From Stickers to Successful Courses: An Entrepreneur's Evolution

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 0:18

Hello and welcome to the Maximize your Day podcast, a place for entrepreneurs who are building their business in pursuit of freedom and flexibility to do the things they love. I'm your host, Jessica Rosario. I'm a New Yorker turned Floridian who knows a thing or two on how to effectively manage your time while juggling multiple priorities. I'm an ex-corporate leader who walked away from my 9-5-ish to launch and grow my business. In this podcast, I share insights on mindset, business productivity, habits and strategies to help you take control of your to-do list and maximize your day, which will help you feel more confident and less overwhelmed and getting more done in less time. I'm so excited you're here. Go ahead, listen in.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 1:06

Welcome back to the Maximize your Day podcast. This is Jessica Rosario, your host, and I am here today so excited to have Tracy being interviewed on the podcast because she is just such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to course creation and education that I know that you're going to take away several nuggets within this chat. So a little bit about Tracy. She's a curriculum expert and she has a master's degree in education and over 10 years of experience creating education for adult learners in higher education and corporate health care. She has been an entrepreneur for 30 years and blends her experience in business and education to help high integrity coaches and service providers create online courses that create impact and deliver one of the most important things, which is transformation Tracy. I am so thrilled to have you on the call today.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 1:56

Thanks for having me.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 1:57

I'm excited to be here Of course, of course, and just a little background of how we met. Tracy and I met about a year ago. We were at a marketing event here in Disney and that was a lot of fun because we were able to connect with quite a few people some who were in our own backyards and just being able to share ideas and how different we all are within our own businesses and our own niche and industries, but with one common goal and was to be able to serve others in their businesses and really help them in creating systems and improving processes and all of that. So it was just a very exciting group to be part of. And then fast forward a year later we're at another networking event with some of the same people. So that was really neat to be able to connect with you on both areas, both avenues, one here in my backyard in Florida and then the other one in California. So that was a lot of fun. So, tracy, excited to have you here.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 2:57

I'm excited to be here. It's funny. I have so many imaginary internet friends I like to call them that I never get to meet in person. And then I've already been with you in person two times. Like it's awesome.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 3:09

Right, that's so much fun and I feel like ever since the world started to open because we kind of shut down and everything went virtual and I don't know you, but when that marketing event came up last year, I was just like, oh my gosh, I want to go into an in-person event. I'm just so tired of sitting on Zoom calls with sweatpants and a Zoom shirt, right. So it was really exciting to be able to come out and get to meet other people and just know that there are other people that are doing similar things. Right, we're similar spaces, but just so strong in our own niches and our own focus. So very cool. So, tracy, 30 years as an entrepreneur, tell me more about that.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 3:50

It's actually more than 30, because I started my first business in the fourth grade, which sadly don't do the math was longer than 30 years ago. I started as a sticker company in the fourth grade and I had a sales force and it was amazing until the school principal shut us down. I've always had some sort of entrepreneurial something Like I had a grandmother that was a big crafter. She was always making something and so I was making things with her and then we'd find ways to sell the things that we were making. So it's definitely way before that.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 4:23

But I started my first legit business at 17, when I may or may not have falsified my birth date on an application to sell Mary K Cosmetics. So that was like two months too young and so I might have fudged that a little bit but started with some direct selling and then various product businesses. I didn't move into service businesses and tell like six, seven years ago and then sort of this more from done for you, course creation, which I didn't love, to more of a coaching now around course creation, which I do love very much. So it's been a weird road. But then I've held various jobs throughout that whole time too, like I was never really a full-time entrepreneur and tell this business, so Wow.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 5:13

That's awesome. So what led you to go from, I guess, the doing it for you to more of the strategically kind of partnering with entrepreneurs and doing it with them, coaching them on it?

