Episode 64 Earn Income With A Virtual Workshop (With Sir Isaac Smith)

In episode 64, we learn more about how to earn income with online workshops with our guests. Sir Isaac Smith today my guest is Sir Isaac Smith. He is a former remote work school member turned podcast producer. He's my podcast producer and now my collaborator on a brand new workshop that chose people how to make $500 or more a month selling things on eBay.

Welcome back to the third installment of our topic all month long, which is how to earn income from digital products and services, and I'm so excited. To have one of my favorite guests of all time, sir Isaac Smith on the show.

Welcome back, Isaac. Hey guys. Hey Camille. So I have to tell you, you are now officially the most featured guest on this podcast show. You're, this is your third time. That's true. I interviewed you and then you interviewed me. Now you're interviewing me again. Yeah. Yeah. Congratulations. I don't know if there's a prize for that, but uh, it feels like a prize to me.

So, yeah, I'll get with your producer on that one. Maybe there's something I can get for that I should mention, everyone, if you're listening, Isaac is my podcast producer. We're not gonna talk about that today, but you can revisit his story in another episode. I will include that in the show notes. But today what we're gonna do is we're gonna hear more about Isaac's experience.

With the very first workshop, at least I think it is the very first workshop that Isaac ever produced because we are learning about that topic this month, which is workshops, online courses, uh, memberships, digital products, services, et cetera. So Isaac, I wanna pepper you today with some questions about the workshop that you and I collaborated on called Flip into 500.

All about how to become a reseller on eBay and make $500 or more a month. My first question is, how did you come up with this workshop idea? So I let it slip to you that this is what I do and I, I've been doing it for a while. You fired back to me that really I should look into turning this into a course and I, I can't remember if I took it super seriously at first or not because I've, I, you know, I've been rather coarse and coach adverse just 'cause it, it's not something that I've, I.

Initially felt was in my wheelhouse, but after talking about it and, and looking at it some, it was like, this is feasible. I, I've already done it for other people, like, like just going off my past there, there are several people that I taught how to do this. Hmm. And so it, it just made sense to at least try and I am very content with the results so far.

Oh, I can't wait to get into the results, actually. And so note everyone. Don't ever tell me an idea that you have, if you don't plan to actually implement it because, correct. I love people's ideas and the minute that I found out that, that Isaac was making not just 500 but more a month on eBay, my ears perked up and I was like, dinging, ding, dinging.

Wait a minute, Isaac, you, you do this for yourself. And I remember you said, yeah, for myself, for friends, for family. And I was like, oh my gosh, you should teach that. You did. You made this really cool course. Now let's talk about, well actually I shouldn't call it a course. Let me back up and say it's really more of a workshop and I wanna make the distinction between the two.

An online course typically is a little bit more involved longer. It usually takes people on a journey from point A all the way to point Z, like remote work school. My main course is, is a pretty involved, uh, Program. Mm-hmm. Flip into 500, your eBay workshop. There was what, like a 90 minute workshop, roughly, give or take, right?

Yeah. 90 minute was some q and a. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes I think that that format is a, is a better fit for certain topics. And so I do think that for what you were teaching to the folks that came, that made sense in a workshop format. And so the people who came, um, tell us a little bit more about that audience and who you think Flip into 500 is actually built for.

So that's a really good question because for me and a lot of the people who I've introduced it to, it was college age students. It was early starting out family members that are in their thirties, forties, and then really when I made the actual workshop and I sat down and I mapped everything out, I wanted to make it all encompassing for just about anyone in a situation where either a.

You're wanting to start a business or at least bankroll for another business, and you have enough starting capital to start something small and build up to that revenue perfect, or you absolutely have nothing, which is the situation I was in. You just have stuff lying around your house, you're ready to start.

You just don't have the revenue, and you need to build that up. You can start. With this system going that route as well. So really anyone in those two positions, and then just about every occupation, every age group, it's really open to people who are more inclined to start a business rather than where you come from in life.

