KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCASTStarting an online business or creating a course must be done in baby steps. Don’t just take a jump. Make short-term goals. In this business, you must be able to pivot and make changes on the fly to keep your business relevant. Start with six-month goals and work up from there as you get more comfortable. Creating a course is stressful for a short amount of time, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Find the light and stay motivated. Keep a project plan with a tool like Asana so you can keep track of your tasks and progress. When you reach a goal, celebrate! It’s important for you and your team (if you have one) to celebrate those milestones. To start, get in the trenches and learn all you can about your target customer. Create surveys to discover what people need. Take some time to understand your promise. What is your promise, and can you really deliver it to your customer? If so, this is where your course is born. If you’re just getting started, try to create the course first and then market it. Creation and promotion are two separate beasts. Keep your course simple at first and get fancy later. Your customer will care more about the content and knowledge than they will about whether you’re using fancy video all the time. You’ll never get to where you want to go if you don’t start.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Don’t compare yourself to the big shots in the industry. Everyone started somewhere; you have to start somewhere, too. Just get started! Remember, however, that while you can use what others are doing as inspiration, that isn’t where you start. Learn from them—take their courses, listen to their podcasts, read their blogs. But then start from scratch on your own. You can do this!HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISSHow Amy transitioned from being a good employee to being her own boss – 09:03 Amy’s vision for her business, and how things changed – 12:45 How to stay motivated when creating a course – 17:33 The key to completing your course – 19:11 It’s important to show your team how instrumental they are – 22:39 Amy’s tips for creating your own online course – 25:23 The comparison game and how it can affect you – 29:22 Consistency matters, no matter the size of your audience – 30:20 What’s next for Amy – 33:16

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODEhttps://www.amyporterfield.com/starterkit/ (Amy’s course on courses: Courses That Convert) https://www.amyporterfield.com/ (Amy’s website) Amy’s social mediahttps://www.facebook.com/AmyPorterfield/ (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/amyporterfield/ (Instagram) https://asana.com/home?utm_expid=.5Vei3MMKRWq4PUVVS92Z8w.1&utm_referrer= (Asana)

Transcript below  Hello and welcome to Episode 29 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast and I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. Welcome back for another amazing week of the podcast. I think I'm still riding high on Pat's interview last week. It really was a bit of a dream come true for me, I have to say. And this week is exactly the same. You know when you start a new project and you sit down and you think, "Okay, who do we want on the project? What do we want to achieve?" And you dream bigger than you ever think you can dream. You sit there and go, "Oh, imagine if we got that person. Imagine if they would come on the podcast". Well, that's what my team and I did a few months ago when we were trying to think who would we want to interview. And we had a list of people that were, kind of like, mega stars in my world. And they were, kind of, the people that you would love to get on the podcast, but you knew that they were busy and they have lots of engagements and they, maybe, aren't as easy to get on. And Pat was one of those people. So, to have him on for week one was, kind of, crazy dream come true. And this week, it is exactly the same. This week I have the absolute pleasure of welcoming Amy Porterfield. You...