Level Up Your Course Podcast with Janelle Allen: Create Online Courses that Change Lives

LUYC 122: Teaching Rent 2 Rent Success with Stephanie Taylor

Episode Summary

and HMO Heaven and creator of Rent 2 Rent Success Kickstarter. For your business to grow, you have to grow – dream bigger, be bolder, and be a game changer. Being a property investor, Stephanie believes in creating value for everyone she works with: tenants, landlords, investors, and partners. Her online course, Rent 2 Rent Success Kickstarter, helps people create and grow a profitable rent-to-rent business -- fast and stress free. With her system, you can kickstart your property business in no time, and with minimal experience. Tune in to hear Stephanie’s story, her marketing tips, and how to have the right mindset for success. Episode Quotes "You can presell your course. All you just need to do is be transparent about it." "In creating a course, just do it." "For your business to grow, you have to grow." "All you have to do to start is connect with people." "Our vision going forward is dream bigger, be bolder, and be a game changer." Listen to Learn 00:40 - Rapid 5 Questions, Stephanie's entrepreneurial journey 09:43 - What is rent-to-rent? 12:51 - How Stephanie created Rent 2 Rent Kickstarter 18:20 - Preselling and course goal 24:32 - Lessons learned and stuck zones 30:46 - Marketing funnels and channels, plus YouTube and Facebook tips 35:58 - DIY vs. hiring a coach 38:38 - Why mindset is vital for success 43:33 - Online course essentials to get you started 48:14 - Exciting things coming up from Stephanie

Episode Notes

Hey everybody! This week, I’m joined by Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of Rent 2 Rent Success and HMO Heaven and creator of Rent 2 Rent Success Kickstarter. 

For your business to grow, you have to grow – dream bigger, be bolder, and be a game changer.

Being a property investor, Stephanie believes in creating value for everyone she works with: tenants, landlords, investors, and partners. Her online course, Rent 2 Rent Success Kickstarter, helps people create and grow a profitable rent-to-rent business -- fast and stress free. With her system, you can kickstart your property business in no time, and with minimal experience. 

Tune in to hear Stephanie’s story, her marketing tips, and how to have the right mindset for success. 

 

Episode Quotes

"You can presell your course. All you just need to do is be transparent about it."

"In creating a course, just do it."

"For your business to grow, you have to grow."

"All you have to do to start is connect with people."

"Our vision going forward is dream bigger, be bolder, and be a game changer."

 

Listen to Learn

00:40 - Rapid 5 Questions, Stephanie's entrepreneurial journey 

09:43 - What is rent-to-rent?

12:51 - How Stephanie created Rent 2 Rent Kickstarter 

18:20 - Preselling and course goal

24:32 - Lessons learned and stuck zones

30:46 - Marketing funnels and channels, plus YouTube and Facebook tips

35:58 - DIY vs. hiring a coach

38:38 - Why mindset is vital for success 

43:33 - Online course essentials to get you started 

48:14 - Exciting things coming up from Stephanie

 

Connect with Stephanie:

Rent 2 Rent Success

Get the Rent 2 Rent Guide

See Stephanie over on YouTube

Join the Rent 2 Rent Success Community

HMO Heaven

 

Looking for the Transcript?

Episode 122

Episode Transcription

Stephanie Taylor: I don't know where you just feel like oh my god, people are looking at me. So people are looking at me. People are looking to me and I'm not the person. I'm not the person. It's not me. It was so emotional. Writing the course, doing the videos for the course. I had times where I would just be recording the videos and start crying like, "I don't like my face!"

Janelle Allen: Welcome to Level Up Your Course, where we pull back the curtain on what it takes to create learning that transforms lives. You will hear stories from business owners like you who share their success and their struggles. This is not where you come to hear passive income myths, friends. This is where you learn the truth about building a profit. learning platform. I am your host, Janelle Allen. And this is today's episode.

Hey family, it's Janelle, I just wanted to come on really quickly to give you a heads up about something. If you're a longtime listener of the show, you know that there is one question that I ask every guest and it is a popular question. That is, how would they prepare for the zombie apocalypse? And I realized that that question might hit a little too close to home for a lot of us right now. So if you think that that question might trigger some things, you might want to fast forward because it is asked in this episode. The episode was recorded before the Coronavirus situation hit. So just wanted to give you a heads up. Let's get back into it.

What's up everyone? today I am speaking with Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of Rent 2 Rent Success and an online course creator, which is why she's on the show to talk about her course and her business. Stephanie, welcome to the show.

ST: Hi Janelle, it's amazing to be here.

JA: I'm really excited to chat with you. We've been talking you know, outside of this interview, we've been talking. And you know, I want to get into what you do and your story, which I've already shared with you, is just so inspiring. But before we jump into the good stuff, we've got a tradition on the show called The Rapid Fivhttps://youtu.be/L3zLDGkEwL8e, five quick questions to help listeners get to know you. Are you ready?

ST: I'm ready.

JA: Okay, number one is easy. What did you have for breakfast?