Mm-hmm. And I think for me, what I made the connection to was, The people in my world, the people who come into Right, you know, work school or who listen to this podcast, I was like, well, they would love to make an extra 500,000 plus dollars a month. Uh, because a lot of people in my world are semi-retired or in transition.

And, and now you use the word business, you know, people who wanna start a business. Could it also be for people who just want some supplemental or side income, or do you think Oh, definitely. Okay. For example, my mom who has numbers that actually compete with mine, it's 100% a hobby. Absolutely a hobby. She uses it to go out to eat every now and again and to pay for things that normally she wouldn't.

But it's 100% hobby. She does not have a business mind. Mm. Either or. You can do well with this. I love it. I love it. And I think what I really appreciated about how you delivered this workshop, we'll get into the delivery of it in a minute. It felt so doable. Hmm. I mean, it seemed easy. I don't know that you'd call it easy, but I think it's very realistic.

Mm-hmm. That someone can learn your process and go out, set up an eBay account. Like you say, either start with gathering things around the house if you don't have money to invest in inventory, or if you do, you could get right into niching and that whole thing. But my big takeaway from what you taught was, Oh, I feel like I could go do this and I'm, I'm someone who's resistant to learning a lot of new things these days.

Mm-hmm. Overwhelming. I don't know. You just made it feel like, hey, this is pretty doable stuff. And everyone who walked away from that workshop said the same thing. 'cause we, we, we got feedback from, right, from the people who attended. They were like, oh wow. You know, I think I'm gonna go do this tomorrow.

Is, was kind of the, the big takeaway. So that's the eBay side of it. And everyone, if you wanna go check out the flip into 500. How to make $500 or more with eBay. We'll put a link to the show notes. You can check that course or that workshop out. It's now become a recorded workshop. It's available at any time.

We'll put the link. Yep. But let's talk about the workshop process, because you had never really developed a workshop before. Is that right? That's correct. Okay. So tell us more about what the process was like for you. Like how did you really get started creating a workshop out of thin air? Well, first off, what really helped me was definitely having someone else bring this idea to mind in the form of, Hey, this is.

An everyday part of your life. I get that. But there's a lot of people who would benefit from this, and they don't know about this. You need to make sure that you're able to address that, or at least think of this as an asset for those people, which for me, that was you going through what that needed to look like for another person.

So getting some feedback, but also realizing what this could be to other people when it came to actually making the course. As a listener of the remote work retirement show, the process of using simple features like Canva using simple assets like ai, using all these little things that I have free access to, was a game changer because I was actually able to go through, first off, I mapped out the business model, mapped out the process, and then I simplified it and simplified it again.

Uh, what, what is it they say in writing? You Peer review. Peer review, peer review times 10, and then you publish. That's kind of what I was going for. Mm-hmm. But then after breaking it down in the most simple form that I could, a lot of the work, surprisingly enough, was taken care of for me between the templates I had access to between the different.

Fonts, pictures, graphics, et cetera, that I had access to. And also being able to look at some of the other content out there of what I knew worked well and that I liked and what I really did not like, whether in paid or free courses that exist out there. Mm-hmm. And it was a matter of owning it. It was, what does this look like for an eBay course put together by Sir Isaac Smith?

This is what that needs to look like in, in my opinion. Mm-hmm. And after that point, it was really a matter of doing it, pressing, pressing play, or pressing record, uh, and, and just, just biting the bullet and going for that proof of concept. I love this. There was so much gold. I could sit here and unpack so many things you said, but let me highlight some key things.

Number one, recognizing that something you do every day has value to other people. Mm-hmm. I wanna pause there first because I think a lot of people have ideas and then they immediately think. Well, I have nothing special to offer about that idea. Anybody can learn X, Y, Z, or everybody knows how to do X, Y, Z, so why bother?

Yeah. So I love that you didn't, I love that you were like, well, I have a process and it's my process. Sure, anyone can learn eBay just about any place. That is true. But not everyone can learn it the Isaac way. Mm-hmm. And the Isaac way is special. Because the way anyone teaches something is special and unique to them.

