How To Have An Effective Content Strategy With Course Creation.

It seems like everyone these days is talking about course creation and how “easy” it is to package your knowledge up to sell it. As a result of all this buzz, the information market is more saturated than ever. This means being successful can actually be easier said than done. Today’s featured guest is James Allen who joins host Lindsay Sutherland to discuss the power of content marketing and how you CAN sell your courses with an evergreen strategy that drives traffic to your course months or even years after you create the content.

In this discussion we unpack pros and cons of using YouTube vs audio only podcasting, hacks to get to know your audience better, and what constitutes an effective content strategy.

Profit Your Knowledge was founded by James Allen with the mission of teaching knowledge-based business owners how to grow and scale their online business and building that business off of authenticity and generosity.

At Profit Your Knowledge, we help our students turn their knowledge and expertise into a lean, profitable, and scalable passive income business through online courses, memberships, and coaching, all while working under 20 hours per week.

https://www.profityourknowledge.com/guide

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Lindsay:

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the passive income examiner. I'm excited today to bring you our special guest. James Allen. James is a business and productivity consultant. And James and I are gonna talk today a lot about automating course creation. James, thanks so much for joining us. I'm so happy to have you.

James:

Yeah, I'm super stoked to be here. Yeah. We just kind of connected on Facebook and then now we're here and I'm ready to drop some knowledge.

Lindsay:

we're kindred spirits. We, we think alike, we speak alike. I love it. We have a lot of the same things happening, but it's great because we get to have this like collaborative talk and I think, but people can really benefit from this and I'd love to hear more about like what you're doing for people. So tell us a little bit about you and kind of how you got started. First of all.

James:

Yeah, so I, uh, grew up in a, well, I grew up in kind of a dysfunctional family and that's like, I really fell in love with personal development at a young age. I was at like 17. I read the four agreements by Don mcg, Miguel Ruiz. So I always had that kind of like love for, um, the coaching and kind of like working on myself. And I wanted to share that with other people in some way, I ended up following my dad's footsteps and construction work and, uh, just kind of like, yeah, followed the family path, but it was still that chaotic kind of, you know, path. And, um, I was like, I had all these dreams of like, I love skydiving. I love like martial arts, you know, or, um, traveling, you know, what else? Uh, playing drums and music, you know, I love doing all these other things.

James:

And I was like, I I'll do all these cool things. And I guess I'll just like, you know, do construction work. It was always kinda like Luke warm. And then, uh, I realized you can actually like coach people, you can help people. So I fell in love with that and I realized that you don't have to work a ridiculous amount of time. You know? So I ultimately left construction work, went into coaching and I was just kinda doing general life coaching. And then over the years of trial and error and everything, I really wanted to help people with career in some way. And there was always that piece of like working less. It was always just there because I, you know, one day I don't have kids right now, but one day I will and I would love to, and I wanna be there with them.

James:

You know, I wanna have that freedom to not have to be bound to like work all the time, like, oh, daddy's working or whatever, you know, and, uh, still be able to do all the fun things that I love, but also have a business that works for me. And I was just always chasing that and fell in love with it. And then I found out about automation and different ways to be more effective with your work and allow a business to actually work for you, which is what I think a business really is and what it should be. And, um, yeah, that's just what I've been helping people with. Primarily people who teach things. So if you have knowledge, you know, or a specific field of knowledge or expertise in a specific area, or you're just passionate about something or helping people also find those kinds of things, that's really what we want to package into a business. You know, that's primarily, so it's a lot of coaches, but, um, it can also be someone who has a brick and mortar, uh, making cakes, you know, and then they wanna move it into an online business where they're teaching people how to make cakes. You know, it could be cakes that look like real things. I was just watching that Netflix show. Is it cake?

Lindsay:

Oh yeah.

James:

It's super cool.

Lindsay:

Crazy.

James:

The Internet's just such a crazy place because you can do that. Like, I don't know, for me personally, I'd be interested in that if someone made a course or put out content about how to bake a cake and make it look like, you know, a fish or something like a realistic fish, and they teach you how to do all the details from their 30 years of building cakes or whatever, it'd be interesting, you know, cuz people want to buy skill sets, they wanna learn new things. And I think that that's really like what's online learning is becoming, it's not so much about like going to university unless you wanna be a doctor or there's something where you like really have to go to university, you know, but a lot of people it's, they don't want to, or they do and they get in a bunch of debt, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So, yeah.

