Get to know our new course expert, Jess Rodriguez

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TRANSCRIPT

Well, hello there new friends, I am so excited to connect with you and go on this incredible journey called business together. Because whether you are in the carpool lane right now, whether you are grocery shopping, you're doing a little bit of work and listening to podcasts in the background running errands, whatever it is that is bringing you here, the fact that you are listening to this podcast already tells me a couple of things.

Number one, that you are a business owner, me too, who welcome to The Club. It is an incredible up and down roller coaster with all kinds of twists and turns. And I really think it takes one heck of a person to be able to navigate that. So just having you here already allows me to know that I am in a great company. And you're using MemberVault, whether this is something that you are just kind of dabbling in and getting adjusted to and seeing if it's the right fit for your business, or you've been leveraging the MemberVault platform for your offerings for a couple of years. Now, you are in a place where you want to maximize it, you want to really get yourself out there in a bigger way. And you want to have some solid tools and support that allow you to do so and I can always hang with that.

So I am just super excited to get to be here to get to know you better, and really engage with the community and also share my own knowledge which let's go ahead and rewind to that. Because right now you have no idea who I am. So Hello there. My name is Jessica Rodriguez, I am the CEO of freedom driven success, where we help business owners turn their one to one expertise into a profitable online course so that they can reclaim the freedom that they originally started their business to have. And I am also officially your course expert here at MemberVault. So that means that I am here to share what's working in the current market, some trends, just solid strategies as well that go behind, not just creating a course but creating a course that can provide a solid revenue stream for your business.

So whether you are brand new to courses, and you're just trying to figure out the How to pieces of it, or maybe you have a course and you're looking to scale that course further and get it out to more people, I am here to help support you in any way that I can, on a personal level because one thing you will learn about me is I am pretty open book about things I believe that both business and life go hand in hand there really is no separating the two because you are a human behind the scenes. And we need to acknowledge that. And that leads me to just some of the bits and pieces about me as a person. So I am a wife to my very dear best friend of fun fact is we met on MySpace back in 2005. So it makes me feel all kinds of hipster hipster esque to say that if that's even a word. But hey, you never know we're online dating before it was cool. And it worked out.

So from there, we have two cats that are beyond spoiled, get everything they want. And you know what we're alright with that life. We live in Connecticut about a mile from the water which is absolutely beautiful in the summer, and dreadful in the winter as we stay locked in the house because you know, it's cold. Outside of that you can usually find me either typically Netflix and chilling at Target, or just hanging out with friends just relaxing. I'm definitely just one of those personalities that I just love to enjoy the little things in life, right, really about creating memories and moments. And when it's nice outside, I am outside the whole time, whether it is taking a walk or going to the beach or hiking or any of those kinds of things. I always like to joke that I am absolutely allergic to small talk. So when it comes to communicating with people, I'm talking about all kinds of things of the ins and outs of business down to mental health and just different things that really impact us.

And along with that, I think it's just important to mention that my entire approach to business is the fact that there are countless ways you can run any one business. But what we really need to strive to do is to align ourselves with the ones that are the right for you. Right so the right strategies, the right tactics, the right offers. All of that is very individualized on what you need. And I do this under the lens of really taking into account your goals, your lifestyle and your personality. And for me when I look at those three things where it is that I have been where it is that I'm heading, my bigger vision and just how I work best.

That is where courses came in. Because courses allow me to not only hit my goals as far as like on a revenue side, it allows me to impact people but also doesn't have me only exchanging time for money in order to do so. Because when I had myself in that position, it did not feel right for me, it did not align with my lifestyle actually do really well with an open calendar. So to have a bunch of calls back to back and being fully booked out, that just doesn't work for me. And I know for other people, that's amazing. And that's fine.

But for me, I really needed to have a way of business that could work on the days that I don't want to work, because I'm either genuinely not in the mood, I'm not feeling good, or I just want to go on a hike, I'm going to go out, I want to go for a run, I'm going to do something. So a lot of my business throughout the past 10 years has been getting to this place of being able to have a business that truly serves me. And a big piece of that was structuring my offers around that.

So as you hear me on this podcast, or you see me in the the Facebook group, or on social media or any of that, I hope that even if courses aren't a thing for you, if you're doing something else in your business, that you are able to see an example of the fact that you can create your business any way you want, you can create a business that works specifically for your goals, your lifestyle, your personality.

And at the end of the day, that's all you need to truly be successful, right to be successful in a way that not only serves you from a monetary standpoint, but also a personal one, because what are we doing this work, we're not genuinely happy. So I hope that gives you a little bit of insight as to where I come from. If you want to hang out, definitely feel free to come over and follow me Instagram is my favorite platform.

