How Julie Austin Supplements Her Income By Helping Others Create Their Own Job

Who: Julie Austin

Website: Job Security for Life
Course Topic: How to create your own job

Interesting Stats: $10,000 a year/course

Who are you and what course have you created?

I’m Julie Austin and I created a course called Create Your Own Job.

What market does your online course serve?

I started out teaching my course to a live audience. Originally, I thought my course fit people who were unemployed. I quickly found out people who had a job and hated it or people who were underemployed were enrolling in it.

The course is about creating your own job. It’s not the usual “start your own business” course, but a unique way of creating jobs. I have been doing this for many years for myself and haven’t had a regular job in a very long time.

I’ve used the techniques in it to create multiple fun jobs for myself:

$500 a night working the coat check in a fancy restaurant
$2500 a month as a corporate publicist working 4 days a month
$2500 a month just to be on call as a spokesperson

Hanging out with celebrities at Cannes, making over 6 figures a year
$200 a day reading scripts
$40 an hour transcribing

The great thing about it is that no matter what the economy is doing, you will always be employed if you follow these techniques. It includes 3 ways to guarantee you will never be unemployed again.

How did you get into the market?

I’ve been developing these techniques for years. I guess it was mostly because I hated the idea of working a regular 9-5 job!

Why did you decide to create an online course in the first place?

I was ready to spill my secrets because I knew it could help other people live a more fulfilled life as an entrepreneur.

Did you have any moments of doubt before you created/launched it?

I didn’t really think about it because I’ve lived the entrepreneur/freelancer lifestyle most of my life.

What’s your online course like?

I created the course in PowerPoint with voice over.

How long did it take you to create your course?

It took a few months to put it together. I had to dig out a lot of files from the past years to start piecing it together. I didn’t want to leave anything out.

Tell us a little about the process of launching your course and getting your first sale(s).

The first sale I got from this course came from me doing a speech at a job fair. The room was packed with people who were looking for a job and I asked how many people would like to skip the whole resume/interview process and create their own jobs. I got a really big enthusiastic response, so I knew I was on to something.

I got people to sign up for a free eBook and then sent a quick email about the course. That’s where the first customers came from.

Do you have a lead magnet?

I have my course on Kajabi and I have a brief teaser video and also a free eBook as a lead magnet.

What’s the traffic strategy that works best for you?

I have different courses for different audiences. – Julie Austin Click To Tweet

One is for future entrepreneurs, one is for artist entrepreneurs looking for sponsorship, and the other one is for speaker entrepreneurs looking for sponsorship.

I have different email lists for them and that has been the best way to sell. You have to build trust and give great content before people will trust you enough to buy your course, especially if it costs a lot of money.

What online course platform are you using?

I use Kajabi for my course platform and I love it. It was much easier to use in the beginning, but it has more features now.

Kajabi is the All-In-One Course Platform

Kajabi is one of the top online course platforms used by successful course creators interviewed on coursemethod.com. Kajabi includes email marketing and other tools that make it easy to run your entire business from their platform.

Price Range: $149 to $399/month
Most Popular Plan: Growth Plan at $199/month
Annual Discount: Yes, take 20% off!

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Are there any features you wish it had?

I really can’t think of anything. They pretty much have it covered.

What made you decide to use your chosen platform over others?

I originally chose Kajabi because it was easy for me to figure out. I’m not that tech-savvy. But when it changed it took me a very long time to figure out the new system. Still haven’t completely.

What other tools do you use to run your online course business?

I also use Mail Chimp for following up with my subscribers.

What books or training programs have you found useful on your journey to a successful business owner that others might find valuable too?

That’s hard to say. I never really learned how to be an entrepreneur from a book, but just learned from trial and error. I think the Rich Dad/Poor Dad books helped me understand that as a small business owner you have to think like a CEO.

Do you have any big mistakes you’ve made along the way that you’d be willing to share?

Oh, yeah! Tons! One big mistake I made as an entrepreneur didn’t have anything to do with my course business, but my invention business.

I was tired of trying to do everything myself, so when a friend of mine mentioned a “marketing guru” who could help, I thought it would be a great idea. He had worked with celebrities before and had what looked like a good track record.

He gave me a 25-page contract to sign which I thought was just a marketing agreement. Not being an attorney, I didn’t realize he was trying to be a 50-50 business partner with me for a business I worked 3 jobs to pay for and spent years of my life building.

As soon as the contract was signed he started demanding that I send him my inventory and his whole personality changed. It turns out he had been scamming business owners across the country for years. I think he’s actually sitting in jail right now. It was the most stressful time and took a long time to untangle. To this day if you hand me a contract, odds are that it will never be signed.

Please share some idea of revenue.

I make about $10,000 a year average off of each of my courses. That’s not a lot, but I don’t really promote them as much as I should. Still, not bad for a part-time income. One of those multiple jobs!

Please tell us a little about what the money you’ve earned from your course has done for you.

I have always invested most of what I make back into my businesses. It does allow me to not have to work a 9-5 job and that is priceless.

In addition to revenue are there any numbers you would like to share?

Believe it or not, I put a simple slider on the home page of one of my websites to get people to sign up for a free newsletter. For example, the course I have for speakers is on a membership site and I send out speaking leads in the newsletter. I don’t even mention that on the slider, but people sign up anyway. Now that I’m thinking of it, maybe I should mention the value of the newsletter on the slider!

What has creating your course done for you personally?

Good question! Yes, I really enjoyed putting the courses together and adding in every single secret trick and tip I could think of. I wanted every course to have so much value that I’ve packed them with great, usable content. I especially love hearing from people who used the advice and have given me an unsolicited testimonial about how it has changed their life.

Do you have a story of a transformation from any of your clients?

One of my customers ordered the speaker sponsorship course because she was a mom and didn’t want to do the typical speaker lifestyle of traveling non-stop. She wanted to stay more local but still work as a speaker.

This customer ended up getting 2 great sponsors. She only travels locally so she can spend more time with her kids. Now she makes a good living as a speaker on her own terms. She gave me a great review and it made me feel wonderful that it actually worked so well and the way I thought it would for other people besides just me.

What advice do you have for people just starting out?

My advice is to take your time when putting your course together. Make it as awesome as possible. – Julie Austin Click To Tweet

When you think it’s as good as it can be, make it better. Keep refining it until it’s as full of incredible information as it can be.

Also, make sure your content is unique and explain why you are the only one to put this course together.

Why you? Why should I buy your course over all the others? What’s in your background that makes me trust your opinion? Spend time making it totally unique and valuable.