Hi, I’m Tina, Your New Online Course Coach
“I work too many hours in my business and my sales are just unpredictable’ – you’ve heard that one before, right? This is also 100% true for most service-based business owners, I used to say this as well!
Things may seem smooth and easy for me now, but they weren’t always this way, that’s for sure (and I still have a long way to go!)
Not too long ago, I found myself sitting in the middle of a marketing conference in London and thought to myself, “How did I get here?”
Little did I know that this would be the beginning of the end…
It was the end of running a purely service-based company. For good.
I was listening to one of the speaker’s talks… and guess what, she was talking about the oh so common entrepreneurial burnout, which you may or may not have gone through yourself.
Just a few days ago, I just flew in from Bali, feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and confused. 😖
I had been working like a crazy person on a few different projects over the last 4 years on the island of gods (Bali)…
Countless hours have been poured into a few businesses, a luxury your company, a local directory (digital book) and a few real estate projects.
Day in and day out I made new partnerships with the best hotels, got to sign the best deals and contracts, interviewed dozens of tour guides, took them on trial trips… Hired some and fired many…(wait, what?!)
A few years prior to moving to Bali full-time, I built a smaller tour company in London.
Which turned out to be a piece of cake compared to starting a tour company (on your own) in a third world country (where people have a completely different set of values).
This particular year has been my craziest year in business, ever.
We put in maximum efforts and got minimal results. It was like the 80/20 rule, except it was the other way around, and the numbers slightly deferred, like 99% effort and 1% results. Ouch, yes! 🤦♀️
When running a service-based business, specifically in the tourism industry, sales and operations aren’t highly predictable and have a lot of deciding factors to them which I don’t have control over, e.g. volcanic eruptions, tsunami warnings, bad media news, etc.
Here are just a few things that happened during that crazy year before I decided to change everything:
- A villa where some other clients of ours stayed in nearly burned down. There was a huge fire 300 meters down the road and the wind blew in the direction of where my clients were staying.
The roof of their villa caught fire and 13 people could have died if the neighbours didn’t react fast and rushed over to help put out the fire. 🔥
- My company got threatened by a crazy entrepreneur who thought he could make us responsible and sue us because the water level of that river was low (they went on a rafting trip with us, everyone enjoyed it apart from him and he wanted to make us responsible for ‘the water level being too low’). True story. 🌊
It was my first time dealing with that kind of thread. I was definitely shocked and overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. He demanded a full refund of entire multiple day trips for over 30 people. All suppliers had already been paid.
It all seemed very bizarre to me, the entire group enjoyed the trip and we even had VIDEO TESTIMONIALS from the CEO herself and a few fellow employees how much they enjoyed the trip.
I later found out the real reasons why he flipped (his best friend died in a waterfall just a few days before the group came on our trip). Those were of course sad news which made me understand where he was coming from…
He sent a few more threatening emails and I never heard from him again.
Understanding that situation better made me feel much more at ease and we kept working until…
- I nearly died while being on a fam trip (a fam trip is a trip where travel agents go on to check out if the product would be a good fit to sell to their clients).
We went on a 9-day ‘liveaboard’ scuba dive trip from the Gili Islands to Flores (Indonesia). On day three, we stopped on an island called ‘Banta Island’ to go for our first dive of the day. (If you are ever going this direction, make sure to never stop at this island!) 🧜🏼♀️
The instructor even mentioned during the briefing that ‘this is a very dangerous dive side’ and ‘that a few people here got in trouble before and simply died’.
There couldn’t be more red flags popping up, but I knew the two owners of the company (two English guys I had worked with 10 years prior in a scuba dive school on Gili Trawangan), and for some reason, I thought “Oh, surely they wouldn’t let us go dive here if they didn’t know what they were doing.”.
I have never been more wrong in my entire life than I was on that day.
We went down 32 meters, the instructor ‘checked the current’ and gave us the green light to go around the wall (it was a wall dive). The second I reached the point where we were meant to take a different direction, the current caught me, pulled me up and down. It was just like being ripped apart in a washing machine.
