66: Elizabeth Goddard: How Her Journey Led to a 100K Launch
My guest today is Elizabeth Goddard. Elizabeth is an online business strategist / course creator / email marketing nerd / tech geek / affiliate marketing lover / multi-offer enthusiast / mindset magician / could-keep-going-but-you-get-the-gist. When she’s not supporting online business owners to have more fun, make things easier for themselves and implement faster, you can probably find her watching trashy TV and answering questions on Facebook.
Episode Highlights
How her college experience shaped her ability to lead, work with teams, create projects and become a successful entrepreneur
Elizabeth started using ConvertKit and became the first ConvertKit Certified Expert
Taking action she went from Virtual Assistant to Online Course Creator with her first 10K Online Course Launch to 100K Online Course Launch
In this episode, Elizabeth shares her inspiring story of her early beginnings: from her college days that helped shape her ability to lead, work in groups, create projects, to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Learn how she started using Convert Kits to find her audience and then became the first ConvertKit certified expert. By refining her content, she mastered the art of creating a fun filled business, turning it into a profitable, repeatable process.
Tune into this episode to see how she increased her revenue significantly by creating a higher ticket, six month group coaching program which resulted in a 100K launch.
Mentioned In This Episode
Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And today my special guest is live. Elizabeth Goddard. Elizabeth is an online business strategist course creator and e-mail marketing nerd, techie affiliate marketing lover, multi-offer enthusiast mindset, magician, keep going on, but you got to get the gist when she's not supporting all my business owners to have more fun, make things easier for themselves and implement faster. You can probably be fun. Her watching trashy TV and answering questions on Facebook. Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining me. I'm super excited for our conversation here today.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really looking forward to
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That. So why don't you take a few minutes and walk the audience through your entrepreneur journey and how you got to where you are today?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
So like many online business owners, it's quite a long and twisty journey. The very abbreviated version is I graduated university in 2011 with a theology degree of all things. And I then was elected to be education officer in my students union, which is a full time paid sabbatical role. Running, like being a trustee of this multi no it's not multi-million million pound organization. I was like 21 at the time. So I was four. I had grand ideas of my level, far beyond what I should have done. So I finished that year and I was really ill. So I have had chronic fatigue syndrome since I was 16. And over the course of that year, I also developed fibromyalgia, which is a form of chronic pain. And I was just really ill. So I signed up for a master's because being a student was like, all I knew at that point.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And then I dropped out of a masters and I kind of was pretty much housebound at that point. Like I maybe went out once or twice a week and that was incredibly exhausting. And some point in this time I had had a friend at university who had a, had a blog about lifestyle design and she had this email list and she'd email once a week. And this was just like such a foreign world to me. But I, I was curious and I asked her, cause here were all these people in this lifestyle design world, like seemingly making money from their laptops all around the world. Like what I now know, like digital nomads. And I just looked at this and I was just, this is very interesting because I don't want to travel the world, but if I could make money on my laptop from my bed, that would be amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So I reached out to her and she sort of like, it was kind of like my gateway into the online business world. Shortly after that, I set up a business called the pillow fort, which was for young people with chronic illness that was selling physical products, digital magazine, a Facebook community. It was really good, but I wasn't going to make enough money to live off almost on that. If there's any audience that doesn't have any money, it's young people with chronic illnesses. And so then I went to my lifelong plan B my health was doing a little better at that point. And I decided to train as a math teacher because I've always liked math. It was just this weird thing that I did a theology degree and it was going to be fully funded. And it was about six months before the teacher training course started that I kind of like had to kill.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
So I, I was quite in the online business world at this point, I'd done quite a lot of courses and programs and I was fairly well networked and I looked at my skillset and I was just like, Oh, I'm going to be a VA for six months. I'm going to be a virtual assistant for six months. I started my price is fairly low. And because I was well connected and kind of like well-networked within days of like announcing this and setting up my website, I was getting clients and I was able to fairly quickly increase my rates. I got near fully booked. And it was just the most magical thing that I was getting paid to faff around on the internet all day, which is exactly what I have been doing before. But now I was getting paid for it. So I didn't end up taking up my math teacher training course.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And I, I joke I'm the only person who became like a permanent VA. Like I feel like everyone starts as a VA and then quickly transitions into something else, but I'm like, no, I'm a temporary VA. And then I made that more permanent. So that was 2015. I became a VA and that started making decent money fairly quickly by decent, I mean a thousand or two a month, but that was, I had been living on disability benefits at that point. So that was great. Then 2016, I started using convert kits and I became one of the first for ConvertKit certified experts. And I really started leaning into focusing on convert kit work. So I was still a VA, but like I become more of a tech VA and my specialism was convert kits. I launched my membership ConvertKit club in mid 2016, and that started bringing in a little money.