THE System to generate peaceful profit (with Melody Johnson)

Yvonne: Hey, hey everybody. It is time for another episode of Boss Your Business. And today I have Melody Johnson right here, and I’m gonna be chatting with her, how she turned, no, how she turned her life around, her business around, from a burned out agency owner, now generating peaceful profit. Melody Johnson is the Founder of the Course Consultant. She helps membership owners, agencies, and group coaching program founders grow their recurring revenue by keeping the customers they already have happy and keeping them around with ongoing trainings and process templates. And you know, it is going to be a great episode when I already have a tongue twister right in the beginning.

Yvonne: Melody, I am so happy to have you on the show, especially after we actually got to meet each other in person that was right before the world started to stand still. Wasn’t it? Social Media Marketing

Melody: World.

Melody: Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, again, we got to reconnect when we were back in San Diego last March, uh, to say hi, so, yep.

Melody: We got, we we’ve seen each other around and now it’s, and now this live is happening. So I’m so excited.

Yvonne: Oh, the joy of living and where other people come for vacation, everybody comes to see me. It’s like exactly.

Melody: You don’t have to go anywhere.

Yvonne: Which is also part of what we are talking in Boss Your Business about building your business around your lifestyle.

Yvonne: Being able to travel to San Diego and just come visit me.

Getting into entrepreneurship

Now tell me how, how did you find your way into entrepreneurship? As I already mentioned, initially, you started out with an agency life. We’ll get to this in a second, but how, how did you even get into this thing of entrepreneurship and running your own business?

Melody: Yeah. So I have always loved helping people and training them and teaching them. I actually started out in my profession as a teacher, and then I transitioned into corporate training and development. So I was actually working with large scale operations and training organizations to help implement large scale projects to train employees.

Melody: And so, yeah, so it was a lot of fun. I was able to help some amazing employees, get the skills in order to see success and sustain their lives. But as I was continuing to work in corporate training, I started to see this trend. All of my friends asking me, I am really interested in creating an online course. Do you have any insight on how I could do that for my business?

Melody: And so I started taking a few clients on the side and began to really work, to create a framework that was unique to me and also to deliver a fantastic program that would actually generate revenue for them and would also help their clients see results because testimonials are one of the key things that will help boost your marketing efforts.

Melody: And so as I started doing that for my clients and I started realizing how much fun I was having. And how much more flexible my life could be instead of going into a nine to five, every single day, I started to have this idea that I wanted to transition from full-time corporate into my business, and the course consultant was born and I started taking on more clients and then slowly ramped up into an agency.

Melody: So it’s been incredible few years and I’m still loving and I’m still learning.

On systems and processes

Yvonne: So you already started talking about processes and you call yourself a process entrepreneur. Did you always see the world in processes and systems, or do you think that kind of came to you when, when working in those big teams and, and having to organize things?

Melody: Yeah, processing systems is the best path forward for sustainability. And I say that because looking at the structure and framework, when you’re working with large scale organizations, the same can be implemented in a smaller team. So if you have a team of 2, 3, 4, 5, or more, you can still create a system or process that will be able to be replicated time again. We see this with large scale organizations all the time, right? Because we have these training manuals that I would actually work to create and process templates like standard operating procedures that would help to replicate training that would be consistent, that would get results for the employees.

Melody: And then also for agency owners. And if we’re talking about smaller scale team, I see that a lot of the times when people aren’t focusing on a sustainable process, what ends up happening is it’s less time it’s, you know, less efficient. And also it’s really going to be more frustrating in the end. And so, we don’t wanna have that and we want peaceful profits.

Melody: We wanna have it easy and simple so that we can actually succeed in our lives, in our business.

Yvonne: Oh, Melody doesn’t know. Um, I actually, because as, as my audience knows, we are recording this live on YouTube. So if you ever wanna pop in and see who is coming up on this show, you can pop over on YouTube.

Yvonne: They’re getting prescheduled out and I’ve been working on my YouTube process with all of this. So having a follow up video that I’m gonna be linking to actually is where I’m talking about creating sustainable businesses and Melody had no idea about it, which is one of the reasons why she’s on here, because she thinks really similar to me with a lot of processes and system, with the idea of really building a sustainable business, because I’m like, thinking back of your agency days you were quite in a burnout, you were like not wanting to do it, right? It’s like, no.

