#47 From Vault to Vision: How Alexis Galloway Turned a Hobby Into a Thriving Online Course Business

Ever felt like you’re sitting on a mountain of valuable content (tutorials, workshops, PDFs, maybe even entire slide decks), but you have no idea how to turn it into a structured, sellable course? You’re not alone.

In this episode of The Art of Online Course Creation, Shannon sits down with Alexis Galloway, founder of So Sweet Academy and a creative entrepreneur who went from stitching for fun to building a full-fledged online business teaching machine embroidery to beginners. But Alexis’s journey wasn’t a straight line.

She started, like many creators do, by sharing her passion and answering questions one by one… until she found herself repeating the same explanations over and over. That’s when she realized there had to be a better way - a way to multiply her impact, streamline her teaching, and scale her business beyond one-to-one conversations. Enter: online courses.

But as Alexis discovered, creating a course isn’t just about recording tutorials and uploading them to a platform. Her first course (though successful on the surface) lacked the structure, intentionality, and learning journey that students truly needed. The result was confusion, repeated questions, and missed transformation.

In this honest and inspiring conversation, Alexis opens up about:

• The mindset shift from hobbyist to business owner and the pivotal moments that sparked her evolution.
• Why her first course made her cringe and how refining the structure changed everything.
• The biggest mistake most creators make with existing content (and how to fix it).
• How adding coaching and real-time support took her course from “nice to have” to life-changing.
• The essential (and often overlooked) parts of course creation that separate scattered content from true transformation.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your own ideas, or if you’re wondering how to turn your expertise into something that actually gets results, this episode is packed with insight, honesty, and actionable wisdom.

🎧 Tune in to hear how Alexis transformed a messy vault of tutorials into a profitable, purpose-driven program, and how you can do the same.

Connect with Alexis here:

https://www.facebook.com/Sewsweetacademy https://www.youtube.com/@sewsweetacademy https://www.instagram.com/sewsweetacademy

Get started on your own course creation journey or learn how to make your existing course even better at The "Your Best Course" Build Lab, my interactive and supportive online community.

To get started creating your own online course, check out my new freebie that will take you through the steps of choosing a topic that will be profitable for YOU.

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This podcast is produced, mixed, and edited by Cardinal Studio. For more
information about how to start your own podcast, please visit www.cardinalstudio.co
or e-mail mike@cardinalstudio.co