WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.419 Welcome back to Vision Pros Live. This is going 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:05.080 to be fun. This is kind of one of my heroes. 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:08.500 So there we go. This is Carol Tice. Carol, would 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:10.619 you please introduce yourself and welcome to 00:00:10.619 --> 00:00:15.720 the show? Thanks, Sue, and my pleasure. I'm Carol 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:18.420 Tice. I built and sold a paid community for life 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:21.699 -changing money, and now I help other coaches, 00:00:21.820 --> 00:00:24.500 consultants, and experts to launch their own 00:00:24.500 --> 00:00:27.500 paid platforms at Community Growth Academy on 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:31.559 School. I love that. It's so cool to have a community. 00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:37.140 It's so underrated, undervalued, and yet having 00:00:37.140 --> 00:00:39.299 a community. Well, you tell me, what are some 00:00:39.299 --> 00:00:41.299 of the benefits that people see when they have 00:00:41.299 --> 00:00:46.820 a community? So my normal STEM speech is more 00:00:46.820 --> 00:00:50.219 reliable income with less marketing and the opportunity 00:00:50.219 --> 00:00:56.060 to impact more lives. The sort of fourth leg 00:00:56.060 --> 00:00:59.560 of the stool is Most coaches and consultants 00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:03.159 do not have a business they can sell. They are 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:06.540 the business. And whenever they can't do it anymore, 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:09.439 they close the doors. There is no exit that funds 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:14.379 your retirement in that model. And wrapping your 00:01:14.379 --> 00:01:17.900 expertise in paid community is a way to create 00:01:17.900 --> 00:01:21.579 a saleable asset. I'm here. I'm living proof 00:01:21.579 --> 00:01:27.290 of that. So it's very exciting for people who 00:01:27.290 --> 00:01:32.569 have so much to give to the world, a way to really 00:01:32.569 --> 00:01:36.230 realize the value they should from their knowledge 00:01:36.230 --> 00:01:39.890 and to get to retire. I feel like people should 00:01:39.890 --> 00:01:43.090 not have to work till they drop. So I'm excited 00:01:43.090 --> 00:01:47.209 to be helping people to build, you know, hopefully 00:01:47.209 --> 00:01:51.230 wealth, build a high value asset they can sell 00:01:51.230 --> 00:01:54.819 and, yeah, fund their retirement. That's incredible. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.480 I mean, all those solopreneurs out there, take 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:02.680 heed, take heart, listen up. So let's dive right 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:05.700 in. I want to hear about what is your vision 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:09.539 for the people that you're serving? So the people 00:02:09.539 --> 00:02:12.159 that I'm serving so far in Community Growth Academy 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:16.620 kind of fall into two buckets. I call them launchers 00:02:16.620 --> 00:02:21.120 and ideators. ideators tend to be people who 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.419 have some passions and they're thinking about 00:02:24.419 --> 00:02:27.860 turning one of them into a paid community so 00:02:27.860 --> 00:02:29.240 they're thinking about building a community around 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:31.979 it and they don't they have not yet built an 00:02:31.979 --> 00:02:34.719 audience for it so they need to start with audience 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:37.580 building and so it's almost like you're trying 00:02:37.580 --> 00:02:40.000 to monetize a hobby which is basically what i 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:41.780 did with my first business freelance writers 00:02:41.780 --> 00:02:45.400 down i just wanted to write a blog about how 00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:47.300 to earn good money as a freelance writer and 00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:50.259 i wanted writers to stop getting ripped off and 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:52.840 it sort of became a hobby gone mad when i wrapped 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:56.240 a community in it and that was something writers 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:59.659 really needed um so they're yeah they're looking 00:02:59.659 --> 00:03:04.159 for at um finding a business model for a passion 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:10.680 project of some kind um or and so so that's the 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:15.729 ideators the launchers are Coaches and consultants 00:03:15.729 --> 00:03:17.849 who've been doing what they're doing, they're 00:03:17.849 --> 00:03:19.750 kind of getting burned out. They're getting tired 00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:24.490 of the constant search