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In today's episode, we help Brenda take her art business to the next level. FULL TRANSCRIPT Jocelyn: Hey y'all. On today's podcast we help Brenda take her art business to the next level. Greeting: Welcome to the Flipped Lifestyle Podcast, where life always comes before work. We're your hosts, Shane and Jocelyn Sams. We're a real family that figured out how to make our entire living online, and now we help other families do the same. Are you ready to flip your life? All right, let's get started. Shane: What's going on everybody? Welcome back to the Flipped Lifestyle Podcast. It is great to be back with you again today. We are super excited to have another member of the Flip Your Life Community on so that we can help them take their business to the next level. Now a lot of people ask us, "How do you pick who gets to be on the podcast? Which members come on? Is there an application process, is there something else that you do to let people come on the show?" Well, really, honestly, it's action takers in the community who we bring on to the Flipped Lifestyle Podcast, and we look for people who are asking great questions in the forums, and we really look hard at our success story forum. And we had an amazing success story that we wanted to share with you today. Shane: Flip Your Life Community member, Brenda Mullard said, in her subject line, "So much can happen in a short amount of time." I was like, "Oh that's interesting, let's open that up and read it". Brenda said, "Hi everyone, I was reflecting on what has happened with my business since Flip Your Life Live, and I thought I'd share my success and all that has happened. So much can happen in such a short amount of time, just about four months. When I left Flip Your Life Live I had a website and membership that was literally broken. I mean it was open to everyone and anyone, but it wasn't working. I was frustrated, sad, and disheartened after our working dinner at Flip Your Life Live, but I thought I would just hire it out and get it all fixed. The quotes were thousands of dollars. I looked at myself and said, 'Wait, um, what?' I thought to myself there was no way I could afford to do that." Shane: "So with the help of my new crew, that I met at Flip Your Life Live, I changed my website theme to a new theme, I learned the new theme builder, and redesigned almost all of my webpages, over 100 pages of content. I created new opt ins, a sales funnel, and an email sequence to bring people through the process. I've added more regular lesson plans, presentations, posters, and resources to my membership. I've batched blog posts ahead of times and free downloads for the next few months, and I'm ready to go. I ran my first sale, and I raised my prices. I now had eight members in the Visual Art Academy Membership and excited to add more. As much as I feel like things move slowly, looking back, I realized I have really moved the needle. I feel like I have a very solid foundation created now, and the next move is to try to get more eyes on what I have to offer." Shane: "This is what I need to learn more of, and I'm about to throw my ... as I try to throw my fear aside. So even when you don't think you have a whole lot done, then stop and reflect a little bit, and you'll probably surprise yourself." Shane: So we read this amazing success story. Jocelyn: I was so excited. I was like we have to have her on the podcast. Shane: We've got to have Brenda on the podcast. She's taking action, she came to the live event. We got to have her on, so Brenda Mullard, welcome to the show. We have you on the podcast now. Brenda: Well thanks so much for having me, you guys. Shane: That was an inspiring success post, by the way. And I actually noticed something about your account too when we were reading this right before we came on air. I looked at your, your stats are over like under your name, you know like where it has the topics, replies, and coins and things. And what I love about this is you have six times the replies as topics started. And what that really tells us is not only are you taking action, but you're also like talking to other people, answering other questions, and helping other people sort out their problems too, so we're super glad to have you on the show today. Brenda: Well thanks. I know I appreciate it when people answer my questions or just give me a little bit of a boost, and you can do this, and so I really try to do that for everybody else in the community too. I think that's really important. Jocelyn: Absolutely, I love that. This is one of those shows where we have actually met Brenda in real life, which is awesome. She came to our event not too long ago, in last September in Nashville, and has done just some amazing things, and we're just really excited about all of the things that you're working on, and the action that you're taking, and all that kind of stuff. So now it's our turn to kind of give back to you and try to help you take the next steps in your journey, but before we do that, let's talk a little bit about you. Tell people about your background and about