ST: It's very easy for me because I have the same thing nearly every day and I love it every single day. Porridge. But that's not it, Janelle. I put a little bit of salt in there, grinder salt. And then I add a bit of grande cinnamon. And then I have, on top, raspberries and blueberries.

JA: Okay, okay, I'm feeling some alignment here and a little bit of chills because I have oatmeal. My breakfast of the past couple of months has been oatmeal with a little cinnamon, a little bit of salt, some almond butter, and some some apples on the top. So I don't know what -- maybe we're living in a parallel universe but -- yeah, the the almond butter is the secret to porridge in your case, oatmeal in mine. I had some in Maine and it just sets everything off. It was just amazing. Thank you to the listeners for indulging us and talking about porridge for a couple of minutes. I love it. All right. Number two, what is the last rule that you broke?

ST: Oh my gosh, that's -- I don't know. I am, in general, a rule breaker because I think I think to myself, well, is that really necessary? And most of the time it's not but you need the rules so that there's not thousands of people doing something wrong, but if one person -- but now I'm probably closing out on the key, but I can't think of an example because I'm on the podcast.

JA: Oh no! Well, if it comes back to you please let us know. I love that question because it just kind of gives me a little sneak inside your mind. But we'll skip to one of the listeners favorite questions, which is this. It's a very serious question. The zombie apocalypse has hit, Stephanie. You have six minutes to grab three essential items, not people, just items to get you through. What do you grab?

ST: Ah, Janelle, this is the question I was prepared for... I wasn't prepared for that previous one, but I knew -- I'm not practical person. However, I'm getting practical because I hear you're giving people gold stars for having practical stuff of this podcast. So I have got my my truncheon. Now I'm also not a violent person, I think I might struggle to hit them over the head. But if they're trying to bite my neck, I might do...

JA: Survival mode kicks in.

ST: Something to beat them with, keep them back. I think I might take a knife also because that might come in handy like for doing vegetables and stuff like that. And my third one is like a bottomless supply because I need some pleasure in my life. I need some pleasure and a bottomless supply of raw cashew nuts.

JA: Okay, I thought you were gonna say tea and I was ready to chuckle. A little bit of stereotyping I admit.

ST: ...Tea's very calming, you always need tea in a crisis. You've trumped me with that, the tea's even better. Raw cashew nuts are one of my favorite things in the world eat and that made me feel so good. I think in this sort of crisis situation when I'm just about to die or something I can eat...

JA: Yeah, go out with a smile. Yes, yes. All right. Number four, finish the sentence: When I was a child, I wanted to be a blank.

ST: Well, this is kind of embarrassing. I wanted to be an air hostess. I was born in 1971. So flying still seemed quite glamorous. I liked the idea of flying all over the world. I probably don't like the waitress-y type of part to it. That was one of the many things that that I was willing to be that I can remember.

JA: Yeah. Yeah, okay, that's fair. Very adventurous. All right. Last one. What is the hardest lesson you have learned as an entrepreneur so far?

ST: Your business won't grow unless you do.

JA: Going deep already. So we're going to come back to that, because that is a big one that I think a lot of people don't think about when they start out. It's also a good segue. So let's talk about your entrepreneurial journey and your story. How did you get here to running this business that you do? Where did it all start?

ST: Janelle, it's kind of been a circuitous journey. You know, that curly line. circuitous journey... A few years ago, I was working. I always want to say I was a waitress at the cocktail bar, but I was working as a contractor in financial services, kind of a well paid job, but you had to set up your own -- I think you would call it an escort. But we call it a limited company. You're paid on a day rate, and it was it was good pay. But I sort of had this moment when I realized this is not my world. These are not my people. And it wasn't so much that I realized that I was trapped. I suppose we all talk about this, but it only sort of really blasted into my reality and sort of put itself right in front of my eyes. Because my mom was ill. She called me and we had a telephone call and I was very distracted and was trying to sort of get her off the phone and then it was in the morning when I was trying to get ready for work. And then when I was reflecting on it in the afternoon at work, I thought, oh my god, none of this matters, the work I've put to be really, really important. It doesn't matter or I don't matter to the bank, if I hadn't turned up that day or any other day, it would have been a minor inconvenience, and things would have moved on. If I want to say that I love my family or or these are my values or if I want to live the way I want to live, I needed to have a new way and that's what really made me be brave and be more excited than I was fearful. I just knew that I had to change I knew that I had to do it.

JA: I love that and, you know, before we continue, I shared with you that just reading your story just resonated with me so much because, you know, my mom, she's gone through several illnesses. She's gone through several bouts with cancer and she's miraculous you know, thankfully she's she's well. But she was just having surgery and it felt so good to be able to be there with her. So I definitely relate to that moment where you realize I could not be here and they would just find a replacement. And, and this isn't what matters. So what did you do? How did you decide, okay, I'm going to... How did you decide what to do next?

