Mix Up Your Mindset - Riches In Unlikely Niches #KajabiHeroes

How do you turn what you know into a useful course?

You may be thinking transitioning what you do now into an online business is impossible, but keep an open mind.

Even if you have a regular 9-5 job, you can use your skills and passion to build an online career teaching other people.

Jordan Valeriote, is passionate about music. He rocked out in heavy metal bands since his teens, and after he had walked into a recording studio for the first time, the experience hooked him. And he knew that was what he wanted to do with his life.

Jordan stepped off the stage and went behind the scenes.

He invested in a basic recording setup. And what started with free recording sessions for his bands and buddies grew into a full-time career. He mixed and produced music for other artists for seven years professionally.

Jordan was eager to add more income streams and offered a coaching service on his website for a premium hourly rate. But he still wasn't having the results he wanted. So, after taking in as many books as he could about online business and creating courses (Jeff Walker is one of his favorites), he was inspired to start his mixing courses.

Anyone can follow this process. Success stories like Leah and Michelle prove that.

Jordan joined Kajabi in November 2015. Since then, he's made $250,000 with his online courses, he's changed his life, and changed the lives of thousands of other people who want to make music.

I want to unpack and dig into Jordan's story. I don't want just to inspire you today. My goal is to give you some steps to follow that will duplicate Jordan's success for yourself in any niche.

Let's take a closer look at what Jordan accomplished and how you can build successful courses for yourself.

Build a list; it's not about numbers.

Would you rather have a list of 10,000 people who may or may not be interested in what you have to offer, or a list of 1,000 people who you know see value in your content?

Precision marketing is crucial when building a list of any size.

A bigger list isn't always better. And so many people let having a small list hold them back from that first big launch.

When you laser focus yourself toward a specific audience you don't have to have a huge list to be successful.  I have seen people like Jordan use small lists in powerful ways.

All you need are a couple of hundred people who are excited about your niche.

So how did Jordan get an effective list built up for his first launch?

He worked with what he already had.

He already had a Facebook page for his mixing business that accumulated 800 likes over the course of his 7-year career. He generated interest by releasing a free drum sample on his page.

If you want to create courses, you need a lead magnet.

If you struggle with finding ways to build your list and get those emails, this is the answer.

A lead magnet is something you create and give away for free in exchange for emails. And this simple lead magnet formula works.

High-value freebie in your niche + opt-in form = a targeted list of people who value your content.

Jordan used this formula to get his first round of leads. Combining the free drum sample (high value, on-niche freebie) with a very basic email opt-in form he got 350 emails from people who were enthusiastic about mixing heavy metal music.

Anyone can use this formula.

And you want to know what's even better?

He didn't use any paid traffic methods. You can build your list without spending a nickel.

You may be thinking… “Okay, that’s pretty impressive. Where do I start?”

Let me break down what this would look like for you.

So think about your passion, or skills you already have. Then think of an ideal niche. Be specific.

Jordan’s niche is hardcore music mixing, so he only focused his efforts on people who had an interest in mixing some heavy metal jams.

He was precise.

This works with any niche, but let’s use this example:

You are a virtual assistant for a law firm. One day you decide, “Hey, why can’t I teach other people how to be a virtual assistant for law firms too?”

So how do you get your list?

The first step is coming up with a high-quality freebie. A freebie that your target audience will be more than happy to give you their emails in exchange.

In this case, it could be a free video course something like: “How to Set Up A Professional Virtual Assistant Website That Law Firms Can’t Ignore: A Free Step-by-Step Video Walkthrough.”

Once you have your freebie, set up a opt-in page. Keep it simple, reduce clutter, and don't ramble on. 

1. You want a short headline that immediately gets your visitor's attention; you can even add a high-quality picture as long as it doesn't distract from your opt-in.
2. Briefly, state the benefits of signing up. Bullet points work very well for this.
3. Finish up with a call to action. It may feel like you are dumbing things down, but you have to explain what you want: for them to fill out the form and click submit.
4. The form. 2-4 lines are ideal. Your lead potential drops 11% with each line you add. You only need three lines, first name, last name, and email, any more than that is overkill and could reduce how many emails you get.

If you try and market to anyone and everyone, it’s like throwing a handful of arrows at a target. You might hit it; you might not. But if you use precision and the right tools you have a much greater chance of hitting the bullseye.

When you get specific with your niche, the list you can build will be exactly the kind of people you need.  

And that’s the key: quality, not necessarily quantity.

