19: Transitioning to Virtual Organizing with Kajabi and the Challenges I've Faced
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Welcome to episode 19 of Permission to be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and today I'm talking about my journey of taking my Professional Organizing business and transitioning it to an all virtual model .
I'll be talking about the ways I gave myself permission to be messy along the way and I'm hoping that it'll inspire you, whether you've been thinking about starting an online business, or maybe it will inspire you to start an online business, or if you already have an online business, I'm hoping there'll be some insights in here that'll help you along the way.
So back in 2015, I started thinking about what it would be like to do my business all virtual. I'd been working with clients in person, both residential and business and I wanted to prepare for the future, knowing that someday I physically wouldn't want to be organizing anymore and I also wanted to reach a broader audience because that was around the time that I started live streaming. And I started meeting people from all over the world and I thought, how cool would it be able to work with people from anywhere.
So at the time my professional organizing business was doing really well. I had been about nine years into my business. So I had made it through a recession. I built quite a business and to be honest, taking it all online was like starting a brand new business and it felt a little bit scary and I knew it would take some time to build.
But honestly, I've had to give myself a lots of permission to be messy because you see people building these online businesses and they don't happen overnight. It really depends on the niche that somebody is in, but for mine, It's been quite an interesting journey trying to translate what I do in person to all online.
So I had been thinking about it and I thought I'm going to ease myself in and then my website got hacked. So I thought, you know what? This is my sign to do it.
And I had worked with somebody who used a platform called Kajabi, and that was probably back in 2012 or 13 . Whenever Kajabi first came out. And I thought, I think I got an inkling back then that I might want to be doing this online. And so I kind of tucked that away. But when my website got hacked, I thought, all right, I'm going to redo my website, but I'm also gonna sign up for this Kajabi thing.
It just so happens that Kajabi was closed at that time because they were transitioning into a whole new vision for their platform. But I was able to sign up and get on the wait list. And thankfully I got in, so I became a Kajabi founder back in 2015 and I didn't actually create my first program till about a year later. I had Kajabi for about a year before I did anything. if you're a Kajabi user, any kind of platform user, you may resonate with this, but I thought this is okay. I got in as a founder, I'm learning, I'm not wasting any money because I'm learning the platform.
I'm learning how I want to do things. So I created my first online program. And that was a result of a free challenge that I had done for a couple of years in my Facebook group. And I created it into a program, created the videos, set up the structure, got it into Kajabi. It was really inexpensive and I sold some and I was so excited. I was so excited that first sale that I got.
But it wasn't something that was taking off and. part of that was me marketing and, navigating the online space. But it was also getting people motivated. It's really hard to get people to complete online courses.
And that was one of the first moments where I really had to let go of perfectionism. I filmed that program on my phone at the time by myself with a front facing camera. So the quality's okay. Even though my daughter could film me, I just felt more comfortable talking to the camera myself. It was like live streaming.
And so the videos weren't perfect. My daughter actually created an intro and outro for each one, which now in hindsight,
Those are annoying because they're over and over for 29 days. But at some point I'll remove them, But seven years later, I haven't modified them because to be honest, the content is great and the program is great, but I stopped marketing it because I realized that people don't finish courses. So I started to do more coaching and then I created my second program, which was, my paper and digital program, which walks through my CHANGES™️ process. And again, I did that one on my phone. And got it out there as well-received D did well, but again, people needed coaching. I have since rerecorded that one, one program, because I feel like that's really where I shine. So I had my daughter professionally do that with me.
And then I created a photo course. So here I was with these three courses. And I was doing coaching and, testing different things
and trying really hard not to give up because the worst thing you can do is give up right before there is success. And then I came to the point where I created a group coaching program. And that was received really well. And then COVID hit. And. Everybody was just not doing anything. Even though you would see people saying, oh, you must be so busy because. the pandemic is here and everybody's getting organized. I said,the people that I work with are not doing that because they're now like paralyzed by their clutter. So I had a few clients I worked with through that group coaching program. And I kept hearing from different areas membership membership membership.
And I said, okay, I really like the coaching piece of it and I have my programs. I've created so many different variations of, group coaching, open, closed.
And in, in getting feedback from clients and actually hearing from other people. It came very clear that a membership model would be really good for what I do. And so I created a membership where people could join and they could join as a self study where they would get access to my programs and they would get access to a resource hub where there's answers to questions. they would be answered in there.