Melody: Yeah, it was, it was really stressful for me. Right. So cuz you know, as my business grew, everyone was like delegate, delegate, delegate. And I just began to create more and more bookings for my business, but it ultimately led me to hiring on a team too quickly before my systems and processes were in place, which is a big, big error that I have lived through.

On dealing with stress and burnout

Melody: And I do not recommend doing.

Yvonne: And I think we, um, I know you’ve watched a lot of my videos, you know, a lot how I think and how I recommend things. Um, That’s one of the points that I always try to make, where it’s like, if you don’t have your system in place, you’re gonna spend triple the amount of time bringing new people in.

Yvonne: Because number one, you need to tell them what they need to do, because you don’t have it down in the system, then they’re running it. Asking you questions, checking in between. And then for the triple amount of time, you need to prove it and probably adjust it because you didn’t think of that one thing that you need to pay attention to, to do this task.

Yvonne: So, yeah, we both agree. It’s like there’s two ways of, of outsourcing either way. You’re gonna spend the time and money to have that team member, write everything out and learn everything that’s in your head, or get it out of your head yourself when you are building your business.

Melody: Yeah, I totally agree. I think when I first started hiring team members, I started to quickly realize that I’d made a very bad mistake of not having my processes in place before hiring.

Melody: And so I was basically building the plane while I was flying it. And it was very, very stressful if I were to go back and tell myself one thing to make my life easier. It would have been to have those processes in place before I hired somebody. And that, that actually is something that I’m always working to improve.

Melody: And now having, you know, a few different contractors in my business, it’s clear to me now that those processes that I built out a year or two years ago are actually generating me the type of time that I need to do sales generating activities so that I can go back and talk to the right people and help more people with their membership or their coaching program.

Yvonne: And we, we already had a little bit of chat in the green room. So I, I know there’s been a couple of things happening behind the scenes for Melody too. Um, you started focusing really on figuring out what has a big impact on your business and that, that chat of hours just popped in my head again, because I know there’s going to be some listeners in the audience that are like, oh my God, I have to have it already.

Yvonne: No, you don’t. Look at the processes and the systems that are your moneymakers. What are the ones that are having the biggest impact on either way, your bottom line? Or your time commitment? And set up those processes and that systems first, because they have the biggest impact. You don’t necessarily have to go into the nitty gritty of every single process and every single system.

Yvonne: But you do wanna have your system down for your money makers to make sure your business keeps running while you do that. So it’s kinda an in between. You do wanna have the engine of your plane and the wings, but we can build the interior while we are flying. How about that?

Yvonne: Yeah,

Melody: that’s a good point. I definitely feel like I was just constantly learning and I, I feel like having the framework looking back now, it’s so much easier, but at the time I think I was just, it was just very overwhelming.

Yvonne: So before we dive into all of the, you know, me, I love nodding out on systems, processes, and tools, and guys, we will be coming to that. Um, before we get into that nitty gritty, I would love to know you are that burned out agency, owner. You are doing things different right now. So what are your standard offers right now?

Yvonne: And how do people work with you at this point in time?

Melody: Yeah. So, um, one of the, the key ways I help people is through my membership, which is the recurring revenue membership and the systems and tools that I loved using, obviously ClickUp, big fan, love it. And I think that that’s been a really key way of me actually streamlining some of the content creation and the delivery of the curriculum.

Melody: A lot of people don’t realize that once you actually launch a membership, there are ongoing activities that you need to deliver, right? So, yep. And so, you know, while you think, okay, great. I have this membership. Now I can just hang out at the beach. You totally can, but you have to have a system to deliver your curriculum.

Melody: I was just having a really great conversation with some other coaches and consultants and course creators inside my LinkedIn audio show, where we were talking about how creating a system and process of when you’re gonna be doing your livestream videos, where you’re gonna be housing your community, what your mastermind looks like, how you operate those meetings, what type of correspondence and communication, what’s the frequency and the processes that we use.

Melody: They’re all gonna be unique to the offer. So inside of my recurring revenue membership, we help to create the magical membership that will grow your recurring revenue, grow it through referrals and relationships, and then keep the members happy and engaged through retention. And then in my one-on-one services, I do offer consulting where I basically help you create this magical membership and then build out a program to help you get more customers inside of the door so that you can keep them coming back for more.

Melody: And then lastly, I do have very select with my retainer clients just because I do a lot of more in depth processes. Also make sure that the operation side is growing smoothly for customer success. And so that’s really more reserved for my agency clients and those who have group coaching programs who just need somebody to give their group program a look and building out a sustainable process for their agency or group program.

