In this episode I'm sharing a very important story - a tale of two 7-figure CEOs, each running a $1M business, but in two very different ways. The story has a very important lesson for anyone growing a course business in 2025 and beyond.
This episode is unlike anything else I've ever done before, and you won't want to miss it. When you hear it, you'll understand why.
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In this episode:
"Jess" and "Joy" are two CEOs who have both built successful businesses, but in very different ways
Jess often prioritized short term revenue, while Joy sometimes took a slow-down-to-speed-up season
Jess's business is heavily reliant on zoom calls, her energy, and "access" to her, while Joy focused on creating streamlined client systems and async support structures
Jess realizes she needs to make some strategic shifts and calls Joy asking for advice…
You'll have to listen to the whole thing to see what happened next!
Meet "Jess" and "Joy".
They're not real people and those are not their real names, but I think you'll find them to be quite familiar.
They both run $1M online course businesses.
They both maintain a 50% profit margin, take home an amazing income, and are all-in on their vision and goals.
By the numbers, we see two people with a pretty similar situation.
On the outside, Jess and Joy are both successful by any measure!
But if we take a closer look, we start to see a stark contrast in their day to day and what their lives look like.
Though they've both built a million dollar business, they've had two totally different approaches.
Jess has built her $1M business by:
Priding herself on 100% organic marketing, meaning she posts to social media 3x every day.
Live launching 5x per year, creating a few large cash infusions (yay!) but no consistent revenue in between (not so yay). She hasn't taken the time to create an evergreen funnel, which means she has to keep launching, which means she doesn't have time to build out evergreen, and so on, and so on - and the cycle continues.
Enrolling clients through sales calls, allotting about 20 hours of her week to zoom calls with people who may or may not join her program.
Structuring her programs around how much "access + proximity" her clients get to her, her main marketing message, and because of that she spends another 10-15 hours per week spent on zoom calls with clients (both 1:1 and in groups)
Marketing her programs based on how many calls you get, how many hours of content are inside, and how much of her time you'll "get" - because that's how she spends 90% of her time it's all she can see from where she's standing, so she leans heavily on that in her marketing.
Of course the cycle continues - no time for evergreen, too busy live launching. No time to streamline her programs and systems, too busy on client calls.
Jess loves her clients and her business, but her day to day is spent ramping up for the next launch, on 4-5 hours of zoom calls with potential clients, current clients, team members, or trying to get today's 3rd social media post out.
There's nothing "wrong" with Jess's approach and she's proud of what she's accomplished, but she's ready for a new way of doing things!
Joy, on the other hand, has built her 7-figure business like this:
Going evergreen with her courses + program early on, before most of her peers did, so that she could bring in consistent revenue alongside launches. She took a "slow down to speed up" season to build out the evergreen systems that would benefit her for years to come.
1-2x live launches per year, which she treats as an art project and a chance to connect with her community on a larger scale. Once or twice a year gives her plenty of breathing room to come up with the next launch's theme and treat it like a fun party she's hosting for her community.
Eliminating the need for any sales calls, by enrolling course students + clients through a mix of automation and asynchronous communication. She leverages pre-recorded funnels, email sequences with the async touchpoint of DM messages to enroll clients.
Because she took the time to build out funnels, she's making sales daily, on evergreen, with an ecosystem of offers at every price point so sales never stop.
Serving her students + clients completely asynchronously, through a Q&A private podcast and 1:1 clients via voice-memos a few days a week, so she never has a single call on her calendar.
Protecting her clear and spacious calendar - zero zoom calls, zero schedule - so she has more freedom to create from inspiration (which always leads to more sales).
Leverages a mix of organic content at a sustainable pace, with paid ads, to make sure the content she does create gets seen by thousands of people.
Marketing her programs based on the powerful frameworks, curriculum and unique IP inside them, never how much "access or proximity" you get - which attracts people who want to learn the skills, not just get more of her time. Her students and clients can get even better results!