for those $10 ,000 clients 00:03:24.490 --> 00:03:26.590 all the big gurus tell you you've just got to 00:03:26.590 --> 00:03:32.270 have. And they are looking for a better way to 00:03:32.270 --> 00:03:36.030 earn. They're looking for an exit door out of 00:03:36.030 --> 00:03:40.930 selling hours and a scalable business. that would 00:03:40.930 --> 00:03:43.550 live off their expertise. And that's what paid 00:03:43.550 --> 00:03:46.650 community is. And we've already had members just 00:03:46.650 --> 00:03:50.750 kind of go 90 days to launch, and one of them 00:03:50.750 --> 00:03:55.949 has already got 500 members. So people who have 00:03:55.949 --> 00:03:59.710 been in their field for a long time and just 00:03:59.710 --> 00:04:02.930 want to, yeah, impact more lives, not have to 00:04:02.930 --> 00:04:07.750 do marketing. Yeah, and would like to set themselves 00:04:07.750 --> 00:04:11.389 up with some reliable income, maybe as they get 00:04:11.389 --> 00:04:16.449 ready to transition out of their career. But 00:04:16.449 --> 00:04:18.750 the thing is that paid community is complex. 00:04:19.189 --> 00:04:21.949 So maybe they've heard of paid community, but 00:04:21.949 --> 00:04:25.449 they kind of don't even know where to begin to 00:04:25.449 --> 00:04:29.490 set it up. Or they have tried and failed and 00:04:29.490 --> 00:04:32.470 shut down a community. They have the expertise, 00:04:32.589 --> 00:04:35.470 but they didn't do the steps to launching a paid 00:04:35.470 --> 00:04:39.029 community successfully in the right order. People 00:04:39.029 --> 00:04:42.509 tend to go off in a vacuum and build something 00:04:42.509 --> 00:04:48.089 instead of building it in public and bringing 00:04:48.089 --> 00:04:51.730 their audience along for that journey. And so 00:04:51.730 --> 00:04:55.829 they're coming to me for like, save me time and 00:04:55.829 --> 00:04:58.930 give me the shortcut to doing this the right 00:04:58.930 --> 00:05:02.100 way so my launch will be successful. And my community 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:05.560 will take off and not be a ghost town and I will 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:08.860 feel happy and not sad. You know, that's that's 00:05:08.860 --> 00:05:12.660 pretty much what, you know, the pain point that 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:16.079 they're at is that they they feel like there 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:19.399 must be a better way to go about it. And for 00:05:19.399 --> 00:05:21.120 me, that was really the big turning point. I 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:24.360 was a coach. I did want some one on one coaching, 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:27.000 did some small coaching. Not that I didn't like 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.779 it. It got OK results. It got. mixed, not consistent 00:05:31.779 --> 00:05:36.680 results. And some coaches, I think, don't care 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:39.699 if their people succeed. But if you would like 00:05:39.699 --> 00:05:44.379 actual transformation in your people, the peer 00:05:44.379 --> 00:05:49.000 element is the missing link. Doing it with other 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:51.120 people, doing the same thing, having the same 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:55.959 struggles, highly, highly more successful. And 00:05:55.959 --> 00:05:58.610 that was really gratifying to me. I wanted my 00:05:58.610 --> 00:06:02.449 people to actually, you know, go earn better 00:06:02.449 --> 00:06:06.889 income and, yeah, be able to have a secure future 00:06:06.889 --> 00:06:11.610 because they got my advice. And paid community 00:06:11.610 --> 00:06:14.170 hit all of that. And the other big thing for 00:06:14.170 --> 00:06:15.930 me that I've realized kind of doing podcasts 00:06:15.930 --> 00:06:20.430 is that, you know, I heard all the same guru, 00:06:20.490 --> 00:06:23.509 oh, you need a $10 ,000 offer and you need to 00:06:23.509 --> 00:06:28.040 learn how to sell that. I don't know if it's 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:31.779 just because I knew most of my people were pretty 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:36.220 struggling income -wise or because I just come 00:06:36.220 --> 00:06:38.019 from kind of a lower middle class background. 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:42.540 But I look back now and what I realized was happening 00:06:42.540 --> 00:06:46.079 is that deep in my soul, I didn't want to sell 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:50.079 a $10 ,000 thing. I didn't want to ask people 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:56.990 for $10 ,000. It just wasn't me. wasn't resonating 00:06:56.990 --> 00:06:59.810 for me. That felt like, ugh, that's a lot to 00:06:59.810 --> 00:07:05.089 ask. And certainly the expertise I had ramping 00:07:05.089 --> 00:07:06.949 a freelance business to six figures and stuff 00:07:06.949 --> 00:07:10.410 was highly valuable. But the question you ask 00:07:10.410 --> 00:07:13.189 yourself is, would you rather help 12 people 00:07:13.189 --> 00:07:17.149 this year who were $10 ,000 coaching clients, 00:07:17.230 --> 00:07:20.430 or would you rather help 1 ,200 people who paid 00:07:20.430 --> 00:07:25.350 $25 a month? And for me, it was, absolutely the 00:07:25.350 --> 00:07:28.069 second answer. So paid community uses the power 00:07:28.069 --> 00:07:31.569 of mass to drive your price point way down so 00:07:31.569 --> 00:07:34.129 that many, many more people can afford it and 00:07:34.129 --> 00:07:38.370 lots less marketing. Lots easier to sell a $25 00:07:38.370 --> 00:07:41.750 thing than a $10 ,000 thing. And for me, that 00:07:41.750 --> 00:07:43.509 just, I don't come out of marketing. I came out 00:07:43.509 --> 00:07:45.470 of journalism. I'd never sold anything to anyone 00:07:45.470 --> 00:07:48.829 before 2008, you know, when I started my blog. 00:07:49.629 --> 00:07:54.899 And so having a low ticket, thing was a real 00:07:54.899 --> 00:07:57.000 answer to me. And I think for a lot of these 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:00.459 people, it is a relief to hear as well that there 00:08:00.459 --> 00:08:02.860 could be a way to charge low ticket and make 00:08:02.860 --> 00:08:05.000 more than they were making, which I certainly 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:08.519 did. That's phenomenal. And I mean, it boils 00:08:08.519 --> 00:08:11.680 down to impact, you know, to being able to have 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:15.399 such great impact on so many people. you know 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:17.579 that that's really cool because i think so many 00:08:17.579 --> 00:08:20.019 of us are heart led we want to cause or help 00:08:20.019 --> 00:08:22.560 facilitate a transformation in somebody's life 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:24.639 and make it better you know and we just want 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:27.339 to make an impact on the world we'd like to leave 00:08:27.339 --> 00:08:29.980 the world better than we found it you know yes 00:08:29.980 --> 00:08:35.000 and um the community enables you to do that at 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:38.679 a scale that you can't in a lot of other business 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:42.600 models and you know i recently got to spend almost 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:47.059 a month in europe And I visited three of my members 00:08:47.059 --> 00:08:50.600 on that trip, including one who now lives in 00:08:50.600 --> 00:08:54.840 Paris with her daughter. And she literally said, 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:57.120 you know, you changed my life. You gave me the 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:59.740 ability to live anywhere I want, to live the 00:08:59.740 --> 00:09:03.440 life I want, you know. And this is what lured 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:06.759 me back into starting another paid community 00:09:06.759 --> 00:09:11.759 is that doing this. For other people, I say it's 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:13.360 better than better. It's better than if it happened 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:17.120 to me. It's so incredibly personally fulfilling 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:21.059 in a way that I think you don't get out of a 00:09:21.059 --> 00:09:23.419 one -on -one coaching experience. That's amazing. 00:09:23.700 --> 00:09:25.700 That's so great. I'm so excited to hear that 00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:28.899 you're doing that. I'm a little jealous. I might 00:09:28.899 --> 00:09:32.799 have to go check it out. Absolutely. That's so 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:34.740 cool. Well, tell me a little bit about what's 00:09:34.740 --> 00:09:36.379 your vision? What do you want this to become? 00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:38.779 You know, this is your second thing, second big 00:09:38.779 --> 00:09:41.799 thing. You've had careers passed and you had 00:09:41.799 --> 00:09:43.740 an exit. A lot of people, Carol, would just go, 00:09:43.799 --> 00:09:45.720 hey, I'm going to go play golf for the rest of 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:48.379 my life. You don't seem like the type of golf, 00:09:48.500 --> 00:09:53.299 you know. I'm not a golfer, but I did think I 00:09:53.299 --> 00:09:55.879 was going to retire. I didn't have this like 00:09:55.879 --> 00:09:58.399 vision like I'm a serial entrepreneur. The first 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:01.820 business was almost. just sort of happened organically 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:07.360 so and my vision of my mindset of what i know 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:11.139 is i know about freelance writing and then i 00:10:11.139 --> 00:10:14.720 took a meeting with my mentor john morrow first 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:17.299 of all after i sold the business i missed the 00:10:17.299 --> 00:10:20.259 community and a lot of business owners who sell 00:10:20.259 --> 00:10:22.720 you know you miss that client the interactions 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:25.240 and community is kind of a special kind of interaction 00:10:25.240 --> 00:10:27.620 where you really become friends with a lot of 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:31.350 people and you miss making a difference. And 00:10:31.350 --> 00:10:34.009 so I was talking with my mentor, John Morrow, 00:10:34.190 --> 00:10:37.889 who you may know of from Smartblogger, and he 00:10:37.889 --> 00:10:41.470 was starting a new project to help people launch. 