It’s no secret that my Signature Social Media Program, Hashtags Aren’t the Answer, is my best selling course. Hundreds of students have graduated from it. It’s had hundreds of testimonials. There’s been multiple six figure launches. And, in full transparency, it brings thousands of dollars into my business every single week. But this week, I’m retiring it.. forever! In this week’s episode of the Stevie Says Social podcast, I break down why that is.. and what is coming next!

That’s why in this podcast episode, we are covering Why I’m Retiring My Signature Social Media Course (And, What’s Next!)

Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Here’s what we cover:

• My reason for originally creating HATA (so that people would stop focusing on random tactics – like Hashtags – and start focusing on things that really mattered)
• How it surpassed my wildest expectations
• The timeless nature of the content in the course, and why I intentionally made it that way (for example, branding etc)
• The recent pivot in my business and my decision to niche down.
• My plans for a new course and how that plays into my plans. 
• The difference between the old course and the new course (narrower focus allows more specific templates, focusing just on Instagram and its features more, focusing more on one audience of people).
• What will stay the same – including the one year of access and why that is.
• My fears around this decision, especially considering what an important part of my business it is.
• The importance of acting in integrity and alignment and going with your gut, and the nagging feeling inside me.
• My renewed love for Instagram and excitement for it, and what a powerful tool it is for businesses like mine. You don’t need 10,000 followers. 
• The current promotion – you get both courses.

Transcript

I’m retiring the same social media program that put me on the map, built my business, and completely transformed my life.

In this episode I’m going through why that is.

Let me guess, you probably think that I am that crazy for retiring the same social media program that has built my business, had hundreds of students going through it, that has had hundreds of testimonials that have built really a multiple six-figure business and brings in thousands of dollars into my business every single day.

I wouldn’t blame you if that is what you’re thinking. Now, that’s why I wanted to break down in this episode, my decision behind it because I think it’s something that will be relevant to you and your business, potentially. 

Plus you might be interested in knowing that if you’re listening in real-time. I’m currently hosting a closing down sale for Hashtags Aren’t The Answer. This is my complete social media roadmap to success. It works for service providers, eCommerce, business owners, personal brands, bricks and mortar businesses, it’s $300 off and, you get an amazing bonus in that.I’m actually going to be creating a new social media course, you’ll get that for free.

The new social media course is going to launch at a much higher price than Hashtags Aren’t The Answer so now’s the time to dive in.

I know a lot of people have been on the fence about Hashtags Aren’t The Answer. I’ll join next time, I’ll do it next time, it closes forever – This week. 

All right, so if you can head to my website thecoursecartel.com, you’ll be able to see from there, how you can dive in

Let’s get into today’s episode. What I want to go through firstly is my reason for originally creating Hashtags Aren’t The Answer which yes – is a mouthful – Hashtags Aren’t The Answer.

Side note on that guy’s naming and I really kind of just go with my gut on it and there are all these rules around having short succinct cool names. I have Hashtags Aren’t The Answer, Launcher Your Wildly Successful Podcast, and in a way I think that they work really well but gosh they’re a mouthful.

When I launch the new version of Hashtags Aren’t The Answer. It won’t be called that. But the reason why it’s called Hashtags Aren’t The Answer is because of the reason that I decided to create it, to begin with.

The reason that I decided to create it, to begin with, is that I wanted people to stop focusing on all of the random tactics when it came to social media so things like hashtags.

Really when it came down to it, your success on Facebook, Instagram, all of the social media platforms comes down to how much people like your content, how valuable your content is how much you’re getting off your own platform and going to where other people are hanging out and actually bringing them back to your fold and a whole heap of other things, it doesn’t so much rely on what the latest social media hack or tip is as sexy as that is.

That is originally why I decided to put the program together.

I had at the stage that I decided to put it together, been teaching and providing strategy to clients one on one, so I would work with a client one on one, I would find out what their goals were around this social media and their business. And then I would use the same kind of system to implement that into their business and then I would give them the strategy and they would go away and they would work on it.

When I decided to put the course together really that was the embodiment of that strategy so it’s an eight-step system which really steps through everything that you need to have sorted to have success with your social media accounts so brand, social media and content having a sales funnel and then also supercharging your socials and things like Facebook ads and the life. 

When I launched that program that was in November of the year before last it surpassed my wildest expectations, so I really didn’t go in with any expectations at all and if you listened to my podcast, you would already know this story but it launched on day one with 160 students, which was so exciting it was the coolest, most energetic awesome intake of students.

It really kind of set me up in terms of my digital course business. I’ve really gone from there with that course, it has been the center of my business since that point in time people know me for that. It really put me on the map and I’m so grateful to that course for having done that.

