Semi-Retired MD: Achieving Financial Freedom to Scale an 8-Figure Business

Letizia Alto and Kenji Asakura are the physicians and real estate investors behind Semi-Retired MD. Semi-Retired MD helps doctors and high-income earners create a source of income from building real estate portfolios so they can work their day jobs on their own terms. Having followed this path to financial freedom themselves, Leti and Kenji are now best-selling authors, podcasters, and digital nomads who currently live in Puerto Rico with their three small children and spend about six months a year traveling the world as a family. Here’s a snapshot of the incredible results the couple’s business has achieved since launching in 2019:

• Earned over 8 figures in lifetime revenue 
• Generated 7 figures a year in course sales 
• Earned a spot on Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies

The couple has experienced incredible life transformations, starting with their venture into real estate investing and then with launching their online business. But what truly drives them is their ability to help others follow a similar path, says Leti. 

“We really love seeing people dream again, believe in themselves and take action, and ultimately get to financial freedom so much faster than they thought possible because they put what we’ve taught them into practice.”

The Challenge: Teaching Others the Path to Financial Freedom 

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Let’s rewind several years back. As newlyweds and full-time hospitalists, Leti and Kenji realized that though they were considered high-income earners, they had very little in savings and not nearly enough time to pursue other things in life. So in 2015, the couple began investing in small multi-family real estate and in just three years they achieved financial freedom — now they’re teaching others how to do the same thing for themselves. 

Because they’re doctors, they understood the challenges, stresses, and limitations other doctors and high-earners faced, so teaching that audience was a natural fit. 

Their idea for an online course was called Zero to Freedom and it was meant to guide students through the real estate investing process that Leti and Kenji followed themselves — from knowing “zero” about real estate investing to successfully identifying and purchasing their first cash-flowing rental property.

But before they could help transform people’s lives with their financial freedom insights, they needed a place to build and house their course that would be user friendly for them and for their students. It also needed to make sense for their budget, says Leti.

“As a start up, we needed it to be affordable,” recalls Leti. “And because we had big dreams, we didn’t want to have to give a portion of our sales to a platform.”

The Solution: Finding an Affordable All-in-One Course Platform

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Leti and Kenji didn’t waste any time trying out different tools. They jumped right into Kajabi after seeing leaders in the online course space, like Amy Porterfield, praising it. 

“We had seen so many others successfully using Kajabi, we didn’t really have to do a lot of searching to know that we’d be able to also use it to create our course quickly and professionally,” says Leti. 

The other deciding factors that helped them land on Kajabi were the platform’s ease of use and the many supplementary tools that were included such as a website, email funnels, and landing pages. There are many moving parts that go into launching and promoting a course, and the two appreciated that they didn’t need any tech knowledge or special training to quickly launch their course on the platform. 

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“Kajabi was an all in one solution for us when speed and execution were so important in those early days of our business.”

Ultimately, Kajabi’s emphasis on knowledge monetization and ownership — Kajabi doesn’t take any cut of your course profits — sealed the deal for the Semi-Retired MD team. 

“I don’t think it can be overstated how important it is that Kajabi does not take a portion of our course sales,” says Leti. “We’ve made well over eight figures in course sales now, and not having to pay a portion of those sales to our online hosting platform has saved us a substantial amount.”

The Results: Accelerating to an 8-Figure Course Business 

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Within three months of coming up with the idea for their first course, Semi-Retired MD launched on Kajabi and made over $300,000. 

“We love helping people transform,” says Leti. “Many enter our course, Zero to Freedom, with a lot of fear and limiting beliefs. Six weeks later, they’re empowered, putting in offers, with a clear vision and plan for how they are going to change their lives, their family’s future and create generational wealth.”

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Since launching Zero to Freedom, Leti and Kenji have launched multiple courses on Kajabi, built a membership group with over 1,400 people, built a referral partner directory and a strong affiliate program, and have also used Kajabi’s Community feature for some of their coaching products. 

The results? Semi-Retired MD has generated over eight figures in lifetime revenue and continues to earn multiple seven-figures per year in course sales. They’ve also reached nearly 4,000 students across all of their courses hosted on Kajabi. 

Looking forward: Expanding Their Business Empire on Kajabi

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The duo is currently building out Taikun (pronounced Ty-coon), which will cater only to high-income earners and professionals who want to use real estate to build a source of significant, reliable income to gain financial freedom. 

Additionally, they’re creating a new company, BE (Business and Entrepreneurship), which will help provide entrepreneurs with training through online courses. 

“We are really excited to be able to offer our courses and to provide community for a larger audience,” says Leti. “It’s no surprise that both of these ventures will be built out on Kajabi!”

Semi-Retired MD’s Playbook for Building an 8-Figure Online Business

Earning eight figures as a creator isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem. If you’re ready to scale to new heights, follow Leti’s playbook for building a highly profitable online business. 

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1. Provide value: Before they even launched their online course, Leti and Kenji provided value for free by participating in online conversations, writing blog posts, and contributing to other people’s groups. “This is not to say you shouldn’t monetize early (because you should!), but rather, people can tell when you genuinely just want to help them and give them value,” says Leti. “This builds deep relationships and a following that will stay with you long term.”
2. Create a community that runs itself: As you’re building your community, create an environment where members are encouraged to engage with and help one another. In the Semi-Retired MD community, members share resources, review each other’s portfolios, and even have one-on-one conversations. “They help each other so much more than Kenji and I would ever be able to do with our limited time,” says Leti. “It’s a beautiful thing when you can create a mission-driven movement that affects so much transformation and positive change in the world.”
3. Help people take action: As a course creator, you have specific knowledge so the more you can share, the better. “You must provide your students with the confidence, knowledge and resources to be able to take action,” says Leti. “If you give them too much fluff or theory and not actionable advice — or create a community where people tear each other down or where you can’t admit mistakes — you keep people isolated and fearful, and many of them won’t take action.

Ready to scale your online business? See how Kajabi’s all-in-one platform for creators can help.