Plenty with Kate Northrup

Everyone growing a business is going to fail along the way. What Dr. Cleopatra Abdou-Kamperveen realized is that she wanted to fail as soon as possible, so she could get on the right path even more quickly. As a newly tenured Professor with a proven pre-conception and fertility protocol that has a 97% success rate, Dr. Cleopatra was ready to get the word out there in a bigger way. Listen in to how she was able to shorten her learning curve as she got up to speed in online business and which elements were key for her growth and early mastery. It's been an incredible honor to support Dr. Cleopatra this year as part of the 2019 Origin Incubator, and I'm so excited for you to benefit from her wisdom and apply it to growing your business!

Back in 2012, Mike and I were living in a drafty rental on Long Island figuring out how to live and work together. (Oh wait. Still trying to figure that out, minus the draftiness.) Over lunch at a little golf course cafe, we came up with an idea to give our community something they’d been asking for: access to my methodology on falling in love with your money. Here’s the problem: The methodology was alive and well inside my head and in the manuscript I was working on, but it didn’t live anywhere else yet. I’d taught some of it live before and I’d lived all of it, but I didn’t have proof that people would get out their credit cards and spend money to learn it yet. So, we decided to open the doors to The Money Love Course before the course had even been created. We had a list that was less than 10% of the size it is now. We had never created a course before, and I’d only ever taken one digital course before. We had never sold anything of our own online. We didn’t have any fancy tech knowledge or equipment. I had a lot of doubt as to whether or not what I had to share was valuable enough to sell because I’d only ever taught this material before for free. But we thought, "Well, what the heck? The worst-case scenario is that no one buys and then we’re no worse off than we are right now." So we went for it. And you know what? We made $20,000 in that one week, promoting a course that didn’t even exist yet. There are a lot of things that hold people back from getting started creating digital courses: I don’t know what I’m doing. Who do I think I am to be charging people for my knowledge and expertise? I’m not techy. I have a very small (or non-existent) audience. I’m a solo show and I have tons of other things to do. I don’t have time for this! Well, in today’s episode of The Kate & Mike Show we’re taking you behind the scenes back to 7 years ago when we got started with digital courses, and you’ll hear: • How we knew it was the right time to create a digital course • The incredibly simple setup of our first course launch and delivery • What we did to eventually create $123,000 with the launch of that same course • How we set up an automated system to bring in up to $50,000/month of recurring revenue from that same course, which helped us immensely during our first year of parenthood • How a friend of ours took our same plan and turned it into £18,000 within a week You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com. Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

Changing directions in your company, especially when it's a 3-million-dollar home-manufacturing brand, takes guts (or ovaries, as the case may be). Following your heart and calling is not always the easy decision. But Sinclair Kennally has never tried to take the easy way out. Listen in to this special bonus episode of The Kate & Mike Show where we're going behind the scenes of this 2019 Origin Incubator member's business trajectory from manufacturing to e-commerce to wellness and detox for visionaries. You'll learn why every leader needs to be paying attention to their toxic burden if they want to function at their full potential, how we can all contribute to the greater good of the planet with our buying decisions, how to economy-proof your business, and what the critical ingredient for Sinclair was as she made these big leaps and changes this year (even in the face of great personal loss).