So that's number one. So I love that. Another thing you said is using free templates, free tools, you don't, you didn't have to spend a dime creating this thing. Nope. Yeah, I mean, and that's the other thing. People think they've gotta sink a lot of money into tools and templates and software. And you didn't, you just found some free stuff, used templates, used ai and.

You know, well, it wasn't just free, it was also quality and free. Mm. Nice. Nice. Which was, was huge. You know, I could sit down and try and work with my off brand word version that I have here on my Mac for whatever PowerPoint I wanna put together. But Canva was amazing. Mm-hmm. And free. Yeah. Canva, everyone.

I'll put a link to Canva. I talk a lot about Canva in remote work school and on this show. And the last thing you said that. I wanna talk about is this idea of proof of concept. Mm-hmm. So I call that launch at Lean. Mm-hmm. Uh, and you know that, 'cause you've been in remote work school and you followed the launch at Leann process, which is, let's keep things really basic and really lean.

Don't overcommit, don't overc create, let's get a beta together and throw it in front of people and see how they react. And so I wanna ask you, do you feel like. The amount of time you spent on this first version was appropriate, or do you feel like you spent hours and hours and hours? Mm-hmm. Like, tell me the balance of time there.

So, Part of how I made mine was based off of a process like you've talked about. So for me, I'll, I'll say this, if you're someone who has a process already established and you know, like for me what my inventory numbers need to be versus what my sales price needs to be versus where I need to make sure it weighs when it comes to shipping, and don't be intimidated by any of those things, I cover that in the course.

But in regards to talking about. A course, I have a system and I was able to spell it out, so that made it. As if part of the work was already done for me. Mm-hmm. If that makes sense. Mm-hmm. So, starting from scratch, if someone has not mapped anything out and what it is that they're gonna teach, maybe it's a little bit different, but for me, I was able to map everything out.

I wanna say in an afternoon I was able to put down a, I say this and it might come off as bad, but dumbed down version of it to where it was, okay, this is where anyone is gonna be able to succeed and understand what I'm saying. I was able to do that in about an afternoon. Another afternoon I made the PowerPoint.

We got together and did a test run, which I think our test run did about two hours because we talked so much along the way. I took maybe another hour to adjust everything that we decided we wanted to polish up. Maybe a full day's worth of work altogether if, if I wanna be. Super generous to myself.

Probably a little bit more than that, but mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Everything that you see in flipping to 500 I could have put together in a day and a half if mm-hmm. I already had the expertise and the feedback upfront. Yeah. Very fast. That's amazing. That, that is amazing because I wanna pause and I wanna really, I wanna really slow down and talk about.

How powerful this is. You were able to take a process, you do all the time, every day. Mm-hmm. Map it out, put it in a deck that other people could follow, spruce it up, make it, you know, valuable enough for other people in about eight to 10 hours one day of, of solid work. Mm-hmm. And now you have a digital product that you could sell forever.

Forever. Forever. That's, that's huge. And I just think that that's the power of these types of digital products and services. Now, to be fair, we did a beta, we did like a test run and, and let me tell people how we did it. I did something new I had never done before in the business. And by the way, I collaborated with Isaac on this.

So he handled all the content and I handled a bit of the marketing. And the gathering of people. Mm-hmm. So we put an email out and I, I told people on my email list, pay what you want for this thing because we don't know yet what it's gonna be. So, so, hey here, here it is. It can be like two hours. This is what we're gonna cover.

Pay us what you can or what you feel is appropriate. And we had quite a range of, of pricing, which was really good because then we were able to like price test this thing. And then we sent out a feedback form after to ask people what was good. What do they like? What do they want us to improve? And then what would they actually pay for it now that they've seen it?

Mm-hmm. And that was gold because Yes, it was. It validated our theme. It validated what we thought the price of the course or the workshop should be. Now, currently at the time of this recording, we've settled on a $47 price point. Mm-hmm. But that doesn't mean it can't change. Right. I believe it will go up.