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Then in 2017 I launched a group program called convert kit rockstars, and that was a real, real turning point for me. So that was, that was the launch of ConvertKit rockstars was my first 10 K month. Before I think my biggest month had been 5k something. So this was a huge jump. And the later half of 2017, I started creating more courses and trainings on like a variety of online businessy things. 2018 was really quite a limbo year for me. So I was still doing VA work. I had ongoing VA clients and I was offering convert kit migrations, various done for you services. But I was also starting to create more courses, paid like trainings, group programs, that kind of thing. So I was really in that limo 2019. My wife, most of that year was spent with my wife and I adopting our two little girls who were five months and 17 months when they came to us.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And the, the adoption was very hard for a number of reasons. So the second half of 2019 was incredibly hard. If I'm honest, it's all a bit of a blur. And 2020, I kind of hit my groove with selling my courses on webinars and kind of like, like staying up late, blitzing a project, and then kind of like collapsing in the heat. So having two toddlers in a pandemic is absolutely no joke, but I had my first 10K launch in 2020 and towards the middle of 2020 due to the pandemic. But actually I think it was a blessing in disguise in some way, I stopped doing all calls, all done for your client work. I let all my remaining VA clients go. And I kind of like from now on I'm creating courses, I'm selling trainings and doing some affiliate marketing. And in August last year I launched the profitable playground, which is my six month group coaching program, which is kind of like a combination of the things that I had created up to that point. And that launch was my first hundred K launch, which was very exciting. And yeah, I'm still like that program still going. I've still got all my courses and such, and here we are today.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You have given us so much to dig into and unpack here. And I have to tell the audience too, that one of the reasons why I reached out to you and I actually approached you to be on our series here is because you had posted basically a blog post about your, your year 2020. And it was to me you know, as I read through it, you were so open and honest and vulnerable and kind of listing everything that has gone on with you in your business and in your life. So but, but first question I have, cause it really threw me for a loop is you said that you graduated with a theology degree and that is like when you go into like the ministry, correct.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Not in the UK. So, I mean, there are theology degrees that do lead into the ministry. But my theology degree was done at a secular university and it, I mean, I could do things that potentially would lead into the ministry, but I'm not Christian or religious myself. It was more how of interest, which I know sounds very strange. But no, it wasn't, it wasn't leading towards ministry.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Okay. So you, you basically, you, so were, where did you plan to take that? I'm just curious.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So I come from a very math science family and it was always assumed I would do maths, maybe physics for my degree. And I, like, I came from a family where it was kind of like inevitable that I would go to university. And everyone just assumed it'd be maths physics. And I'd always loved religious studies at school. Like I'd always found that really interesting as a subject. And I, I, I kept doing them. So in the UK we have GCCS and we have a levels, not sure what the equivalent is, but I always was doing the math science subjects, but I also kept holding onto religious studies. And I remember when I was probably like, I dunno, like 14 joking, Oh my gosh, at this rate, I'm going to do it from GCSE. Then I'm going to do it for a level.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
And then like, I might do it for a degree, imagine that, and it was just this really funny idea. But it was just what I was interested in. And I, I grew up kinda like almost knowing I, I had to go to university, obviously didn't have to go to university, but that was an expectation on me. And I figured if I'm gonna have to go to university, I might at least do something that's very interesting for me. And I chose theology and I, I really enjoyed my degree, but also I didn't have a plan for what I was going to do with life after I had a degree and what actually happened because I found my degree. There weren't, there were many lectures and classes like it didn't take me that much time and air quotes. So I got very, very involved in student politics, the students union both my university level and like the national student level, very, very involved, particularly in the, the women's campaign, women's feminist organizations, but also the LGBTQ campaign and organizations, local and national. And I just learned so much from that experience in terms of leadership and working with teams and creating projects and activism and all sorts of things like that, which that's kind of like what I got out of university and I, and I have a degree and that's great, but I knew going into it. I wasn't gonna use that degree necessarily.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
And I love that. And I love the fact that you realized or it, and this is probably a good message for a lot of people out there just because you go to school for something doesn't doesn't mean that you have to, you know, work in that or stay in that. I certainly didn't. So
Speaker 2 (13:58):