00:10:42.129 --> 00:10:47.009 And I said, well, I can't do anything with, you 00:10:47.009 --> 00:10:48.850 know, I'd love to work with you, but I can't 00:10:48.850 --> 00:10:52.230 do anything because I have a non -compete, you 00:10:52.230 --> 00:10:54.750 know, so I can't do another community about freelance 00:10:54.750 --> 00:10:56.669 writing. And freelance writing is all I know 00:10:56.669 --> 00:11:00.980 about. And John said, what did you learn in 12 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:05.559 years of doing paid community for writers? And 00:11:05.559 --> 00:11:09.100 I was like, I know about paid community. Like, 00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:11.799 it had never occurred to me. You know, it's so 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:16.460 hard for all of us to see how much we know and 00:11:16.460 --> 00:11:20.019 how our expertise is growing over time. And then, 00:11:20.059 --> 00:11:22.039 of course, I, like, talked nonstop for 10 minutes. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:23.860 I was like, paid community, I could talk about 00:11:23.860 --> 00:11:26.620 this all day, how to fire members. problems and 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:28.539 how to do this and that and oh there's all these 00:11:28.539 --> 00:11:30.820 pitfalls and i did this wrong and i could help 00:11:30.820 --> 00:11:33.600 people and and we were off building community 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:38.039 growth academy and uh you know i love it i guess 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:41.740 what's exciting me the most is that it's allowing 00:11:41.740 --> 00:11:44.440 me to help people across a lot of different topics 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:47.320 and industries and you know paid communities 00:11:47.320 --> 00:11:50.320 can be in anything we have people doing stuff 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:54.639 around health and food around marketing for remodelers 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:59.720 around relocating abroad around writing ones 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:04.620 um as well but like so many different it's like 00:12:04.620 --> 00:12:09.600 now it's like john showed me how to broaden my 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:13.840 impact so much wider And I guess I guess the 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:16.360 moral to that story is I do business consulting, 00:12:16.500 --> 00:12:18.600 you know, talk to your mentors and stuff because 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:21.100 they see things in you that you're not you're 00:12:21.100 --> 00:12:25.100 not getting. And that was so true of me. I mean, 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:27.279 my vision for this is just the same vision I 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:28.960 have for freelance writers, which is to listen 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:32.460 to my members and deliver what they need from 00:12:32.460 --> 00:12:37.259 me. And that's how we did everything in business 00:12:37.259 --> 00:12:40.929 one. And, yeah, it's not about, well, I know 00:12:40.929 --> 00:12:43.309 this. I think you should know that. It's, you 00:12:43.309 --> 00:12:45.750 know, when should we hold meetings? Please take 00:12:45.750 --> 00:12:50.889 my poll and tell me is always my vision. I have 00:12:50.889 --> 00:12:52.870 already gotten so much out of this. It's really 00:12:52.870 --> 00:12:56.190 hard for me to see where it goes. I actually 00:12:56.190 --> 00:12:59.909 haven't decided if I want it to scale big or 00:12:59.909 --> 00:13:02.649 not or if I might make this like an exclusive 00:13:02.649 --> 00:13:07.710 100 limit kind of environment because I really. 00:13:08.490 --> 00:13:13.090 I don't need it to scale having exited. I don't 00:13:13.090 --> 00:13:16.269 need it to have 1500 members. Also, it's at a 00:13:16.269 --> 00:13:19.370 higher price tag than the previous business was. 00:13:19.389 --> 00:13:22.509 So I don't need as many members. And I really 00:13:22.509 --> 00:13:25.929 like to work really in depth with people on there's 00:13:25.929 --> 00:13:29.990 so many aspects to community launch. And, you 00:13:29.990 --> 00:13:31.929 know, right now we're just kind of coming out 00:13:31.929 --> 00:13:35.309 of beta with my 30 sort of original. you know, 00:13:35.309 --> 00:13:38.409 early members and I've learned so, so much. Already 00:13:38.409 --> 00:13:41.169 created a second course. We had a foundational 00:13:41.169 --> 00:13:43.210 course that's like the seven steps of launching 00:13:43.210 --> 00:13:46.110 and then the first year of running your business. 00:13:46.269 --> 00:13:52.389 I already put in Built to Sell, which is all 00:13:52.389 --> 00:13:55.750 of the things I learned about how to make this. 