ST: Well, that's a good question. I think now looking back that I always knew that I wanted to do this, that inside me I wanted to do this, but I have failed at so many different things, not necessarily business things, just things that other people find easy, like learning to drive. I was in my mid 30s when I passed my driving test. So I wasn't sort of one of those successful people who felt that whatever I try is going to work out. You know, I think that I realized that people -- property is a thing and that might be a way, and I started going to lots of property networking events. And I'm sure it's -- well, it's the same in the online marketing world, people come and speak at these property networking events. And my jaw was literally on the floor because I thought you had to save them some money. And you had to know the right people, you had to be on this inside track and know all the secrets. And then they were just like ordinary people who were standing up, saying that they were doing strategies, that they started off with not very much money, that the cash flow was incredible. And now they've gone on to buy lots of properties as well. My mind was just totally blown.

JA: So before we continue, let's tell people, because the the terminology is different for people who are not in the UK. So 'rent to rent' means what for you so that we can translate it?

ST: Okay, so I'll just explain that I know that in America, there are lots of people who are renting properties from their owners, and then letting them out on Airbnb. So what we do is similar, we rent properties from their owners, but we rent them out to long term tenants -- long term means over six months, and it's in house shares, which here in the UK, the technical term is HMOs. And it sounds like what friends all email young professionals living together sharing a kitchen and bathroom, but they will rent their own room and has so... so that's what we do.

JA: Yeah. So you got into this this aspect of real estate. So did you begin -- because there's different parts of your business, right? So let's talk about you know, we're not talking about the online course just yet. So you started this and you started it with your sister, right?

ST: Yeah, that was pretty cool. So my sister basically is very talented, but don't you find, Janelle, sometimes the most talented people put themselves out there the least? And so she would have been one of the best people to start a business, but one of the least likely people to do it because she would think that she couldn't do it or that it, there's too much risk attached to it. I think it's more that there's some risk attached. So anyways, she's worked in banks very high flying and been traveling -- at one time traveling around the world training other people how to train teams like she did. She had wanted a bit more life balance and she'd taken a break and she'd gone on holiday to the Caribbean for I think it was three months. Too long, Janelle, because while I was sitting at my desk, in Bristol in the UK, I'll be getting these WhatsApp messages through -- of her on the beach. Looking really chill, then her drinking cocktails... Anyway, so she'd just come back from this trip, ready to start again. She didn't know what she was going to do. And that coincided with when I had found out about all these property strategies, and I had, I'd just gone there one evening, and I think it was just luck that at her house that evening, one of her friends was there. And I was explaining, you know, this is the strategy, you rent the property, you rent it out for other people and the difference in the middle of between what you paid the owner, and the rent you collect in the bills is your profit, and that I was going to do this with no experience, etc. and her friend was really enthusiastic about it. And I think sometimes that sways you. Yeah. Surprisingly, she said she wanted to be all in with it. 50/50. So that was the start.

JA: Yeah. Nice. Nice. Okay. I love that. I love how all of that came together. So you -- how long did you invest in -- do the rent to rent thing before you started thinking, okay, we can create a course. Talk to me about that.

ST: Good question. Yeah. So we started actually trading -- so I'm still at my job in Bristol. This is January 2016 I started going out to these events, my mind was blown every event, I'd be dropping my bottom -- jaw would be on the floor and, and then about April, March, April time I set up the company did all that little paperwork. I'm seeing it all in my lunch hour from work. I was listening to the property podcasts. My mind was just whirring the whole time. And then, in June, we started, I started traveling to Wales, which is nearby to Bristol, looking at properties, not thinking we would get one. And then we've got two properties in June of 2016. Our first two ever. And so that was when we really started, June 2016. We started doing it. And we launched our course in January 2019. Okay, so it's two and a half years.

JA: Yeah, yeah. So relatively recently, as of this recording,

ST: Maybe two years I decided to do the course we were doing the rent rent for two years, and sort of decided not to do training. A lot of property people do training. And I just decided I didn't want to do training. It kind of felt a bit sleazy to do training. Also that's not where I wanted to focus, I do want to be up and down the country talking and I just thought just not the life I want.

JA: Because you wanted freedom and flexibility. So I totally understand that, you know, yeah.

ST: So but eventually we were -- I was just going online on video, bad videos saying, Oh, look, this is what you do. This is a real thing. Just do this, do that. And people liked the videos. I mean, it's a small community, but active. People liked the videos will ask more questions, say do you do coaching, do you do this? Do you did that? And no, no, no, we were pointing them off to other people. And they would come back from these other people and say, Oh, Stephanie, what about this? What about the contract? Or what about the letters or what about the offer emails. And I said, well didn't you get that on your course? But a lot of the times, Janelle, there's a funnel whereby you go on a free day, then you're sold up to something that's a couple of thousand pounds. And you go on that thinking that that's the thing, but then you're sold up to something that may be somewhere between 12,000 and $20,000 or pounds for a year of mentorship, and oftentimes, they're not really delivering the value that you would expect. And so I thought, you know, what, we could do much better than what these people are actually getting. And it made me see that the people who were doing it aren't because they're not delivering the value, and that actually we could deliver the value because that was the other thing we thought, or I thought, I'm not a trainer, who am I to start coaching people? What, it's fine for me to give the information out for free. But if I start selling it, aren't people gonna think that I'm, you know, I've only just started doing it sort of thing? Yeah.

