162: How Lisa Took Action and Built a Six Figure Business

Lisa: I still wouldn’t have done anything if I didn’t have a deadline. Launching that free challenge, giving people a date that they could expect that something was gonna get in their inbox, made me move.

Darren: That was the voice of Lisa Corduff who is the feature of today’s podcast. Welcome to episode 162 of the ProBlogger podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and I’m the blogger behind problogger.com. A blog, podcast, event which you’ve just heard a snippet from, job board and series of ebooks all designed to help you as a blogger to grow your audience, to build engagement with that audience and to monetize your blog. You can find out more about ProBlogger at problogger.com.

As I just mentioned, today, we have a special interview with Lisa Corduff from lisacorduff.com. It’s an interview that Karly Nimmo from Radcasters recorded at the ProBlogger event after Lisa had just gotten off stage after presenting at the event.

Lisa spoke at the event and was one of our most highly rated sessions. She did a session entitled Anyone Can Create An Online Product. That was a session that really resonated with a lot of our attendees. You’re going to hear why it resonated in a moment with this interview.

Let me tell you a little bit about Lisa so you’ve got the backstory of it. Lisa is a Whole Foods blogger who has been blogging and had a Facebook page for a couple of years without tremendous growth, she talks a little bit about that during this interview but she decided to ramp things up and started a free 21 day challenge which really took off with her audience. Off the back of that, she created a paid eight week program to offer to her community called Small Steps to Whole Food. This process lead her to build a six figure business while she had three kids at home all under the age of four, one of them was a baby of four months she told me when she launched that free 21 day challenge.

She had a lot going on but managed to build something quite significant. Now, she’s done I think six launches and has really built an amazing business around her. I really loved going to her session at the event but also relistening to it as well.

In this interview today, Lisa shares a few highlights from the event itself but then  goes on to give some really great advice. She talks about what to do when you feel tempted to compare yourself to other which is something that I know many of us as bloggers struggle with. She talks about the power of taking action. She talks about what to do when fear shows up. She talks about what she wishes she knew when she was starting out, the power of having a posse around you to support you and how to make the most of the time you have which I think is definitely something that Lisa has worked out well with all the things that she’s done as well as having those kids at home.

There’s a lot of goodness in today’s interview. I just want you though to be aware that if you are listening with kids around, and I know many of you do listen to this podcast in the car with your kids, there is a little bit of language throughout this episode. If you wanna shield your kids from that, you may want to listen to this when you’re alone a little bit later. It’s not too heavy but there are a few moment where you might want to cover your kid’s ears.

I’ll also mention that Lisa in her session at the event spoke a lot about how she uses video as part of her products but also promoting her products. In fact, her sales videos are some of the most effective sales videos that I’ve ever seen. I played one at the event and it was hilarious but it was so effective. I wanted to buy her product simply by watching the video.

We don’t get into too much about video in this particular interview but Lisa is launching a product this week called Keeping Video Real in which she does share how to use video in your marketing. It’s a four week course where you can learn the basics of shooting, editing, presenting and then how to use it on Facebook and how to use webinars as well. If you are interested in learning a little bit more about video, you can check out her course at problogger.com/lisa. She tells me if you sign up before the end of the month, the end of October 2016, you’ll save $50 on that.

At the end of it, I’ll pull out a few things that I most appreciated from what she said as well so tune in to the end of today’s show. Thanks for listening and let’s get into the interview with Karly and Lisa.

Karly: Hey, Karly Nimmo here from radcaters.com, launch, leverage, love your podcast. This year I made the switch from attendee to speaker at ProBlogger and I was super on it when Darren contacted me to ask if I’d be willing to sit down with some of the keynotes and have a chat. I mean, amazing That’s what I did. I pulled all my gear together, set it up in the green room and sat down with some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met to have conversations about ProBlogger, what makes them tick, and what they contribute their level of success to. I’m sure you’re gonna get heaps out of this. Enjoy.

Lisa: I’m Lisa and I’ve got a Wholefoods blog. I blog at lisacorduff.com at the moment but that will be changing soon. I run an eight week online program called Small Steps to Wholefoods. I basically help real people eat more real food in the real world without all the jargon and fancy pants photoshopping of meals. I cook food for my family and I share it, that’s basically cool.

Karly: What was your session on today?

Lisa: Today, my session was on anyone can create an online product but it was kinda like, seriously if I can, anyone can create an online product. I shared my story of how I took my blog and my Facebook page which I’ve been working away on for a few years while I was having babies. I just decided I needed to make some money from it or else I was gonna have to go back to work.