I lost my goggles, the current was so strong that it ripped off my regulator and I couldn’t breathe anymore. I now started to get really scared.
But I remembered one thing – DO NOT SHOOT UP TO THE SURFACE, because if you do, many bad things can happen to your body, e.g. your lungs can explode, as they are just like a balloon underwater.
I was holding on to the reef with my bare hands, fighting for my life, trying to not shoot up to the surface. There was blood everywhere, my hands were cut open. Corals are sharp!
I don’t remember for how long this was going. I turned to my left, I saw Bernd right behind me, one of my dive buddies.
Once I saw the fear in his eyes, I realised that this was the end of my life.
With my desperate eyes covered in fear, I tried to tell him and begged him to help me.
Bernd was holding on to the reef with his metal hook (lucky him!) but he couldn’t move to help me, otherwise, he would be in trouble too.
I finally gave up. I closed my eyes. I was ready to die. Shot up to the surface from 32 meters depth.
At some point, I woke up.
I have no idea how long I was out for, but this guy with the boat found me and brought me back to the bigger boat. 🚣🏾
A long journey of ongoing recovery started, I will save you the details for another time…
It was July, summertime in London. The sun was actually out.
When Ester finished her talk about burnouts, that was the moment when it hit me hard.
I realised I was in the middle of one. Right there and then, in the middle of the conference room.
My world started to shatter into a million pieces. I couldn’t hear properly, I couldn’t digest information anymore. I was 100% burned out and traumatised.
I looked to my left… and I looked to my right… and I saw dozens of my friends being successful in running their businesses online…
And just two years earlier, that was me too…
I had a successful digital product business too…
Why the heck did I choose to go the crazy route? Why the heck did I go back to a service-based business?
This was a business that had made me 5 figures in 2 months only, without me even having a brand or any social media followers- nor any social proof.
No crazy clients. No unreliable staff. No death threatening situations for anyone.
While sitting in that conference room in London, that’s when I realised that I never wanted to trade time for money ever again.
And I already proved it to myself that I can do it. So the answer is pretty simple.
The lessons which I learned from running both businesses (digital product business and service-based business) are that in a services-based business there are too many variables which can go wrong. 🔥🌊 🧟♀️
It is really hard to scale, there are always many more people involved who have different opinions, values and ethics…which will dedicate their actions.
In a services-based business, you work your butt off. Versus owning a digital product-based business (or making your business partially digital product based) will give you so much more peace of mind, it’s so much less hustle, it’s less dangerous, it’s scalable (hello, the sky truly is the limit here!) and it can even make you money while you sleep.
😴
My epiphany was that I needed to have more digital products which can support my values and my life vision (freedom & growth are my deepest core values).
And that is NOT what my current service-based business was giving me- at all. Does this sound familiar to you?
The point I am trying to make here is that in a service-based business, where lots of variables are involved, you just never know what happens and you must prepare for the worst.
With owning a knowledge-based business, or simply adding a few digital (amazing!) courses to your product suite, you can predict income a lot better and have that extra peace of mind. 😀
The corona crisis has put so many people out of jobs or forced people to pivot businesses- and many have done so successfully.
Many businesses have moved online and are even making more bank than ever before.
Yoga studios for example have moved their classes online and are making more money than they ever did before, simply because they can sell as many tickets as they want.
Zoom rooms don’t have any restrictions – physical rooms can only take on so many people.
When I created one of my first digital products, I made more money in 2 months than I made the entire year through the travel company (in profits).
And I did this all by focusing on ONE thing…
Selling my knowledge the right way!
We created it once and then got paid for it over and over again.
I just knew, once I recovered from my experiences, that what I showed people worked and I want to share it with many more. So I became an online course coach.
But what caught me off guard was how helping people get what they want in life actually changed the quality of my own life.
In fact, my students get results, and that’s what makes me happy.