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 5:26

Yeah, I mean. So. It's kind of two schools of thought there. One is that, even though I'm a huge introvert and I was not looking for connection when we met last year, like I knew I needed it but was not looking for it because, wow, being in that room always terrifies me- I was gonna say introvert Tracy.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 5:42

What, yes, yes.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 5:43

Yes so, but I love people and I like I want to be around people. So doing done for you course creation is very isolating. It's very I don't know. It's just sort of a. You know, I know people who do it, do it really well and love doing it. So I don't want to put it down, but it's sort of a drudgery to me, like it just doesn't feel aligned with what I want to do.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 6:03

I have, I have perfected sort of a done with you model that works a little bit better but it still has me spending a lot of time being creative, you know, creating content for my client, and it's really really emotionally and mentally draining for me over. To do that for 30 hours a week is just, it's just a lot where coaching is something that it both lights me up. It, you know, it really fuels me and I have this philosophy that if I do it for you, it's done for you. That's great and you can pay me the money, you know, because that that command's kind of a high price tag. But if I coach you through the process and I kind of empower you to know my framework for creating courses and how to create education in a way that it's going to stick with your learner and get them their results.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 6:51

You can do it again and again, and again, and that's sort of my crusade. There's a sign on the wall behind me back there that says no more crappy courses. I really want, if you come into my world you should leave at least knowing a little bit more about how to do that, and not for not having to be a struggle. So it's sort of a half crusade, half. Please don't lock me up behind my computer. I want to be with the people.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 7:15

So I love that and, you know, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because one of the things that I work on with my clients is truly working on their messaging and knowing their business from the inside out.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 7:28

When I first started in business, I actually was doing business consulting and I used to write business plans for companies and what started to happen was these business plans were presented in organizations as if they were their own, and it turns out that the entrepreneur themselves, a business owner, didn't know their business.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 7:45

So it got to a point where I felt this misalignment of integrity of okay, I'm basically telling you all the ins and outs of your business, but you don't know your business and you're the one that's doing your business every single day. You know your clients, you know you're passionate about your business, your heart is in your business. So I actually stopped doing it with them and when I started doing the done with you part of the business planning, it felt so much better because the clients were walking away feeling like, okay, if I need to make a change on my business plan, I can do that. So it sounds like very similar to what you're talking about you teach them to strategies that they need to make an update or something like that. They know what areas to look for and what they need to do as they continue to move forward, so I think that's brilliant. I love that.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 8:32

Thank you, yeah, and I want to be the cheerleader, the accountability buddy, the, you know, the support person. You know a lot of times my clients, they'll get stuck on some piece of tech and I can just like I can quick hop in and I can do that in 15 minutes and not hold them up. The whole thing is keeping them unstuck.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 8:50

And I can do that so much better in a coaching sort of enabler role than I could if I was just doing it for you and then you never really know how it gets done.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 9:00

Yeah, yeah. So what would you say are some of the key elements to make a course impactful for someone?

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 9:09

Key elements. The first person foremost, and my clients get annoyed with me because I always, we always, come back to this. But you have to know exactly who you serve and what problem you solve. So the very first thing is your course has to actually solve a problem.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 9:23

I hear so many of the course gurus say just pick a topic, something you're excited about. Well, I could teach you all about, like rescue dogs or rescue rabbits or like all of the things. It doesn't mean that that is something that you actually want to know about and we'll pay for. So that's the first thing, and it's more than just them paying for it. Are they invested enough in this problem or in the solution to actually consume the content you're going to create for them? Because you're going to get, you know, you're going to put a lot of time and effort into creating this content and then, if it's not something, you can have a great sales page, a great hook, and they'll buy it, but then they're not going to consume it because it doesn't serve them.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 10:03

And I think the other thing is that you need to leave a trail of breadcrumbs of like little wins for them throughout the. You know my two biggest piece of advice Give them wins, give them early, give them often, because that those little shots of dopamine that they get by like hey, like she asked me to apply this to my business, or she asked me to complete this worksheet, or you know whatever that is. Once they do that, then they're like I did that, I'm cool, I'm good, I'm going to move on to the next one and they get another shot. And those are the things that keep them going forward. It has to be consumable, it has to be engaging, or they're not going to consume it or engage with it, and then they don't get results.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 10:42

Yeah, it's like celebrating those quick wins right in the business. It also creates momentum, yeah, and we get momentum by doing the thing, the dark thing, even when we don't want to do the same thing. What would you say is one of the most common challenges for some of the clients that you work with when they come into your space?