A Theology degree, like I can write an excellent essay. I can argue a point very well. I can engage with philosophical ideas. So it was like a classic arts degree in many ways, in terms of it being about thinking and articulating and researching. And those are such transferable useful skills to have, even if it's not in that direct subject.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I love that. And I, you know, I, and I liked the story that you gave us in terms of, you know, you started out as a, a VA then kind of moved into and we're known in the industry. And I think quite frankly, this is how I originally found out about you was related convert kit. Cause I think, yeah, I think a friend of mine, she was either in your membership or she knew about you and I had migrated to convert kit and I was trying to learn, you know, some things about you. And I think that's how I originally found out about you. So I love kind of how you had all those twists and turns there. And now I want to ask you something about you mentioned in, you know, 2019, your wife and you, you adopted two children and I can only imagine how difficult it was, kind of keeping your business running and going through that adoption process, because I know people who have adopted in our family not me personally, but in our family. And it it's a lot to go through that.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
It is, it is, it was the process itself. Wasn't too bad. I think we were really prepared for a very, very intense process and it actually wasn't too bad or too stretching on our attention or whatever. But right before our girls came to live with us, we have to go to this, it's called a matching panel and where we have to go to a panel and kind of like they have to agree that this is a good match, that these kids are good for us as parents and vice versa. And that for various reasons was an incredibly stressful burging on traumatic, horrible experience, which resulted in an internal investigation. Lots of apologies. Like it, it was, it was awful and that kind of like cast a very So in the blog post, I wrote about last year, June, July, I'd just merged together.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
It, it was just such a blur. It was so dark. It was so heavy. The girls came to live with us at the start of July. My dad passed away at the end of July and it was just the most, like we knew adopting two babies effectively was going to be jumping in the deep end. Like we knew that, but for, so the second half of 2019, it felt like we were just flailing around in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. And just most days, I just didn't know if I could swim if I could swim any longer. And like social services were still incredibly involved. We had social worker visits all the time and because like, they just didn't really know what to like do with us because we're a lot younger than the average adopter in the UK. The average adoption in the UK is probably early forties.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
And my wife and I were 28 and 29, they couldn't really understand the, we both worked from home and they do. They just didn't really understand our lifestyle because I think there's so much, they're so used to working with much older people, but whenever they'd come round for all these, all these visits and there's so many visits, they kind of just expected both of us to be stay at home moms because we were both there. And I think because we were both women and I really struggled to convey the, I need to work. I am now the sole provider for a family of four. I need to work. I need to work. And even when I did get pockets of time, like my brain was just mush. Like I always thought mum brain was due to hormones, but it turns out mum brain is not due to hormones.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
It is due to the tiredness that comes with having little kids. And we reached it wasn't breaking point, but it would have reached breaking point at the end of 2019. And into 2020, right at the beginning of 2020 we got diagnosed with post-adoption depression, which is a whole fun thing. And probably the first couple of weeks of March, we just started to do a little bit better as a family. And then we all know what happens. Mid-March 2020, but in many ways the pandemic last year was, I mean, the pandemic is still going in the UK, but it was a blessing in disguise because it meant all the social worker visits stopped. And we were able to just be a family together with no distractions and no interruptions and like figuring it out for a few months. And last year I like 2.5 X my business in terms of revenue. And it w it, it was a long, hard year, last year, but I think that the focus that I felt and kind of like the decisions I made now that the girls were with us. And now that I was in a slightly better head space and they were sleeping slightly better, just allowed me to like step up almost to the next level of my business for myself and my girls, my family. Yeah. Don't know if that was the question, but I was ramble after it.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
No, I, I love all that. And it really just, it amazes me that you were able to accomplish what you were able to accomplish in 2020 when you still had all of that was going on. And one of the things that you mentioned as you were going through your journey is you said in 2020, you kind of hit your groove. Well, in, I think you had done a lot the years to kind of set yourself up for success. So let's just, let's just be real, but 10, 20, 20, can you talk about really what you think the game changers were for you? So it's, I don't, I think it I've been asked this question
Speaker 2 (21:06):
And recently a few times, particularly by my clients. And I think the main thing is I kept going. I just kept going, like every single thing I have ever done since I started as a VA. Good, bad, ugly. All of it has led to this point. And I think so many people decide it's not working or not working the way I want it to. They want it to like too early. So I just kept going and a really big factor last year was I went, so I'd created a lot moving, coming into 29, no coming into 2020. I'd created a lot of trainings, a lot of programs, a lot of things. And I spent a lot of 2020, like going back over the things that are already created and almost like product development, like refining them both in terms of the content itself, but also the like sales process.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