So I'm over there at Freedom driven success, feel free to come over and say hi, let me know you're a part of the MemberVault family, I would love to connect with you there. But as we go into our newfound friendship together, I thought, You know what we're gonna start with here. Let's start with if a course is right for you and your business, because I know that there are a lot of shiny objects and a lot of different things that you can do. Just like I said, there are countless ways that you can run any one business.

And when it comes to courses, I believe that yes, they're absolutely a great thing that you can have in your business that allows you to have an asset, it allows you to have something that can work when you don't, all of those beautiful things doesn't always mean it's for everyone. So I would much rather be real with you. So you can kind of give yourself a litmus test to see where you're at.

Because you can utilize member vault for a whole lot of different offers, right. And whether it's digital products, like there's just so many different things that you can do within MemberVault. So if you're doing a course great Amir person, and if a course isn't for you, cool, you can still use the platform, there's so many incredible, incredible things.

So let's kind of talk a little bit about a course being right for your business. So the first sign that I look for is that you have a monetizable skill set that you have already been using to generate results for other people. So this all boils down to, you know what you do when it works. So you have produced results for other people. For some that could be working with clients, like one on one clients, maybe you're a service provider, and you've been doing some done for you services and provided some kind of result or transformation. Maybe you've actually been doing that in a corporate setting before and you've been working with clients under somebody else's business as an employee, and you want to take those skills and share them in a different way.

Maybe you have been a therapist for a long time. And you've helped people transform their lives in a lot of different ways. If so, thank you, I'm very pro therapy. But maybe you are taking that. And now you're starting to package it in a little bit of a different way. Because there there may be too many people in your practice right now. Or maybe you're trying to step out of that a little bit more and have a different income stream. So I'm not saying that you're perfect and you have all the answers because surprise none of us do. However, you do have a skill set that people are looking for that you can monetize and you generated results. So this makes it a lot easier for us to package those results in a course format. Because we know that we can go out there and genuinely say hey, this, this will give a result right like I have plenty of people. You just supported them in a different capacity before.

I have people that I have helped to facilitate this transformation or this result for and now we're just bundling it in a different way. So in that case, yes, if you're like, I don't really have that experience yet, I'm just getting started in business. And I'm trying to find my footing and things like that, could you create a course at this point, you could write like you can do anything you want to do. But I find that it is a very difficult road, if that's the case. So it's one of those like, you almost make it harder on yourself to do it that way. And that's not what I want for you, I want you like there's enough about business in life that can be difficult and you know, roadblocks that we'll come into. So I would rather make that road easier. So I would say go out and get those results.

First, work with some people see that what it is that you do, the process you take people through, is getting them to a result, because not only can you then just pack, it makes it a lot easier, right for you to know, oh, this is what actually works. But you're also going to feel a lot more confident. And that confidence is going to sell when we get more to the marketing of your course. So number two is that you are both clear and lit up about the transformation and or results you provide. This is an important thing, especially if you've been in business for a while.

So sometimes I'll have clients that come to me and they go, Okay, I've been doing this work for 5678 years. And I want to just put it into a course and be done with it. And I can tell by the tone, that they're kind of over what it is that they do. So it could be that they're in a season where they actually need to pivot. They're, they're more lit up about one section of their business, but think, Hey, since people come to me for all these other things, I have to keep doing it. Or they just, they're just not there, their heart isn't in it the same way that it was at one time. And that that can happen like this is this the real talk that happens in business, sometimes you're not lit up about things anymore, and just taking it and putting it into a course because hey, you know, at least people can just buy it and one off it and don't have to think about it. That's not the energy you want to go in.

Because building a course selling scaling all of those pieces, they take work, right, just like booking your first clients just like getting your first VIP day, selling the first spot in your group problem, like everything, we're all working right just at different levels in different areas. So a course is still going to take work. And if you're not lit up about it, it's going to make it really hard for you to follow through the times when things don't go well. Because not everything is just perfect. Nothing is perfect, actually. So there's going to be those stumbling blocks. And there's going to be those things you have to navigate.

So if you're really excited about what you do, and I'm sure you can connect to this in general, like with business, and this is outside of courses, if you're not really lit up with about what you do anymore, everything feels heavy, and you don't deserve to have that. And your course doesn't deserve that either. Because if you're out there trying to sell it to people, and you're so over that topic or your own framework, or whatever the case may be, we don't want to do that, right.

So in that case, it's more of hey, we need to pivot actually in your business to what you're super lit up about, then we could talk about a course with that, because I want you to put in the work that actually feels good for you versus just chasing money. Rule of thumb, if you chase money, it will always outrun you. So we don't want to do that with our course.

Sign number three is that you're currently at your revenue and or capacity cap. So you may be in a position where you are fully booked out with whatever it is that you're doing right now you have no room to take other people on, maybe you have tried raising your rates, maybe you have tried lowering your hours, you know, you've done some different things within your business. But no matter what people are still asking for help from you. And you just don't have the capacity to offer that.

So for some people, they go more of the agency route, right. So they're bringing in other people to help do the work and things like that. Some people have zero interest in that. So this is where a course can start to come in, especially if you're a service provider hearing this, where Okay, here's why people either can't work with me in that capacity right now, whether it's a pricing issue, whether you just simply don't have the time. What are some other needs that could be met with a course instead, and serve them in that way because you're maxed out already in your business. So this is going to give you an option for an additional revenue stream that does not take up your time in the same way.

If you do want to go that route where you are building a team or maybe coaches or different things like that to help serve clients more. That's great, right? You can do that. How However, that's not going to be the path for everyone.

Because we come back to your goals, your personality, how it is that you work best, we're always keeping that in mind.

So the third one, if I see that somebody is really at their cap, and they can't raise their revenue anymore, because they they do not have the time to put in, we can start to look into a course and see, okay, what piece of the puzzle could people benefit from doing it without you, they're in that similar capacity. And then the fourth sign that I will leave you guys with is that you are here for the marathon. Now, I talked about this in a in a previous point a little bit. But just like anything in business, creating and selling and scaling, any offer takes effort, sometimes you're going to hit the ground running, it's like, oh, my god, I can't believe how well this is working. Other times, it feels like you're going through sludge, like I'm sure you've been there, I know I have are just like, I'm so glad I believe in this because that is what's holding me on as I'm going through this ledge. Most times, you're somewhere in the middle of those two, right? Because those are the two completely end sides here.

Sometimes your or most times, you're going to be in between, and that's okay. Right? Courses are going to be no different. So I can sit here and I can tell you how the work I put in three, four years ago is still paying for me, right? I can tell you my income and this and like, you know all of these things in the lives that have been transformed from the work that I did without me having to show up and be there all the time for it to work. However, that's not going to matter, unless I had that marathon mentality going in. Because when I was first creating it, there was upfront work, right, I had to record modules. And I had to do workbooks.

And at that time, I didn't have the team that I had today. So that meant I was doing a lot of that by myself. There were times that I launched courses that people were buying right away, and it felt really good, right, because we all like that. And then there were other times where was like this slow trickle. And I had to remind myself, look, I'm here for the marathon, I may have to tweet this messaging, I may have to, you know, position a little bit different. But if I didn't have that marathon mentality, I would have never made it through those times. So I want you to really think about that. Because nothing in business is that that quick fix as much as we would love for it to be, things do take time.

So as long as you are passionate about the work that you do, which kind of comes back to point two, you're still passionate, you want to expand in a bigger way. And you understand that, hey, this is going to be a marathon. If it's not a set it and forget it, nothing in business really is you're going to go in and you're going to tweak and you're going to refine, you're going to do these things. But it's going to take you a heck of a less less time as you allow it to gain momentum and build for you. So if you're hearing those four signs, and you're like, Yeah, I see what you're putting down, I get it right, like, Okay, I just want to hear the truth. I want to know what to expect, as I'm going into it, then, let's connect.

Okay, you're gonna be seeing some different episodes here from me on the podcast, talking all about courses. And like I said, I'm going to try to vary them between if it's brand new, and like starting a course from scratch, and those that already have a course and whether you're diagnosing what's happening in the course and or at a point where you're scaling it, we can talk about that, and utilizing some of the different features within MemberVault In order to do that, and in the meantime, I would love to connect so you can find me in the member vault collaborative group.

Obviously, it's going to be my real name because it's tied to Facebook. So I'm JESSICA RODRIGUEZ in there. And then over on social I am at Freedom driven success. Instagram is my favorite place to be however, you can also find a wealth of information over at Freedom driven success.com We have a blog that goes in depth with all kinds of topics that would be relevant to you. So I'm just going to lead you on over there and you'll see a lot of freebies and resources and different things that you can take advantage of as well.

So, again, I am so excited to be here and connect with you and I will be talking to you soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Interested in learning more about Jessica Rodriguez, our course expert? Check out her site here.