Episode 25 | Questioning the default path to work and life with Paul Millerd

Episode 29 | Email marketing, copywriting, and RageHeart with John McIntyre

In this episode of Info Product Mastery, I sit down with copywriting legend, John McIntyre, and we discuss email marketing, copywriting, and his new business RageHeart. TOPICS COVERED [00:35] Adrian talks about John and how he listened to his podcast, The McMethod Podcast and learned all about copywriting. [01:26] Adrian asks John to talk a little bit about his personal history and his beginnings in copywriting. [03:24] Adrian remarks on how copywriting has taken John around the world and also how in the age of the internet if you have a skill you can market, you can work from anywhere. [05:04] “Success in anything requires knowing how to persuade people..” - John [07:13] “I just thought copywriting was an ephemeral skill..” - Adrian [08:25] John discusses the importance of understanding people in writing copy. [10:30] John explains why he started his podcast. [12:50] Adrian wants to know why John switched over from Drip to Berserker. [18:24] Adrian talks about the million dollar Google Docs program. One of his favorite things John has shared through his email list. [19:22] Adrian wants to know what John’s favorite pattern interrupts are. [21:00] “The copy is only part of the thing….maybe the problem is the market, or the offer that you’re making…” - John [22:05] John talks about PersuasivePage.com and how they do great and innovative work in copywriting. [25:35] John introduces his new business RageHeart.co, and explains what it is. [28:37] “If you can explain someone's problem to them better than they can explain it they will immediately trust you” - John [29:36] John discusses how while everyone is trying to work on themselves, approaching self help and healing via the nervous system has totally changed his life. [31:27] “This somatic stuff, this nervous system stuff is doing the same thing” - John commenting on his use of plant medicines and the parallels with somatic therapy. [32:38] RageHeart is a combination of Somatic therapy and plant medicine therapy branded in a different way than your typical self-help type therapies. [33:28] Adrian talks about his own life challenges and struggles and how he overcame them with similar therapies to John. [37:35] “If you think about what holds people back…it’s fear, it’s doubt…all of these things relate to the nervous system..” - John on how doing the work to make yourself better will actually make your business more successful and happier in general. [41:39] Adrian agrees with John about doing this somatic and plant based self work, and talks about how even if you are taking the time to reflect, that doesn’t always address the root cause of problems that might be underlying. [42:00] Adrian discusses the “enough” problem and how that can also be solved with this type of self work. [43:01] John remarks on how most of us are literally just trying to find safety and that is what is the underlying driver at our core. [44:49] “Instead of moving through life feeling a constant sense of threat….what’s life gonna be like now that I feel safe…I’m not dancing to get anywhere..I’m dancing for the love of it.” - John [46:34] “If no one has told you ….let me be the one…..you have helped me tremendously…” - Adrian to John on his positive influence. LINKS FROM THE SHOW * PyImageSearch [https://pyimagesearch.com/] * Tropical MBA [https://www.tropicalmba.com/] * RageHeart.co [https://www.rageheart.co/] * Drip [http://drip.com/] * Berserker Mail [https://berserkermail.com/] * Startups For The Rest of Us [https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/] * PersuasivePage.com [https://persuasivepage.com/] * Peter Levine - Waking the Tiger [https://amzn.to/3MtQP7K] * The McMethod Podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mcmethod-email-marketing-podcast/id649771147] * DropDeadCopy.com [https://www.dropdeadcopy.com/] If you have any questions from this episode, or have a question you want me to answer on the show, please submit your question via our contact form [https://infoproductmastery.com/contact/]. We'd love to hear from you.

Episode 28 | Creating online courses with WordPress and LearnDash with Justin Ferriman

In this episode of Info Product Mastery, we have Justin Ferriman on the show, former CEO of LearnDash, the premier WordPress plugin for creating and selling online courses. TOPICS COVERED [02:11] Adrian asks Justin what his inspiration for LearnDash was initially. [03:45] Justin talks about starting his blog and beginning to capture emails. [05:04] Both PyImageSearch and LearnDash were acquired on the same day. Adrian remembers how he and Justin’s path have a lot of parallels. [06:06] Justin discusses the benefits of LearnDash and why people should use it. [07:42] “In a sentence I just feel like Wordpress allows you to own the content…” - Justin [08:59] Adrian agrees with Justin about the benefits of Wordpress over something like Udemy, and gives some examples of how he was able to make custom offerings. [10:54] “Do shorter...concise…or longer, more in depth courses tend to do better in terms of sales?…” - Adrian [15:14] Justin talks about breaking out content into several courses versus one huge course. [16:27] “A combination of video and text will go a long way…” - Justin on what kind of formatting does best on LearnDash. [21:01] Adrian wants to know from Justin if gamification is a good strategy, or is even still a thing. [22:08] “The point of gamification is to create a sense of commitment…” - Justin [24:37] Justin talks about what’s keeping him busy now that LearnDash has been acquired. [26:36] “The point of GapScout is to leverage the best of AI and machine learning….to then spot those gaps you can go after in your business….” - Justin [27:01] “I love taking customer reviews…and turning those into headlines and copy..” - Adrian [28:04] Justin describes a “great little sales hack.” [29:40] “The target market for this are people like you and I….the solopreneur…the small business trying to compete against the big guy” - Justin on GapScout [30:44] Pain points and negative experiences with other brands can be used as a way to market. [32:50] Justin points out that anybody that is creating an online course should do market research. LINKS FROM THE SHOW * LearnDash [https://www.learndash.com/] * GapScout [https://gapscout.com/] * PyImageSearch [https://pyimagesearch.com/] * WordPress [https://wordpress.com/] * Udemy [https://www.udemy.com/] * PluralSight [https://www.pluralsight.com/] * Teachable [https://teachable.com/] * Podia [https://www.podia.com/] * Kajabi [https://kajabi.com/] * Stripe [https://stripe.com/] If you have any questions from this episode, or have a question you want me to answer on the show,please submit your question via our contact form [https://infoproductmastery.com/contact/]. We'd love to hear from you.