When my youngest turned one, didn’t wanna do that so I just took a big fat leap, I launched a 21 day challenge for free. That went off and from that I created my eight week program and my business was off and I really wanted to share that you don’t have to be the most organized person, you don’t have to have all your children in school, you don’t have to wait until you’ve got a lot of money to invest in a business.

Karley: Or have your shit together in any way, shape, or form.

Lisa: Absolutely no shit together here. You can just still do it. I was really here to share my story and inspire other people to just take some action.

Karley: Yep, totally worked, by the way.

Lisa: Thank you.

Karley: What has been your highlight of the event so far?

Lisa: My talk, I was amazing. No, not really. It was the feedback after my talk.

Karley: You go maniac.

Lisa: You know what, I just love rocking up and meeting people, people who’ve just been names on Facebook profiles and all that kind of thing, I love the connecting.

Karley: Yeah and everyone is super friendly, right?

Lisa: Everyone is here to actually meet people. It is such an easy place to make friends.

Karley: Totally. Have you had any aha style moments while you’ve been here?

Lisa: Look, listening to Brian Fanzo and what he was talking about the power of sharing authentically, I’m like, “Yeah dude, that’s what I do.” And when he was talking about the power of video, I’m like, “Yeah dude, that’s what I do.” And I have connected with Engrown, a community, very authentically, via video and Facebook Live is the shit. I love it.

I’ve been tinkering away creating an ecourse on how to help people just get the frick over their worry about video and start doing it. That’s really given me him and his presentation just helped me realize that there was a real need for it. I’m feeling super confident in that now.

Karley: If you could’ve had one thing that people walked away from your talk with, what would be the one thing that you’d want them to kind of go away with?

Lisa: I think so many of us in the blogging space are looking around at what everyone else is doing. We are so scared, always so frustrated because things aren’t growing as fast as other people. It would be to stop looking around, to start thinking about what you’re really good at, to get to know your community and what they’re struggling with and then serve them in a way that also rewards you with income. That’s not a deadly thing to do, in fact it’s awesome and so many other good things happen from that.

It would just be really learn about your community, be in conversation with them authentically, find out what their needs are, and then work out a way to package that together in a product. Just take some freaking action.

Karley: Totally. I just wanna add that Lisa and I came to ProBlogger last year together. We both said, “Next year, we will be on stage.” And this year, we’re both on stage. I’m working on Darren’s podcast, the most amazing things happen when you take action, when you decide what you want and then you just go for it, right?

Lisa: You just have to. I was so freaking scared before that speech and it was so fun in the end. The fear shows up all the time, every single time you do something new. I can’t believe where I’ve come in two years. It was actually crazy to stand on the stage and talk about it and see it.

Karley: And rock it.

Lisa: And rock it.

Karley: What would be one tip for those who are just starting out?

Lisa: Everyone hears crickets in the beginning, everyone talks to no one for a while, but keep talking, keep showing up, keep consistent. Everyone thinks that I kinda came out of nowhere and had all this overnight success but in fact I was on Facebook a lot for a years but all of that time was just helping me craft my message, craft what was unique about me.

                    Wholefoods bloggers and food bloggers in general are damn freaking dozen. What different did I had to have to say about it? I worked that out by showing up and getting to know my community.

Karley: What do you wish you knew that you know now back then before you launched a product or even before you launched the blog?

Lisa: I wish that I knew that I was enough, that me, who wants to share, has something of value that people will vibe with. I didn’t know that. I kept on thinking all of this was a fluke. Even after the success, I kept thinking this is just gonna go away, I’m not all that. What I realized was that we are all actually enough, we’re all all that. If we can sit in it and if we can feel groovy in that, then anything is actually possible. Most of the time, it’s just us telling ourselves stories about why we can’t do things.

Karley: Totally. What do you think has contributed to your success the most so far?

Lisa: I think having my bitches. Having a posse of chicks who get it, having friends in the online business world, not trying to do exactly what I’m doing but who understand the space, has been the secret to my success. Having women around me who I can cry ugly tears and talk about the shit parts, the good parts, and who just genuinely are there cheering you on. You got their back and they’ve got yours.

Karley: Where did you really suck at at the start?

Lisa: Technology. No, I really lack, I still do. I really don’t have the attention span or desire to understand the technology. I knew enough to get started. I told everyone in the talk that my online program was run at the start on MailChimp and Vimeo. It didn’t have a membership site. There was nothing fancy about it, yet people bought it. A lot them bought it and then a lot of them bought it the second time because they liked the feeling, they liked the transformations that they were making and the way that they received it wasn’t important but that was two years ago.