Lindsay:

Right. Or they do. And then they realize that wasn't really what they wanted. how sad I know that would be awful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and so tell me a little bit then about you obviously you got started, you started helping people, and you kind of evolved over time. Um, today, what do you think is one of the most, um, tr things that people struggle with the most in, in the people you work with?

James:

Yeah, so I, I mean, I work with people in a range of different places. There are two things that I would say one is patience, really? Because like I'm, not gonna teach you how to get rich super quick. And it was like Warren buffet said like, nobody wants to get rich, slow, you know, but there are things to do. Like you can book calls and stuff like that too, you know, speed up the process into making money, which will help people within like a very genuine, authentic approach. Um, so being patient, you know, and like content strategy is really big. Um, but like one of the big things is people just figuring out what they actually want to do, you know? Cause I'll work with a lot of people that are like just getting started with it or they've been chasing one thing that just hasn't been working.

James:

It's like, well it's cuz they never did any customer research or anything like that to make sure it was a legitimate business that people were really interested in finding the pinpoints, and everything like that. Or, you know, uh, putting like the systems, like I used really simple automations to make it run. It doesn't have to be crazy complex systems. You know, it really comes down to understanding that audience and who that person is that you're speaking to. Cause when you get that your sales copy gets better, your emails get better, your content gets better and that's really, what's gonna make the entire system work in an automated fashion. So yeah, it's pro I would really say that that's probably the biggest challenge cuz it, it sucks when you build a course, you're putting out content and you're just getting crickets, you know, and it's just like you put out a sales page and stuff and it's just crickets. You're like what happened? You know, it's because you don't understand the people that you're, you know, making that course for well enough to communicate that message. Cuz you have to like replicate who you are in an online fashion and like your sales page becomes you. It's your digital salesperson that works for you 24/7. So that's probably one of the biggest challenges I would say.

Lindsay:

Yeah. And so what's really cool about what I hear you saying is it's in a way could be deemed old school in a, in a little bit because by that, I mean, you know, there's so many, when you go on YouTube, there are so many gurus who are like, you know, you can automate your whole business and you know, set up a funnel so that such and such is done for you. It's driving traffic to your video and that's gonna sell this. And then the whole pipeline is there, which is fine and dandy. But the question, what I love about what you're doing is you're talking more about how content creation is the pillar. It's like the foundation of everything else and sure. All those other things might work for the short term. But when that one thing fails, then what? Right. Yeah.so that's something I'm sure. You've probably seen people being out there fishing, right. Fishing for ideas, fishing for something that works. And ultimately you're like, no, let's break it back to content. So let's talk a little bit more about that and kind of maybe what, in your, your opinion and your experience, what are some of the mistakes that you've seen people making,

James:

in terms of making actual content

Lindsay:: (07:03)

Well or in terms of not making content and maybe trying to do, a short fix so to speak like, you know, ads, for example, or sure. You know, I've seen, like, for example, recently I was looking at a LinkedIn automation tool where it's kind of a bot and it goes out and it messages people for you and then you send them to a video and then that video sends 'em to something else. And mm-hmm so the whole sales funnel is supposedly automated, but I guess what you and I were talking about before we recorded is you were saying, you know, that only works so well. Yeah. Because then if that fails then what, right. This is what the content piece is about.

James:

Yeah. So again, it is really like simple automations that I do. It's just like, when someone gives you their email address, then it kick starts various automations. But again, they're super simple. Like I'm not doing crazy. Like, oh there's like 20,000 automations going on here. When you create a piece of content, specifically evergreen content, you're basically digitizing yourself. And over time that's like the thing is that it takes time. It takes repetition of consistency of doing it every single week. You know, at least once a week, putting out a YouTube video or a podcast, you are like replicating yourself. And if you're pitching your lead Magna or giving somebody a call to action to actually come back to you and it's attractive to the people, there's a lot of people who do call to action, but it's like, who wants that? You know you have, that's where it's understanding your audience.

James:

And it's really like, that's probably the biggest thing, um, is really understanding your audience. Cuz if you don't get that, they're not gonna wanna opt-in to get your lead magnet, lead magnets still work. I saw some articles like, well, lead magnets don't work. It's like, yeah they do. You just don't understand your audience well enough. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Uh, and then they, they go to your sales copy or they read your emails and they're like, wow, it's like this guy's reading my mind or this girl, you know, I think one of the biggest problems that I see personally is like, I'm on Facebook, you know? Cause I still have conversations with people. I told you that in the beginning, like my three CS to that I found to run a reliable business, um, that I enjoy is like through conversations through content, which is courses and YouTube content, all that stuff.