If you listen to last week’s podcast episode, you would know that I have really gotten fired up about what the direction of my business is really forward. One of the big things that I’ve gotten really clear on is the fact that I am niching down.

As I said in last week’s episode and definitely do check that episode out if you haven’t already, it is the feedback I’m getting from that episode thank you guys I told you to reach out and DM me and you absolutely have so I’m really grateful.

One of the things that I mentioned in that episode was the fact that niching down is really the secret to success. You could go really broad in terms of studying and business, and a lot of people do that to start off with. But really, the riches are in the niches and people say that for a reason, but I really have seen it over and over and I’m taking my own advice.

What that means is that I am niching down into one particular target audience, which is really coaches and service providers and course creators anyone that has the expertise to sell online.

What that means is that I’m going to be niching down my office, simplifying my office to really speak just to that audience of people and if that is you. Hi. Hello.

If that is not you. That means that really what the Hashtags Aren’t The Answer course is geared towards is for everybody,  for people like you, for people like service providers, people like eCommerce business owners.

It’s really for everybody and I think that that has been the kind of the magic if that cause people have gone through and they’ve gotten success regardless of their type of business and that’s because it really is kind of a timeless program and I think I specifically, get that right, otherwise I would have a social media program that needed to be updated every two seconds because Facebook and Instagram constantly have new things going on.

It’s really not that so really that course is like the underlying social media strategy that regardless of whether you’re implementing it now or you’re implementing it in four months, it is going to get you results.

Really what the drawback of that particular course is though, is that it hasn’t allowed me to go really, really deep. What I want to be able to do moving forward is to have a social media program that is so specifically speaking to the audience of people that I’m looking to attract and hopefully I’m attracting with my business.

The difference between the old course, and the new upcoming course: The old course focuses – the current course, the current course guys well until Thursday – focuses on Instagram, and it focuses on Facebook so both of those two platforms. 

The new course will focus just on Instagram. What I realized is that Facebook and Instagram are two massive big beasts within themselves, and I think it’s so beneficial to people that if they’re really interested in one or the other they can go to a course that specifically suits them. I don’t want to be the person that does everything. 

I love Instagram, I have seen the impact that it’s had on my own business, I’m actually so fired up by Instagram at the moment and all of the cool features that it has and the fact that you can really use it as a tool for your business without having to focus on things like likes and followers, it’s not about that anymore.

You can use the DMs for selling and for relationship building there are so many different cool features, there’s completely nuances that are specific to Instagram that doesn’t apply to Facebook, that’s where my passions lie at the moment.

That is where I feel that service providers coaches and anyone that has an expertise that they want to sell online. I really want to get the most traction from. That is where I’m going all in. 

The other difference between the current course and the new upcoming course is obviously the narrower focus on that specific niche. What that will allow me to do is to provide really specific templates or really specific sales funnel, and it will allow me to focus, really specifically on the one person that I’m saving, that one problem and then to give them really specific tangible templates and resources that they can basically take and use.

Rather than telling people how to do things. I’m actually going to give them the exact templates for doing it now Hashtags Aren’t The Answer does that don’t get me wrong, I provide a template for example eCommerce, business owners. Also for service providers etc but the fact that it’s really for everyone, means that I can’t get as deep as I want to.

What will stay the same one thing that’s going to stay the same between Hashtags Aren’t The Answer and the new course when it launches, is that, both since the beginning of time so I’ve always done this will be a year of access to the course. 

Let me tell you why that is. What I find is that if someone has lifetime access to a program, they don’t do anything.  I have seen this over and over and over and over. And I always have people when it comes to any of my programs that will get to the day before the program and I can see them logging in, because I can see in the back end when people are accessing things. They’ll contact me and they’ll say can I have a little bit of extra access or whatever that is.

I’ll look in the back end and I’ll say that I haven’t even logged in, the entire year. And then on the last day trying to cram everything in. What I really find that happens when there is a year of access to a program, and I guide people and I’m really clear on that and that is something that I’m going to really level up with what I’m doing in the new course and let people know that it really is a year and here is a suggested timeline.

This is what I do with my podcasting course and I find that it works really well. I don’t say that you’ve got six weeks and you’ll launch a podcast in six weeks. I actually break it down into chunks of time. Then what I do is I say to people, you with your own specific time your own specific resources, then need to map out a roadmap that is specific to you.

That is what I’m going to be clear on with a new social media close as well because it’s going to have very very tangible deliverables around, around what it provides. Oh, I’m sorry guys I’m actually not even going to edit this out but my office chair is scraping and I’m just going to make it to it. Hopefully you guys can hear that. I’m trying to stop it from doing that but anyway, the joys of podcasting and having a squeaky office desk. I got a little bit distracted. I’m sorry about that.