JA: I want to dig into that because you bring up -- you're talking about like this imposter complex, even though you had been doing it, the idea of teaching other people just made you -- it was a little bit apprehensive. But what I love that you said is a lot of times people don't start because they see somebody else is already doing that. Why, you know, and you were able not only did you have that moment, but you sent people to other people. But then, you know, I think your insight of realizing that they still were coming back asking for things that they weren't getting, which in marketing terms allowed you to see how you could differentiate yourself from those other people. So I just wanted to call that out. Because, you know, a lot of times things happen online and we don't always think about it from an opportunity perspective. So I love that you were able to, to capture that and see where the need was and then fulfill that need. So how did you get the courage to finally do the thing if you had the imposter complex?

ST: Oh, my God. Do you know what? It's like the courage is every day, coming -- I'm calling on it every day because now I'm more stepped into this new role. I've stepped into a new role. But at the time, I wasn't stepped in at all. So I was calling on the courage every day, I had so many meltdowns. I don't know where -- you just feel like oh my god people are looking me, people are looking at me, people are looking to me and I'm not the person. I'm not the person. It's not me. It was so emotional. Writing the course doing the videos for the course. I had times where I would just be recording the videos and start crying like, "I don't like my face!"

JA: Yeah, I think video -- video does that to you. It's -- video is not safe. You're all out there, you know, and if you have those days, it's just, it can be brutal. But, you know, you kind of push through. So did you create the course before you sold it?

ST: Yes. Because I was aware because I was listening to these podcasts that you can pre sell it. But the idea -- I was having all this all this anxiety about this course. And the thing, I think the anxiety was less about the video because I was used to doing videos, I think something inside you is so afraid of dying, because you're putting this course out there and you could see that somebody is going to shoot you. You know, I don't think it's as as conscious as that but something in yourself or in my subconscious was so afraid. And that's what caused for the meltdown. But now I can't remember the question.

JA: Well, you answered the question. I just, you know, did you create the content before you sold it?

ST: Yes, yes. Sorry. So we -- the idea that you just go in there and so we're doing this transformation from right from you have the idea about creating this business, you set up all the elements of the business. And then you you manage that property ongoing. And there was so many parts to it, that I just thought there's no way that I can do this ongoing as people are watching us live together and ask me questions. So, so we created it before, but we knew that people wanted it.

JA: Yeah, I think that's an important distinction because people do talk about pre selling, I talk about pre selling all the time. But I love the way that you framed that you knew there would be no way for you to keep up with teaching and creating content. And so you were able to look at your constraints. And that's the thing. A lot of times people want a formula. But you really have to look at your own situation and your own constraints and do what works for you. For some people like yourself creating the content first, and then selling it and I think it helped that you were already marketing. You already had a business you already had people who were saying, Hey, we want information. So you have that validation as opposed to a lot of times people just have an idea and they're not really sure if the if there's a need for it and that's when I think it's risky to create all of the content beforehand.

ST: Yeah, I would I would suggest that people do what you suggested, pre sell, because we could have pre sold it and then created the course in advance actually. So there is the distinction Actually, we did pre sell actually, if I think about this, because we were taking sales while we were creating course I think I've confused things meaning a live presentation... But we had actually pre sold it but we created the course before we started presenting it.

JA: Got it, so you pre sold which which is something that scares a lot of people I've heard from my students. Are you saying I can take people's money and the courses and create like yes you can. All you need to do is be transparent about it, you know, and you say the course is going to be coming in such and such timeframe. And people who who are excited, who are fans, who want it are going to be okay with that.

ST: Well, I had that as well. It was my coach pushed me into it. I said, I was just gonna, they'd signed up or what I called signed up, they said they wanted to do it. You know, we'd had a call, they said they wanted to do it. And she said, so did that pay and I said, No, I didn't ask them. I said, I can't ask them to pay yet because it's not started till January or whatever. And she was the one who made me go back to everybody and get paid. I was like, Oh, this is so painful.

JA: Yeah, yeah. I love it. Okay, so just for anyone who just to clear up so you did pre sell. And then but instead of teaching like a live beta version, you created the full course which is totally, totally fine. Alright, so you created your course January 2019, you said. How did that process go, what did you learn as a first time Well, actually, before you answer that, let's take a step back and and set the stage for everyone. What is the goal of the course? So what is it that people should be able to do after completing the course?

ST: Well, so the course is called Rent 2 Rent Kickstarter Program. And you now know that rent rent is where you rent a property and then rent it out for cash flow. And the goal of the course is that you get your first rent to rent deal, consistent cash flow, escape the nine to five and live life on your terms. The Escape the nine to five is not an immediate that's you can do that within a year if you work this program.

JA: Okay, I have to ask this question. This is not related to my what did you find, what did you learn question but so in the US there's often clauses where you can't rent out a property that you're renting. So it's it's different. In the UK, you don't have that same situation?

