It’s been a busy old week, this week and I don’t mean socially, although we did go out to Dionysius Taverna on Sunday to meet a friend of Stella’s for dinner. Excellent bean soup and chicken fillet on the grill and a very lively evening it turned out to be!
This week I’ve been neck deep in all the technology for my new course, The Pivot Point. Each stage of the marketing requires a bit of tech or two and while they all do integrate together, you have to know HOW they all fit before you can either hook them up or get an expert to do it for you.
You really need to know your desired outcome and then work BACKWARDS from there, as you can’t put up an optin page for example, without a thank you page, because your email list host will require the thank you page URL first.
This course is aimed at existing business owners, authors, experts and consultants, walking them through the 6 key steps needed to creating a largely automated online business from their expertise or social media following. I will be educating them about the bits of tech you can use, from free / cheap to paid, but I certainly won’t be showing them HOW to do it themselves, but rather, where they can get it done!
I’m actually using those 6 steps to create and launch my new course myself, so that I’ll have social proof for the first students to be able to buy with relative confidence (although their own success, as always, depends very much on their niche and ability to take action).
The course is launching in late January, being delivered with live webinar tuition on Tuesdays and Live Q&A sessions on Thursdays with forum / app based support in between.
Along with the fairly simple tech for the marketing & course itself comes the tech for a new forum based membership site and I’m also launching my own app in January, which I’m very excited about. I’m taking care of the first myself, while outsourcing the latter two to the experts.
It’s a fairly big investment in both time and money but it will be worth it to set things up properly, as this course will form the basis for my coaching / mentoring business going forwards.
Hanging Your Arse Out In Public
It’s also really scary because I’m documenting the journey of creating and launching the course over at my blog here. This process is known as “hanging your arse out in public” in my internet marketing world.
In spite of the fact I’m running a “deep dive survey” to get really clear on the challenges of my ideal client and I know that my 6 steps will cover most of the “business marketing” challenges, I really have no idea how it’s going to go on the sales front. I could sell 100 places, I could sell zero places, or anything in between.
If it “fails” it will be very public but I’ll simply dust myself off and carry on, documenting what I do to turn things around on the blog. Failure is not an option, long term.
Along with my new commitment to daily week-day accountability blogs, I’m also keeping up with the podcast Own It! and I’m doing my own social media at the moment. Gotta be honest though, this blog post, due last Thursday, took a hit. It’s Monday today and Sarah’s post is also due out today!
Christmas Abroad
On the personal front, we’ve largely avoided the C-Word although the decorations are up in Katerina’s. The Xmas ads are starting to get to me, especially when watching the X-Factor, a programme whose “hero’s journey” format never fails to make me blub. The final of the X-Factor last night was an emotional event, with all three finalists being worthy of their place and the best man – Matt Terry – won, even though runner-up Finn Saara Aalto won most of our hearts too with her sheer jolliness.
While I miss them, I get a twice weekly dose of my daughter Phoebe, who is keeping up with her makeup review and makeup tuition videos on YouTube. She and Nelson are very busy right now, what with the new management takeover at the gastro pub they both work at – and it’s Christmas too. Busy time for anyone in hospitality and Phoebe particularly says she is already “so over Turkey”! She works in the restaurant where they are hosting works Xmas parties of up to 40 or so. Good grief!
Missing our kids is one of the toughest things about being out here for 6 months, although it sure makes it easier to concentrate 100% on work and getting this new course up and running! However, all four of our offspring are busy with their own lives and work, so when I go home, I want to be recovered enough from Steve’s death that I can concentrate on building a new social life of my own.
What Next?
Sarah and I have been talking about what happens after April 15th which is when we leave here.
While Sarah is more used to moving about, having been house-sitting for the last couple of years, I was having a few scarce and fearful moments yesterday about being effectively homeless, although not without resources.
We eventually arrived at a game plan, which is that I’ll build a calendar of events around the world, that I’d like to go to, then plan my year around that. I’ll then be popping back to the UK when I can, to see the kids and hopefully they will come to join me too, perhaps for long weekends when I’m in more accessible places.
I’m determined to see this digital nomad thing through for at least a year, before I decide whether I’m going to live in Europe, go back to Shoreham or going to live in Brighton when I go back for good.
it’s uncomfortable, not knowing, but I’m learning to live with discomfort, both mental and physical (to some degree), as the temperatures drop further in the evenings (although we have had some gloriously sunny days here, t-shirt weather in the daytimes at least).
We had to have a second wood delivery last week, as you may know, and we are getting through it!
I reckon a delivery a month (150 euros) will see us through to April.
And I shall be ordering an electric blanket too!
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