what you do online. Brenda: Okay. Awesome. Well, I have three kids. I'm married, I have one husband. My kids are 17, a daughter who we are getting ready to send off to college next year, so we're getting all the applications and scholarships and all that kind of stuff going. I have a 14-year-old son who's a freshman in high school, and an 11-year-old son who is in fifth grade. I have been in the arena of art education for the past 20 years, and so I have moved within the past year from just a regular classroom into teaching part-time, but then also taking on an integrated arts program at one of the middle schools as a fine arts coordinator. So I kind of have two part-time jobs which are really actually two full time jobs, as well as my family. Brenda: And then we kind of joke because my mom is ... I have an elderly mother who has a lot, a lot of health issues, and so we kind of joke that she's our fourth child, because I cook, clean, shop, do everything that I do for my children, only she just doesn't live with us. So, having that on top of everything is pretty, it's a pretty crazy busy life right now. Shane: So I would say that that probably has a lot to do with why you're trying to build this online income that's more manageable, more passive, more controlling would be safe to guess? Brenda: For sure. Yep. I, to be able to have the flexibility of a schedule and to have more time to do the things that I feel that I need to do, versus what I have to do, would be just phenomenal. So, yep, that's exactly why I'm working on doing this. Shane: How did you first discover that online business even existed, or decided you wanted to do it? We all have different stories, because this world is kind of hidden from people, when you're in the 9 to 5, or even when you're in a government job or an education job or something like that. How did you discover online business? Brenda: Well, about oh, I would say 14ish years ago, when my son was born, I kind of got exposed to working smarter not harder with my artwork, and so I was using my artwork and putting it, putting it on greeting cards, through a few different companies, and doing things like that, and all of the sudden realizing like oh, I made 42 cents today from selling two cards that had my design on it, and I designed it once and it sold multiple times. Just that idea that I could make income from content, or things that I produce, and then it's used over, and over, and over, and over again by multiple people, and you continuously get paid through that was really the first kind of exposure that I had. Brenda: And then when I found you guys, I had tried doing some online, my lesson plans and things all on my own, and I probably for like two years or so just kind of waded through the whole internet business courses, process of all different things, and until I figured out and started learning from the community I just got a better idea of what it all took. Because people that do this online business entrepreneurial stuff, when you first begin, you don't understand how much goes into being successful in a business. Like you always use the iceberg scenario and that's so true. You only see the very top when people are really, really successful. You don't see all of the different layers and all the different work that goes into getting to that top peak. Shane: But that's what you hear when you first discover it, right? Everyone is like, "Oh, I read a book, and I started a blog, and the next -" Jocelyn: And they're making millions of dollars. Shane: "And next thing I knew I had my own jet." Brenda: Right. Exactly. I quit my job after five months of all this stuff, and it was so easy, and anybody that's, anybody that's actually doing it knows that that's not true. Shane: Especially in the beginning. There is a ... What's it called? A dynamo, is that what it's called? When like the energy takes over and it just keeps running or something like that. Jocelyn: Yeah, that's something, I don't know. Shane: Science, yeah. Physics. Brenda: Ignorance, ignorance on fire. Shane: Ignorance but right, its like something happens when, I guess momentum, like there is a point where you'll get momentum where things get ... It's like a fire, you stoke the fire and it keeps burning. You just throw another wood, you don't have to like, it's harder to start the fire than it is to quit going. And like there is a point of that, but man those first, that first two years is really like you've got to decide that you're in it to win it or you're not going to win it. You know? Brenda: Right, right. Jocelyn: Okay, so tell our listeners what your business is. Brenda: I have a website, and membership, that has secondary art education lesson plans and classroom resources for art teachers. Shane: Okay. Jocelyn: Okay, awesome. Shane: And you actually have a following online. You have a Facebook group? Brenda: I do. I started a Facebook group about, about a year and a half, two years ago. It's called Art Teachers Teaching Art, and actually, Shane, you gave me that title, which is awesome. It has over 6000 members in it right now, and it is a super, super active community. I mean I, I have probably if somebody posts a question, or is looking for something in there, I have six or seven people that immediately jump on and answer that question. It is a free group, but it is a super active, and it's really, really good group. Shane: And I usually, I talk to a lot of people about building an audience through some kind of group or something, a page, whatever it is they manage, and we always pick, everybody's always well what should I call it? And people want to brand it and stuff, and I'm like, "No, what would people search for?" People would search for Art Teachers Teaching Art. They would not search for the Fantabulous Artsio Community or whatever. They wouldn't look for that. You've got to name that, that's, naming is really important and sometimes simple is the best. And Art Teachers Teaching Art is pretty straight forward, but you know what everyone in the group is doing. And when people find it they're like "Yeah, I shouldn't join that, because I'm not an art teacher teaching art, so I'm going to back out of this one." Brenda: Right, and it started out with, I just started the group, and I literally started it out with just art teachers that I knew. I mean I threw it out to six art teachers that I knew were on Facebook, and that I knew personally. And within a year and a half, I've got over 6000 members where people have spread it to other people, and it's just kind of spread like wildfire across the masses. So that's pretty cool to think about that from people all over the world. Shane: And the key is now though ... We talked about this a little bit off air, which we're going to get into some fears, and obstacles, and some other things that are holding you back in your business. You've done the hard part, you've gotten 6000 people to pay attention to something you've created for free. And the key is where, somewhere in there, there's 100 people that want to pay you monthly. You just have to convince them why and we'll talk more about that. Jocelyn: Okay, so before we get into all that, I do want to talk a little bit about coming to the live events. So you attended our live event in 2018? Brenda: I did. Jocelyn: And I want to talk a little bit about what made you decide to do that, and by making the decision, what changed about the way that you were approaching your business, or like how did it benefit you in other words? Because we're starting to sell this thing again, there are probably a lot of people out there listening thinking, "Oh, you know, I don't know for sure if I want to do this." You know, "I have to take time out of my life," and all these types of things. Shane: It's not cheap. Jocelyn: Yeah, I mean. Shane: It's not cheap to make a trip like that. Jocelyn: There is an investment involved, and I just want you to talk a little bit about why you made that decision and what happened after you made that decision. Shane: How, this success story was clearly sparked by people you met at the live event. All these things and people helping you, so how did that kind of change things for you? Brenda: Absolutely, so wow, this is really hard to talk about, but literally when I, I signed up to go, I thought this is going to be the make or breaker. I have this website ... And I had paid to have it fixed and changed, a while ago, and little to my knowledge that it wasn't fixed and it was still broken. It was open to everybody, so I was in a point where I was super frustrated. I didn't know the next steps, even though we have the great community, and we have all the courses and things in there. I just felt way overwhelmed and way bogged down, and just didn't really know where to go from where I was at. And so I kind of thought all right, I'm going to go to this event. I've been to live events before, I know that I've always learned something, and usually there's a sit and get kind of things, where you go in, and you sit, and get information and then you take it home and try to implement, but the way this was set up, being a teacher myself, I loved the way that it's taught. Brenda: There's questions, and then you do it. And so that was a huge part of how I think the success kind of started rolling. I also met people that I had talked to in the community online. A few of them we had had phone calls back and forth and things, but I think meeting those people in person, and having them be like, "Oh, this is what I do," and then show me, because I'm very visual. I'm a very visual learner, and so to have them actually sit down and show me some of the things that they were doing, where like keyword search and all these other things was so, so helpful. It was so helpful to me, and after our working dinner, realizing that my website was literally broken. Like I, and my membership was open to the world, anybody could get in, anybody could see anything. They could download everything and - Shane: Didn't we talk about this like - Brenda: We did. Shane: Walking back to the elevator? Yeah. Brenda: We did. Shane: I remember this now. Because you were like, it was you, and who were you with? Kath…
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