James:

And then through coaching actually giving my clients rockstar results, to the best of my ability and people put out great content that goes on Facebook, but it's like a quick Facebook post or could even be a really long one. And I've, I've done that. I've made a huge Facebook post. I'm like oh my gosh, this thing's gonna be epic. It's gonna, you know, fill my calendar, whatever. And then you get crickets, you know? And it's like with Facebook, the algorithm doesn't really favor you as much as YouTube, even podcasts. Like I, I do love podcasting and I did podcasting for a while and it's super easy cuz you don't really have to be on camera or anything. You just have to have some good audio. Um, but YouTube, I feel like the algorithm really likes it, it wants you to succeed. If you're a new channel, it's actually gonna promote you more.

James:

But Facebook everybody's like, it wants you to be doing Facebook ads. It wants you to pay money, to get more exposure, you know? And a lot of people don't have that money to invest. I was talking with uh, a fellow business guy who does like ads and stuff like that. And he's like, you need at least like 10 K to really test, you know, of just like sitting there, ready to go. And you know, a lot of people just aren't in the position and they're not ready to do that. But with content like you again, continuously replicate yourself and you can, you know, if you've been doing it for three to five years, you can have a piece of content from three to five years ago, that's still bringing in leads. I know many people, uh, I haven't been doing it that long, but I even have a video from like a couple months ago, that's at 9,000 views or something at this point, you know?

James:

And it's constantly just climbing and it brings in email opt-ins and it brings in leads to my business, you know? And it's awesome because I'm sitting here doing this with you and YouTube's essentially working for me. And the cool thing is that you don't have to have some huge channel to do that either. But I also have a friend who doesn't do YouTube. He just has a podcast, makes six figures doing the same exact system. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm he puts out his PO he's a great podcast. It's him and his brother it's called science and spirituality podcast, little plug. But um, yeah, I mean like he Al he just offers to book a call, you know, it's super simple, but he's providing great value through his content. And I think another problem that I see with people is that they, they try and hold back in their content rather than giving like all the goods.

James:

And I think there's like this thing where it's like, oh my gosh, but if I give away like great content, nobody's gonna wanna buy my course or, you know, sign up to book a call with me or something. You get this idea inside their mind, but it's like, that's not true because so many people are putting out content. It's, it's ridiculous. I forgot the amount, but it's like billions of hours, you know, every month or something, or could be even more than that. Um, and yeah, people are just like putting out all this content, but it doesn't mean that it's great content. So when somebody finds you on YouTube or in a podcast, I, again, I feel like YouTube is better because it suggests videos to people rather than a podcast. Uh, but there's pros and concept both, but we'll just use YouTube for an example, people find you, they get suggested and they're like, wow, this was super cool because you have that one chance to really make an impact on this person's life with whatever the video topic is or the content topic.

James:

And again, it's always working for you. If it's a really great piece of content, meaning that it's valuable and answers their questions and valuable. That's a, that's another thing it's like value is always getting tossed around, you know, oh, add value, add value. But I feel like a lot of people are like, I don't know what that means. You know? Um, value is just like, can you make this person's life better in some way? Like if you watch a YouTube video that doesn't sell anything, but they just make you laugh. That's a form of value because they gave, they made you laugh. And I think it's good to think about content is like, how is this person's life gonna be different after they've consumed this piece of content? You know, after consuming my content, maybe they have some new insight that's going to make their life easier. That's a way to add value, you know? But yeah, if you're putting out great content that really helps people, you're gonna stand out from the crowd, you know, you're gonna be that person that makes that impact. And they're gonna be like, wow, I wanna watch that video again or watch another video by this person or keep watching this video. And then it's just gonna keep rewarding you in the algorithm on YouTube. But the coolest thing again is that it's evergreen. It's always running until you decide to take it down, not like Facebook.

Lindsay:

Yeah. And you know, it's great because you can get in a, in a rhythm and start producing content on the regular and then really have enough content to look at your metrics and decide what's working and what's not. And in doing that, learn a lot about your audience at the same time, you know, who, who is picking up on what you're throwing out. mm-hmm yeah. Who's picking up on what you're putting down. Um, so, let me ask you then, um, what are some examples let's unpack what you said. That was a lot of really good high level information. Let's dig in a little bit and see, um, what we can give the audience here today on strategy kind of from maybe a content perspective you say, you know, put out really good content. Mm-hmm are there any key metrics that make content better than another? Or, I mean, how do you kind of counsel people when you're helping them create content?