"Jess" and "Joy" both make $1M a year. They both have "success".
But how they got there and therefore their day to day life is very different right now.
While Jess was prioritizing every month's live launch, Joy took a month to set up an evergreen ecosystem of funnels - a temporary dip for years of growth after.
While Jess was taking that days' sales calls, Joy was building out an email sequence and recorded video answering all her clients' questions, and popping into her DMs 30 minutes a day.
While Jess was spending 4-8 hours a week on group calls answering questions that would inevitably come up again and again every week, with the replays going into an archive no one will take the time to watch, Joy was spending that time prioritizing creating the most simple, streamlined curriculum + a searchable FAQ database of responses to every question her clients have along the way.
While Jess gets sales by promoting how her program includes 4+ hours of coaching calls each week and how she will answer every question in <24 hours, Joy promotes how she's able to deliver a huge mindset shift and transfer of information in 10 minutes or less via short by impactful video trainings, convenient recorded audio responses and plug + play frameworks - attracting the best clients she is thrilled to serve and work with.
All this has led to two 7-figure CEOs, with the same success on paper, but VERY different businesses, days, and lives.
So one night, exhausted from 4 hours of client calls and stressing about her next live launch (the 5th one this year...) Jess calls up Joy.
"Hey - I don't know if I can keep doing this. Can you help?"
Joy is thrilled her friend reached out.
She says "Of course, I've been hoping to hear from you. I actually documented every single thing I've done, how I do it, and have all the playbooks + templates you can put into your business to start making these changes TODAY, so that 6 months from now your business is more spacious and sustainable. Let me send them over to you."
Joy paused for a moment and realized she almost forgot the most important piece:
"Hey Jess, I have to tell you - it's not just about the strategy and templates. Making this shift in your biz requires an enormous amount of courage. You need to step into your most fearless CEO self and really stand up for what YOU need above all else to build the business YOU desire. You may need to stop rushing into the next launch to step back and build some of these systems. You may need to make some big shifts with how you are used to selling and how you communicate. You may need to make upgrades to how you serve your clients and that will come with changes. Everything you want is possible, but it requires COURAGE to execute the systems, frameworks, and templates - that's the most important piece."
Jess thanked Joy for the strategy and the pep talk.
She took a deep breath and said, "I'm ready."
Jess got to work knowing she was about to shift her entire business to spending her time + energy on things that were leveraged, that would serve her for years to come, not just the short term, and would ultimately empower her own students and clients and deliver the best experience for them too….
…
In case you haven't caught on yet, I'm "Joy" in this story :)
"Jess" is not an individual or real person, but rather an amalgamation of the all-too-familiar patterns I see successful course CEOs slip into over time.
I do regularly get late-night texts from other 7- and 8-figure CEOs in my industry asking me how they can shift their revenue success into a more sustainable structure that they can enjoy day to day.
They ask me how am I able to run a business like this without all the things they were told they "had to do":
Without sales calls, client calls, or any calls at all
Without monthly live launching
Without driving myself crazy on social media
Right now, my business looks more like this:
I spend the first hour of my day creatively expressing myself and sharing my ideas with my community
Those micro-content ideas turn into ads that get seen by thousands of people
Which in turn creates evergreen sales all day long
I deliver the most targeted, precision, laser focused transformation and strategy to my clients in the most convenient formats possible
My day is open and that space is the fertile void where the best, most profitable ideas sprout from
So how am I running this business with zero calls, a completely clear calendar, a teeny tiny team?
I do exactly what I teach in Profit Architecture.
That's it. That's the special sauce.
I unapologetically have designed my business to be exactly what I want it to be.
I don't do anything because "you should" or because someone expects me to or out of obligation.
I am the architect of my business and life and I take responsibility for how it's designed.
If there's something I don't like, I evolve and shift it. If something no longer serves me and my clients, I reinvent it.
When you're ready to be the architect of your own business and intentionally design exactly what you want it to be, instead of running it on default settings… join us in Profit Architecture.