Episode 27 | Profy.dev teardown with Johannes Kettmann

In this episode of Info Product Mastery, I chat with Johannes Kettmann about his website, Profy.dev. We discuss tactics and techniques to regularly produce content, improve your email list conversion, and build a profitable info product company. TOPICS COVERED [01:25] Adrian starts by asking Johannes why he wanted to start React training. [02:55] Johannes talks about why self taught developers have a hard time finding their first job. [05:42] Johannes designed his React job simulator to help students learn the way he did, on the job. [07:22] Adrian asks Johannes about his price points for the membership to his site. [08:20] The initial launch of Johannes’ product converted reasonably well, but the most recent launch was much lower but with a bigger email list. He wants to know why. [11:23] After learning a bit about where the traffic to Johanne’s site comes from, Adrian talks about consistency in content marketing, and how he breaks the work down into “seasons.” [13:10] “I’m batching all of this, so there’s zero context switching with all of this.” - Adrian [16:31] Adrian gives one of his key workflow optimizations. [21:11] “You can be immensely more productive by reducing the number of hours you work in a day.” - Adrian [22:12] Adrian asks Johanne about his LinkedIn activity. [25:59] After Adrian suggests looking to LinkedIn for audience building, Johannes talks about struggling to find an audience online because of his narrow focus. [28:05] After talking about his goals and what he might need help with, Adrian asks what email opt-ins Johannes is currently offering. [30:45] Having gone over Johanne’s specific email opt in’s, the guys get more specific on the actual blog post content and what they contain. [32:46] Adrian gave some tips to Johannes on how he can get more opt-ins on the email list and how he can also get more segmentation by making some changes on his blog posts. Johannes agrees that more segmentation is needed because his open rates were low. [33:53] Adrian introduces the concept of a shadow newsletter. [35:11] “If you already have a library of quality pieces, there’s no reason you can’t…reuse that.” - Adrian [36:48] Johannes has one last question. His parental leave is almost over and he wants to know if there is anything he can do in the short month he has for “quick win.” [38:14] “Put your Github URLs behind an email opt-in.” - Adrian [41:12] “It does take time, and it does take that discipline to create that content.” - Adrian on focusing on the long term goals. LINKS FROM THE SHOW * Profy.dev [https://profy.dev/] * PyImageSearch [https://pyimagesearch.com/] * 30x500 [https://30x500.com/academy/] * Dev.to [https://dev.to/] * Moz [https://moz.com/] * Ahrefs [https://ahrefs.com/] * Semrush [https://www.semrush.com/] * Trello [https://trello.com/] * Startups for the Rest of Us [https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/] * Drip [https://www.drip.com/] * ConvertKit [https://convertkit.com/] If you have any questions from this episode, or have a question you want me to answer on the show, please submit your question via our contact form [https://infoproductmastery.com/contact/]. We'd love to hear from you.