ST: We do. So there's certain types of properties that are called house shares, I'll just call it has shares for simplicity. It's a classification of property, you have to get that classification from the local government. And on those properties, you're allowed to have multiple people and you're allowed to sublet.

JA: Got it. Okay. Got it.

ST: On some properties. your mortgage lender, the one who's financing the property will not allow you to have an agreement that sublets by the room, which is mainly what we do. So sometimes you can do it and sometimes you can't do it. The way we do it, is to focus on properties that have that house share classification, and where we're allowed to have the contracts that we need to have.

JA: Got it. Thank you for indulging my, my curiosity there. All right, so let's get back to talking about your course Rent 2 Rent Kickstarter. You're teaching it for the first time. What did you learn? What were some things that some takeaways from that first time teaching it?

ST: Well, do you know what? Well, I’ll just get -- because you asked me about how making the course. So I'll quickly say something about that. It’s really just do it. Because although I put my head in my hands, it's one of the things I'm most proud of in the world is this program. We originally just, you know, I saw or heard on the podcast that people using the post it notes to work out what the elements that you need to go through to get the process and what needs to go in each part. And I had a coach in that we'd gone through that process. I went through that process on my own and also with my coach, and then I went away for a week. And I just wrote it all out. Some of it was bullet points, it was very draft. And I took that and eventually made it into the course. But for me, I work better on the short deadline. So I wrote it sort of maybe July-ish time of year last -- this must have been 2018 then did nothing with it. And was unsure about using a coach and the investment and everything. And come November I thought, right that's it, we need -- if we're going to do this, we need to use a coach because I haven't got time to work out what was supposed to be doing... So we use it. We started with our coach and I think we were working together for three months. So it was November to January, we were launching in January. And obviously what Christmas everything in between. And that was it to get this sort of notes, Word document, just type type notes into an online course and launch it. So and so we did do that and we launched it at the end of January. Yeah, I was a bit harassed and having meltdowns and things, but…

JA: Well, yeah, because it's over the holidays and everything and I love that you, you shared that timeline because I, you know, I tell people two to three months is what it typically takes. And, and a lot of times people don't believe me and trust me to give yourself two to three months, because especially if you're recording videos. Alright, so we've got the course, you launched it in January, and then you make it available to your students. They're in. What are some takeaways from that experience? What did you learn?

ST: It was amazing. It was, I mean, again, maybe it's just me. It was very emotional… And watching people be so excited to come in and engaging with the materials, engaging with us. And we were having all the live calls and we were all going through the program together and people were getting, going through barriers, like like we did when we were writing the program, and we were helping them through. That's when I realized that the coaching is not really -- that's why I introduced coaching into it. It's not really about the system… It's about getting rid of the mindset blocks at each stage, that they can actually do the stuff that was in the, in the program. So I've waffled on a bit, but that was the experience.

JA: Isn't that interesting? I found that when I launched my own group program. I thought, okay, people need this information. I'm going to create it and they'll do it and ta-ga. It doesn't really doesn't work like that. I mean, people do it. But you find all of these places where your students get stuck. You know, they have mindset, things even I have had students who finished the program, launched their course and then have fear around doing it again. So it just keeps coming up. And finally for me, I realized, okay, so what, what I'm really providing is an opportunity for people to have accountability, coaching and community. That's what they need. They can get the information, they could pull that together for free if they wanted to. But they really need those three things. So where did some of your students get stuck? What were some of the points where they had those barriers you mentioned?

ST: Mainly they, like the first part is all setting up your business that's the behind the scenes admining. Most people are okay with that and it gives them a good sense of achievement. I think when it comes to anything where they've got to put themselves out there, say when, even writing letters I think some people had a block about that because if you're writing letters, you’re going to get calls… So writing letters speaking to the letting agents the Real Estate Agents. So I think it's just where all those vulnerable fears come out.

JA: Yeah. So how did you help them overcome those moments?

ST: One of the main ones is that other people in the group are doing it. New people who just joined with them, and they say, Oh my god, I thought this was impossible. But so-and-so who's just joined had a call and I need to get my ass in gear. But say, they got inspiration from other people in the group. But the other way is we had the weekly calls, on the weekly calls, obviously, there's always some people who have had a great week, and they're having good results and some people who haven't, and say the call helps both, both sides really. And we try to encourage people to come on the call, even if they feel that they don't need to, just because it tells your subconscious that you're serious about this thing and that you’re cracking on with this thing and it just is helpful hearing other people talk even if you feel that you don't need to talk that particular week.

JA: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. All right. So let's talk about marketing. So, you know, one of the things that you said earlier that I wanted to come back to was that you invested in a coach and you know when it comes to marketing your, your business I know you invested there as well. So we're going to talk about that mindset that you have to invest. But first, let's again set the stage. What is your primary marketing channel?

ST: YouTube and Facebook.

JA: And how -- you use YouTube and what is, what does the flow look like? So you're doing your YouTube videos, are you -- are you doing it weekly? What's Is there a particular cadence that you...?

