Hi there, Solopreneur! I hope you’re having a sensational week.

The holiday decorations are packed, and we’re up and running in the new year.

This week’s issue is a 5.5-minute read.

Many thanks to all the readers who cast a vote in last week’s poll re: the most important solopreneur goal you want to achieve in 2024.

The top choice (it wasn’t even close) was this:

Fixing your product offering and pricing.

In the coming weeks, I’ll dive deeper into this subject and share ideas on how you can successfully deliver and price your expertise. Stay tuned…

😁 How to Fix Your Obsession with Social Media Metrics & Launch a Phenomenal Digital Course

🚀 The online course ecosystem continues to explode.

According to Elearning Statistics, the e-learning market was worth approximately $190 billion in 2018 and may hit $319 billion by 2029!

In 2017, course creators had to spend hours researching course topics, developing course outlines, and wrestling with ‘so-so’ platforms to package and launch their course.

Today, AI writes you a course outline in seconds, and the wide array of dynamic digital course platforms (ex. Teachable & Thinkific) help you package, market, and sell your expertise like a pro.

Yet even with sensational AI tools and smarter course platforms, most solopreneurs fail to make any real money with their digital courses.

The social media ‘stars’ tell you that all you need is a few thousand followers, and your online course will deliver you endless peace and prosperity.

Just book a flight to Cabo, sit by the pool, and let it all happen, right?

Eli Natoli knows better.

Eli is an international best-selling author, speaker, and marketing strategist.

She excels at helping coaches and business professionals separate fact from fiction with social media metrics and digital courses.

Eli has spent years closely monitoring the digital course arena and crafting her unique ‘service first’ framework.

To date, she has collaborated with thousands of business leaders and helped them build a smart digital strategy.

Her expertise has paved the way for students to scale their profits to more than $40 million in sales.

My conversation with Eli was insightful, helpful, and refreshing.

She’s smart, direct, and honest about the multiple challenges solopreneurs face in today’s social media arena.

🔑Key Takeaways from Eli’s Interview

• 📱 How you can develop and maintain healthy habits for social media

• 🧠 How you can collaborate with AI without losing your personal style
  

• 🗂 How to craft your winning course strategy

⏱ 6 Fast Questions for Eli Natoli

Erik: When you started your first online business, did you think about an initial strategy, or did you begin and let the strategy develop as you got the business up and running?

Eli: When I left my corporate day job, my husband and I started a design and development agency. We decided to transition from that and adopt an online training and consulting model.

I didn't know anything about online marketing. I didn't even think of myself as someone who would be interested in online marketing.

Erik: What were the big takeaways in the early years? Was it feedback from students or customers that got you moving in a different direction?

Eli: I knew right from the start that if we were going to be able to sell on a consistent basis, we needed to have an audience. But how do we find that audience? There were several moments when several important things came to the surface. The very first one was that we have to borrow other people's audiences.

The faster you can get it in front of someone, the easier it is to get that feedback and to know if you're on the right track.

The second thing that became really apparent is that you need a cohesive strategy. That cohesive strategy is that if someone comes into my sphere, what do I want that person to experience? What do I want them to see first? And then, what do I want them to do?

And make sure that you actually lay that path for them. You take charge of taking those people down that path.

And the last one has always been our differentiator. We're all focused and obsessed with our revenue goals, our business goals, and our quotas. 

We create a social post. We put it up there. We want to check it every two seconds.

Did it get any likes? Did I get any engagement?

The focus should be on the people that I'm meant to help—the people who would really benefit from my services and products. What do they need from me? What kind of offers would really help them move?

When we adopted that mentality and approach, it felt like everything was just shifting into place all by itself. More people were gravitating towards us, having more conversations, and consistency in ourselves really started happening as well.

Erik: Let's go deeper on that topic. Have you found certain methods that help people detach from that day-to-day metric and find a deeper awareness of what their clients expect them to do?

Eli: This is what I teach inside my workshops and in every conversation that I have with prospects and clients. I know people firsthand who have huge platforms. They get tons of engagement, but they can't meet their revenue goals. They're not making that much money.

Let's say I put a lead magnet out there. How many conversations came out of that? How many people actually came, grabbed my lead magnet, and entered my funnel?

Use that metric to see what’s working. I think that helps you detach from the surface.

Erik: When folks approach you about wanting to join your mastermind sessions, do you hear one or two common frustrations from those people? 

Eli: I typically work with two groups of people. The first group is people who haven't hit that first 10-K month or six-figure mark. And they're hustling their rear ends off, right?

They're on social media, posting all the time. They're trying to do whatever they're being told to do, and they're at the point of giving up. They've spent a lot of money.

For those people, the conversation is, “Listen, all the money that you've spent and all the things you've done haven't been strategy. You've hopped on one tactic after another after another, right?”

Somebody told you, “I'm going to show you how to show up on LinkedIn and gain followers. Somebody else came along and said, “You have to learn my webinar system.”

They come into my program, where it's about building a solid foundation. 

What is that path? What kind of experience do you want your audience to have with you? What are those touchpoints?

The second audience is made up of people who are successful and who're making money. Unfortunately, the way they're making money is by showing up on social media every single day. They have to have a ton of conversations in DMs. They get on tons of discovery calls.

They don't enjoy doing the work anymore. For those people, it's helping them figure out, “Where can you scale? They don't have a scalable offer, although they might have like ten different online courses.

Erik: Let's take scalability in 2024. Can you speak to AI or new technology that is helping these people scale their offer?

Eli: I wish I had the help of AI when I started, especially when it comes to content creation and content ideation. This past July, I rolled out a course. I was able to roll out a course in four weeks because of AI. 

Every aspect of my business has changed. It's streamlined, and it's faster. It is a huge, huge plus, but only if you use it correctly.

You have to use it in a way that helps you streamline your work without losing your voice, your unique point of view, or your personality. 

The only way that you can stand out is if you actually show your unique personalities and your unique points of view.

Erik: One of the most popular questions people ask me to convey in each interview is, “Share the best piece of business advice you received and the worst.

Eli: The one that made all the difference is by Reid Hoffman.

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” R. Hoffman

This made a huge difference in the way I was running my business. You can't gain any measurable momentum if you are so obsessed with every single thing that goes into your product. 

I'm not advocating putting crappy stuff out there. This whole idea revolves around perfection. Don't obsess. We're always learning.

Erik: And the worst business advice?

Eli: “Don't put all your eggs in one basket.”

That's the worst advice for people who are starting out.

It's actually better to put all your eggs in one basket at the beginning—one offer, one platform, one strategy.

Pick one solution that you’re going to roll out, and that's it. You have to sell this for a year.

And by the end of the year, if you haven't reached consistency, then that's fine, right?

If a digital course is on your list for your solo business in 2024, consider reaching out to Eli and sharing your thoughts.

And if you’re wondering where to start or re-start with your solo biz strategy, this article may give you the boost and clarity you need.

🚪Stay curious and keep opening doors!

-Erik