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 11:03

You know, I think one of the biggest things they're just, they just get stuck in all of the, you know, analysis, paralysis and choosing the exact right platform is like the thing. You know, like my very first lead magnet I ever created was a quiz that like suggested what might be the best course platform for you, based on some factors, because and that it actually works, because people will take the quiz and they'll go. It says think, epic, I'm going to go build over there instead of agonizing Is this the right thing? And I speak from experience because I did the same flipping thing when I started my business, you know, build over here. And then, oh, this looks shiny, maybe I should try this.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 11:41

And I migrated my product so many times and wasted so much time that, like, that's probably the biggest thing. And then getting caught up in like it, can I manage the tech? What kind of equipment do I need? Like, oh, maybe I won't start because I don't know the answers to these things. It's little minute, little things that pile up and keep people overwhelmed and stuck that we, you know they've got brilliance inside them, they're fairly certain that they can make an impact in the world, but they let themselves just stay bogged down by imposter syndrome or overwhelm of all the things, the tech whatever.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 12:17

Well, it seems like, especially in today's world, where everyone like, there's these new platforms that keep popping up, or these new outlets that keep popping up, we're experiencing it right now. Did you hear about threads?

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 12:31

Yes, I'm on thread my gosh, so I'm an early adopter. There you go.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 12:35

So you know, and I am too I mean I'm just browsing right now, but but the reality is that we get so caught up in these things that by the time we look at it, I mean I remember when Clubhouse was a thing. I mean I guess it's still out there, but it's really not a thing anymore. But people started doing courses on Clubhouse. I can teach you how to elevate your platform on Clubhouse. Already there's one of the influencers that I follow and he actually posted today. Anybody want to learn threads? I have a course for threads for 997, and obviously he was just being funny about it. But we get so caught up in doing all the things.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 13:17

One of the things that I find when I start working with clients is that they invested in big platforms. And when I when I talk about big platforms, I'm talking about like funnel building, high level FG funnels, click funnels the biggest one is has been click funnels so far but they get completely overwhelmed with technology and what they need to learn and they didn't realize it was just this big thing. But they bought the idea of being an all in one platform. Mind you, I use an all in one now, right, but I didn't start with that right. So I'm using FG funnels and tell me, have you experienced some of that from clients that are stepping in, that they bought these big things thinking that that was the end, all be all, and it turns out they don't even need that big thing yet. They're just not there yet.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 14:07

Right, yeah, yeah, I've had clients come to me who went all in, usually in Kajabi, like it's. You know they bought like the high end of Kajabi because they thought they'd need that someday, but their course isn't built and they're not making any money and they're taking money, putting it on a personal credit card or taking money out of their household budget to pay for Kajabi every month. And while I encourage people to choose a platform that you can stay with, like that will grow with you, you know, I built my first course in Teachable, which was great, but I couldn't email from Teachable, I couldn't do a sales funnel from there, so eventually I had to migrate out and, spoiler alert, I'm an FG funnels as well. So I mean there's some reality to. It's good to have something that does all the things, if, that's, if you're ready to do all the things.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 14:55

It's good to have a platform that grows with you. But the best course that I've ever personally taken was drip to my email Nice, the idea that you have to have all of the bells and whistles that you have to have, you know, progress reports and all of these things. It's just ridiculous. Good learning doesn't have to be packaged that way. But you know, this course that I took I think it was 12 weeks, might have been only I think it was 12 weeks I got an email every Monday with like a little you know affirmation and a video to watch and sometimes a link to a song. It was all a re-inspiring yourself sort of thing.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 15:30

And it was amazing and I'll always remember those lessons. And it wasn't shiny or no, fireworks went off when I finished a lesson. None of those things happened, it was just good content delivered to me efficiently every week.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 15:43

Yeah, that's like. That's like a course that I purchased. That was like $37. I think it was less at the time. I think right now it's $37. But I have used that so many times this, over and over and over again, when it comes to wanting to refine my copy or rebuy something on my website that I don't like the way it looks or whatever, so those are the best ones. It's like. It's almost like the gift that keeps on giving the best courses are.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 16:09

They're the ones that you pulse the information you need out of for now and then you can go back and reference that again, and again, and again, because the content's probably delivered in a way that you remember what's in there and then you know that you can go back in there and refresh your memory, get some additional lessons from it. It's the ones that are like have all this knowledge packed in that's not delivered in any certain way, we forget, you know. Like did I take that? What was it about? Like did I learn something? I feel that way about, like most of my college and grad school years. Like did I actually learn something from that class?

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 16:45

I'm not sure.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 16:46

Didn't tell you what it was.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 16:48

That's so funny. Yeah, it was so expensive too. Yeah, so I totally get it. So, tracy, let's change direction a little bit and tell me more about you outside of being the entrepreneur. What do you love to do?