James:

Yeah. Um, creating con I mean, it should be regular. It should be consistent because with consistency that builds trust. And I mean, if you listen to any branding expert, it's totally true. Just being consistent. So first thing you do is you pick a day that you're gonna do it. And I think people think like YouTube, I would say if I was coaching someone right now, get on YouTube, you know, with me, I make a YouTube video. Um, it has been once a week when I'm starting to do a couple more because my channel's just growing, you know, and I kind of do a different type of video. It's more like a tutorial video. Um, but at least pick once a week and you can pick, you know, an hour or two hours, even three, you know, just to make a good piece of content each week.

James:

And it's just, you can schedule it out so you can put it, you can make it on Wednesday or whatever, and then schedule it out for the following Monday. Um, but pick a day that you're gonna schedule that post. And what I'll do is I'll make like a YouTube video. And then when it's all scheduled and set up on YouTube, I'll put that into anchor and anchor, you know, is how you can upload up to podcasts, but it gets you on every single podcast platform. Basically every single one, all the big ones like Spotify, um, and apple music or apple podcast and Google podcast and all that. So I can convert that YouTube video into a podcast. So I'm still doing the one piece of content, but then you can even have an assistant to it. Or you can just do it yourself where you can put that video into a software, like transcribe or auto and it'll turn it into a transcription.

James:

And then you just put it onto your blog, which a blog is another great form of content, uh, because it's evergreen, you know, like where you upload it once and then it just stays up until you decide to take it down. And then, yeah, you can have, you know, a blog post, a podcast and a YouTube video up in one week for a couple hours of work, you know, but again, it's just like staying in, in that, in the long term. So biggest schedule stay consistent with it because you should also like put it out to your email list so they can be like, oh, he's got a new piece of content out. She has a new piece of content out, and then that's gonna build trust with them that like you're legit and you're providing great value every time they watch it and getting better at it.

James:

But, um, I think again, the biggest thing is that you have to answer people's questions and there's a lot of different tools you can use, like answer the public is a great one. Um, but you literally just type in, you know, online business or, you know, uh, women in fitness and it'll pop up suggestions of what people are literally looking for on the internet. One other thing is that I'll use, vid IQ when I'm making YouTube videos, or you can use tools like that. Um, Uber suggests is another one it's by Neo Patel that you can use more for like blogs and more Google search. Uh, you can also use like Google trends and you can actually type in, like, I literally have a document. I'd be happy to share with you guys, my content planning template, but it's the things that I've learned from coaches I've worked with from just years of experience of making content, like evergreen content, to make sure that you actually make a piece of content that is going to get discovered.

James:

Cause I used to get like one view on my videos and it was me, nobody knew who I was. I was putting out episodes every single day. So I think that great content is really like planned content. And that's why I have this content planned content, but that I use myself every single week that I make content. I go through it. I just questions to ask myself of like, what's the specific value or takeaway this person's gonna get after. So I can be clear on it that way I can deliver and make sure it's a great piece of content, you know? Um, I don't want to go like too crazy with all of this.

Lindsay:

Well, I hear what you're saying. You're saying, yeah, answer. Well, let me unpack what you said, cuz I think there was something that you're saying that's really valuable that I really wanna highlight. And that was this. A lot of people are out there saying, just throw out content and see what sticks and you're saying no, be a little strategic about it. Well, be very strategic rather like you wanna go to any of those websites, you mentioned be strategic, answer a question. And I think that's really key, especially on YouTube. I mean, especially for online business because people busy business, people are busy. We don't have time to watch funny videos and a lot of like, you know, entertainment stuff sometimes, right. We maybe do that in our downtime, but when it comes to getting an answer, we just want the answer. So make your videos very strategic, answer a question and come up with content consistently. Those are the two key strategies that you mentioned. Um, and that's really, those two things are really powerful and important. How long do you, do you see in your clients? How long does it normally take for them to start to get traction with

James:

Their clients? It totally depends. You there's? Okay. So there's a guy named Leon Hendrix and you can check him out on YouTube at, oh at this point he probably has, he has between 200,000 to 300,000 subscribers and he has like 30 videos or somewhere around there. And there's some people who have hundreds and hundreds of videos with like no subscribers. So why, why is he excelling so much? Um, because he makes great content. If you watch his videos, you like can't help, but be hooked into the video. And the more watch time that you get like on YouTube, the more that the algorithm's gonna reward you. So it can happen really fast for people. That's the thing. It really just takes one piece of content to pop, to, you know, bring in a ton of leads for you. You know, I, I was getting like 30 views on average or so, and then that one video, it just like popped.

