business owners sometimes struggle with: You have to be seen if you want to be successful . Once upon a time, when making money online was new and competition was nearly non-existent, you could start a blog, use a fake name and a fake photo (or none at all) and still attract traffic, fans, and cash. As competition increased though, and buyers became more savvy (or maybe ske...

You’ve no doubt heard about some recent changes Apple and Google are making to their browsers and mobile devices. Maybe you’ve heard some scary things, like how those changes are bringing affiliate marketing to an end. If your’e an affiliate marketer, or if you run an affiliate program, that might have you in a panic. Like most things though, these rumors have been blown out of proportion. Your af...

Imagine being told your business—the one you’d put so much time, energy, and money into—was the worst performing franchise in the entire country. Pretty disheartening, right? You might be tempted to just give it all up and go get a job. Jono Petrohilos had a different plan. Instead of just giving up as many others might, he doubled down, determined to find a way to make it work. Along the way, he...

Content is what drives your traffic. It brings in new subscribers and makes sales. If you’re a course creator or blogger, it’s also what you sell. That makes content creation both the most important thing you can do as a business owner, and the most time consuming. But what if it didn’t have to be? What if you could publish more content while putting in fewer creation hours? That’s what repurposin...

It’s pretty discouraging when you’ve worked really hard on a course or a product, and you launch it out into the world with lots of hope and excitement and then… crickets. Maybe you make one or two sales—or maybe not even that many, but pretty soon you find yourself questioning everything about the course. It’s the wrong topic for your audience. It’s not appealing enough. It’s th...

A customer asked me once if I thought I’d run out of course ideas one day. It can feel that way when you’re new, and sometimes even when you’ve been doing it for a while. But the truth is, there are endless ideas out there. You just have to know where to find them. In this episode of the Tiny Course Empire Podcast, I’m taking you behind the scenes as I research and brainsto...