So I might've had a course and then I would create an sales webinar to sell it. And then I would stick that whole lot into an evergreen funnel or something like that. And I just sort of like hit my groove with almost a repeatable process that worked for me. That was, that was really key. And like, no one told me this process. I found it myself through trial and error, but it really works for me. And as I hit that groove, I was able to see for the first time that all these puzzle pieces I had created in my business and I created them just cause I wanted to create a training or a course on it or whatever I could see for the first time that they made up this bigger picture and being able to see that allowed me to create my profitable playground program, which kind of overarches everything, not entirely, but kind of, and creating that higher ticket six month group coaching program and the launch of that going so well contributed a lot to the revenue and success last year. But in, I would say like it was so painful to create a launch that program. It was 10 times the cost of anything I'd really ever sold before. And I had to grow and step into that person and that next level of me, but the, the like the door didn't open to do that until last year, because of all the things I had done up to that point.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
And I will tell you that you're like the third person that I've interviewed this week that has said just it, you know, everything I've done over the years. And I just kept going. That was one of the keys to my success. So I'm happy to hear you say that because I think that's a very powerful message for anybody who's listening today. And they're thinking about giving up because maybe things are just exactly where they thought they would be at this point in their business. Okay. So I want to delve into the profitable playground and I think I've still, I know I'm still on your email list and I think I remember seeing some of this and so I want to dig into this a little bit. So tell us a little bit more about this program and why you decided to launch it and a little bit about your launch process. You said you had a hundred thousand. If I, if I wrote it down correctly, a hundred thousand. Okay. So we got, we have got to get all the details here. So why don't you kind of walk us through some of that?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So the whole premise for the profitable playground is that there are so many people out there teaching create a signature course, create a signature program, have one offer, grow and scale that like, that's the only way to really grow your business and make money. And I have done those exercises where you like, look at the percentage of the 80 20 rule. I've tried to do the 80 20 rule on my business so many times. And the biggest percentage from any single one thing was never more than about 25%. But I had been at six figures for years selling so many different types of things I was doing done for you. I was doing courses trainings. I was doing affiliate marketing, and I knew that it was possible to create a business that feels fun and feels like a creative outlets that you get to create and do all the things you want to create and do in a way that's not totally overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
And just having all those offers. So I kind of say it's for multi passionate people who want to build like big, beautiful, slightly messy multi offer businesses. And I started like whispering this earlier in 2020. And it just really resonated with people. Like, I think so many people have tried the like signature program, signature course roots. And it's just not for them. I'm like, I've never even really tried it because I just, I just can't do it. And I don't think people need to niche down as far as a lot of people say, I don't think most people straight out the gate should be creating signature courses or signature programs. So the program itself is this idea of having fun, experimenting, playing, just creating this ecosystem or playground as I call it of different offers that all work together and support each other and allow your
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Your audience and clients to buy from you again and again and again. And so the like core bit of it, which a lot of my playgrounders has followed, not all of them to be fair is this idea of creating, doing paid live trainings, like low-cost paid live trainings and then turning those into self study courses and then running like group live rounds two to three weeks long off the content. So this, and then you kind of like lay it in flash sales fast launching things, any other income streams you've got. Yeah. And I always say that, like I have worked with so many coaches and mentors and I've done so many programs. I've probably spent over a hundred K on different things over the years at this point. And I always felt like I was too much for my coaches, for my mentors.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
My business was too much for them in terms of, you know, like I would sign up for a program would be working on a course, but I wouldn't ever bring them something that's going on in affiliate marketing that I'm doing or something that's going on with a done for you client. Like they're only really interested in one part of my of my business, but my business from pretty much the very beginning has had all these different things going on. Yeah. And the profitable playground is just a place where you get to be all of you and bring all of your business and all of your ideas. And I passionately believe that you can build a profitable business with lots of different things going on in a way that is sustainable and you don't like get horribly overwhelmed, but yeah. Out. But I think it really resonates with a lot of my audience that it's welcoming of all of them and all of the income streams and all the ideas and getting to play and experiment with that.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
So this is different than a lot of what's being taught in the marketplace. And a lot of what you see. So I love kind of how you're differentiating this and what you're doing there. And I think a lot of people can relate to this. Like they have a lot of things that they want to bring to the world or they they're offering. And so we'll definitely make sure that the link for this, I'm assuming you have some type of waitlist page, we'll make sure that the link for this is out there for folks walk us through your launch strategy and how did you get to a hundred, a hundred thousand dollar launch?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
So in July, 2020, I joined Mariah Coz's high ticket hybrid program. I was already in her accelerator program prior to that. And she's kind of like been my, one of my coaching mentor people for a couple of years. So I joined her and I, and I basically for the most part followed her process. So it is about craft like, ha. So there, there was an application page and people could apply for the program and if they were accepted for the program, then they were invited to a private training. So it's kind of like a webinar, but it, it, it, it was almost like more valuable than that. And then I talked more about what was included in the playground and who it was for on this private training and then they could join from there. And the process Mariah has created in high ticket hybrid is incredible.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