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 17:03

Oh, I love to be at home. Long story, but I'll make it short. 14 years ago almost 15 years ago now I went through a pretty horrendous divorce, started single parenting my kids they were ages six and nine at the time and my ex-husband and I lived with our children in my dream house, in my dream neighborhood, with my dream neighbors, like it was all wonderful. And suddenly the kids and I were forced out and we bounced around our rental houses and some other places. In 2017, I actually discovered that my old house was for sale and nothing like it should have never worked. I shouldn't have been able to sell the house I owned at the time Like nothing should have worked and it all did. I just manifested the shit out of moving back into this house. So this is my happy place and my kids now are 23 and 20. My son still rents my basement. My daughter's away at college. She's a senior in college now Nice but like, I love to be in my home. I'm a weirdo who, like, thinks like cleaning my house is fun. Gardening all of that stuff, you know, is a blast. I play volleyball on a summer bar league volleyball team here in Minnesota, which is super fun. Thursdays volleyball day, so it's tonight. Love that.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 18:19

Yeah, I have two rescue dogs and a bunny and I don't know I love my business has always been the thing that I do for fun. I don't know it makes me a super nerd, but over all of those years that I was a single mom, I always knew that. You know, entrepreneurship was where I was going to be, where I wanted to be, but of course I had to have a job that had insurance and I had to have all of their reliable income. So my business was the thing I did on the side that lit me up and was fun for me. So I do struggle with drawing a boundary there between personal and professional, because they've been intermixed the whole time. But my family is in Northwestern Wisconsin. I spend a lot of time there. They're getting on in age and I like to go there and do nice things for them to make their lives easier and, yeah, trying to find time with my kids when I can Like that's.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 19:14

All the moms at home are like oh, these kids are home for the summer. I and this is the first summer my baby has not been home for the summer, and I'm sad.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 19:22

Oh, yeah, I get it. I actually my kids are older also and my oldest daughter just had a baby, so now I'm a grandma and I love having him over to sleep over and stuff like that, but I also love giving him back right. Like I always say, I got my just sci-fi fix, so I love having that little boy here and just being able to watch him grow. So I love that. But what a story, tracy. Talk about your life going in full circle with your house and being able to get back there. I just I love your story. So do you see that part I didn't know about you, so I think that's so neat to be able to hear that, and also your passion for animals and all that. So, yeah, awesome, love it, love it. So tell me something else.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 20:08

As far as the women, there was something that you talked about. You talked about security and health insurance and having that as a single parent and whatnot. So there are women that are listening to this podcast right now and there are women that are working full time, trying to build a business on the side or trying to make something work, and they just don't know how the heck they're going to be able to do that. What are some of your words for them?

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 20:33

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that. So much of it is mindset and I have a former client who's in. I'm a partner in a mastermind group and she's a member of our mastermind who's really struggling right now. She works a full time job. She's building her business on the side. Her full time job is really treating her unfairly and she has these moments where she's like I'm going to quit, I'm going to go full time in my business and I feel like there's just this delicate balance and I wrote this teeter-totter too for a long time that for so many people and my client Willow, is this way her job allows her to build her business.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 21:08

She does have some downtime in her work day where she can work on her business and it's paying her a salary and paying her benefits and doing all those things. And I think appreciating that is huge, even when your boss is being a jerk and you don't want to go and all the things. But to be able to say thank you so much to this job for allowing me the mental space or the freedom or whatever to build this business on the side, because the minute I can, I'm stepping over here. I think that's huge versus resenting it right, resenting that job that you wish you didn't have to have. I have found in my entrepreneurial journey that when I have at least a part time job, and.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 21:51

I was lucky when I left corporate. I'm a medical assistant by trade. It's how I got into the whole teaching thing. I taught medical assisting after my divorce and for some extra cash, and I was able to take a job in the clinic working 20 hours a week because they paid me full time benefits. And so there are those jobs available in a part time job where you can get benefits but Willow you most of your time to pursue your business. I believe you'll adage that busier people get more done.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 22:19

I think when you're forced to prioritize a little bit, then you're just more effective, versus I've had periods in my life where my business is the only thing I'm doing and I get really lazy and I'm not showing up for my audience the same way that I was when I knew I only had a certain number of hours a week to do it.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 22:38

