New Home Forums Progress Logs Superhero diaries

66 replies, 9 voices Last updated by  Bradley Morris 6 years, 9 months ago
Viewing 7 posts - 61 through 67 (of 67 total)
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  • #41268

    Lisa R
    Adventurer
    @lisa.russell

    Thanks Dr. Wayne! How’s the new house?

    I would LOVE to be able to go for daily checkins; however, I think this might actually kill me. Could we go for weekly instead? Also, I’d be happy to start resending ‘GOTHAM NEEDS YOU’ messages to you if that would help? 😉

    Brad, thanks dude! How’s Sauryn? He must be nearly one now?

    I don’t think the logo was anywhere else, no. Thanks for updating the one you have!

    Yes, I’m going to start making weekly updates again. I’m going to add it as a task on my to-do list, and put it in my weekly planner too.

    KAPOW.

    🙂

    #41284

    Dr.Wayne Buckhanan
    Adventurer
    @waynebuckhanan

    The new house is beautiful, empty, and echoing. Our stuff should be here next week and we borrowed some furniture and dishes until then (the benefits of going “home” — people know and love us)!

    Weekly check in sounds good. Things are unsettled enough here, I’m not sure what progress I can measure on a day-to-day basis anyway!

    Oh, and I got a laugh at lunch when my 9 year old son casually says “so how is your Inner Space Academy project going?” We had a nice chat about where I’m at and he gave me an alternative idea for one of my videos. Then we had ice cream and checked out my new office. (I laughed because it caught be off guard coming from a 9yo! 🙂 )

    Keep up the good work and let me know how best to support you!

    #41401

    Lisa R
    Adventurer
    @lisa.russell

    I love this! Maybe we could rope him in to our accountability team?

    Here is my progress update after my project day today:

    Weekly update:

    • Have been working on first draft design of About page with front-end web designer, and amending the sales page and homepage, both now complete.
    • Created new Survey forms in Paperform to a) validate idea b) do pricing research, and c) get testimonials from past clients. Sent those out to approx 25 handpicked past clients and career changers in my networks.
    • Enjoyed the awesome training seminar with Yu-Kai on Weds
    • Completed some more feature planning on the membership site, now ready to move back into creating the content and platform again

    Feeling the need for some awesome stories about why running a successful membership site / course site is a great thing. I’ve spent so long setting ‘realistic’ expectations, and making sure I stay in touch with how much hard work it’s going to be, I think I’m starting to tip into negativity!  I know those stories are out there. Anyone want to share?

    🙂

    #41524

    Chris Gilmour
    Adventurer
    @ChrisG

    Hey @lisa.russell

    I gotta say that all your hard work, and the creativity you have put into the course you are creating, has been very inspiarational to me!

    Although I have no intention of turning back or jumping off of the mountain, I have been feeling moments of “Wow, I thought I WAS being realistic, and this is going to take WAY longer than I thought to build into something that is profitable”.

    That may not but the pep talk you wanted but more of a stand in solidarity around the long climb.

    Do you ever listen to Pat Flynn’s “Smart Passive Income Podcast”

    It may have some of the positive success and “why?” stories you are looking for. I have been finding it a real inspiration as a number of his guest are people who have had their lives transformed in amazing ways through their online businesses. And almost all of them describle a cpl years of trying so hard and nothing taking off, almost giving up then an explosion and game changer moment that made it all worth while.

    One thing that really keeps me going and focused is realizing how much I am learning along the way (Not all of it stuff I set out to learn or is even my favorite stuff to learn) BUT….. these are REALLY valuable and transferable skills in the modern world. From idea/product validation to marketing to web & tech skills. And to be on the cutting edge of innovation with all of these things, I believe is a smart investent in the future.

    I also look around at so many ppl stuck in jobs with very little control over their life and schedule. Being able to work from home, take a day off when I want or take a break for a healthy meal, jog or nap in the afternoon is something I really want for my life. realize it will take a bit of time to grow a business that can support the lifestyle that will allow me more freedom for the things I love.

    I’m really starting to shift to understanding this is a long game which is also helping me prioritize enjoyment and passion a little more in the short game.

    I have complete faith this can be done and will be worth the journey (for me at least), but I know I’m only part way up the mountain so need to keep climbing and doing my best to enjoy the journey and scenery as I go.

    All the best!

    Chris

    #41565

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Great to see you back here sharing your progress Lisa. I love the change in direction and focusing on the micro version of the ginormously big picture. You figured it out sooner than us  😉

    WHY running a membership is a great choice?

    Read the 1000 true fans theory.

    For us, when we get 1000 Great eCourse Adventurers on the mountain, that would be $35,000 per month in company revenue. We’d be able to pay ourselves and our team a decent salary, as well as have more of a budget to develop more courses and improve our tech and tools we could offer the community. In other words, the regular monthly revenue would allow us to budget and improve everythign we do.

    PLUS – if we just keep making the membership more and more valuable, we’ll likely have people wanna stick around to see what happens next.

     

    That’s one of the many great reasons to go the membership model.

    It does mean you need to keep giving people reasons to stick around. So it’s kinda like you have to earn people’s money each month. That’ll keep us on our toes to constantly be improving and participating.