When Mike and I became parents, we experienced the most difficult year of our life up until that point due to a combination of the fact that becoming a parent is hard, I had a traumatic birth experience, I struggled with postpartum anxiety and insomnia, and we had a sick baby who would wake herself up throughout the night scratching herself so much from her severe eczema. It was not awesome on so many levels. However, the reason everything didn’t fall apart was because our business remained solid the whole time, despite the fact that both of us were working less than half the amount of time we’d worked previously. So how did we make our money that year? Digital courses that didn’t require us to trade hours for dollars (or be showered or coherent because we created them before having a kid). For us, having a thriving digital course business meant we kept it together (barely) during an incredibly grueling year and could be with each other and our baby without having to worry about how we were going to make money. For others, having a thriving digital course business means being able to homeschool their kids, travel to spend a month or more with family that lives far away, not needing to have as many (or any) 1:1 clients, being able to leave a job that feels soul-sucking, or being able to keep the doors open to the business that they love. What might having a thriving digital course business mean to you? There are a lot of misconceptions about what it takes to create and launch digital courses successfully. I don’t have anything special to teach. I don’t have a big enough (or any) audience. The digital course world is over-saturated. There’s no room for me. The tech is too complicated and I can barely navigate my email inbox! I wouldn’t even know where to begin.It’s too overwhelming. Turns out, creating a thriving digital course business is not necessarily what you think...and you CAN do it. Today we have a really special episode of The Kate & Mike Show featuring the QUEEN of digital courses, our dear friend and creator of Digital Course Academy, Amy Porterfield. In the episode she debunks the common myths about digital course businesses (including the ones listed above), and by the end of the episode you’re not only going to fully get that you can have the kind of freedom digital courses create in your business, you’ll also know how to get started. Here’s what you’ll learn: • How to get the 10% edge over the competition that makes all the difference • How one woman saved her business by selling 313 units of a $200 digital course on making caramel candied apples - and how you can use her story to inspire your successful course • 2 common mistakes that kill course creation success • What your #1 priority needs to be if you’re going to have a thriving digital course business • The counter-intuitive, but incredibly effective, strategy for deciding what to teach • How to determine which content to give away for free and what to charge people for (this is GOLD!) • How to stay ahead of the curve in the digital space And so much more! You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com.  Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

I'm so excited to kick off a special 8-week series of bonus episodes on The Kate & Mike Show, featuring a group of women I've been working with closely over the past 9 months to support in growing their businesses while doing less. This week I'm introducing you to Whitney Bishop who's a change agent working in the non-profit space. She came to me wanting to lean into her thought leadership and create more leverage in her business, as well as begin to reach an audience beyond her native Louisville, KY. Listen in to hear what she did to expand this year, including what made the difference for her getting the impressive result of besting her 2018 revenue by the end of August of 2019!

If you want to leverage your time so that you don’t have to trade hours for dollars anymore, a digital course is an excellent idea. However, firing up your laptop and recording your voice over slides or shooting some videos and then getting them up on a password protected site by no means guarantees you’re going to have a successful digital course that reaches the people who need it and gives you the income you deserve. I want you to have wild success with your digital course (or maybe even courses) but I don’t want you to slow yourself down unnecessarily by making the mistakes we see over and over again. So, Mike and I recorded a brand new episode of The Kate & Mike Show for you to give you a few ounces of prevention. Whether the idea of creating a digital course is brand new to you or you’ve already created and launched one, this episode is for you. If I’d had this information 6 years ago when we first launched The Money Love Course, or even 2 years ago, I would have saved our company so much time and we would have helped more people (plus had more profits.) Don’t head on your digital course creation journey without a map. This is one area where winging it will cost you a lot of time and money unnecessarily. Listen to the episode because it will get you started on the right path. You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com. Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

I honestly didn’t realize it until last week when Mike and I sat down to record this week’s Kate & Mike Show episode, but there’s something I’ve committed to since the very beginning of my business that I think has been the single biggest contributor to feeling like, despite the ups and downs, my business is wildly successful and I’m a thriving entrepreneur: Circling up with a group of fellow entrepreneurs who are also committed to upleveling with a set structure and container to encourage all of you to grow. There’s actually a word for this very thing. That word is mastermind. It’s based on the idea that we’re more powerful together, that 1 + 1 = 3 (not 2), and that when you get a group of people together who are an energetic match, everyone accelerates in a way they couldn’t possibly if they were going it alone. I’ve participated in all kinds of masterminds over the past 11 years, and regardless of their structure, cost, or length, all of them have had one thing in common: They’ve caused me and my business to grow exponentially in relationship to the time I invested. A mastermind is like kiln-dried firewood and perfectly crumpled newspaper for your growth. Your ideas are the matches or sparks or that clicker thing where you have to hold one part with your thumb while you pull the trigger with your finger to get fire to come out of it, which can sometimes take a few tries to coordinate. No newspaper and dry firewood? All the sparks in the world won’t catch. They need something to ignite them and let them grow and burn. You may have never heard the word mastermind before, or you might have been considering joining or starting one. Either way, if you want to take your business to the next level in a Do Less way, a mastermind is a must and this week we’re giving you: • 6 reasons to join a mastermind • how to find the right one for you • how to start your own Once you’ve listened we’d love to know: What’s your experience been with masterminds? What additional questions, if any, do you have? You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com! Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