Melody: So it’s a lot of fun and, uh, it’s really a great way to help people at different levels.

Yvonne: Yeah. And I think that that is one of the things, um, being able to help people on different levels because looking at which a lot of people might not actually know you for is the whole sales side of piece and the marketing side of piece slash social media. Um, you pretty much have a perfect growth sales pipeline set up for that matter. I know you are doing it to help your clients and help them at a different budget. The marketer in me also looks at it. Great. I get them when they are. Starting out when they have the lowest budget, I can make sure they have the right pieces in place to get to a point of scaling their business, scaling their membership, that they potentially get into a situation where it’s like, cool, we got the basic set up. My group program is running nice. Now let’s amp this up and take this to the next level and they then can work one on one with you. Um, That was one idea. This is why you should take notes when episodes are happening, because you triggered an idea and I lost it. Hmm. Interesting, but not to worry because we actually have a system in place for this show.

Yvonne: What you guys don’t see behind the scenes is I actually shared a ClickUp task with Melody where all of the information she gave me about herself, my ideas about the show and all of the questions I handled in there. So then when I lose my thread, I have a system in place that allows me to fall back on and ask the questions I wanna ask.

Favorite tools

Yvonne: Now, you already mentioned that you love processes and systems and tools just as much as I do. I would love to dive deeper into tools for a second. I know you are using ClickUp. I know you’re loving ClickUp just as much as me, but I’m pretty sure there’s a couple other tools behind the scenes, too, that help you be continuous in your efforts, make your life easier and run this whole business. What else are you using?

Melody: So I get this question a lot. A lot of people ask me what is the best course platform out there? Why do you?

Melody: Right. So,

Yvonne: oh God. I’m not asking for the best one. I’m not asking for the best one, because you should never do that.

Yvonne: It’s like asking, do you, should I buy a Mac laptop or Windows laptop.

Melody: Right. Oh, yes.

Melody: What do you want to accomplish?

Melody: Right, right, right. I, I, I literally was at a conference as a speaker and I kid you not, that I got that question multiple times from multiple people. But it, it it’s okay. I mean, you know, what I think, so I’ll tell you the tools, but before I do I wanna tell a story, if it’s okay.

Melody: Go for it.

Melody: Yes. Okay. So this is a story I actually shared at FinCon as a speaker where I was talking specifically about processes. And it’s basically this story, and I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this story, but essentially there was a very famous violinist who was known throughout the parts for having phenomenal artistry as a performer and everyone knew this violinist. This violinist was very well acclaimed, but there was some haters out there who said the only reason he can play so well is because he has this very expensive handcrafted violin. Right?

Melody: Sure.

Melody: Right. That’s the reason. It’s not years of practice or anything.

Melody: No. So. What end up happening is that one day the violinist went on stage and on stage the violinist proceeds to play a masterful piece where everyone’s standing ovation and in shock at the end of his performance, takes the violin, throws it on the ground and smashes it to pieces. And everyone is up in arms saying, what in the world is this person doing?

Melody: He just smashed his violin. And the violin is his. Yes. The violinist says what you thought was actually my handcrafted straw violin, which is, was a very beautifully expensive piece, was in fact, a pawn shop item for about the equivalent of $5. So it’s not about the violin. It’s about the one who holds the bow.

Melody: So, yeah. Yes. It’s not about the tools. So it is about all of the practice, all the instrument. And so I think if we look at it that way, it’s a really powerful framework for systems and process, right? It’s about building up that consistency and not, everyone’s gonna be a violinist who can perform in front of everyone, but looking at process and systems, in that context, we can start seeing ways that we can improve our practice over time and then be able to actually play beautifully for an audience. Um, So that’s my story, but …

Yvonne: And I love it. I’m like, you know, me, I’m the same. The best tool is the one you actually use. Yes, exactly. Which is why, why this show is happening, because I want the audience to have choices to hear your story, why you made decisions and how for them to be able to identify potentially with that and make their decisions because behind the scenes, you know, I’m like I’m ready to, to ditch learn dash because my thing for 2023 is simple.

Yvonne: Mm-hmm . And with that, that’s what I’m going into my decision with. I want simple, I wanna be able to do 1, 2, 3, and four. And I want a tool that allows me to do this simply. That’s how we make a decision.

Yvonne: Yeah. Yeah.

Yvonne: Now where my questions for you comes in is what are the tools that made it simple for you?

