How to make $8.4 million in 10 days

In February 2020 I came across a top business podcast called "Online Marketing Made Easy" hosted by a bright and enthusiastic woman named Amy Porterfield. Amy is a former employee of Tony Robbins and ended up leaving the corporate world in 2009 to start her own business. Amy's core business is digital courses, and her signature course is an 8 week digital course teaching others how to build digital courses.

Over the course of the year I got to know Amy's content a bit better and was fascinated by the idea of learning how to build digital courses. I searched for the pricing of her signature digital course called "Digital Course Academy" on her website and heard her reference it on her podcast but could find little information about it except an email 'opt-in' page that tells people to sign up to be notified the next time it would be released.

I wasn't sure why this product wasn't readily available for purchase (but would later find out). In late August I finally started getting email notifications that Digital Course Academy would be available for purchase September 10-20th for a price of $1997 if paid in full (or 6 monthly payments that would total around $2400). As soon as the enrollment window came I purchased the course without reading the lengthy sales page, this topic just fascinated me.

A few days later I was admitted to the official Facebook page of Amy's course and was shocked to see there were about 3600 members. This was not an ongoing page, this was a Facebook page set up specifically for this September 2020 group. A few days later, after the enrollment window had closed, the group had swelled to 4200 members.

4200 members x $1997 = $8,387,400.

And that's not even including the premium for the split pay option (let's say 50% did the split pay, that would be another $840,000). Amy Porterfield made >$8.4 million in a 10 day enrollment. And this is just 1 enrollment, I'm not sure how many years she has had this course offering. She also has several other courses and at least one membership group.

"If she can do it, you can too. We all can".

If you know me or have done any coaching with me, you know this is one of my favorite lines. I posted about Amy Porterfield's payday a while back asked my audience if there was any reason why she could do it, but you couldn't too? There were 2 people that responded with this:

"Well she has a following."

That right there my friends is a limiting belief. How did she get a following? Did it just magically appear? Of course not! Amy has been building a following since 2009. Her very first course launch, she sold 1 course at $297. Then she did another course and sold a few more, she refined her process along the way. She launched course after course, making larger amounts along the way. She made mistakes, but kept going. She had ups and downs. She started a podcast and has consistently been doing that for years. She's build a social media following and a massive email list. All of this took 12 years.

Are you willing to create a digital course and make only 1 sale and be willing to go on?

To make $8.4 million in 10 days, you need to build a following.

Would it be worth it to you to spend 12 years of your life for a $8.4 million payday? 12 years of list building, content creation, podcasting, interviews, course creation, team building. The reality is there were hundreds of other paydays in addition to that $8.4 million (I believe she said at one point that number was ~ $30 million).

Even if you don't have a business now, you would be wise to start building your own personal brand and nurturing your following. There has never been a better time to be able to create and distribute your own content and to build your own business doing what you love.

If you can play the long game, you will have massive success.

One of our biggest vulnerabilities is 'Short-termism". We get hyped up to start a business, start a podcast, start creating content, start a YouTube channel, start a career, then give up after we hit a headwind or two. We haven't given it enough time. We focus on that small slide of the long movie and think nothing is happening.

What if you just planned for an $8.4 million payday 12 years from now and started plugging away, knowing ahead of time that this would take years of effort. What if instead of quitting after going all in on content creation for 7 weeks then thinking 'it's not working' or 'nothings happening' (like Jordan and Donnie did during the hilarious scene in Wolf of Wallstreet), you could know that what you are doing IS working, you just need to wait for it!

I had a great chat with one of my coaching clients yesterday about playing the long game. Build your following first and start building it now. Build the Know, Like and Trust factor where your following can truly get to know you and the value you bring. Play the long game and you'll automatically be so much further along than the millions who try for a month, a couple months or a year, then quit. Build your following to the point it is bursting at the seams. Do what Gary Vee suggests in his 'Jab, jab, jab, cross' strategy: give, give, give, then when the time is right, ask.

Amy Porterfield made $8.4 million in 10 days after 12 years of building her following.

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