So let me put a stamp on this. It is currently August of 2023, so you know if anyone is listening to this two years later and you think you're paying $47, probably not. That is not a lifetime price, but that's the beauty of this. You start somewhere and then, and then maybe you grow, right? Mm. Mm-hmm. Um, and you said you were happy with the results, so let's just kind of put a bow on the results.

Like what kind of results were you happy with? I, I'm guessing like, the financial results, the way that people responded, the results. Oh, man. Just tell us, yeah. What, what are you happy with about this whole thing? What I was most happy with was how many people actually signed up. I think we ended up having 30 plus people sign up, which I was gonna be content if we had 10 people sign up and three people show up.

Then when we got to the show up phase, I think it was about half. Half of the people who signed up actually showed the other half wanted the recording to be sent to them. But outside of that, the price point was something I was very happy with. I know between the marketing and the fees and how everything had to be set up with how we did this.

My payout ended up being, I think over 250 bucks. Mm-hmm. So if you just for that one event, for me, that's, that, that's worth it. That that was a worthy payout. Not to mention, like you mentioned, the continual asset that can be sold and sold and sold. Improved. Improved, improved. Right. With a proof of concept already there.

Essentially it's a miniature business and I, I love collecting businesses as I'm starting to realize. But that was, that was big to me. Mm-hmm. That that many people were going to show up, respond, find value, tell us what they would pay. Mm-hmm. I was, I was over the moon and I don't, I don't really have an audience per se.

Yeah. You know, I don't have that email list. I don't have that YouTube influencer presence, and I don't intend to, you know, again, this is August 11th, 2023. Anything could change, but I. I just am there to provide an asset to people who want to sell on eBay. Mm-hmm. Simply put, simply put, and for me that that was worth the time and the effort and I, I was content with those results.

I love it. I know, and it was really exciting for me because this is the first time I've ever collaborated with, Um, a member, uh, a former member of remote work school on an idea, and I've wanted to do that for so long. And your idea was just perfect because it was small, it was manageable, the price point felt right, it was right for the audience, and it was easy.

It was so easy to produce. And people loved it. They loved you. I feel like when I did look at the feedback form, when I was like, what was the best thing about this class? They were like, Isaac was the best thing,

but specifically your style of teaching. And that goes back to how easy you made it for people and how much they walked away going, wow, this is super doable and this could give me an extra income stream. Um, whether it's, you know, like you say, a hobby income stream or a full on business. So, All right, Isaac.

Well, I so much appreciate you coming on the show and sharing your experience with us. Where can people find you? They can find me by sending me an email, sir dot [email protected], or just find me on LinkedIn. That is one of the most direct ways to find me when it comes to the world, to social media.

For now, I, uh, have a big beard and I'm wearing a hat in front of a microphone on my profile picture. You can't miss me. I love it. And also, if you decide to join, flip into 500, the eBay course we've been talking about, Isaac. Contact information is there as well. I should also mention that at least at this time, you also offer a little bit of private coaching.

I do. That can come with that workshop. That's still valid. That is still valid if, if you realize that the course is enough to get you started, but you're needing a little bit extra help either on what your business model needs to look like or even just what to source and, and the other things we talk about in the course.

But you need a little more help. Yeah. There are options for continued coaching, and we'll sit down and, and do whatever we need to do to get you started. Love it. Okay, Isaac, well, we'll put all those links in the show notes. Thanks so much for joining me today. Thank you. If you love this episode and you wanna learn how to earn $500 or more a month selling things on eBay, check out Sir Isaac Smith's and my workshop.

Flip into 500, how to earn $500 or more a month on eBay that anyone can do. Just click the link in the show notes and happy reselling.

Click here to check out Flip Into $500: How To Earn $500 (or more) a Mont Reselling on EBay That Anyone Can Do.

Click here to listen to (or read) the previous show with Isaac. 

Email Isaac at: [email protected] 

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https://www.camilleattell.com/remoteworkschool

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