If you want to sell a higher ticket group coaching program. And I just, the process just really worked for me. And I followed it pretty closely, which is quite unusual for me to follow some quite closely, but it was a big investment and I committed to it and I followed it closely. And I, and I ran everything kind of like how she taught and how she does until kind of earlier this year. And now in the last couple of months, I've started to like tweak it a bit in terms of the sales process. And it's not on evergreen anymore. I'm going to open it a few times a year and I've kind of like making it feel more me now. But yeah, that was, that was the process. So there was no sales calls. I chatted to people who had questions on email Voxer Facebook messenger, that kind of thing. And they bought, which I was very, very surprised about. My launch goal was six. I wanted six people to join. My like stretch goal was 10. And then my like huge, could you even imagine goal was 20? And I think by the time we actually started, I think I had almost 30 people in there. And it, I think it, I think it's just the messaging. I think it's quite unlike anything else out there in terms of this positioning to create multi offer businesses whilst having fun and experimenting
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Now the, did you, Oh, did you launched your email list or did you run paid ads or how did you find the people that were interested in this?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
So I launched my email list. I don't think I ran ads to cold. I might've done some ads to warm but not really predominantly it was to my existing list of my audience I had about the month before I had just wrapped just done a live round a three-week live round of my profitable live trainings course. So the momentum from that was extremely high and a lot of people kind of like what's next after that live round and the profitable playground was next. And a lot of them came in off the energy of that course, basically.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
So thank you for sharing that and going into details about that new offer that you put together. Elizabeth, you have you know, you've done a lot with your business over the years. What do you see as next steps going forward? In 2021 or beyond.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
So for me, it's focusing on the profitable playground still. That's going to continue. It's not a signature offer, but it's gonna continue to be, I think like my core offer. I'm always in the process of refining my offers and the content themselves content itself, and like adding to adding to it and updating it, and also the like marketing and sales process for my different offers. So creating new sales webinars for them, putting things into evergreen funnels, that kind of thing. And then, because I feel like a nearly I'm pretty much there having created everything I want to create for now. Like, I feel like my body of work is almost there and now new things I create and sell are either updates to what I've already created or are just fun, little new things that I want to do. And then also growing my audience. So I'm working with a publicity team to get me booked on podcasts, and I'm also hoping to launch my own podcast as a way to grow my audience, share more content, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Oh, fun. It's fun. So have you launched your podcast or are you still in the works of doing that
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Still coming? It's still coming. I taken like a bajillion podcast, launching courses. I'm such a, a researcher. I know exactly how to do it. I just need to sit down and do it, but I'm very kind of like, I don't want to say Scotty, but kind of just like, I work in these very small little bursts for a couple of like, like a week or so, and then the whole thing will be done. And then I'll kind of go through a phase where I just don't really do much for a bit and then I'll get another little burst of energy and do a thing. So at some point in the next few months, I'm hoping the podcast burst comes, but I can't force it. So it'll come when it comes.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
I hear you. And you know, first of all, you're going to be great at it. You're, you're great at, you know, chatting, chatting on the podcast now, but the one thing I love about podcasting is you can take breaks, right? You can just season and take a break and, you know, jump back up in it. So I think you're really gonna like that. My closing question for you is what advice do you have for other online course creators or entrepreneurs out there?
Speaker 2 (37:30):
So like we already said, keep going, everything you're doing now is moving you forward. Even if it doesn't feel like it or look like it. So you will look back and see the journey got you here. And every step of the journey was necessary to get you to the success. And the other thing is don't be afraid to experiment and have fun. Like I always say to my clients, not everything needs to be a strategic business decision. And usually your biggest successes are going to be things that you did just for fun, just because you wanted to, not because someone told you to do that, like that's where your biggest successes are going to come. So keep going and experiment and have fun.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
I love both of those tidbits there. Elizabeth, can you let people know where they can find you?
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yes. So my like podcasty page is elizabethgoddard.co.uk, Facebook@elizabethgoddard.co.uk, And I'm also pretty active on Instagram where I am elizabethgoddard_uk.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
And we will make sure that those links are in the show notes so people can click on them and find you Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining me today. I loved hearing about your story or your journey all the way from getting your theology degree until launching the profitable playground.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Thank you so much for having me. It's been fun. Thanks.