ST: There's not a cadence at the moment, but I was doing weekly but I was -- they've always been poor in production quality, because I've been DIY, but what I used to do was sort of read and looked down and read and looked down, and they cut all those bits, which took me like a ridiculous time. And also the videos used to be quite long. And so the, the end result was kind of mediocre, but it was so time consuming. And what I then decided -- I wasn't making videos for a long while and what I then decided to start doing was just go live. Going live, I've got this new rent to rent short and sweet, lots of information in only a little bit of time. Then I would talk about my points which I could make because it's a short video. And that would be live on Facebook. And then my VA would then post that on Facebook, on the Facebook group on LinkedIn and also on YouTube. And the engagement has been just as good as when I was doing all those hours. So that, that works really well. Well for me, and I even saw on one of the YouTubers whose really huge with, I don't know, maybe nearly millions of subscribers, talking about how they're less, doing less well produced videos because people like the realness and I thought, “I was there first.”

JA: I love it. I love that you said that too. Because, you know, as, as all of my longtime listeners and subscribers know, I have been so apprehensive about YouTube, because of that exact reason. Because I'm like, I am working with clients. I'm helping people in my program. I do not want to edit for hours. That is like -- that is the the roadblock. Yeah, and I just recently said, you know what I'm doing live, you know, maybe screen sharing and talking live. And that's gonna be it and we'll see how that works. So it's great to hear that testimonial from you. And for anyone else listening who's thinking about YouTube, it is the second largest search engine it, you know, behind Google and owned by Google, so very important to, to just do it.

ST: Yeah.

JA: Yeah. All right -- and also, what I love about what you said is you're repurposing content. Because a lot of times people think, oh, I've got to write a blog, I’ve got to record a video, I've got like -- doing all of these things, you don't have time for that. Do your live, repurpose it on all of those different platforms, and let the results come in. But let's talk about the funnel. So we've got the video, I watched the video and then is there a call to action at the end of the video?

ST: Yes, what I need to do is always verbally state the call to action. And as well The link is below. So for example, now if you would like to get started with rent to rent or you want to book a call with me, click the link below. I don't always say that but the link is always below.

JA: Yeah. Okay, so we've talked a little bit about this, you know, off interview, but so you have the booking the call, and that is an opportunity for them to talk to you about the program.

ST: Yeah.

JA: Okay, got it. Now let's talk about other aspects of how you're marketing because I know that you have an email list and you have a sales funnel. So what are the steps within your funnel? So someone finds you, let's say they don't find you on YouTube, and they land on your website. What, what steps do they go through to then get introduced?

ST: Well, I've got to kudos to the guy who you know, Jaques Hopkins, Piano in 21 Days, he was our evergreen funnel coach. And again, we had this crazy deadline that I imposed on myself. But we worked together for eight weeks. But luckily Jaque was off for four weeks in the middle. So we actually had 12 weeks together, four weeks working full weeks, not working together or no contact and then four weeks working together again. During that time, we launched live once. And then I set up the Evergreen funnel. But that evergreen funnel has been incredible.

JA: Okay, so people get into the funnel and then you have, you have a sequence of emails and videos. Okay. And then they're pitched. Yeah. So I want to come back to the investment mindset. A lot of people try, they start out doing you know, DIY, they are fearful of investing. What was it that made you decide to invest not just in you know, working with Jaques, but you also invested in a coach, what was it that made you do that instead of saying, Okay, I'm going to try to figure it out on my own?

ST: I wanted it bad. When I was writing that online program in the July or, or earlier in the year whenever it was with the intention, we we had spoken to the coach, I think around that time, maybe in June,, we had a day with her, we took our post it thing, I had gone away in the July written the course well written, you know, bullet point style, and come back with the intention that I was going to get on this. And then of course, I was busy with other things, and nothing happened because partly, I wasn't quite sure what to do. And then there'll be a lot of fear as well that we talked about putting yourself out there. And so part of that stops you from taking the action, because if you take the action, you're close to putting yourself out there. Yeah. So I just knew that, that we absolutely had to do this, we needed to do this and that I could either waste a lot more time trying to work it out trying to piece things together, or we thought the investment was high, but actually his value, the value... And so we were in the same mindset that you're talking about when you're trying to DIY and everything like that and then but you’ve gotta invest.

JA: Yeah, I think that, you know, at a certain point, you realize you only have so much time, right? And so you have to make the decision on what you're -- I hear so many people say that they're burnt out. And they're also simultaneously doing everything in their business. And I'm -- I went through that, so I totally understand. And then you get to a point where you say, I mean, that's how I found my podcast editor. I just, I hit a wall. And it was 10pm at night, and I realized, Oh, crap, I didn't edit the podcast yet. And I absolutely could not just stay up one more hour to work. And so, you know, I think you have those moments where you realize I need to be intentional about where I'm spending my time I need to focus on you know, whether it's focusing on sales, marketing, and you know, clients or customers, and then being able to hire the support that you need to help you get to that next level, which comes back to something that you said, you know, in your biggest lesson as an entrepreneur that for your business to grow, you have to grow. So talk about that. What do you mean by that?