And then there would be a second level that would have group coaching, and then there would be a third level that would have VIP. And the initial launch of that went well. but again, it's like pulling teeth to get people to participate. Some people are really good about it and then other people, they sign up for something and then they, life gets busy and I get it. I've done this too.
So I released the membership and then, I think we're going into a recession. And so that's been an interesting challenge. So I started just focusing on building my list. Talking about my membership. And as we came into the middle of this year, I started to think people need more motivation. I can't just keep this thing open all the time because people are not going to, they're not going to get it done. There's no urgency, even though.
the urgency for me around organization is the quicker you get organized. The more money you save, the more money you can make in your business . I work with business owners but my messaging has been really off because people will say all the time, oh, JoAnn, she's such a great home organizer.
And yes, I do help people with that, but really what I help people with is getting them organized so that they can be more productive in their business. And so yes, that can involve home organizing because most of my clients work from home. But it's more about getting the files organized, getting your processes in place and your calendar and time management, project management.
And so my messaging has been off. So I just posted the other day on Facebook that I need to finally, I think, stop calling myself a professional organizer. And I've been toying with different titles. What I do is I put them on my bios of different social medias, and I look at them and I see how they feel. This is how I'm trying to figure things out.
All this to say after what are we're in 2023. So back in 2016, I started my first program. I'm finally going to stop selling my standalone programs as much as I love them and they're amazing it, I think that people can buy them and not do them. I don't want that
So they are now only going to be in my membership.
I am keeping my get organized. Create your action plan. program separate because I do believe that can be standalone and I'm testing right now. I'm testing. doing a monthly coaching call with that. I've got my membership on one side where, people can come to weekly sessions and then I will have this separate program.
where people can come to monthly coaching programs. So the membership will get both but if somebody is not interested in the full membership experience, they can buy this one program and then come to monthly sessions. So it's all a test.
And one of the pieces that I didn't mention is that when I was transitioning my business from, In person to all online. Yes, I was having those programs, but I was thinking that I was going to be an actually tried this with a few clients. I was going to be doing virtual sessions with people.
But that was not a good use of my time and it wasn't necessarily a good use of their time because I wasn't there to physically help them, which I'm not now. Even, doing the group coaching. But I've got it in such a structure now that I can give people direction and they can come to sessions and work. So they have that accountability and they can ask questions.
But I'm not handholding through the whole thing. I'm giving them a process to use, and then I'm there to support them for coaching strategy and accountability.
How does this translate to permission to be messy? It's really about letting go and letting myself do this trial and error. That's my Boston accent. Do this trial and error.
I have a, I have had to let go of my perfectionism and just put something out there instead of trying to craft the perfect offer.
I've had to give myself grace. And let go of that perfectionism and work with my clients and figure out what's going to be best and not feeling that I should know that because it's a whole new area. When I first became a professional organizer. I wasn't, I wasn't seasoned. I didn't know everything. It's all a learning process.
you don't charge as much money because things may take you longer. and then as you learn more and you get more and more experience your rate goes up. I had to do the same thing, transitioning to all online.
So my prices were pretty low when I first started and I gave a lot of deals. Because I didn't want anyone to feel like. they're paying full price when I'm sitting over here trying to figure it all out. I a hundred percent know how to help people get organized and let go but the modality of how you do that is interesting.
So let's move over, like thinking about the marketing. Oh, my goodness. I've tried it all. I've tried webinars quizzes, lead magnets, challenges, free courses. All of the things, and I've learned a lot along the way, and I've learned what works and what doesn't for my niche, because I wouldn't say one thing works over the other.
For me, it happens to be doing webinars and workshops. And then also, my quiz has done really well, but now my quiz is more directed towards that message that I'm putting out there of I help people get organized in their home and I really want to be more known for. Two things. I'm really good at helping people get their paper and their digital files organized, but also helping people with their business side of it and doing,the project management and the time management and what will work for them.
And then, there's the social media. What platform should I be on? Should I be live streaming? What should I be posting all of that. There's so much to it. However, I love all this stuff.
And then the other piece of all of this is marketing as far as, paid ads. When I was working with people in person, I didn't have to pay for any ads because. A quick Google search for a professional organizer near me. And I would come to the top of the list.
Because I had been around for a long time. And so I had really great SEO. and then, taking my business online that all went away. So I had to rethink how to do things.