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:59.440 a cleaned up saleable business and i did not 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:01.480 do everything right from the start and had to 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:04.039 go back and do a whole bunch of things take myself 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:06.460 out of the branding for instance it was cartoon 00:14:06.460 --> 00:14:09.679 me you know that's not a saleable thing that's 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:13.360 you are the brand so i had to learn a lot you 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:16.799 know about that process so i put that in but 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:19.620 the big chunk we're adding now is audience building 00:14:19.620 --> 00:14:22.759 okay i just thought i'd everyone who joined would 00:14:22.759 --> 00:14:25.690 have an audience ready to go i learned from my 00:14:25.690 --> 00:14:28.730 members that some of them need marketing help 00:14:28.730 --> 00:14:31.850 to build that audience so they can launch so 00:14:31.850 --> 00:14:35.090 now that's that's what we're on now that's incredible 00:14:35.090 --> 00:14:37.909 we just did a training on how to make your social 00:14:37.909 --> 00:14:41.730 media posts better and i'm just about to do one 00:14:41.730 --> 00:14:44.750 about how to be a podcast guest and yeah but 00:14:44.750 --> 00:14:47.509 we're adding we're creating like a suite of audience 00:14:47.509 --> 00:14:50.710 building ideas you know to think about because 00:14:50.710 --> 00:14:53.090 i want everyone to pick kind of two three channels 00:14:53.090 --> 00:14:56.639 that they're gonna focus on not 50 not every 00:14:56.639 --> 00:14:59.779 social channel there is but yeah to you know 00:14:59.779 --> 00:15:01.919 bring some focused audience building activity 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:06.059 so they can uh build up enough people to attract 00:15:06.059 --> 00:15:08.200 enough people to open and achieve a critical 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:12.240 mass so that's that's what we're working on cool 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:14.639 what kinds of feedback are you getting that you're 00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:20.059 loving um well it's funny you ask because the 00:15:20.059 --> 00:15:24.679 the one investment manager who ramped to 500 00:15:24.679 --> 00:15:28.820 members right away, said to me that he's impacted 00:15:28.820 --> 00:15:32.139 more people in the six months of running this 00:15:32.139 --> 00:15:36.019 community than in his 40 -year investing career. 00:15:37.320 --> 00:15:40.940 So that's a big impact. And he's someone who's 00:15:40.940 --> 00:15:42.980 a contrarian investor, has his own kind of system, 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:45.179 and is kind of an advocate for it and wants more 00:15:45.179 --> 00:15:48.750 people to know about it and do it. so they you 00:15:48.750 --> 00:15:52.509 know retire with assets unlike most of america 00:15:52.509 --> 00:15:56.649 and so that was so meaningful to him and also 00:15:56.649 --> 00:15:59.889 he's 80 if i haven't mentioned and he said that 00:15:59.889 --> 00:16:03.389 he travels a lot he's very he's fit and healthy 00:16:03.389 --> 00:16:07.210 and he goes on three four week long trips and 00:16:07.210 --> 00:16:09.909 the paid community model is such that you have 00:16:09.909 --> 00:16:13.350 community members who kind of become experts 00:16:13.350 --> 00:16:16.860 a bit themselves and you can step away for weeks 00:16:16.860 --> 00:16:20.940 and other people can run everything so that's 00:16:20.940 --> 00:16:23.879 the other thrill of paid community is that you 00:16:23.879 --> 00:16:26.139 know when you're coaching it's like you do you 00:16:26.139 --> 00:16:29.100 have to do all the things you know yeah people 00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:31.720 are expecting you to show up and coach them but 00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:36.840 yeah he does a a like investment kind of screening 00:16:36.840 --> 00:16:39.740 product that he puts out he had other people 00:16:39.740 --> 00:16:44.659 put it out you know That's amazing. And another 00:16:44.659 --> 00:16:47.100 launcher that we had is kind of in the same beta 00:16:47.100 --> 00:16:49.799 phase as me. And she came on a call yesterday 00:16:49.799 --> 00:16:53.259 to just talk about how grateful she was to just 00:16:53.259 --> 00:16:55.740 understand how to operate a community and get 00:16:55.740 --> 00:16:57.620 it up and running. And she's really excited by 00:16:57.620 --> 00:17:00.679 the potential that it has. And she talked about 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:02.960 how much she's learned and how things she's changing 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:07.740 from listening to members. I love that because 00:17:07.740 --> 00:17:10.660 when you have members and they're engaged, that's 00:17:10.660 --> 00:17:14.200 a big if they're engaged, right? Yeah. And there's 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:16.480 a lot to that. Yeah, there's a lot. And when 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.339 they do, it's like you never have to guess