Welcome to my July 2017 Monthly Income Report. Thanks for checking it out!
Each month, I write a detailed report about my online businesses, including what I’ve been up to, the lessons I’ve learned, and, of course, the money I’ve earned online. I’ve been publishing these reports since October 2008, so make sure you check out the income reports page if you’d like to go back in time and check out the complete history.
Income Summary
- Last month: $184,094.67
- This month: $321,642.86
- Last 12 months: $2,011,364.31
Expenses Summary
- Last month: $66,972.24
- This month: $78,015.53
- Last 12 months: $595,428.52
Net Profit Summary
- Last month: $117,122.43
- This month: $243,627.33
- Last 12 months: $1,415,935.79
For the complete breakdown of income and expenses, visit the full report here »
Note: Items with an empty difference percentage were not present on the previous month’s income report.
It Blows My Mind
In a single week, to gross nearly a quarter of a million dollars absolutely blows my mind! I’m incredibly thankful to all of the new students who trusted me and enrolled in Power-Up Podcasting during this recent enrollment period. Thank you!
One thing I really wanted to do during this launch was make sure that the first impression new students had was one of amazement. As soon as they made their purchase, I wanted to ensure that they knew they were in good hands.
A Couple of Things Went Into This:
First, the normal onboarding experience was fine-tuned and looked over by most of the members of my team to make sure all of the emails, messages, and timing of everything made sense. We wanted to make sure students had a great experience starting the moment they clicked that purchase button. This is standard, and should be standard everywhere.
Second (and what was really exciting to me!), is that I was test driving a brand new piece of software I was recently introduced to from the guys over at ConvertKit, the email service provider I recommend and am also a paid affiliate for.
Since I have some access to the behind-the-scenes at ConvertKit, it was brought to my attention that they were using an app called Bonjoro to welcome new customers to their eco-system. When I learned exactly what Bonjoro did, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and use it for my new customers.
Here’s how Bonjoro works: After signing up, you can integrate it with anything, from your email service provider to your payment processor, and have the app notify you when a new customer (or even new email subscriber) comes on board. I was using it specifically to get notified about new students for Power-Up Podcasting.
When a new student signs up, I’m notified on my iPhone. When I open up the Bonjoro app, I’m presented with a video recording interface where I can record a short personalized video to welcome that new student into the course, and let them know my team and I are here for support. After adding in a quick text message to go along with it (e.g., Thanks John!), I hit a button to send them an email with the video inside. Boom. That’s it.
I’ve created a unique, personalized video for each new student of the course, and although it did take a bit of time (thirty seconds per video, plus a few extra seconds to hit send for each of the 400-plus students), it was absolutely worth it. The responses have been off the charts!
ConvertKit told me this helped reduce their churn (the number of people who close their subscription) by sixteen percent, and so I knew this would make a great first impression with new students of my course. I just didn’t realize how much of an impact it would make.
Over half of the videos I sent out earned a response back from the person. Here are a few of the amazing responses:
- “Thanks, it was awesome to hear from you!”
- “OMG, you sent me a video I can’t believe it!”
- “Thanks, now I know I’m in the right place.”
Little touch points like this are so important. The least you can do for a new customer, especially one who invests money in you and your program, is offer them something personalized to let them know you’re there for them, and hopefully different than the rest.
I’m always looking for ways to add this kind of personal touch to the experience my students have in my courses, and I’m thankful to have found Bonjoro just a couple of weeks before the launch of Power-Up Podcasting.
If you’re interested in checking out Bonjoro for yourself, please do so. It’s a game-changer. I’m not an advisor for this company, but I am now an affiliate, and if you’d like to check it out now, click here to get started. [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]
There Will Always Be People Who Want “Higher Touch”
People have been asking me for a course like Power-Up Podcasting for years, but I was always reluctant to offer it because I didn’t think it was necessary. I had a lot of amazing free content related to podcasting that helped people through the process, and I always referred them to other courses instead for more higher-level learning (those courses are fantastic and I still highly recommend them if my style of teaching isn’t for you).
After getting a nudge from Chalene Johnson back in March, and then the same from several other colleagues after sharing the idea, I’ve since been incredibly grateful that I finally took the time to put something like this together and launch it. Hundreds of students have already found success with the course, and I’m already receiving really thoughtful handwritten thank you notes from students about how the course has changed their lives.
Handwritten notes have been an indicator that I’ve been doing something right ever since I started my first online business.
Even though this course has been successful already, and will be opened up again very soon (click here to join the waitlist!), I’ve still been receiving a number of emails and messages from both existing students in the course and those who did not enroll, asking for something more.
Will I provide more higher-level training?
A number of people have asked me if I would ever hold a workshop to teach this material in a much shorter time period. I’ve noticed this is something that people like Michael Hyatt have offered, and I’m definitely willing to experiment with this and give it a shot. Some people just don’t have the time or patience to go through a self-driven course, and would much rather have it all packed into a weekend.
So here’s what I’m going to do.
I’m going to “Will It Fly?” this just to see if people are even interested in the idea.
I’m planning to host a two-day intensive called the Power-Up Podcasting Fast-Track Workshop for those who want more intense training to help you get everything setup for your new podcast. The idea would be to fast-track through the course material in two days, so that by the end of it all you need to do is go home and record, and everything else would be setup up for you.
Plus, doing this live presents some cool opportunities to do things like live voice training, breathing exercises, live interview training, and more.
If it doesn’t sell, then I know it’s not something people actually want. If it does sell, you can be sure I’ll be there to make it the best experience possible, and I’ll hopefully be able to do more of these later on—not just for this podcasting material, but other material that may come out in the future.
I’ve already begun promoting this to the existing course students, as well as those who had expressed interest in starting a show but haven’t started the course yet. We’ll see how it goes!
And in case you’re interested, here’s the sales page for the workshop. If the workshop sells out, I’ll be collecting names for a waitlist for the workshop specifically on that page, and potentially open up new dates in the future.
What an amazing month! Thank you all for your amazing support, and I look forward to sharing more inner workings of SPI and my online businesses with you soon. Cheers!