So I think, really embracing that like you have to be in a job for a little bit longer before you can really step into your dream If you can think about that in a way that you can be grateful and appreciate it, it's so, so helpful but also being really conscious of like there's a runway right, if I want to leave this job in six months, what are the benchmarks I have to hit, what should I be doing? And in planning for that accordingly, so that you can, when you parachute, you can do it. When I left corporate, my boss was amazing and I was in an education job in corporate healthcare, in the ambulance service. She was incredible. It was a very misogynistic organization but she was the buffer between me and all of these guys who thought they should tell me who to be.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 23:22

I literally got told in a meeting once that I should just sit here. Why don't you just sit there and look pretty? I wasn't allowed to have an opinion about anything.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 23:30

Wow.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 23:31

So she sheltered me from that to a great degree and I knew she was retiring. She was, her plan was to retire in July of 2019. And I was like, deb, when you go, I go, like, and there's my runway. I had like a year and a half to plan. I'm going to jump into my business full time. She went to a meeting in May of April of 2018 and came back to me crying that these like terribly misogynistic bully men had like made this 60 some year old woman like she's like I'm done. I'm done, I'm retiring in July. You know, I'm not doing this anymore. And I was like, well, when you go, I go. And suddenly now I had a two month runway instead of a guy ended up leaving before she did, because I didn't want to endure a day without her and because I had my my new manager because she stepped down came to me and reprimanded me for taking every other Thursday afternoon off to take my daughter to therapy and told me I was no longer allowed to do that.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 24:32

And.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 24:33

I said If you're going to ask me to choose between my daughter's mental health and this job, that's not a question for me. And he goes. Well, I guess I am. I'm like shove it, we out, yeah, but thankfully I had had that mindset for a long time that you know, is planning that runway. I knew what it was going to take. I was building my business as quickly as I could to make that transition Somewhat less yeah.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 24:58

So it's doable and it's not always planned out the way we expect it to be. You know, I heard you say one of things for you was that you said you left before your boss said, even though that wasn't your original plan, you know. So I have a similar story too, and I remember being interviewed by Pat Flynn. You're familiar with Pat Flynn, so I was interviewed by Pat Flynn in 2019. And I remember him. I remember asking him the question when do you know it's the right time to quit your job? And you know he gave me this all explanation about you can do this and X amount of emergency funds and this and that. And then he's like I would say, by the end of 2020 or something like that. I think he said when do you project yourself by the end of 2020? Right, and I said, oh no, like I refuse to step into 2020 being a W2 employee for anyone other than myself. And I literally manifested that. That was in my affirmations. I read it every day, I journaled it, I cried about it.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 25:53

I talk about this in previous episodes too, and I did that almost in all of 2019. Halfway through the year, I knew that I was on my way out and Alex kept cheering me on. He was like we could do it. We could do it, let's go, let's go. And every day I will walk in with my resignation letter in my bag. I would change the date again and sign it, keep it in my bag and change the date again, and I did that all the way through Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving I gave my notice and I left on December 13th of 2019 and gave myself the whole holidays and then we got COVID.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 26:27

Oh no, that's a whole nother story. But the thing is that there's never there's never a best time or a great time, no matter how much we plan it, no matter how much we envision certain things. I think that if we work towards it and keep that mindset of you know, let me use my job now to fund my dreams in the future and listen, there is nothing wrong with building your dreams alongside of JOB. I have clients that do that. They love it, especially when they love their job right, there's no reason why they should leave. But I do also believe that if you're feeling undervalued or you're feeling burnt out and you know you've given your all in everything that you do in your JOB and you can do it 10 times better in building it for yourself. Groves, you're in the right space.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 27:15

Yes, yes, yes, and I love that. I also carried my resignation letter in my bag, but mine was not dated and when, when the time came, I actually did print out a new one, but I was totally okay with just like handwriting that date on there and handing it in Like it. Just, you know, like whatever, whatever empowers you, but yeah, I love that. I mean, and knowing that you could, I've done this like in jobs that I had, especially in my 20s, where something would happen and I'd be like I give myself permission to rage quit. You know, like now we know we call it rage quitting, but like if I throw a fit and tell you to take this job and shove it, it's okay.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 27:56

And knowing that it was okay to do that meant that I didn't feel like I had to do that. It's empowering to carry your resignation in your pocket.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 28:02