on 00:17:19.339 --> 00:17:21.900 anything that you create ever again. Like if 00:17:21.900 --> 00:17:23.759 I make this, will people want it? Well, they're 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:27.079 telling you what they want. That solves a lot 00:17:27.079 --> 00:17:31.519 of things. Yeah, exactly. I just wish I could 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:33.700 help every frightened entrepreneur who's off 00:17:33.700 --> 00:17:35.119 in a corner building something without talking 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:39.279 to any prospects. Just save yourself so much 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:42.839 time and start asking, start telling people what 00:17:42.839 --> 00:17:45.519 you're building. Because first of all, there's 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:49.079 magic to that. I call that pre -marketing. What 00:17:49.079 --> 00:17:51.140 do you think of the name of my community? What 00:17:51.140 --> 00:17:54.259 do you think of these brand colors? Would you 00:17:54.259 --> 00:17:56.880 like to come to a live weekly event with this 00:17:56.880 --> 00:18:01.880 kind of expert? You need this feedback, and it's 00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:06.660 a form of marketing. As you talk about what you 00:18:06.660 --> 00:18:09.240 are building, people get interested in it. And 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:12.299 then if you do that right, and this is what we 00:18:12.299 --> 00:18:13.880 did with Freelance Writers, then literally the 00:18:13.880 --> 00:18:16.119 launch week is like... That thing we've been 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:18.660 talking about together that you said you were 00:18:18.660 --> 00:18:21.000 interested in, it's open now and you can join 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:25.380 it. It's just not a hard sell. And that is me. 00:18:25.539 --> 00:18:29.480 That is I am not one of these. So by today, I'm 00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:32.019 going to sit here for two hours telling you why 00:18:32.019 --> 00:18:35.079 you must do it. And having to make 80 special 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:37.000 last minute. Oh, if you do it right now, you 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:40.019 know, just the hard sell. It's not for me, you 00:18:40.019 --> 00:18:43.700 know. So, I mean, my vision is to help more people 00:18:43.700 --> 00:18:48.019 do that. kind of launch where it's more organic 00:18:48.019 --> 00:18:51.619 and you kind of coalesce the community before 00:18:51.619 --> 00:18:55.940 you open the doors and then you know the reason 00:18:55.940 --> 00:18:58.279 you can sell the community is because a lot of 00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:01.559 the value is all the other people in the community 00:19:01.559 --> 00:19:04.519 and not you you don't necessarily run around 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:07.359 answering every question members hopefully as 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:10.740 you pick up steam start to help each other and 00:19:10.740 --> 00:19:13.869 that's the saleable asset. That's the other, 00:19:13.910 --> 00:19:17.569 the library of trainings and events is one part. 00:19:17.650 --> 00:19:20.430 And the other big component is that community 00:19:20.430 --> 00:19:25.369 that, you know, can live on without you. So they're 00:19:25.369 --> 00:19:28.329 helping each other. It's so great. Gone are the 00:19:28.329 --> 00:19:32.250 days where solopreneur could not sell. This is 00:19:32.250 --> 00:19:37.589 all possible now. Yeah. I mean, the economics 00:19:37.589 --> 00:19:41.400 of paid community. have changed so much since 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:45.640 my first business. I was paying 10, 12 grand 00:19:45.640 --> 00:19:50.240 a month to webmaster teams to just keep all of 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:52.019 the forum software and affiliate software and 00:19:52.019 --> 00:19:54.700 all the plugins to WordPress talking to each 00:19:54.700 --> 00:20:00.059 other. And now I pay school $97. This is so funny. 00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:02.619 Isn't it great? And that is why investor money 00:20:02.619 --> 00:20:05.039 is pouring into paid community platforms because 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:10.019 this is such an opportunity to operate. a business 00:20:10.019 --> 00:20:12.440 that like you say that has a lot of heart in 00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:16.119 it and passion behind it and allows you to reach 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:19.420 a lot of people convene a community i always 00:20:19.420 --> 00:20:22.119 enjoyed the magic of helping people from all 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:25.019 over the world you know being able to connect 00:20:25.019 --> 00:20:28.680 people from all over the world it to me this 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:32.180 is like the good and beautiful part of the internet 00:20:32.180 --> 00:20:36.640 and and technology and how it's advanced is that 00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:40.579 