Everything is Teachable Podcast Review: Ep. 5 — Lauren McManus, Create and Go
Just when you thought Teachable had run out of amazing, profitable and lifechanging Teachable schools to talk about, they go and grab another highly successful Teachable course provider to sit in their chair and have a good old chinwag with… whilst recording of course.
This week it was the turn of Lauren McManus, a former CPA turned full-time blogger.
Lauren McManus — Her Journey
Like many of us, Lauran took the traditional route in life. She went to school, studied hard and became a successful Tax Accountant working 9–5. Her business partner to be, though, had other aspirations. Not satisfied with the 9 -5, Alex Nerney decided to become a Personal Trainer, hoping this would bring happiness into his life by helping people, doing what he loves. Before long, Alex wanted to expand his business with a health and wellbeing blog — Avacadu. Lauren, seeing that Alex needed help and sharing his love of health and nutrition, offered to join him on his quest to blogging glory.
Unfortunately, the first attempt was a flop, they hadn’t made a dime in 6 months and the future wasn’t looking too bright for Avacadu. However, there was a small glimmer of hope — traffic. Lauren and Alex had managed to build up a small following and this gave them the courage they needed to rebuild Avacadu into something that would generate income. Lauren decided to risk everything. She quit her job and committed herself to the blogging community full time.
This dedication finally began to pay off. After spending every hour they could working on their product, within their first month, the blog began to generate a profit … which they then doubled the month after! So why the sudden change? What was the crucial factor that made this blog work and the other flop? It turned out to be a very easy answer, they had created a product that didn’t sell. They had created an online diet programme before they had researched their target audience and, very simply… no one wanted it. It wasn’t right for their target audience
They went back to the drawing board and decided their email list was crucial (did we mention how smart they are?). Having a small amount of traffic already made this easier and gave them the head start they really needed. Lauren explains that they were determined not to make the same mistake again. They used their email list to communicate with their target audience and discover what it was they really wanted.
How Avacadu started making money
Lauren and Alex decided against selling their own product until they were confident they knew what their audience wanted and instead, sold affiliate products to their readers, making them a small profit. Unfortunately, the profit from affiliate links wasn’t what made them the success they are today. By selling a range of fitness products to their target market, they were able to analyse which sold and which didn’t, making them more confident in what to create for their own product.
They realised that weightloss and yoga for 40 + females was the way to go! Completely different from what they originally thought their target audience would be. A powerful lesson into the importance of knowing your target audience and building a relationship with them. Lauren stresses how crucial it is to be open to the idea of your target audience not being who you believe they are. She commented that if they had been stubborn by continuing to sell products to the audience she thought she was aiming to attract rather than the audience she already had, they would not have been successful.
What Avacadu did for them
Lauren went on to say that apart from the income Avacadu was making them, the blogging world helped spark her creativity. Lauren is now a pro at blogging, email marketing and graphic design, all creative outlets she never deemed herself to be skilled in.
Create and Go
Create and Go started after Lauren and Alex’s first international trip. The couple wanted to teach their skills to other bloggers, so that they could live how Lauren and Alex were living — away from the 9–5 stress and earning an impressive income.
The first course they created was how to drive traffic to a blog via Pinterest. Their students loved it and wanted to know more. This is where the 6 figure blogger course came into play. They taught their students the ins and outs of online courses as well as affiliate marketing. What was interesting about this course is that it included all the information that Lauren and Alex learnt from marketing their blog, but this course content was also how they were now marketing their Teachable course. Every marketing skill they had, they utilised — with amazing results.
So, what did marketing Avacadu actually teach Lauren and Alex about marketing a blog and in turn, a Teachable site such as Create and Go?
Lauren tells the Teachable Podcast that the main thing they learnt when marketing Avacadu were the powers of Pinterest.
Unlike other guests on the Teachable podcast, Lauren didn’t mention Facebook/Instagram/PPC ads in detail, instead, she focussed on Pinterest. Now, that’s not to say social media ads weren’t utilised at all in Avacadu’s marketing strategy, Lauren explains that these were still used to grow a small but substantial social media following and to target readers more effectively. However, most of the traffic to Avacadu came from Pinterest. Yes, Pinterest.
Lauren explains that unlike Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest is actually a search engine where users and Pinterest itself EXPECTS the user to leave Pinterest via the search results. This is very unlike Facebook, Instagram and YouTube as these platforms discourage users from leaving their site, making promoting your own Teachable site less effective.
So, what’s next for Lauran and Alex? Their plan is to continue to build the team, grow online and to work with sites such as Teachable more in the future. Whatever they do, we’re sure they will continue to grow and find even more success
To listen to the Teachable podcast discussed, click here
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