Episode 26 | Transitioning from freelancer to content creator with Austin Church

In this episode of Info Product Mastery, Adrian sits down with Austin Church and they discuss the path to transitioning from freelancer to content creator. TOPICS COVERED [00:29] Adrian introduces Austin Church. [01:45] Austin comments on his career trajectory and how unexpected it has been. [03:31] “It’s funny now, I guess I’ve come full circle..” - Austin [06:08] Looking back, Austin realizes he was always headed towards being an entrepreneur. [07:45] Adrian discusses how interests change and how after working on something and succeeding, he desires to move on. [08:55] Austin looks back on his journey and realizes his wide variety of interests can be a danger as an entrepreneur. [11:04] “Because entrepreneurship is so intertwined with personal development, you have to constantly check in and ask, Do I still want to be doing this?” - Austin [13:08] Austin talks about his current work with Freelancecake.com and his journey there as a freelance creative. [15:00] “What do six figure freelancers think and do differently…” - Austin [17:25] In 2018, Austin rolled out a coaching program where he talked about the four P’s: positioning, packaging, pricing, and pipeline. [18:04] “There are certain…shareable advantages…that are available to those of us who sell creativity.” - Austin [19:48] Adrian discusses the most underrated leverage of all time, the power of saying “No.” [19:48] Austin continues discussing the power of no and what he calls “disciplined simplicity.” [22:17] “I have to address the root cause of saying yes so often and that is scarcity mindset” - Austin [23:19] Adrian asks Austin  what advice he would give freelancers who want to eventually make the switch to being full time content creators. [25:35] “That paradigm shift….I’m actually trying to grow two businesses at the same time.” - Austin [26:19] Since selling products will be new to most freelancers, you will be prone to making mistakes just like when you were first a freelancer. [26:43] “I talk about three paths to diversified income…..value based pricing…….scaling into a micro agency….or digital products. It’s amazing to me… that very accomplished people….almost without exception…do it the wrong way.” - Austin [29:28] Freelancers who are frustrated with what they’re earning…it’s gonna go back to….positioning, packaging, pipeline, pricing.” - Austin [31:13] “You can’t compare what you’re doing in the programming world to what you’re doing in the product world.” - Adrian [34:04] After Adrian talks about buying an existing company or audience asset instead of starting from scratch in info products, Austin responds with his thoughts on that approach. [36:36] “If you want to build a product business, you have to find out what people want, and then give them more of that.” - Austin [37:08] “The thing that seems so obvious to you…….that you can’t imagine that someone would want to pay you for this…may actually be your best first product.” - Austin [39:34] Austin reminds the listener to “pay attention to what wants to happen.” [41:15] Freelancers probably have ideas and documents that could be turned into info products once they find the demand. [42:25] After listening to Austin talk about “selling sawdust,” meaning things that you have already made that folks might find valuable, Adrian realizes that he has over 500 blog posts as well as templates and best practices from PyImagesearch that could be re-packaged. [43:22] Austin remarks on how a lot of the multi six figure creators that he knows are focused on 1, or a small amount of products or offerings versus a wide array. LINKS FROM THE SHOW * FreelanceCake [https://freelancecake.com/] * Creative Companion Club [https://join.creatorscience.com/] * Zenfounder / Dr. Sherry Walling [https://zenfounder.com/] * Double Your Freelancing Podcast [https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/podcast/] * PyImageSearch [https://pyimagesearch.com/] If you have any questions from this episode, or have a question you want me to answer on the show, please submit your question via our contact form [https://infoproductmastery.com/contact/]. We'd love to hear from you.

Episode 25 | Questioning the default path to work and life with Paul Millerd

In this episode of Info Product Mastery, Paul Millerd comes on the show and we question the default path to work and life. TOPICS COVERED [00:40] Adrian introduces Paul Millerd and how much he loved his book The Pathless Path. [02:59] “I have this sense that something is off…….and writing for me was really this search for my own truth..” - Paul [04:24] Paul gives a synopsis of his coming of age, his early career, and how he landed in entrepreneurship. [06:56] Paul discusses his discontentment with the traditional path. [08:52] “Have my principles won out against this environment, or have they been undermined?” - Paul [09:40] Adrian asks Paul to define what he thinks of as the default path. [10:44] “A vast majority of people….don’t have the energy to crush it…” - Paul [13:07] Adrian talks about his early career work obsession and why he was chasing success by working himself unsustainably. [14:41] “Since everyone else is doing the same thing, you don’t realize you’re becoming this…way.” - Paul [16:00] “Alright, it’s 5, 6 o'clock…I’ve been working like 12 hours straight…I’m gonna walk down to the bar…..” - Adrian [17:08] Adrian asks Paul how he developed the courage to break from the typical cycles in the midst of  criticism. [19:38] “I was using the story of freelance for the first year, but I had no idea what I was doing…it was really scary..” - Paul [20:19] Paul discusses the way that some people are still critical with his way of life even though he has been able to find some success. [21:22] “My need to question things is what has led me to this” - Paul [22:08] Adrian asks Paul to define success. [24:02] “Success very practically for me is, can I keep this journey going without harming the people in my life?” - Paul [26:13] Adrian references Jordan Peterson talking about the hero's journey and “slaying the   dragon.” [28:39] For someone starting a career at times in the past, you did have to put your head down and “trust the company and keep working.” (Paul) [30:21] Paul introduces his concept “Ship, Quit, and Learn. [33:19] Adrian talks about being self-employed and having the ability to make your own schedule and create the life you want versus being forced into a particular schedule in a traditional job. [35:30] “I’m very good at non-work” - Paul [39:25] Adrian asks Paul for advice for beginner writers. [36:55] Adrian comments on being able to take time off from work for self reflection and the importance of that. [41:06] Paul recounts that writing is infinitely interesting and challenging to him. Even after writing a book he still struggles in a good way to find the words. LINKS FROM THE SHOW * Think-Boundless.com [https://think-boundless.com/] * PyImageSearch [https://pyimagesearch.com/] * The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life [https://amzn.to/3LlaaHK] If you have any questions from this episode, or have a question you want me to answer on the show, please submit your question via our contact form [https://infoproductmastery.com/contact/]. We'd love to hear from you.