Absolutely. I love that. I love that. I remember also when it was Alex's turn to quit he quit in 2018. And I kept telling him you go in there and you tell them about this, that and the other. And when it was time for him to resign, they were like well, why are you leaving? He said, well, I'm building a commercial cleaning business here in central Florida. And they were like, oh, give us a quote and, believe it or not, they're one of our largest clients now. So when he told me about it, I was like, oh, you didn't tell them all the stuff that I told you. Right, I had the same thing.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 28:35

I had the same thing. I'm like I'm going to go, I'm going from the education department of an ambulance service and did like, doing freelance education. I certainly, like didn't burn any bridges with, you know, with the person that was there. I let them know that it was their company culture that was forcing me out. But like, hey, if you need quality education, you know where to find me Exactly. And of course they never did want quality education, so they never looked for me.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 28:59

And it's a okay. The beauty of entrepreneurship is that we get to know who we want to work with. So you know that that's all good. So, tracy, who is your ideal client? Who is the person that's listening to this podcast right now and is saying, oh man, I need to work with her?

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 29:17

Yeah, I always say I describe my ideal client as high integrity entrepreneurs, mostly female. I have worked with some male clients, but I feel like so much of what we do is women in our businesses is intuition based. It's, you know, like an internally alignment kind of thing, and I work better with women than I do with men. I don't I'm sorry for any men who might be listening.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 29:40

But I say.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 29:41

I say high integrity because the transformation, the results, have to matter to you. If you're wanting to build a course because you want to make money while you sleep and you're looking at this as a stream of passive income and you're never going to touch those clients, they're just going to take your course and whatever then I'm not your girl. That's not the kind of education that I build. It's possible to do that and do it well, and certainly we can. We can talk about that, but I find that the best education is the stuff that you build and building a package or a container for it where people have access to you so that they can ask questions, so that they can get feedback, so that they don't stay stuck in a concept, because that's really when we talk about something being consumable.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 30:24

That's it right. If I'm going to get here and then like this is really hard and now I'm stuck and I can't access you, I'm not going to get my money's worth and I'm not going to get my results. So my ideal client is someone who really, really cares about those results and they want to make a big impact in the world. They don't want to sell a few courses and make a few bucks. They want to really really teach their expertise, really help their ideal client find that transformation so that they can learn and grow and hopefully come back and buy from them again. But it's more for the service, the heart centered course, creator.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 31:00

I love that and I know I'm going to drop your links in the show notes also, so anyone that wants to connect with you they can find you there. But what are some ways, or is there anything new and exciting coming in your offerings.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 31:12

I have something sort of new. It's a product I've had for a while. I basically honed the system. I call it the focus group formula and it's the method that I use to sell my very first, my first DIY course, which I don't offer anymore because, again, I just don't think it's the best way to serve my clients. And when I launched my group program and I teach this method of basically marketing, getting feedback, validating your offer, making sure that it's good with a group of your ideal clients but also on the back end, sort of marketing that and offering them seats in the first iteration of that program, I've sold this as a $97 product for a long time and I taught it in my mastermind group yesterday and a few of us got talking about it and you know, there's this whole buzz around.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 32:01

Like there's somebody in our world is doing Ilya Finklestine is doing pitch me your project, the idea of, like you know, maybe you want to work with me but you don't fit into one of my containers, tell me. You know how that'll work. I'm sort of experimenting with some of that this month and in doing that I want to offer this focus group formula program at a super low price and maybe kind of start a movement around it, maybe normalize the idea of. That is perfectly okay when you're not sure how to proceed, to bring some people around you and ask them. You know, to bring your ideal client into a Zoom call and say here's what I want to build, here's how I think I want to build it, what do you think? How should I price it and is this something that you'd buy? And that that's okay and also a super empowering way to launch a product when you already know you've got five, six, 10, 15, maybe 20 people who are waiting to buy it and you know I've sold it for $97. It's definitely worth $97.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 33:03

But I want to start like just kind of making that more available getting some more eyes on it because I really think it has the potential to push some of my ideal clients who are stuck in the overwhelm and push them sort of into the okay. Well, now you have buyers, let's get to work Right. And it worked well for me and I know it can work well for other people. So that's that's sort of the exciting thing that's coming. I'll be launching I'm not sure if it'll be a July or August cohort right now of my group program, which I call the course creator college. It's 12 weeks to getting your course created in the right way so that we really are delivering those results now becoming soon.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 33:40

Awesome, awesome. Well, there you have it. You've got multiple containers of and I'm on threads yes, multiple containers on how to work with her, and you already know where to find her. So, tracy, one last question that I have for you. Actually, I have two last questions, so one of them is how do you maximize your day?