This is an example of one of my “From Idea to Course” students made his investment in me back 8x when launching his online course for the first time.
Through my online business, I’ve been able to travel around the world and meet cool people from all continents.
But the REAL hidden benefit has been the fulfilment I get when I see someone else change his or her life.
Everything feels so much easier and in alignment if the customer sees and experiences the massive benefits you are creating for them.
And that is what this business really is about for me. I’m guessing if you are here, then it’s probably the same thing for you too- am I right?
Do you want to make a larger impact on a larger number of people?
Do you want to work less but scale at the same time?
Do you want to be location independent?
Do you want to stop worrying about the next paycheck?
Read on.
But now you may think “oh she already had an existing following and that’s what made her successful’. Wrong. I started off with 0. I did not have an exciting following who was specifically interested in eating delicious food in Bali when I launched my ebook.
I didn’t even have a ‘first edition’ to prove previous years’ download numbers, as this book WAS my first edition. Yet, I made 5 figures within the first 2 months of setting up a BRAND NEW product, audience, and social accounts. Sounds too good to be true? I will give you some more.
I also was able to eat for free and get free spa treatments for an ENTIRE YEAR in all of the participating restaurants and bring my friends too. Sounds too good to be true, too? Hey, I wasn’t even able to use ‘all my credits’ over the year – even my belly gets full at some point! Everyone on the island knew me and everyone wanted me to attend their events.
It was a truly amazing experience and by far one of the favourite projects I have ever created. But this project was just the beginning of something so much bigger for me. I got to experience the power of social media, the power of being an influencer and most and foremost, the power of having your own digital product.
Long gone are the days of working your ass off for 18 hours a day and not knowing if your efforts result in sales or not.
Once you have created your own digital product, you will have a lot more security in your life, you can predict sales a lot better, you have more time for friends and family and you can serve a much much broader number of people with your expertise.
It will change your life drastically and you will be a much happier person overall, knowing you can sleep while you make money too (and don’t you forget, help other people with your content!).
Now, you may have noticed that there are heaps of scammers out there who try to sell their programs and online courses to you which will then teach you how to create a ‘passive income’ for yourself.
Newsflash! There is no passive income. You gotta work for your bug, constantly. Even if it’s a book, a course or a membership site.
Sadly, the only way those scammers support themselves is through trying to sell their low-quality products to you. As most of them have figured out along the way what they were doing didn’t work, and that this is the only way they can make a quick bug for themselves.
When I made my first five figures through Instagram alone, I knew there was no going back, I had figured it out.
And congratulations to you, you have landed in the right corner of the internet to learn about how you can do the same.
Because I have made my money on Instagram & online in general, without selling low-quality products to my audience, but focused on providing constant value and because I had built a business around my online presence AFTER I have walked the talk, I want to help you to achieve the same.
It will not be 100% passive, but I promise you, we will put in the major work once and create a sustainable system around your new digital product, so you can have more freedom and time in your life to dedicate to your family and friends, and even, if you would like, you can live and work from anywhere. *she said sipping on her coconut*
I will walk you through my HERO method, a method which I have figured out to be the best method to follow, if you are ready to make more money in your life, want that pressure off your shoulders of needing to work endless hours and not spending enough time with your family, friends or even with yourself.
The HERO Method stands for:
H.elpful
E.fficient
R.ecurring
O.n Going
This is the only method which stands out amongst the online scammers out there, as we will be focussing on developing a product for you which is actually helpful for people so they will actually buy from you.
It’s set up for you in an efficient way (so you avoid being overworked), it will bring you recurring revenue on an ongoing basis.
We will be developing a system for you which makes your workload and your entire business efficiently.
We will create a recurring revenue stream to your business model while making sure everything is and stays aligned throughout with your vision and mission while building up your celebrity status in your niche.
I know already this resonates massively with you, so, I am asking you, are you ready to monetize your presence like a boss? Well, let’s get to work!
Oh, and one thing you probably should know about me: I am German. We don’t fiddle about, we get things done and we get results for our clients.
