Stevie Says Social Podcast

Want to retire early in 10 years, and live on $80k forever? With a lifestyle business, you can. [Read the full blog post here].People want a quick win, and the industry sells the pipedream of a gazillion dollars in two seconds.. but if you’re willing to develop the skill of being a course creator?A LOT can happen in 10 years ⌛️A. LOT.Here’s the cliff notes: Invest $10k a month from the profits of your high cashflow online course business for 10 years (instead of spending it on Gucci bags, a big team or lifestyle creep). At year ten, you can retire with $2m in the bank. You’ll take $80k a year for the rest of your life without depleting the balance. Here’s your road map for retiring in 10 years, if you start today

In the past 12 months, I’ve created 8 online courses. That’s 680 lessons, according to my course platform. [Read the full blog post here].It’s all been part of a grand master plan I hatched in mid-2023 to build out the complete operating system for building a leveraged, expertise-based lifestyle business.The eight courses are designed with that specific endgame in mind. Here’s a summary: Lifestyle Business School Roadmap: This is the overarching roadmap for mapping and tracking your progress to your personal endgame. Dream and Design: Design the leveraged expertise-based business model that satisfies the Monday Morning test and feels just right for you. Create and Validate: Build a simple, leveraged expertise-based offer suite (and the engaged lead list to sell it) in 12-weeks. Deliver and Delight: The full delivery playbook for building out a stand out and streamlined online course, group program, membership or mastermind. Rinse and Repeat: The ultimate collective of every live launch and promotion under the

To get sales, you need leads!To get leads, you need traffic! So, how do you get it? What’s working now? [Read the full blog post here].The truth is, times have changed. The landscape is crowded. Ads are costly. And getting attention feels about as easy as screaming to a band to pull you up on stage in the middle of a rock concert. So let me lift the lid on how I do it, and what’s working right now. Want more?

So, you have big business goals – incredible!What’s your plan to achieve them? Q4 is sneaking up on us, and as anyone in online business would know that means prime money-making season!There is a lot of opportunity in the final three months of the year. [Read the full blog post here].Whether you’re well behind on your annual sales goal or you’re simply looking to maximise the opportunity that this time of year brings, preparation will give you the BEST chance of making this your biggest quarter of sales yet!The best way to prepare? With a simple, actionable marketing plan. If you haven’t created yours yet, now is absolutely the time. Planning ahead will allow you to get strategic, and squeeze the most juice out of this prime time on the online business calendar. In today’s piece, we will walk through how to create a simple marketing to smash your Q4 goals, and set yourself up for a strong end to what has for many been a more trying year. Want more?

You know the whole “money in your sleep” thing? “Build a funnel and watch the money roll in whilst you’re catching z’s”? The truth is, it’s real – but not in the same way it’s been taught, sold and done online for the past few years. [Read the full blog post here].The standard advice is that you set it up once, flick the switch to “on”, and watch the sales start rolling through the door. As much as I’d love to sell you that strategy, it doesn’t quite work that way. That’s the bad news. The good news? Is that when done the right way, at the right time, using principles that work right now, and the right “full funnel” strategy, an evergreen funnel can become one of the most powerful automated workhorses for generating bonus profit in your business. In today’s piece, I am going to share with you how to build out an evergreen funnel system to sell your online course, program or membership the RIGHT way. (No BS or unrealistic promises included). Side note – We have just added a fresh new course soldier to the Life

Active income is never passive. Work is work.But the income from your work can be funneled into assets that CAN be passive – and that, ultimately, is the game. [Read the full blog post here].These days, I am passionate about sharing that message with others. Even moreso in this online business world, where we have the capacity to build high profit margin businesses.And, where a little know how on what to DO with that income is life-changing. And so, in today’s piece, I am sharing with you the six steps for building a business that will one day allow you to make work optional and to enjoy true passive income. Want more?

Truthbomb: The ONE metric just about every single person underestimates is the amount of traffic they are able to deploy for their online course or group offer launch.[Read the full blog post here].They put BIG effort into a launch, and maybe secure a handful of sales. On “paper”, it performed great and achieved all of the benchmarks for success. But still, THEY consider it a flop. The culprit?  They simply didn’t drive the volume of traffic required to achieve their sales goals.Want more?

Building a successful online course business in 2024 requires an irresistible, hell-yes core offer.[Read the full blog post here].Here’s the kicker, though.Whilst making sure your offer is irresistible to the person you’re selling it to is non-negotiable (something we covered in detail in last week’s piece, and this one too), it’s only step one.Building an offer that sells is one thing. Building one that lights you up, fulfills you, gives you more of what you want and allows you to reach your goals so you can run it for the long term without burning out? Well, that’s entirely another.Here’s one thing my seven years in online business has taught me: Success isn’t success if it doesn’t give more of what you want.This is a Naval Ravikant quote, and I have it pinned everywhere:On my laptop screensaver. My phone. My desk. Everywhere. It serves as a reminder for me of what “success” is and what it isn’t. In an online world that has for so many years  espoused financial and “numbers” based success as the only true i

Recently, I embarked on an extended Euro-trip. [Read the full blog post here].EXCITING, of course – but, with a catch. The flight to Dubai en-route to Europe departed from Brisbane at 2am. Tricky in any event, but even moreso with a two and four year old to contend with. I did the sleep math olympics trying to figure out how to cope. My realisation?From a toddler perspective, I was likely screwed regardless of HOW I decided to approach things (especially since those awesome inflatable travel beds for kids on planes are banned on my Emirates flight – damn, right). And so, I started focusing on my own sleep. “If we get on the plane at 2am, they MIGHT go back to sleep for a few hours and it’s going to be smart to try and catch at least a couple of hours myself so I’m not zapped and losing my proverbial s$%# when we arrive in Dubai 14-hours later” – I thought. In other words? I started to focus on the things I thought I MIIIIIIGHT be able to semi-control. And so began my deep-dive into the world of getting sleep

Simple scale, complex fails. Has a catchy ring to it, right.And, a whole lotta truth. Here’s how I know. [Read the full blog post here].As a person, I am naturally someone that tends to overcomplicate things. Give me a task to complete, and I will somehow singlehandedly find the most complex, convoluted way of completing it. Back in my corporate days, I worked as a Marketing Manager. Working closely alongside me was our PR Manager – who was the exact vision of what you would expect a PR Manager to be. Vibrant, sociable, vivacious.And, light on detail. Whenever we were given a project to work on, she and I would approach things so very differently. I always admired her approach: Pick up the phone, get it done, smiling all the way. Meanwhile? I would sit at my desk for hours upon hours, writing up complex plans and generally just overcomplicating things. Of course, both were strengths in a way – and our very different approaches complimented each other. When I started my business, though? I noticed myself takin

This isn’t a piece on passive income. It’s not a piece on the freedom to work from anywhere. Or, to pick up and travel the world. Instead? It’s about building a drop everything business and how I built it. [Read the full blog post here].You see, when most of us think of course or digital-product based businesses we think of the fun freedom that it may one day give us the opportunity to enjoy. We aspire to build the “bucket list” business:One that creates deep impact for those we serve, whilst simultaneously giving us time, freedom and happiness in spades to spend time with little ones, live without financial burden and go on extended staycations. I know I sure did. Happily, six (almost seven) years of hard work, trial and error in, I have mostly done that. But, here’s the clincher. It’s not the “bucketlist” business that I have been the most grateful for this year. It’s the drop everything business. It’s building a business that has afforded me the ability to scale back and work less not by choice, but by nec

To sell an online course or leveraged offer, you need people to sell to. [Read the full blog post here].The problem? Those looking to build an online course business from scratch usually fall into one of two camps. 1) They are existing content creators looking to leverage their extensive audiences by building a course based business around it; or2) They are service providers seeking to take their skillset and build something more leveraged from it. My experience is that usually? In both cases, the founder hasn’t started or prioritised email list growth, and they are either starting from scratch or they are starting with a small email list that they haven’t nurtured. So, how do you start and build an email list so that you are able to successfully sell an online course, group coaching program or membership? Here’s two things to keep in mind first and foremost: Firstly, quality matters much more than quantity. The secret? A super aligned email list, and high quality nurture of the people on it. Alignment comes

Have you ever dreamed of jumping on a plane and running away? [Read the full blog post here].Wanting to live the laptop lifestyle and work from anywhere but unsure how to *actually* do it without your business burning down? Wonder how all of those people on Instagram every European summer actually afford to do it? In a week, I am jumping on a very last minute plane to Eurosummer, family (including a wild 2-year old and lively 4-year old) in tow. This hasn’t been something I’ve had on the planning list for a long time (please listen to last weeks podcast episode where I share about losing my Mum for more context on my snap decision). More than anything? This trip is an exhale. This trip is therapy. And, this trip is a complete disconnect from reality, to reflect, honour, enjoy and heal. At the same time, I know there will be some wondering how I can be so lucky or privileged to make this happen. Which, of course, I am. But, it’s not all that. And maybe, it could be possible for you too. If you’ve ever dreamt o