And once you figure out what works or you, just duplicate the process on a bigger scale to grow your list even more for your next launch.

Build a high-value course.

Okay, you're convinced.  

You don't have to have a massive list to have a successful launch. You can start small.

And you know how to get that small list with a killer lead magnet.

What's the next step?

Once you have that core list, it's time to start building your course.

Right before launch Jordan created another high-value lead magnet he learned from Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula: a free 10-day video series. Each video was 15 to 25 minutes long, extremely informative, built up anticipation, and collected even more emails for his launch.

Jordan's list went from 350 to 700 with this 10-day training.

At this point Jordan was all in.

*Products shown in image may not be a reflection of what is currently available.*

He didn't give himself enough time to back out, and I think we can learn a valuable lesson from that.

There's always something that can get in our way:

"Oh, it's got to be just right, this has to be perfect, my lighting and equipment have to be top-of-the-line," etc.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

Jordan embraced simplicity. Doing this guaranteed the barrier to entry was low so he could get started right away.  He loved what he was doing, and he knew his niche so well that putting out so much content so quickly came naturally to him.

He used Screenflow and a plug-in mic to create the whole video course.

That's it!

He used simple tools that let his expertise and knowledge take the spotlight.

You can have the most expensive equipment, the biggest studio, and the best editing skills around but if your content isn't valuable to your audience, it won't make an impact.

This is the message that Kajabi tries to get out: you have something valuable to offer the world.

And it's our job to make sure you have the platform you need to deliver that value to the people that need it. You make the world a better place. Kajabi just makes it easier.  

If you wanted to try something like this before, maybe give Jordan's approach a try. No hesitation, by the seat of your pants course creation. Don't over think it, just build it.

When Jordan decided he was going to go for it, with 700 emails in his list, that first launch made him $10,000.

Build partnerships with other like-minded entrepreneurs.

Jordan did something interesting after his initial success.

He reached out to the affiliates in a similar niche.

He looked for people that already had a following, and were doing something similar to him, but not anything he would ever be interested in offering. So he teamed up with music professionals to get the word out even more.

There was a lot of skepticism for his primary affiliate, but Jordan’s numbers from his first launch won them over.

Jordan's course debuted to a broader audience. And it worked.

All this started from a simple list of 350 people in April 2015.

When you learn how to do this on a small-scale, keep building on it. You can create a snowball effect. A year from now you can look back and think, "Wow, I've created something great here!"

Build the life you want.

These are some of the #KajabiHeroes that took action and built the life they desired.

I'm sure all of them faced questions like these at some point:

“What if I'm not a good enough?”

“What if I don't have anything to offer?”

“What if nobody buys my courses?”

We all battle these doubts.

Jordan will tell you himself: that fear is there every time he launches. Right there. A nagging little voice in the back of his mind.

But when you're building a business with staying power, a business that makes a real impact, you feel that fear and you push forward anyway.

It's scary when you're just starting out because it's this huge, unknown the world to you. It may get easier over time, but you're always going to have doubts.

But despite all of his fears, Jordan has completely changed his life.

In case you didn't know Canada, where Jordan lives, is pretty cold this time of year.

The past two years Jordan decided to take his family to Florida and wait out the winter on the beach. And while he was there, he still ran his business; he still made money, and he wasn't freezing his butt off.

When you're tied down to a regular job, you don't have that freedom. Online business is a different beast. You can pick up and take your work with you anywhere you go. Zach Spuckler, another Kajabi Hero, recently launched a course while he visited Disney World.

That's what freedom is. You can decide when you're going to work, where you're going to work, and who you're going to work with.  

If you're reading this and want to share your passion with the world, you're not alone.

Before Jordan build his online courses he was exactly where you are now. All of our Heroes were.

The circumstances and situations may vary, but they all felt a need to share their knowledge and passions with the world.

That fear you’re feeling right now?

They all felt it too.

And if they gave in to that fear, if they let that fear control them, you wouldn't see their pictures on our website. You wouldn't be hearing about Jordan's story right now.He would just be some guy you never heard of in Canada running a mix studio full-time.

What would your life look like a year from now if you let go of your fear?

Maybe you could be a Kajabi Hero too.

I want to hear from you!

Let me know in the comments below what you're passionate about. Tell me what you're afraid of when it comes to pursuing this passion. And tell me what you can do today to break free of that fear, and set yourself up for life that you want.

And if you want to learn more about Jordan and his courses check out Hardcore Music Studio.

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