                    I still get surprised that I’ve got an online business for someone who has a bit of an aversion to technology. I absolutely love it now. I can see how much it can do for me and I outsourced that bitch as soon as I could because I wasn’t gonna sit there banging my head against a laptop.

Karley: One last question for you. One of the key things, I think there’s been a couple of key themes that have been going throughout ProBlogger and one of them for me has been I see a lot of bloggers not moving ahead due to two main factors. One, there’s obviously fear and one is time. Could you let us know maybe one tip for each? One way that you could move through fear and one way that you could save yourself a bit of time.

Lisa: The fear one is interesting because I was feeling fear before my talk. It shows up all the time. It actually does never go away. I’ve launched my Small Steps to Wholefoods six times and I still get nervous every single time. I do loads and loads of webinars but I still get nervous before them. That’s cool. I’m just not going to let the fear win. It’s like what Louis Guilbert says, fear can get in the backseat but I’m gonna drive, I’m gonna do this anyway because I’m never gonna get anywhere, I’m never gonna grow and stretch if I stay stuck in the fear. My advice, just do it.

In terms of time, because I have three young kids, I did a lot in nap time, I do a lot in nap time. Working in small, little increments has been amazing but I still wouldn’t have done anything if I didn’t have a deadline. Launching that free challenge, giving people a date that they could expect that something was gonna get in their inbox, made me move. I have a bit of a background in journalism and I love short  deadlines, I actually need short deadlines. Find out the best ways that get you moving without totally overwhelming yourself.

Karley: Cool, thanks.

Lisa: Right on.

Darren: Wow, what a great interview. Thank you so much Karley and Lisa for putting aside the time to record that for us. There are few things in that interview that I particularly loved. I loved the advice that Lisa gave for those of us who are tempted to compare ourselves to others. The advice to instead of looking at what others are doing, to put that energy into learning more about your community, to be in the conversation with that community authentically and to find out what their needs are, to package up a product, something that meets those needs, to take action. I love that.

I really encourage you. If you are someone who compares yourself to other people, every time you catch yourself doing that, just focus yourself back on your community. Don’t analyze what others are doing, analyze your community and force yourself back into conversation with them to serving them as best you can. I love that.

I love what she said also about fear. I don’t know if you heard this but I jotted this down, fear shows up every time you do something new And also about the sounds of it with Lisa, every time you do something that’s not new, doing a new webinar, doing a new launch, I can really resonate with that. Fear is something that I guess we need to learn to live with, it never goes away. Nerves come every time you do something new and every time you do something big. Don’t let it win. Fear can get in the backseat, I think she said, I’m going to drive and I think that was a great one as well.

And then that advice that she said for those of us who are starting out. This is advice, again, I really resonated with. Everyone hears crickets in the beginning. Everyone talks to no one for a while, so keep talking, keep showing up, keep being consistent. It’s those years before Lisa did her launches that were really the basis of the launches. While she had some overnight success, it was built on those years of showing up, being consistent, getting to know her audience, understanding their needs. She was in a much better position.

I hope you got some encouragement out of those messages today. I certainly did. I’m feeling motivated to get into my work today right now. Again, if you are interested in checking out Lisa’s site, it’s lisacorduff.com, I’ll link to it in the show notes and also check out her course that she does have launching this week as well. If you go to problogger.com/lisa, you can save $50 on that. We are an affiliate for that but it’s a course that I will be doing myself as well so join me in doing that because I’ve got a lot to learn about video.

I hope you enjoyed today’s show. Take action, take action friends, that was the big message for me from today’s interview. I’ll look forward to chatting with you in the couple of days, time in the episode 163.

If you’re looking for something else to listen to now and you enjoyed the interview format, we’ve got a few interviews in our archives that you might wanna go back and listen to. Episode 157 was an interview that Karly also did with Brian Fanzo from iSocialFanz, just a few episodes ago now, same sort of format as today.

Back in Episode 99, I talked to Tim Paige from LeadPages and we talked a lot about landing pages and how they can be useful for bloggers. You might wanna listen to that one if landing pages is on your radar.

Back in Episode 85 was one of our most popular interviews that I did with Pat Flynn on how to get entrepreneurial ideas out of your head.

That’s probably enough for you today. You can listen to those particular episodes if you like the interview format. Otherwise, dig back into our archives over on iTunes or over on problogger.com/podcast and find something that is of interest to you. I’ll chat with you soon.