This is a story about grief, loss and how to navigate it as a personal brand.[Read the full blog post here].Almost six weeks ago now, I lost my beautiful mum. (It hurts to type that). It feels like my security blanket has been ripped from under me.I feel alone, exposed and honestly? Just so very sad. Here’s the thing as a personal brand business. Personal things happen. They bleed into business. And as a result, running a very front-facing business in challenging times feels extra challenging – something that has absolutely been my experience over the past while. Today, I want to share a little about my experience navigating profound loss as a personal brand.—Helpful Resources:Insanely helpful conversation: Navigating Grief [ft Therapist Gina Moffa] – With Sam Vander Wielen. I resonated with so much of this. It talks about personal brand businesses in particular, and I listened twice. Feeling seen: Motherless Daughters – Grief support for mother loss. Simply scrolling through these has helped me a lot, the po

Pre PS  We've currently waitlisted our Lifestyle Business School program and we'll be reopening soon. Join the waitlist here if you want to get updated on the best deal and the special VIP bonuses soon as we re-open doors.Last episode I talked about some of the cons of having a membership site as your offer. Now, let's switch sides and talk about the pros of building a membership site. And, when you go into it with realistic expectations - there are many! I do think it's important to start with the cons however, because they aren't usually considered and it's the reason people become disillusioned and give up. Memberships can be magical - with some big ifs and buts. They can be magical

Pre PS  We've currently waitlisted our Lifestyle Business School program and we'll be reopening soon. Join the waitlist here if you want to get updated on the best deal and the special VIP bonuses soon as we re-open doors.Should you create a membership site? So often, it's sold as the ultimate dream:"Create a membership site and you too can enjoy recurring revenue - forever", they say. Which is kind of true.Only, it also comes with a very, very big asterisk:Memberships are one of the most advanced, psychologically trying, long-game, difficult leveraged business models out there. And, no-one is sharing THAT when they are selling the dream. In October 2023, I launched my very own online membership site. Believe me when I say that I have aged 26 Internet years in the months since (just kidding - kind of).Here's the truth though: They are no joke, and this is coming from someone with six years in the online business space, experience in every leveraged business model under the sun, a

I am taking a short break of one to two weeks from new podcast episodes. Here’s a ‘best of’ episode from the vault until I’m back!Last year, I spent in excess of about $35,000 on a huge rebrand. The thought process was this —> I want to build a company. I have a team and I don’t want it to feel like it’s just about me. Stevie Says Social no longer aligned. And, at the time, all of those things were true. Still are, really. But over the subsequent months, my thoughts on how I want to position my business and personal brand shifted slightly AGAIN, and so in today’s podcast episode I want to share some of that nuance with you in case it serves you also. As with ALL decisions in business, there is no “universal truth” when it comes to these things, only ever what serves YOU and the goals you have. And here, right now, are my thoughts (and upcoming shifts) in terms of what serves ME and this small + mighty business in this moment.In this podcast episode we discuss:✔️ Bringing My Personal Brand Back to Life✔️ Ex

How do you create an online course that sells right now?The truth is that times have changed, and what worked even just a few years ago no longer does. The online course market is maturing, and with the growth many are starting to wonder:"Are people still buying online courses?"Here's my two cents: Yes they absolutely are, but it’s uneven at the moment.Some people are killing it and some are finding it tough. If you're wondering how you can create an online course that sells right now, here are seven things to keep in mind. 1. Cultivate Trust and Authority2. Contracts Create Friction3. Creating an Online Course That Sells Requires Transparency4. New Offers Require Time in the Market5. Positioning is Everything6. Risk Reversal is Extra Helpful7. Trust and an Irresistible Offer Are King and Queen Right NowWant more?

In 2007, I spent six weeks in a hostel in the middle of Guatemala just “because”.Truly, I’d never felt so free.The two years prior had been spent working like a donkey, with good people but in a field I hated.The endgame? Admission to the Supreme Course of Queensland as a lawyer.It was an accolade I spent 7 years working towards..Only to quit, 6-weeks to the day later. And so, there I found myself in a computer shop in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, on a steaming April afternoon checking my emails when my brothers friend messaged us on Facebook.“Wanna come visit?” – he wrote, “I’m just down the road in Guatemala!”We looked at each other.Of course we would. It wasn’t even a QUESTION.We were free. The world was our oyster. And we could do anything, be anyone, go anywhere!And so it came to be that I ended up spending the best, most carefree, most FUN 6-weeks of my life living out of a backpack in a dingy hostel dorm room in Antigua.Acutely aware that I had opted out of life for a little minute, and feeling grateful a