And now I'm doing podcasting, which I absolutely love. This is something that I have been talking about for probably for about 10 years. And, it wasn't until this year that I finally am doing it.
I'm recording this episode today because in a couple of days, Kajabi is hosting their live event. Back in 2019 before the pandemic, I was able to go to California and, see all my Kajabi friends and be a part of the live event and they hadn't done a live event until now. And sadly, I can't be there
but I'm wishing all of my Kajabi people the best. But I want to quickly talk about Kajabi because this has been such a big reason why I've been able to build my online business.
And yes, this is going to be a little bit of an ad for Kajabi. I do have an affiliate link in my show notes, which gets you a free 30 day trial. Plus when you sign up with me, you get support from me Kajabi has incredible customer service.
There's a great Facebook group. There's they have live chat. you can email, they're really responsive and they have great tutorials and a great Kajabi university, but sometimes you just need to talk to that person and that would be me. To help you. Navigate the whole software and just building your online business because that lights me up and I would love to help with that as well.
So with Kajabi. Let me talk about what I've built. Obviously I have my website there. the wonderful thing about Kajabi is you only have to pay for your domain. The cost of the hosting is built right into your Kajabi price. I've created my blog there. And unlimited landing pages, which I use for opt-in pages. Thank you. Pages, website pages. sales pages. And then programs. So my programs are hosted on Kajabi. I really love the user experience for that. It's so easy for people to go through courses. so I have my programs there and then I have also my membership there.
I also have my community there. So I'm using all of those things. The one thing I haven't been using is the coaching. I like to do my private coaching off of Kajabi, unless somebody doing it part of my membership. but that's just because I don't, I don't like the interface for me, but there are people that are using it that love it.
And the cool thing about the programs and the membership and all of that is, and the landing pages is you have unlimited video hosting. That can get really expensive depending on what platform you're on and that's all included in your price. So I, I create my offers there, take my money through Kajabi. I create, the sales funnels there.
events I've run, webinars through there. I do all my email marketing through there. There's automations. Their contact section, where all the people are, it's really robust.
They have an incredible affiliate program and again, my affiliate link will be in the show notes and they also have phone apps, which, their community app is pretty good. Their phone app is good.
hopefully they're going to make some changes to that. Cause I'll be realistic with that. I don't really use the phone app to consume any of the Kajabi products that I've bought from other people, because I don't absolutely love it, but it's good to have on the fly. If you really want to listen to something and you don't want to have your computer open.
As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of Kajabi. There are other platforms out there that you can use. and if you're looking at Kajabi thinking, oh my goodness, that's so expensive. and you want to talk about other platforms. What else is out there. I'm happy to chat with you about that. you can book a free call with me.
but to be honest, Depending on what you may have to teach. I saw something recently in the Kajabi Facebook group where this this guy's grandmother was teaching people to sew. And when the pandemic hit, she didn't have that income anymore. So he helped her create an online program, teaching people to sew.
And I think after two years, She just hit a million dollars. To me, those are success stories because you see all these people online saying, oh, I made a million, I have a seven figure business. They're usually teaching other people how to build businesses. And yes, there are businesses that can make seven figures that aren't teaching people business, but they're very niche.
So if you have some sort of a skill. That you would love to teach people. over and over and be able to do it either in video format or, if it's a podcast, you can do a private podcast on Kajabi. if it's just you speaking or if you're doing video tutorials.
Anything that somebody would go to YouTube for. But they need more structure and they need it to be laid out in such a way that you could teach it to them.
You could potentially, I'm not saying you can potentially make a million. You could. But you could create some extra income. And if you can weigh the cost of what you might be able to sell a program for versus what you might pay monthly for a service like Kajabi. It may be worth it. So if you're, if you have an idea and you're thinking, will this work.
Reach out to me book that free call, or if you already, grab my affiliate link, it's free 30 days. I'm pretty sure when you use the affiliate link, it puts you into the growth platform, which is a little bit more expensive than the basic, but you can see what it's all about looking at it with the growth. And then if you do choose to go forward. You can easily go to the lower priced.
option , just so you know that. but yeah, so I, I would love to chat with you about Kajabi or starting an online business or a professional organizing. If you're a professional organizer listening to this, and you're thinking of going virtual. I'm always happy to chat about that.
So check out the show notes. I've got lots of links in there and as always I'm wishing you much productivity, peace, prosperity, and the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