James:

And now it's at like 9,000 views, which for me, I, I have a pretty small channel, but I know that the system works and it just gonna just, they grow up. But yeah, I mean, that's something that literally brings in email opt-ins which convert into other automations, uh, and then can sell courses and all of that stuff or, but calls and stuff like that. Um, so it totally depends, but yeah, I don't know if there's like a specific time range, um, because I mean, when you are strategic with the content actually putting out like searchable content, it, it, it's not supposed to be like just a quick thing, you know? Uh, which I know people don't want to hear, but like I think that that is really, what's gonna build more of a reliable business down the road and sometimes you can upload a video and then six months down the road actually pops, you know, but it, it really, it fluctuates so much that I couldn't give you a specific timeframe. Um, but okay. Yeah, if you take again, like if you take Leon Hendrix, for example, he like 30 videos and he's at 200,000 plus subscribers mm-hmm so it really comes down to just the content and yeah, everybody's results kind of vary from it. But what I really teach people is just to, to build the reliable habits of actually putting out the content and making a great piece of content, always getting better at that content. You know?

Lindsay:

So you mentioned early on something about like, you really have to know your audience. Yeah. Is there any process that you walk people through to help them discover that? I mean, imagine sitting at home, you're just thinking about starting a business, you kind of know what you wanna talk about, or maybe you have a thriving business, you wanna take it online. That would be much easier to know your audience cuz you already have clients, but for people who don't, what are some, some steps they can take to really kind of figure out that piece.

James:

Yeah, absolutely. Um, so there's a couple things, first off, you gotta brainstorm what you're passionate about or if you're, if you're reevaluating, you can even do this. So get a pen and paper, get a Google doc or something and just write out, you know, five to 10 ideas or 20 ideas. However many you have of things that you're passionate about, that you're knowledgeable about, that you love and don't leave anything on, you know, off the table, like put everything out, just do a big brain dump, no editing whatsoever. Um, if you're like, if it's cooking and you're like, why are people gonna pay for my cooking? You would be surprised. People love to learn again, people wanna learn skills and you ha everybody has some sort of skill. It could be something super weird, like basket weaving, which is a legitimate thing that people will pay for as well, like how to learn, how to do it.

James:

Um, but anyway, yeah, you want to print out their, or write out those things. Then we want to take it out into the world, you know, into the internet or into like the actual world. We're actually talking to people and have some conversations with people. Talk to people like in your immediate family or friends, or what's great about Facebook and Instagram social media is that you can just chat with people. You can open up a conversation like right now. And, uh, you could have a conversation with 20 different people going on and you could just ask them, you're like, Hey, I'm starting a business. I'm thinking about this. Or you're thinking about creating a product. Like I do it for every product that I make and any kind of course, I'm like, Hey, I'm just making a online course. And I just wanna make sure it's the best online course and actually helps people.

James:

Would you mind if I ask you a couple questions, always ask for permission. They're like, yeah, sure. Whatever. It's like, I'm not trying to sell anything. I literally just want to ask a couple questions and then, um, yeah, you'll just ask them two questions. Basically. You want to know like the, the real gap of like, what is your biggest frustration relate or pain? It could be related to fill in the blank. It could be to cooking or to, um, you know, building your online business. It can be, or to getting in shape and then you wanna ask them that. But there's two different levels. There's like kind of a symptom level, which is like, I know that I struggle with this, for example, with losing weight, like yeah, I wanna lose weight, but to get under that and to get to the internal, there's like external internal, the external is that I wanna lose weight, but the internal is I wanna lose weight because I wanna look great on the beach because I have a heart condition.

James:

And if I don't lose weight, I'm not gonna be able to see my daughter get married and walk her down the aisle. You know? Like that's the real stuff. When you do customer research and you're figuring out these kind of ideas, we wanna have a, document. I like docs because I can access it anywhere. in like conversations with people or just online, I literally just copy and paste it, the, their responses into the Google doc. But we wanna look for like great, um, like real stuff, but it's gold basically. So you're kind of like a gold mine when you're actually like talking with people, figuring out these, because when you find out that like, maybe it's a heart condition that people have, or it's like those real things, those internal, uh, frustrations that they have, that's the real stuff that keeps people up at night that makes people concerned or upset or worried about their situation.

James:

And we put that into this document and you just keep having conversations with people, you build up this huge document of like these frustrations. The other question is that you want your biggest hope or wish related to fill in the blank, you know? So you're getting these two polar opposites, but as you're asking these questions, you wanna think about, yes, the internal, uh, or the external and the internal. Okay. So like the external kind of like surface level, like, oh, I'm kind of frustrated with this. it's, iffy. But when you get to the internal, you get to that real, um, like emotion that's involved with it. Like why is, uh, again with the, the health thing's like, why is that so important to you? Because like the internal thing is that I wanna walk my daughter down the aisle and watch her get married, you know, but I can't do that if I had this like heart condition or I die or something.

James:

So it's like a real thing. And you just add those things to your document. Um, the other thing that you can do is think about like the area that you're interested in. Let's say it's online business. You can check out or like passive income, a great book on that. A really popular one is the four hour work week. Chances are the thing that you're interested in or that you have a skill set around. People have written books on it. You know, there's a book written about everything. So Amazon book reviews are phenomenal place to get information, to see what people actually care about, what they like, what they don't like about the topic. But when you do Amazon book reviews, just type in, you know, books related to insert, whatever topic you're interested in or your expertise is, you know, or what you're interested in building your course around when you do Amazon book reviews, I would recommend not to go for the five star, the one star, because they're gonna be biased about the book or just like angry people or total fanboys.

James:

So go more for the middle stars, which are, I, I think like, like the two or the three star or the four star, you know, I like three star personally, because people are gonna be unbiased. You're gonna be like, I like this, I dislike this. And you just have to do some fishing and gold mining and look through. And it's like, you're not gonna find gold per se, just instantly, we'll have to do a bit of digging. Uh, but there's like, yeah, you look up a book like four hour work week. There's like 16,000 reviews of people. And then you can just go through and I've done a ton of that scrolling through. And again, when I find something, I just copy it and paste it into my Google doc. The other thing you can do is YouTube comments as well, so much goes down in the comments that people don't even think about it. So you just type in videos related to that topic. And if somebody's thinking about those things, then, you know, they're searching it. You wanna see that these things are actually searchable and what people are saying about, and from there, you can figure out if this is something that's like legitimately worth putting your time and energy into.

Lindsay:

That's a great tip. It's funny, you mentioned that, cuz as you said that I'm like, oh man, I do that. And I didn't even realize I wasn't doing it intentionally to go find out what my audience is looking at. I just am so intrigued by what people's opinions are, but I am learning from it. I mean, it's something I just did naturally. That's pretty cool. That's a good strategy. Actually. I like the book review too. Those are both really great strategies. What else is really cool about both of those strategies is you don't have to put yourself out on social media because I'm seeing that more and more people are like, oh, I'm just doing market research. And they're just using that as a ploy to get people into their freebie or to, you know, to hook 'em into something. So more and more people are getting a little sketchy about that. Like actually responding to those things.

James:

Yeah, totally. Yeah. You do have to be careful. Cuz if you say like, Hey, I'm thinking about starting a business and you're talking to someone who's gonna quote unquote, scale your business to a hundred K months or whatever, you know, in the next 90 days then they're gonna be like, oh, I'm gonna use this as an opportunity. You know, so right. Just talk to like people that are like mutual friends, you know, or it's like, it's, it's not gonna be an attack on anybody's part. You're just, it's casual conversation, you know? You're like, Hey, I'm just like be open be you be real. And um, yeah, just kinda watch out for Facebook. Gotta be kind of careful you're talking to.

Lindsay:

Yeah. So what are some of the biggest struggles that you overcame in your business?

James:

Um, I, mean, honestly I think that the customer research piece and actually putting time into that was a huge one because it , it's just, it's really so big. Like that's the foundation it's like building a house on a walkie foundation. You know, you have to, to understand your people. I I've worked with a guy specifically for like my YouTube stuff and he stresses so much on creating your, uh, client avatar, you know, because everything that goes into your messaging, into your content, like music that you play in the background of videos and all of that, it all has to relate to this person and or this group of people or this age range of people. You know, if you're, if you want to target a younger generation, then you can play some music where it's like TikTok hits, you know, or stuff like that.

James:

That's actually trending right now because they'll relate to it. They'll understand that where if you're just playing some song in the background, I don't really do music in my videos, but it's just an example. Uh, that's like super old school. It's gonna attract those people and they're gonna comment on your, your videos and be like, wow, I can't believe you played this song. It's so cool. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm I think that that's something that I didn't think was like that important. I'm like, oh, you just like do it because I see people like doing this, you know? And I can just kind of start throwing out like guessing content, but I don't want to guess, you know, I want to know that this is gonna really like hit, hit home for somebody it's gonna be impactful for someone. So I think that was something that I kind of avoided.

James:

Like I didn't write a client avatar for like the first two years of my, and it's like, you're supposed to do that, but I was like, I don't need to do that. Like I have a rough idea, you know, but like really putting in time to understand your people. Um, I think that that is like something that people need to do more because business is about solving problems for people. So in order to do that, you really have to understand people and you have to be real and be a human. And when you do that, you're more like a breath of fresh air. Like you said, with like conversations on Facebook and stuff. It's like, it seems like when I have conversations with people, it's almost like a, a little game of like, who's gonna pitch first. And I caught onto that and I was like, I don't wanna do that. So when I have conversations, I just like chat with people and I treat like online dating, like we're just talking and then we go here, like if I just started pitching you, when we first started talking, you'd be like, I'm not interested in this guy. Like never,

Lindsay:

Well, yeah, Actually recently I did a post. I was asking if anybody wanted to go live with me on Instagram, just because I'd never done it. And I wanted to experience it with somebody. And so I, nobody responded at first, like it took, I've done it a while. It took a while. Finally one person responded and we connected, we had a great conversation, total collaboration and then two more people. And I thought, wow, this is a Testament to what is going on on Facebook. Like everybody's just the what's in it for me. Like, yeah. It just really felt so real to me. I'm like, man, I really want to find a space where people are interested in giving and receiving. It's so valuable. And I think we're missing that, but that's a, my little bunny trail.

James:

Yeah. It's all good. No, I totally agree. A hundred percent. I think the more human you can be in everything that you do and more like the more authentically you and that's with your content as well. Like you gotta be you because you could be teaching something that tons of other people like online business, what, you know, how competitive that is, but where there's competition, there's also opportunity, you know, where there's high search volume there's opportunity to be discovered. You know? So I, I think that you being you and like really authentically, you really makes a huge difference in like how people are going to receive your message, because the way that you speak Lindsay is different than the way that I speak, you know, and the way that you think and everything, and that's gonna re you can, now I could both be teaching the same exact thing, but people are gonna resonate with you and people are gonna resonate with me.

James:

They're gonna be like, I'm not really like feeling Lindsay. I'm not really feeling James. I'd rather go with Lindsay, et cetera, et cetera. You know, mm-hmm so I, I mean, I'd say like to really just strike the stump rather than whack at the branches, it's you really gotta understand your audience because when you get that, everything else gets easier. I, I love this question cause I'm really big on like productivity and everything. I have a productivity course. Um, and it, it, cuz it helps you just like work less, be more efficient. I love all of that. I geek out on it. And one of the best books that I've read, one of my favorite ones is the one thing, uh, by Gary Keller. That's his name? Have you read that book?

Lindsay:

No, but I thought you were gonna say the, um, it, a different book. I'll tell you in a second. Go ahead. I wanna hear what you have to say.

James:

You should read. I, think everybody who's interested in working less should read that book or being more productive. It's phenomenal, but there's a question that the whole book is really like centered around. And the question is, what's the one thing I can do. That's such by doing it will make everything else easier or unnecessary. So when you ask that question, it really causes you to think this is one thing, what's the one thing I can do that will make everything else easier, unnecessary. And you can ask that in your health and relationships, um, in terms of your wealth or your business, you know, and that's like, that's one of the things is when you understand your audience and it's, it's not just like a one time thing. Like, oh, okay. I put like an hour into it. Like, no, it's a forever thing. It's better understanding your audience, like reading comments on similar videos or blog posts or, you know, Facebook as well there, tons of gold inside there as well. Um, that's really, I think the biggest thing that people can put more time into and just like hit people on the level that they're at.

Lindsay:

I love it. What a, I can't wait. I'm putting that on my list. Cause I read, um, Darren Hardy's book, the compound effect and he's a productivity expert too. I mean that, guy's a mad man when it comes to that, loved that book. I read it five times and every time I just kept practicing, implementing stuff. So that's a good one to read too, but I'm, I'm looking forward to that and that is so true. Um, you know, if I ask myself that right now, it's, it's like I can, it gave me immediate clarity about what the next step is to take in the business. So that's a great question to ask. Thank

James:

You. And well, it's cool about it too, is that when you ask that question, it sets you up for a domino effect and that's what he mentions in the book as well is like you ask that question and you just focus on that one thing, but it's the one thing that's gonna make everything else easier or completely unnecessary. You know, I even use that in my business where, you know, when I was like first starting with all this, I, had a new client that enrolled me and I was like, sweet, this is gonna be awesome. It was like one on one coaching ready to go. And I had no onboarding system like automation, you know, this was actually great for what we're talking about. And I was like, oh man, like, I'm just gonna have a quick 10 minute conversation with them. We'll just sit down, we'll chat.