Melody: Yeah. I like how I, I answered your question without answering your question. So yeah, the tools that make it simple for me, I use ConvertKit, you know, I was, I brought into many different conversations with all in one platforms. Yeah. In the end of the day, I really just was looking, looking at what was working for me and ConverKit, my email marketing platform, Thrive Cart, my cart checkout platform and WordPress. Those three things help me to create leads, help me to make sales. It helps me to share what I’m up to in the world. And if we look at that in the most simplistic way that’s really what we need a way for people to find out about us, a way for people to connect with us deeper and a way for us to share about how we help people and sell our offers.

Melody: Now, with

Yvonne: that, I should close the show. No, I’m just joking. She has the perfect roundup in there, guys. Everybody that knows me knows again, the best tool is the one you actually use. Now, we talked a lot about your struggles and how you got here. I would also love to take just a few minutes and talk about how this pivot and how this change has impacted your life now, because I also know you personal and you have shared that story publicly, which is why I’m allowed to ask this question here.

Melody’s current lifestyle

Um, what does your new way of business allow you personally now? So what is that lifestyle you are living right now?

Yvonne: Yeah. So

Melody: right now, I am actually growing my family.

Melody: We were talking about this right before the show mm-hmm and I am adopting um, one or two children. We’re actually in the conversation with some of our agency worker and social workers to look at some potential matches. And so it’s very exciting, uh, but it’s also a reminder and a value of mine to actually put family first.

Melody: So that’s actually one of my key frameworks of my business and the value and the team members that I actually bring on into my business is that family always comes first. So if there’s something that we need to take care of as a family member, or, you know, even if there’s not children involved, like, I want to prioritize family first.

Melody: And so with that in mind, I actually wanted to create the types of offers that would grow my business and my recurring revenue. And part of that is through my membership. And so, creating sustainability in my business and peacefulness, allowing me to have space, to have the time to go bring the kid to the doctor or go to the park, or if they have a, a bad day to allow myself space and allow my offers to actually provide that flexibility for me so that I don’t have to constantly be on social media. So I don’t have to constantly do cold pitches. So I don’t always have to constantly look up new leads so that I can convert into a high ticket service, right? So the retainers and the, uh, offers that I create, they generate revenue, but they’re really also there to support my business, my lifestyle and my family.

Melody: And so I think I’m really excited about this new growth in my family. I’m totally, very nervous as a new, you know, first time parent, and I don’t know what the next future holds. And so that’s, what’s so great about memberships and about courses is that you have that flexibility to be able to have the lifestyle and the time back in your schedule so you’re not constantly hopping on calls all the time, unless you want to, unless that’s you, right?

Yvonne: And I think even looking back, because I followed your journey of getting to this point right now in your personal life, it also already has allowed you to go this path in the past because becoming an adoption parent is not easy.

Yvonne: You guys had to go through a lot of paperwork and trainings and all kinds of things where your business supported you in that being able to, I think you guys had to travel to Phoenix for one of the trainings and you were able to do it,

Melody: right?

Melody: Yeah, it was, it was actually one of the things that I, I thought long and hard about.

Melody: How do I wanna actually generate revenue in my business and how can I build a business around my family? Because I thought, oh, it’s gonna be a group coaching program, or it’s gonna be, you know, a high ticket offer. But all of that involves so much of me. It, it involves so much of my time. And I’m not saying that the offers that I create don’t require some of my time, they do, but I’ve created in a way that I can spend the time with my family.

Melody: So, yeah, you’re right. I actually spent five weeks, every single weekend, we drove out to Phoenix for the entire weekend to spend hours in our training to get certified, to adopt. And it’s been countless hours. And actually this process has been up to this point about two and a half years. And, and it’s not, it’s not actually the same adoption process.

Melody: Like that’s a whole nother story. Um, but like I actually tried to adopt internationally. I actually, the whole intent behind the adoption was okay, we wanna create a family. Does this business match the lifestyle needs that I need to actually have a quality of life standard? And the answer to that question, unfortunately, with that model for me personally has been no.

Melody: And so that’s why I shifted the model. That’s why I shifted all of these things so that I can create the revenue and the sustainable processes so that I can actually enjoy life, enjoy my family, and be able to support my customers.

Yvonne: And on a personal note, because I know a lot of my audience is female and there might be even some in the audience that are struggling with the same thing I wanted.

Yvonne: Let Melody share it. Why did you guys decide going the adoption route? Because I know there’s a lot of women out there that don’t feel comfortable talking about it that might be struggling with it. And I wanna make sure they know they’re not alone in

Melody: this.