ST: It's one of the things that I actually love about being an entrepreneur. And also, I wouldn't go as far as say hate, but it's painful. It's painful to grow. But I've leaned into it now. But obviously at the beginning, it's more painful going through those growing pains. But what I mean is that you think, or I thought that being business was about working the system. In fact, I was absolutely delighted when I realized that there is a system for success in business. And that if you follow that system, you're likely to be successful, you're more likely to be successful. And I thought, oh, wow, that's great. I hadn't realized that there's a system, so let's work this system. What I have found is that you cannot work that system if your mindset is wrong, because if you think about it, I had somebody ask me a rhetorical question: Which part of your action is your mind not evolved in? Your mind’s evolved in everything you do. It’s, you’re, it’s involved in everything you think, and most of your thoughts and our conscious thoughts. They are subconscious thoughts, they have to be because for you to operate effectively in the world, most of your thoughts are thoughts that you're not consciously thinking your subconscious is driving you. Unfortunately, most of us have never looked at what's in our subconscious. And most of the thoughts that are in there or depending on the results that you're getting, if the results that you're getting are poor, that most of the thoughts in your subconscious are poor, they're, they're leading you to poor results, and to increase those results. So to chase results, you have to consciously go in and look at your subconscious thoughts and gradually start building that muscle now. Start practicing the positive thoughts that will eventually become the more helpful subconscious thoughts that allow you to build on that set success. increase that success so it's easier for me to be successful now than it was a year ago. Because I am working on my mindset consciously.

JA: So much there I mean I resonate with that and the thing about life is you will keep getting the same lesson until you, you, you have ah okay I'm in a pattern. This is what my therapist is always talking about patterns. And you know, you do you you have this pattern of as you said, you know, poor behavior or behavior that leads to poor results. And everyone isn't able to stop recognize that and say, Okay, I need to change. You know, whether it's changing how you think which doesn't happen immediately. But changing your environment, changing what you're listening to, content you're absorbing, changing your habits. Habits are huge. Yeah, they're huge. And making those changes eventually is what helps change your mindset, which allows you to have Yeah, better results. So it is and it is painful. It's not fun. I was just having this conversation. Doing self work is not fun.

ST: No, no, no, but the results are fun. When you start getting results, you start thinking, Oh, shit, it works.

JA: Yeah, yeah, it's it's, it's a spiritual and mental exercises much like, you know, I was just saying to a friend, there's days when I do not want to go to the gym. I absolutely don't. But I remember how good I will feel afterwards. And it's the same thing with self work. You know, once you start and you get this, I don't know you get this feeling of like I call it an eruption that things start rumbling and things start getting clearer. You know, your throat chakra for me, it just opens up a bit and you're saying things that you didn't say before and things having clarity. And then that's what gets you addicted to, Okay, I'm going to keep pressing on and evolving and growing.

ST: And then your subconscious is working for you instead of against you. And that's when the magic happens. You practice it, practice it, practice it consciously. For enough time, suddenly your subconscious is pushing it to the gym rather than lay in bed.

JA: I can talk about that stuff all day. But I do want to come back to one last thing before we get into the final three questions. And that is, you know, this idea of one of the things I love about working with you, your system, you're like it, there's gaps. There's things that I know we need to improve but you took action. You know, you took what I call imperfect action. Where are some things I just want to give people who may be listening and thinking, Oh, Stephanie's got this perfect setup and everything is working. You know, I don't have that. So I can't get started. What are some things with your marketing strategy that you feel that you want to improve?

ST: Yeah, well, I'm gonna do something well, that my sister says, I always answer a different question. Something came into my head as you were speaking and if it's okay, can I say something that may be better people could do? When we started the beginning of 2019, we didn't have a business that was a course business. And we're giving the live videos that for free, just little bits of info. And we decided, Okay, we're gonna launch this program, you know, towards the end of December 2018. We started talking about it. We didn't have a big email list, there were a few hundred people on the email list. We started a Facebook group, which obviously only had -- they grew quite quickly at the beginning because Facebook shows them to everybody. But so I have a few hundred people in the Facebook group. And we started the YouTube channel, I think February March. And so I repurposed some videos to it. So we had a, you know, maybe not even a few hundred subscribers on YouTube. So we didn't have many people when we started. But all you have to do to start is connect with even if it's 50 people, even if it's 20 people, they're there for whatever you've got, you go do your live video, five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it is, for longer, if you feel comfortable, it gives them the information, you find out what they're looking for, you talk to them, and then you know, as time goes on, it doesn't even need to be a lot of time, a few weeks, you can find out what they want and then make the offer. So it's really simple, actually, to connect with people from this thing that you're passionate about that you want to share with them that they want. Find out, and you find out... get started like that.

So the second thing is you asked me about where are the holes. So we got started, we created the course, again, it wasn't the best production, the content was great, but the production was not great. And we've redone the course several times, we're redoing the course again. So that's one area. The other areas, we put together a funnel that I did with the help of a coach, but at the end of the day I was involved. So therefore, that leaves a lot of work. But I want to mention this Janelle, which is that I did it with the help of coach. I'm not an expert. However, it still works. People are getting a great experience with the program. They're getting great results with the program. And from our business point of view, even though we had those really small numbers. It's over, over six figures, you know, in the first year, it's not so much I mentioned the income just to say that it was successful business wise as well, because people might have I always wonder I was talking, but it was very successful business wise as well. But one of the things that came out of launching the course is that that’s what we had to grow, because when you're coaching people, you've got to get them over the hurdles over the barriers. You got to learn how to do that, how to engage people, and give them the confidence to take the next step. But also, when we're having or when I'm having resistance to things. I don't have to repeat my own advice to myself. But being a coach has made me a better person.

JA: I love it. And the last thing I want to say is you know what you just pulled out there is the power of starting simple. Simplicity before complexity is like magic. It’s my golden rule. And particularly a lot of people when it comes to marketing, we try to complicate it like we come up with I do it myself, I come up with these great mind maps. You know, it's like working with with clients and setting up systems, I've begun to just reinforce that simplicity really is the key. And once you have a simple system working, then you can go in and optimize it. We're down to the final three questions, Stephanie. The first one is easy. What is next for you? Anything exciting coming up?

ST: Yeah, well, I'm really excited to know we've got someone amazing that we're working with right now. I just want to commend you, Janelle, because I found you and I've loved your work and listening to what you do. I'm, I love the detail, even the way that you avoided us with all the new emails and it was just a lovely experience for us and I'd love for our students to have That seamless have an experience when they onboard with us. But yeah, so we're working to optimize the funnel and this year and relaunch the course rewrite the course. So give our students a better experience. But also this year, I'm writing a book. Launching a podcast -- when I say launching a podcast, it feels a bit like you launching a YouTube channel.

JA: That's so funny, because the podcast to me is, I just, it's just lovely. That's so funny. Well, if you need any support, please let me know.

ST: Yeah. It will be called Rent 2 Rent Success, so I don't know, maybe there’ll be a few British listeners, because I'll share this so

JA: I love it. Well, congrats. I will be sure to link to whatever is new. I don't know what your timeline for the podcast is like but if it's live, I'll be sure to link to it in the show notes. So where can people find out more about you and your work?

ST: Well, if you want to see the back story that Janelle was talking about, or any of the bad videos, and go to Rent2RentSuccess.com and it's rent, number two, rent, success, dot com. And there's the about page there and if you want to see the funnel, you can sign up for the free online training and guide. And I had made some notes, but they're not the right notes in front of me… There's the YouTube, that's Rent 2 Rent Success. And if you want to message me on Facebook, maybe something that you liked or want to ask a question on, then on facebook.com/Stephanie Taylor UK. And I'd love to talk to you.

JA: Yeah, we'll also get those links in the show notes. All right, you are a listener of the show, so you know what's coming next Stephanie. Our final question. What is your Why? Why do you get up and do this work?

ST: Yeah, I get up and do this work because I believe in the transformational power of Yes, you can. Because we all tend to hold ourselves back so much, sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously. And we live by No, you can't, no you can't do that. It's just a, you know, constant… you don't even know it's there. So, what we what we're putting into the vision of our business and our lives going forward is to dream bigger, be bolder, and be a game changer. And what I mean by that is to dream bigger is to be able to imagine, allow yourself to imagine a bigger future for yourself. A future is so big that currently you wouldn't believe it. You know, a few years ago wouldn't have believed this reality that we're living in. Be bolder is all about, what what's been a theme you know, in our chapters. Is that we hide so much. And so to constantly push ourselves to be a little bit bolder, and the one that I'm most excited about is to be a game changer. And that is somewhat tied to being a wealth creator. And it's something that I didn't really think of as a possibility for me, but it's to, to build your own income, your own assets, and to change the game in your own life, your family's life and your community, and in the world. And Janelle, have you heard of B1G1, it's the buy one, get one. It's an online platform. And it is it allows us to, so that when anybody buys our mentoring, so the coaching program or our superstars program, which is a monthly membership after the initial program, we can give business training -- we can we can make any giving action we want, but we've chosen to give business training in Malawi when anybody buys our course so we get to -- either you can start where you are with what you could have and do what you can but it's just to get that game changer ethos into, you know what we're doing.

JA: I love it. I love it. It's so -- I hadn't heard of that. So thank you so much. I'm definitely gonna check that out. But this has been an amazing chat thank you so much for you know being the inaugural reintroduction of the show. I've enjoyed it so much, Stephanie and I can't wait to share it with everyone. Thank you.

ST: Thank you, thanks Janelle.

JA: Alright my friends, that is my time. Remember, before you can level up your course you must first level up your mind. As always, thank you for hanging out with me for another great episode. I do not take it for granted. I am Janelle Allen and this has been Level Up Your Course. Peace.