Want to know what the #1 indicator of a woman’s success in her career is? A tight-knit group of female friends. Yep. It’s true! This is exciting but here’s the problem: After the age of 25 our friendships start to suffer, and our social circles contract. Why? Because our culture tells us to be focused on getting married and having kids and getting ahead in our careers! So we ditch or stop prioritizing the very thing that would contribute to said success on a deep level: Our friends! When I recently asked you what you wanted to learn more about, tons of you came back and said you wanted to learn about how to make friends as an adult, and, more importantly, how to form and maintain super connected friendships. Like the ones that feel like the family you get to choose. We’re giving you 7 things to keep in mind when it comes to forming close friendships that will contribute not only to your career success, but also to your immunity, mental health, and overall joy (which, for the record, is my highest priority these days. If it’s not bringing me joy or I can’t figure out how to do it joyfully, I’m not doing it!) If you struggle with making friends, if you’ve had your heartbroken by a friendship ending, if you love your friends but find it hard to prioritize them, if you’re feeling lonely, if you don’t know where to find your people, or if you just want to know how to feel even more connected to the friends you already have, this episode is for you! After you’ve listened, we’d love to hear which of the 7 tips we gave resonated with you the most and also if you have any other friendship-building stories or insights to share! You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com! Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast 

"If I want to make more money, I have to work more." This belief has rung in the ears of entrepreneurs for long enough. I believed if I wanted more success, I needed to work more until I’d been in business for nearly 15 years. You know what finally proved me wrong? Getting pregnant. You may be wondering: What the heck does pregnancy have to do with growing my business? Stay with me. Mike and I had the goal of hitting 7 figures in revenue in one year for years before we hit it. Believe it or not, it was pregnancy knocking my old ways of working (pushing harder and hustling) right out of me, plus a first year of parenthood that was one of the darkest times of my life, and figuring out how to run our business...and be profitable...at the same time that shook the belief that in order to make more money I have to put in more hours out of me. Mike and I finally hit 7 figures when we started working less because we’d become parents and we simply didn’t have the time (or bandwidth) we used to have. How exactly did that work? Well, I’d love to tell you...and we recorded a whole podcast episode for you in order to do just that. This week’s episode of The Kate & Mike Show is the second installment of our August Podcast Listening Adventure designed to help you upgrade your business and your life, and in it we’re sharing: • The 4 shifts we made to finally hit our goal of 7 figures in revenue within one year • Why waiting to learn how to manage your money well until after you’ve started making more money is a terrible idea • The very scary thing we did that helped us grow our business by over $400K in one year • The single most important thing you can do to improve your business or your life (and it has nothing to do with putting in more time) Once you’ve listened, we want to hear from you: Which of the 4 shifts resonated the most with you? How will you put it into action in your own business? You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com! Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

When I recently asked our community what their biggest business challenge is I got floods of: Getting enough clients or customers. Is making sales something that’s a sticky wicket for you? If so, you’re in the right place. I got a text last weekend from the guy who organized a fundraiser for our girl’s co-op daycare telling me that my husband Mike was hands down the MVP when it came to making sales for the weekend. Unlike many people in our community, Mike LOVES to sell. While I don’t love it as much as Mike, believe it or not, I kind of love it, too! We’re kicking off our August Podcast Listening Adventure with an episode that’s going to help you make more sales, whether you’re brand-new in business and feel like sales is a dirty word or you’re well-established but would love to up your conversion rates. In this episode of The Kate & Mike Show we covered: • The specific strategy Mike used to be the MVP of sales at our recent daycare fundraiser and how you can use it to up your sales in your business • Why I was secretly excited when Mike told me he used to sell drugs (yep - for real!) • 3 specific ways to get more people to buy what you’re selling (trust me - even if you don’t like to sell, you’re going to LOVE trying these out) Once you’ve listened, we want to know which one of the 3 tips we gave was the most useful and how you’re going to apply it to your business. Enjoy, and we’ll see you next week for the next installment of the Podcast Listening Adventure! You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com! Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities. Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.