Melody: Yeah. So we actually had tried for several years to actually conceive.

Melody: And unfortunately we, it was just not in the cards for us. We, yeah, we, we actually, uh, received news. We did all the tests and the doctors were like, we don’t know what’s wrong, but you are not able to conceive. So it’s actually funny. Well, it’s not funny, haha. But it’s more of, it’s just interesting, you know, that doctors are able to say, we don’t know what’s wrong, but you aren’t able to conceive. Good luck.

Melody: So the decision to adopt after discussing it for, you know, months with my husband has been to adopt. And so we’re actually doing something specific with direct adoption through foster care. So the children we’re looking to adopt our children who are in the foster care system. And there’s, there’s just so many of them out there who really just need a good home and just need that kind of support.

Melody: And so, yeah, I know a lot of folks, especially women have approached me and said that they struggle with infertility too. And that their life and their, their business, if they are a business owner, has been very stressful and they worry that, you know, stress is a part of it or they blame themselves or they blame, or it could be like their partner or whatever it is the case.

Melody: You know, we decided for ourselves that this was the path forward for us. And part of that lowering of the stress lowering of the anxiety and just building that peacefulness into our business, into my business has been creating the offers that will lead to that sustainable practice.

Yvonne: I love that.

Yvonne: And I know this is it, it fits into the whole episode, but kind of doesn’t but kind of does, we are often enough our business.

Yvonne: So I wanted to make sure to do, bring it up because it been, it’s been really interesting watching you, watching you, making that decision as a couple, as a family. Going with it, showing it publicly, showing the process publicly. I was like, damn, she’s back in class. And just being so outward and so open about all the things that are happening.

Connecting with Melody

Yvonne: So I just wanted to make sure to drop that in here in case we really have somebody in there and I know Melody’s door is always open. You are welcome to pop into her DMs. She’s always there for everybody. Um, love her to pieces. Now, for the end of all of this, where can people find you? Where can people connect with you?

Yvonne: Where can people stalk you? And yes, I use the word stalking because I stalk people in a funny way on social media. What’s the best way to connect with you?

Yvonne: Yeah. So the

Melody: best way to connect up with me is to hop on over to my website at www.thecourseconsultant.com. You can see all the fun stuff that I’m up to, all the exciting events that I host.

Melody: And then I am really, really active on LinkedIn. And that’s where I love having conversations. Uh, Yvi and I were talking about LinkedIn audio events and how much I am loving LinkedIn audio, how exciting it is to see LinkedIn roll out some of these new features to allow creators like us, to be seen visible and heard, and audio without having to go live and put on makeup.

Melody: So if you’re someone who like me wants to roll outta bed and maybe get some breakfast and wants to do an audio room. You’ll love this format. So come join me on LinkedIn. Connect up with me, send me a message say, I watched it on Ask Yvi and I would love for us to just chat about your ideas for your course, your membership or your group program.

Melody: It’s always great to hear from other course creators because I believe collaboration is the future of creating sustainable revenue.

Yvonne: And who with that, I kind of feel making fun of today because what you don’t see on the audio podcast is I did not put on makeup today. And I literally just used a high bun because I’m like, you know what?

Yvonne: You see me like this on Instagram. I don’t care today. Um, alongside what Melody was just talking about, she also has a freebie course and you can find all of these links in the show notes. It will be all there easily for you to click on. Melody has for us also her Course Collab directory, which is a directory of membership and group coaching programs that allow you to grow your recurring revenue through referrals and network.

Yvonne: So it’s a nice, great database. If you have set up a membership, if you have a group coaching program that’s yours, you will be finding [email protected] slash join the course collab, or again, it’s in, it will be in the show notes. It’s all down there. And with that, I am sending off Melody to the rest of her day.

Yvonne: And you go binge watch because when you grow your membership, the behind the scenes might, behind the scenes work well, too, right? Melody was talking about that. You, you need to implement more processes and systems and yes, group offers can be much easier and less burnout prone than one-on-ones.

Yvonne: However, want to make sure you do not turn your group or membership into the next burnout. So go watch this video right up there or in the show, where I explain how to really manage scaling your business sustainably and prepare yourself to triple even quadruple your business without ever getting close to the next burnout.

Yvonne: And with that, I’ll see you everybody next week on Thursday, again with our next guest. Melody, thank you so much for joining us and I’ll see you in my DMs pretty soon.

Melody: Thanks so much, Yvi. I appreciate it.