James:

And uh, we'll just pick a time that we're gonna like do our weekly calls on. We sat down and that quote unquote, 10 minute call turned into 45 minutes of going over, like different pieces of the program, answering some other questions and stuff that they had. Um, you know, and I was just like, I can't keep doing that. Like 40, 45 minutes. It was just unnecessary. It was supposed to be just like a let's celebrate. This is all good. Um, pick one time that we're gonna stick with on our call and then just get going, you know, give 'em some homework. So I asked myself a focusing question. I said, what's the one thing I can do that will make everything else easier or unnecessary in terms of this. And the idea came to me where, okay, I have, I use Kajabi for my business. So I'll have a checkout page on Kajabi where someone puts in their information, they sign up for coaching.

James:

And then after that I'm gonna have an automated email. That's gonna get sent to this person at like, and you just set a trigger inside a KJA it's super easy. And uh, in that email, I'll just lay out a couple steps, super easy, super digestible. Uh, step one, you know, is like fill out your, uh, document, you know, our client agreement, all that kind of stuff. And then, uh, the step, the second step was going to have short loom videos where I would just go over like Voxer that I use, you know, or loom, like, here's how you use loom. If you're not familiar, you know, and like a Trello board, I like to have a Trello board to keep everything organized for people when I work with them. So I just went over like all those things and they're like short videos, you know, mm-hmm, a couple minutes. So if people have questions now it's like, did you watch the video? Did you read the email? And they're like, no, I didn't read the email. It's like, okay, we'll go read the email. And then like nine times outta 10, all their questions were answered. You know what I mean? Right. So it, it just made everything so much easier to where I don't have to think now because I know that everything, as soon as they put in their information, they sign up everything get's delivered to 'em automatically so super

Lindsay:

Easy. That's great. Wow. Yeah, that was a great, I love that visual. That was a good visual. So how can people get connected with you? What are, what are, where's the best place for them to find you?

James:

Uh, just my website, profit, your knowledge.com. And, uh, from there, you know, you can sign up for my email list and get a really cool freebie on top of that. It's a five-step guide. Uh, it literally just walks you through kind of my process with creating evergreen content. Why it's important will help you actually find that profitable idea. I walk you through the steps and it's, it's really short. It's like eight, it's like eight pages or something like that. But I walk you through everything. I give you action steps and I have laid it out and I've connected with people and they've read it. And they're like, dude, this is awesome. So definitely download the free guide. Um, but yeah, as soon as you land on my website, the whole entire homepage is like downloading the guide. Okay. But from there you can also watch the content or check me out on YouTube as well. Everything is just pro for your knowledge also my podcast. Um, yeah, that's just how you find me profit your knowledge.

Lindsay:

All right. There we go. That's great. Well, one last question I ask every guest is what words of wisdom or inspiration do you have for us today?

James:

Words of wisdom. okay, I just feel like sharing this. One of my, uh, favorite quotes is by Paula Ko, super simple, but I literally live by it. I'm thinking about getting a tattooed on my wrist actually. Uh, but it says one day or day one, you decide. And I think that that's big. Cause a lot of people, especially if you're like in a nine to five or something and you listen to this or you're thinking about doing something it's like one day or day one and you, you, you get to decide, you know, there's things where I have an idea and I'm like, uh, one day it's not a big deal, but there's things where I'm like day one, it's gotta happen. It needs to happen. And uh, that's been a huge driver for me. One other quote is, um, which one is it? Actually? No, nevermind. It's I spaced on it.

Lindsay:

That's alright.

James:

I actually spaced on that one. It's okay. But yeah, one day or day

Lindsay:

what you said was awesome because it literally gave me chills and it's like, I've never heard that quote before but is how I live my life and I love that. So that's great.

James:

Oh, I love it. It's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna get tattooed like right here, just cuz it would it's like anytime I'm just curious, I just look down and it's like an instant reminder right there. Right. So

Lindsay:

Right. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being a guest. It's been a pleasure. It's been great to get to know you.

James:

Yeah. Likewise Lindsay, super excited.