    #43207

    Lisa R
    Adventurer
    @lisa.russell

    I missed last week’s update so here’s a double whammy.

    The initial designs for all my main front-end website pages are now all signed off. The designer has started the build in WordPress now, which is exciting as the brand is really coming to life now.

    I’ve created a wait list / coming soon page at http://www.careeravengers.com.

    I undertook a validation survey over the last two weeks. I got 18 responses of the 25 people I approached. 13 said they would buy it, and at an average price that was very slightly higher than what I had planned to charge. Now, I’m trying to hold on to the possibility that they were trying to tell me what I wanted to hear in saying they’d be interested in buying, but I’m also hoping that this was great  reassurance of ‘flyability’. The other feedback has been incredible and has been massively reassuring that my brand and message are on point. This was really nerve wracking as I’d left it late to do this bit, probably because I was worried everyone would hate it, but it’s actually turned out to be super encouraging.

    I’m finding myself wondering if you can ever get ‘enough’ validation of an idea? Where do you draw the line? When do you stop seeing if people might like it and just ploughing everything into making it happen? So far my validation exercises have consisted of: bringing the concept into calls with coaching clients to gauge reaction (which was very positive); starting a focus group which started with 20 unvetted wannabe career changers and naturally refined itself down to 3 ideal clients, of whom 2 continue to be super engaged, who are both now vocal ambassadors and still contributing to the build of the site / services; speaking to the founder of an existing major career change organisation here in the UK, and him being really excited about the idea; speaking to a group of 5-6 coaches about the concept and them seeming to be quite impressed; and now this latest survey with 18 responses. I don’t have an email list, so I don’t have an easy way to approach large numbers of people. So I wonder, is this enough validation?

    As part of my survey, I offered  people who sent in a submission the chance to win a £50 Amazon voucher in a random draw. I think this helped boost my response rate, and I can’t tell you how amazing it felt to award that prize at the end of the survey period. It made me feel so good to be able to make someone’s morning by telling them that they’d won, and hearing what they were excited about spending it on. It’s reminded me that I want to make it a goal as soon as humanly possible to start donating a portion of profits (assuming I can get that far) to aspiring businesspeople in developing countries through Kiva loans. I’m really captivated by this idea — that by helping people in the developed world to find more fulfilling work, I might, in some small way, be able to help those struggling to get great ideas off the ground and earning in countries that don’t have the advantages we have here.

    Lastly, I’ve created three game levels through which people can work with me via the new site. I think I’m gonna call my mailing list sign ups the Cadets, then my main membership customers the Career Avengers, then those who also go on to buy a coaching package too, the Elite Squad. Still playing with these ideas, but it’s a point to start from. I also now need a great name for my newsletter, as there’s no way it’d just be called a newsletter in the CA universe, and I’m pretty sure ‘The Batsignal’ would infringe IP rights somewhere! So what kind of communication might a group of Cadets / Avengers receive? Hmm.

    Next up I’m planning to tackle a basic social media recurring schedule through creating post content ‘bins’ and a posting schedule (front loaded effort wise, but such a time saver in the long run). I also want to create and format my opt-in freebie to add to the wait list page. This is as well as continuing to work with the designer to get the main pages loaded and to start work on designing all the peripheral pages. I’m also starting to cycle back to working on the platform now the branding is clear, and have been speaking to Andy about perhaps getting his help with some of that.

    Chris – Thanks so much for letting me know that my journey has been helpful to you. Realising that this baby is like birthing an elephant and not a puppy has been a huge realisation for me too, and actually it’s taken the pressure off to know I’m not one of the ones who can throw up a quick course in three months. This is an entire new business, with a new brand, its own universe and vocabulary, a huge volume of new content to create, and zero list to start with. I’m also trying to remind myself that I don’t need huge numbers to make this fly initially. 50 members would significantly improve my income; 100 would be game changing; 200 would be unithinkable — and these aren’t even batshit crazy numbers. Thank you for your solidarity!

    Brad — Thanks for this.  I notice how it’s so easy to feel how far off it all is, but actually it could be literally just around the corner too. I like the 1000 true fans concept. It’s easier to aim for somehow. My first newsletter target is 200. That would feel like a huge success! Thanks for your encouragement!

    I am so pleased that I’m not top of the leaderboard anymore! It was time for someone else to take the lead, and to pass that to my buddy Dr Wayne is just icing on a very happy cake. That said, I’m sure my competitive instinct will arise once again as soon as there’s a 10,000 + Bajillion challenge released…

    🙂

     

     

    #43255

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    So going to your coming soon page makes me officially want to change my career, just so I can go through your program. I love the bad-ass vibe you’ve got going on now. It looks soo cool!

    18/25 responded to your survey and 13 said they’d buy it!? Curious how much the average buying amount was? Regardless, that is a HUGE confirmation. You are validated Lisa. You know it, I know you do. Just create it and they will come.

    Birthing an elephant is the truth. You chose a Great eCourse Adventure straight out of the gate, but you are wising up in your climb, just as we have along the way too.

    I’m so excited to see some finished product when you get to that phase.

    Thanks for a kapow kinda update. Can’t wait for the next.

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