ability because so many people live in a circumstance 00:20:40.579 --> 00:20:43.440 in a place in a small town where the thing they're 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:45.839 trying to do nobody gets them nobody understands 00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:48.279 what they're doing you know in freelance writers 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:50.880 and people were always coming in and going people 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:54.980 who understand I live in this small town and 00:20:54.980 --> 00:20:57.079 people just keep asking me when I'll get a job 00:20:57.079 --> 00:21:00.960 and I feel so alone and and they find their people 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:04.339 and as we all know the feeling of community is 00:21:04.339 --> 00:21:08.960 kind of in short supply these days in a lot of 00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:14.440 ways. And it's so beautiful to give people those 00:21:14.440 --> 00:21:16.819 connections. That is. It's not something we can 00:21:16.819 --> 00:21:18.839 get in our everyday life. If you were to survey 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:21.559 your neighbors, you know. Yeah, not every community 00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:25.720 is best convened in person. There are things 00:21:25.720 --> 00:21:28.240 that actually work really well online across 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:31.759 geographies. And I just consider that kind of 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:35.200 a magical way to make a living. it is i mean 00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:37.119 it's like spreading love throughout the world 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:39.160 i mean not to sound too frou -frou and connection 00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:43.440 and connection yeah real you know real friends 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:47.019 from all over the place yes that's amazing yes 00:21:47.019 --> 00:21:50.039 some of my people i visited told me that they 00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:52.579 they still call their den accountability buddy 00:21:52.579 --> 00:21:55.400 oh this is like you know got to be five ten years 00:21:55.400 --> 00:22:00.440 from now right ago so that's amazing yeah that's 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:02.900 something Yeah. So it's like you don't just give 00:22:02.900 --> 00:22:05.400 people a gift of knowledge and peer support, 00:22:05.579 --> 00:22:10.200 but like new friends and and connections that 00:22:10.200 --> 00:22:13.440 are really deep. You know, I think that's we 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:16.519 all need more of that. I think that's really 00:22:16.519 --> 00:22:19.440 awesome. I'm glad that you're doing this. Thanks. 00:22:20.259 --> 00:22:23.359 I'm kind of excited and happy to be doing it. 00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:27.119 It's sort of all a little unexpected that I launch 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:31.539 a new business at age 65. It's feeling really 00:22:31.539 --> 00:22:34.140 good. It's feeling like what I'm supposed to 00:22:34.140 --> 00:22:36.619 be doing, you know? So cool. And what else are 00:22:36.619 --> 00:22:38.180 you going to do? You probably got 30, 40 more 00:22:38.180 --> 00:22:42.059 years. So I do come from a very long lived family. 00:22:42.180 --> 00:22:45.000 So that is a factor. You know, I do have another 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:47.119 side to my life where I go straight books, but 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:52.180 I can't scale that. Right. That's very, very 00:22:52.180 --> 00:22:55.700 one to one. And yeah, having a business you can 00:22:55.700 --> 00:22:58.680 scale in this way off your expertise to me is 00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:03.900 just. It was an irresistible opportunity to continue 00:23:03.900 --> 00:23:07.640 to be helpful in the world. And I'm glad that 00:23:07.640 --> 00:23:09.480 you noticed it and you jumped on it. You didn't 00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:12.920 just go, you know, not for me. I've got to play 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:15.539 golf. Thank you for being here today. I'm really 00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:17.519 happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. 00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:20.119 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions 00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:22.759 as these episodes continue to move forward. This 00:23:22.759 --> 00:23:24.660 is going to get more and more fun. We'll have 00:23:24.660 --> 00:23:26.480 more and more engagement as well. We'll invite 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:28.880 people to participate in the show. And thank 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:30.859 you for giving us your time and attention. Have 00:23:30.859 --> 00:23:33.500 an excellent time building out your vision and 00:23:33.500 --> 00:23:34.599 becoming a vision pro yourself.