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 34:03

I have had a focus especially for 2023, on really making sure that I am spending as much time as possible in my zone of genius, that I'm doing less of the things that just don't light me up.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 34:18

Trying to delegate some of those things out Nice, I just keeps me more motivated when I know I'm going to wake up in the morning and not do my accounting, but I'm going to do some creative something or other that makes me happy, and also to I mean, I've just did this like big adventure into my human design and really just doing kind of what I want when I want, which sounds immature and sort of frivolous, but when I'm feeling like creating content, then that is exactly what I do, and when I'm feeling like, oh, I couldn't possibly create content, well then that's a great time. To find an administrative or CEO task, but to really seize those opportunities where I'm excited and I'm inspired and, instead of trying to stick to my calendar, jump in and doing those exciting and inspiring things when the moment is there and taking advantage of that energy. It's really clicking for me over the last few months and I'm really excited about that.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 35:16

I love that and talk about boundaries right, not just for the people around you, but for yourself. It's guilt-free working, guilt-free learning, guilt-free taking the time that you need, guilt-free binge watching Netflix, so you know what I mean. So there's just so many things that you can potentially do, and I love that you're looking at it from that standpoint.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 35:39

Yeah, this is my dream life in business. So why am I trying to shove myself into a box that I don't actually fit in, when I could be just flourishing in the being me?

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 35:51

Yeah Well, we got to talk about that introvert thing, because I do not believe that that is not how I met Tracy.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 35:58

We'll talk more about that. I think I'm an extroverted introvert, like I can force myself to appear as an extrovert but at the end of the day it sucks all the energy out of me to do that. It's like it's not fun.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 36:11

But so you go to the events and then you crash after.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 36:15

Yep and sometimes cry before, like I tell the story in the mastermind that I'm in that I met my mastermind partners at that event that I met you at. I cried on the airplane on the way there. I was so nervous and anxious about being in a room with a bunch of people that I felt like I was probably less than you know and all of the mindset stuff that comes in that I was crying on the plane and I, when I got on the Disney bus to take me to the resort, I prayed and prayed and prayed that no one else would get on that bus. I just needed to be by myself and I was in an empty Disney bus.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 36:50

I manifested myself in an empty bus and the only reason that I met these gals was because the person who was supposed to organize the group dinner, her flight, was delayed and so she messaged the group thread and said can somebody else host? You know like coordinate? And I knew if I didn't say yes, I would go to my room and I would hide and I wouldn't meet people. And so I was like I'll host it and I did, and I love the rest of history. I met seven of the most incredible women at that event that I'm still best friends with. We've started a company together and I talk with them all day, every day, and like they make my life and my business better, and so I highly highly recommend biz besties for everyone.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 37:35

Yeah, I love that, and I've always talked about finding your try right. Who are your closest five? And I remember years ago someone said to me that friendship is like a math equation they should always multiply and add to you and not divide and subtract, and I thought that was such a neat thing, especially the women in your mastermind. I know most of them, right. I met them at the same event that we've been at right and I just love absolutely every single one of them.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 38:05

But it just goes to show you that when we put ourselves in the right groups, in the right spaces, then everything just starts to fall into place, and I just love that you guys were able to put that together. I love having you on my show. I cannot wait to share your message with the world, because somebody is out there and I always say if you focus on the one, if one person takes something away from this podcast episode, then we've done our job to serve the women that we're called to serve. Absolutely Love that. So thank you for being on the show, tracy. This was so much fun and getting to learn so much more about you.

Tracey Lewis-Stoeckel - Course Strate: 38:42

Thank you so much for having me. It's so fun to be here.

Jessica Rosario - Business Coach: 38:46

As always. Thank you so much for listening in. Don't forget to subscribe to the show to be notified the second a new episode is released and share with your friends who you believe could benefit from listening. Contact me at JessRosariocom forward slash podcast to share your feedback, ask questions, make topic suggestions or even be a guest on my show. You never know if your topic will be next until next time. Maximize your day and own it.