Basically the new course is going to have a lot of really clear deliverables. What I want to be able to do is to be able to say, Okay guys, you need to set your own pace on this but you actually need to dive in and take action and do the work and one year, gives you the opportunity to do this.

I really also want to cover before I wrap up this episode and I am giving myself 20 minutes every podcast episode just as a PS some already a few days, minutes I’m rabbiting on but I actually really kind of want to let you know about how I felt when I made the decision to do this.

There’s always fear around making big decisions and I’m playing my big girl pants on across the board with everything at the moment and I’m making a lot of decisions that I previously had procrastinated on. I would feel within my gut, my intuition was guiding me in a particular direction, but the practicality of doing those certain things that I had in my mind was making me procrastinate.

Specifically with this particular decision I was okay so I really do want to go into this niche. I think that I can really serve people with a deeper kind of level of help, if I really niche down my signature social media program to that specific niche, but it’s also the biggest program in my business and so what impact is that going to have on my business? How is that going to affect things like the number of students that are interested in coming on board? Wow is that going to affect you know XYZ.

There’s a whole lot of things that were running through my head. At the end of the day, I just put my foot down to myself and I just kind of went You know what, I really need to act in alignment with what I feel is the right thing to do, and what my gut is telling me to do and that nagging feeling inside of me that I can help on a deeper level if I make this call.

This isn’t an easy call to make. Tt’s going to mean that obviously Hashtags Aren’t The Answer is closing this week. I then need to create, even though there’s definitely crossover between the two programs, the whole kind of the premise of Hashtags Aren’t The Answer doesn’t change.

I still feel the same about the strategy behind that program, but the actual implementation in terms of things like templates and specializing really in IG which means that I can go deeper into the different elements of IG means that there’s a whole lot of work involved. I’m going to have my head down and thumb up for the next few weeks really making this a world-class course.

There’s obviously the thoughts around that as well but I don’t think that anything great comes without really hard work and I want people to just as they have with Hashtags Aren’t The Answer, to dive into this new course and just go Oh my God, my socks are blown off, this is amazing. And they’re actually getting results with their Instagram.

That is really kind of where I’m at with the reason why I’ve decided to do it. And what’s coming next. I am retiring my signature social media program Hashtags Aren’t The Answer, I need a new name for the new one and it’s definitely not going to be so much of a mouthful, guys.

If you can think of an amazing name then please do DM me, I would love to hear from you but watch this space because I’m sure it will come to me in the middle of the night and I’ll think that it’s perfect.

What I also want to mention before I kind of wrap up as well is that this decision actually I knew that I was on the right track because it really excited me and so I got this renewed kind of love but for all things social media. I think that whenever you’re doing the one thing for a specific period of time. So for me, I’ve been a social media girl for two years, which is why I’m really kind of moving into the things that I’m most passionate about my decision to really shake things up around this has actually made me really obsessed with Instagram again so not on a personal level.

I’m actually not the sort of person that spends all of their time scrolling on social media. I’m really intentional about the time that I spend on social media. But the actual potential for Instagram so I have been using Instagram to really drive my business for the last couple of years. A lot of that is not even visible in terms of what I’m actually posting on social media, a lot of that happens behind the scenes and I’m really excited to share that.

It’s really stoked my fire, and passion for the ability of Instagram to really act as a sales machine into your business and most people aren’t using it like this and I’m like, oh my god I can see why you get frustrated

Anyway, that is the reason why I’ve decided to retire my current social media program, they are my really kind of deep down thoughts, fears, all of that sort of thing. I just want to be honest with you guys because I think that, when you say somebody makes a certain business decision you can think that, it’s all mapped out she has it sorted, but I don’t.

 I do have my own fears and I do have my own thought processes around every decision I make and this has been my decision around this particular program. 

If you are a service provider,  a coach or you do want to sell your expertise online, and you’re keen on the new course, I would definitely purchase Hashtags Aren’t The Answer now before Thursday because you’ll get that course, and you’ll get the new course for less than the price of the new course.

If you are not in that niche and you are a bricks and mortar business or you’re an eCommerce provider or anything along those lines, love you guys, but you definitely need to purchase Hashtags Aren’t The Answer now because my courses might specifically relate to you guys in the future.

You’ll also get the new course as well and that will be a lot of things that will be relevant to you and you’ll get a lot of takeaways from it but this is the last chance. Ever. To get your hands on it. 

Anyway, if you liked this episode guys, even if you just want to have a chat, send me a DM on Instagram I’m loving, all of the chats going on in Instagram at the moment. I’d love to hear from you and I will as always, see you next week. 

Keep Listening!

Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify