“Get Six Figures While You Sleep and join DMC, it’s the best money I’ve ever spent. You can go in there and celebrate, and there’s no tall poppy syndrome. We build everybody up.”
Stephanie Holdsworth | Allerchic & The Adult Eczema Shop
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I’m delighted today to have one of our very own guinea pigs from my book, Six Figures While You Sleep: Steph Holdsworth.
We’ll see how far she’s come developing her ADPIPs since we first spoke, what she’s struggling with, and what she can work on next.
Tune in to learn:
- Steph’s Big Little idea focused on providing instant information and help with Eczema
- How Steph is leveraging her experience into trusted digital products
- Why community is one of Steph’s core business beliefs
- Which ADPIPs (automated digital passive income product) Steph has in the works
- Why your lead magnet is worth investing in
- How to move past the fear of asking suppliers for quotes
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About Stephanie Holdsworth
Stephanie is on a mission to change the way we think about eczema and allergies. Using her knowledge and experience gained over 25 years in nursing, she began reshaping perceptions and improving understanding through her online business, Allerchic and Adult Eczema Shop.
She has been featured in both print and online media for championing the idea of ‘eczema and allergy products, information, and awareness, and making sure that they don’t have to be delivered in a white lab coat to be taken seriously’. She runs her online stores from the New South Wales Central Coast where she lives with her family.
Connect with Stephanie Holdsworth
- Allerchic
- The Adult Eczema Shop
- Instagram – Allerchic
- Instagram – The Adult Eczema Shop
- Facebook – Allerchic
Buy the book
Transcript
Kate Toon:
Well I’m delighted today on a Six Figures While You Sleep podcast to have one of our very own guinea pigs. You would have read about her in the book. Her name is Steph Holdsworth. Hello Steph.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Hello, how are you Kate?
Kate Toon:
I’m very good. Sorry, Steph. Stephanie Holdsworth. I should call you Stephanie because that’s who you are in the book. So let me introduce you to everybody on the podcast.
Stephanie is on a mission to change the way we think about eczema and allergies. Using her knowledge and experience gained over 25 years in nursing, she began reshaping perceptions and improving understanding through her online business, Allerchic and Adult Eczema Shop. She has been featured in both print and online media for championing the idea of eczema and allergy products, information, and awareness, and making sure that they don’t have to be delivered in a white lab coat to be taken seriously.
She runs her online stores from the New South Wales Central Coast, yay cenny coast, where she lives with her family. So welcome to the show, Steph. Now people listening may have read the book already and, you know, learn a little bit about your adventures, but let’s start. right at the beginning of what we were talking about as we were going through the book, which with what your idea is, you’ve already got a shop, you’re already sharing content about allergies and eczema.
What was your big little idea?
Stephanie Holdsworth:
A big little idea was for moms that are late night, early morning scrolling, desperately seeking help for their little people with eczema. And my big little idea was a short series of like quick courses that they could do or PDFs that they could read to get some instant help then and there, rather than going on a wait list to see a specialist, which we know in Australia can take months, if not years to get into.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, I love that. There was a few reasons why that felt like a really strong idea, you know, looking at the Venn diagram of what people need, you know, yes, you have the skills to offer that people want it. There is a price point thing there as well, that, you know, um, that, you know, seeing a specialist is very expensive, we don’t necessarily want to spend a fortune, you know, smaller, more affordable resources might be what we want.
But the biggest thing that was a factor for us was the time, that when you’re in the midst of this crisis, you need help right then and it’s not available. You know, you can go into communities and chat with other, whatever, but you know, you want to save space. You want someone to, it’s a nasty thing to say, but hold space and create an environment where you’re confident that the information is true.
It’s backed by science, but it’s also backed by motherly or parentally experience. That was kind of the vibe that we were trying to tick off. Wasn’t it?
Stephanie Holdsworth:
That’s right. I mean, if you’re up at 3am, your child’s been screaming, they’re uncomfortable, you’re not sleeping, the whole house is not sleeping. You can quite easily log on to any social media and get advice from random people on the internet, but it can be really hard to find actual real-world help.
Like you said, that’s based in medical knowledge to get some relief instantly, to get some help now, or to even start the journey so that when you spend those hard-earned dollars at the specialist, they aren’t just going to tell you to do this, this and this, go away, come back in three months. You’ve already done this and this, this and this before you get to see them.
Kate Toon: Yeah, and I love that. And I think it’s about where we pitch it because we talk about in the book about, you know, we pitching people right at the beginning of the journey at the end of the journey, are we pitching people who want to make a big investment and just get it done or people who want to make a low investment.
It’s really important to work out where your people are. And that was another thing that I thought was really good that you’re not necessarily claiming that you’re going to be offering you know, extra specialist professor level data, you’re actually going to be taking off a lot of the basics that people just don’t know, right?
If my kid suddenly gets this, I don’t know that you’re not meant to rub them with this and you rub them with that, you know, and as you said, you’re actually meaning what you’re actually doing is a service that by the time they get to the specialist, they’ve ticked off all the obvious stuff. So they’re not wasting time and money doing stuff that they could easily do at home.
So I love that model. So we’ve really identified our customer avatar and parents, you know, new to this world of allergies and eczema, looking for solid advice that’s backed in science, but not wanting to go into random forums because people in random forums will give good advice out of good intentions, but it may be the wrong advice because they don’t necessarily have kids with allergies or, do you know what I mean?
Like what, I guess the point that would be, why wouldn’t I just go and ask in some random group on Facebook? What am I getting differently with you?
Stephanie Holdsworth:
The way to answer that, I guess, is the same for any business, which is you don’t know what you don’t know.
Kate Toon:
Yeah. Experience is a big part of it, isn’t it?
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Experience is everything. Like experience is something that you cannot buy. Experience is something that. random Facebook person can’t give you. Random Facebook person might have tried goat’s milk and it might have been all the answers to their hopes and prayers. And then, um, other people may have tried goat’s milk and it absolutely flared everything and made it worse.
So, and there are reasons for that. And so experience and some medical knowledge does help you, guides you in the right direction on your path.
Kate Toon:
And the thing is, you want, you know, you want to trust someone, especially in this space. You want to find someone you trust who’s got credentials, you have those credentials, but also what’s really important about your particular medical kind of side of things is that Google has actually stopped medical advice showing up so much in the search engines.
There’s a Google medic update. So if you Google now for stuff like this, it’s actually quite hard to get information online about this stuff. And you want to create a safe space as well, not just for information, but you want to build community. Because some of this is not, I need an answer. Some of this is, I need support.
I need someone to listen to me. I don’t need an answer right now. I just need someone to say, yeah, but I experienced that. Oh yeah, that’s crap. Oh yeah, I feel awful about that too. So it’s, it’s information, experience, but it’s also community, isn’t it? And that’s that support that goes along with this, because it’s a difficult journey and sometimes medical answers aren’t what you want.
You just want someone to say it’s okay. You know, do you think that’s important?
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Our community is everything. Like you want to surround yourself with people that are in a similar situation to you. I think that’s just. But that should be a core belief for any business. I think like, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing.
Like, you want to surround yourself with people who are going through what you’re going through, who have the challenges, who, you know, want to see the future in the direction that you’re heading. There’s no point. Um, joining say, uh, I don’t know, a viral rash group, if you’re like, you know, you have an eczema issue, you’re just, you’re on two completely different paths.
The community is absolutely everything.
Kate Toon:
Yeah. Great. Well, I agree with you. Let’s move away from the topic that you’re talking about. Talk more about in general, about ADPIPs and passive income, because I think one thing that you know, a bit of a drop, mic drop quote here is people think they want information, but often what they actually want is support and community, but often we have to sell information and then selling community and support afterwards.
So then we get to this point with your, you know, what you’re going to offer. We talk about digital downloads, courses, memberships, and masterminds. Obviously, we want to start with some kind of digital download because that’s going to be our lead magnet and you’re already working on that. But then, you know, courses are one thing, but community is something else.
And I think that maybe, you know, some small courses to lure people in. But then I really do think memberships are a great way to go, because this is an ongoing problem. This is not something that’s going to be solved in a six week course. This is something where three months later, it’s going to morph into something different.
And then they’re a year older, and then there’s different challenges. So, So, you know, what, what kind of ADPIPs are you thinking you’re going to have in your little empire?
Stephanie Holdsworth: Um, definitely community needs to be in there. Some sort of community. I mean, I’ve seen that work so well for so many different businesses and that’s, it’s just a wealth of knowledge that money just can’t buy, honestly.
And even if it’s just for the reassurance at three in the morning that you’re not going crazy, that it’s not something that you’ve done, that, you know, whatever your situation is, I think community is everything. So community
Kate Toon:
So do you think therefore that you might go more with a membership than a course?
Stephanie Holdsworth:
I’m thinking that there needs, there still needs to be some mini course in there because there’s some foundational things that you just need to do. And then the community maybe could help tweak around the course.
Kate Toon:
Yeah.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Or help you work through the course is the way I’m thinking.
Kate Toon: It could the end goal, couldn’t it. So the way we’ve, we’ve mapped it out when we had our chats for the book, there’s a lead magnet, there’ll be some mini courses at a low cost, but the ultimate goal would be a membership.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
That would be the end point. Um, and we talk in the book about, you know, the numbers. game of that, you know, a hundred people download your lead magnet, maybe 10 of them will buy the free courses and one of them will sign up to the membership. So it’s a long, uh, goal. And we go through that whole flow in the book, but obviously we were working on this, talking about this at the beginning of the year.
Um, and you know, one of the things I think that people Well, wonder is how long this all takes. So what progress have you made since we had our initial chats?
Stephanie Holdsworth: One thing that I’ve found is that you’re not going to do things as fast as you think you can going to. So, I’ve done my PDF lead magnet and I was of the belief, just knock it up, get it out there and just get it working.
But I have asked some people in the DMC to look over it and some really important points were made. Some really crucial things I kind of left out, so. It’s great to have that community to work with.
Kate Toon: Yeah.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
So, yeah, that has been a slow, it’s still not 100 percent up there. And I’m not saying that, you know, it needs to be perfect before it gets out there, but I also think it doesn’t need to look like it was made by a 12-year-old in Canva.
So yeah, I think that’s important too, if you’re trying to establish trust and authority. I think it’s a bit hard to do that if your lead magnet looks like it was knocked out by a 12-year-old.
Kate Toon:
It’s actually some advice that I gave to one or other guinea pigs, Tony Cosentino, that if there’s any money you’re going to spend in terms of you know, outsourcing, it would be on the lead magnet.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Oh 100%.
Kate Toon:
So I think, yeah, copyright, uh, approved or written or proofread as well. And then I think it needs to be designed by a graphic designer, just because you can do it in Canva doesn’t mean you should. It needs to be, it needs to look as good quality is something that you would get from a government organization.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
A 100%.
Kate Toon:
And this is the first thing that people are going to get from you. And you’re also trying to represent yourself as a figure of trust and authority. So as you said, if you send out something scrappy, even if the information is good, it does, it doesn’t help. It’s your first impression. After that, and this is the honest truth and a bit of permission statement for everybody listening.
Things can get progressively worse, right? What do I mean by that? I mean that my lead magnet for Recipe is beautiful. Right. It’s a beautiful checklist. SEO Nibbles is pretty good. It’s nicely designed, good PowerPoint. The course, the big SEO course that I’ve got some of the videos, you know, the sound isn’t amazing or I’ve updated all my hair looks bad.
It doesn’t matter because by that point, people are in, they trust you. They love you. Now, of course, everything should be a premium level if you can, but what we’re trying to do here is minimal viable products, because otherwise we’re never going to get this thing out there. Now, obviously this has been a tough year for everybody financially.
It’s been a tough year just for living. And how are you moving forward? How are you planning to carve out time to get this done? Because obviously what you don’t want is in a year from now, you still haven’t done your lead magnet. Have you sat down and really thought intentionally about how many hours a week you can give to this to get it done by the end of the year or get something out by the end of the year?
Stephanie Holdsworth:
I haven’t actually sat down and figured out how much time I need to give it, but, um, I definitely have, I’ve set like little mini goals by the end of September, that PDF needs to be up there. And I’ve already engaged somebody to work on that. And the first of the like mini courses, I’ve already started scripting those out and, um, and have somebody in plan to work with that.
Kate Toon:
Okay:
Stephanie Holdsworth:
But. again, in this economic climate, I guess, so Allerchic needs to fund that obviously those projects and it’s a funny environment out there at the moment, because I find on 1 hand, sales have dropped, but on the other hand. The sale part value has increased. So I don’t have as many sales, but I have bigger sales.
Kate Toon:
So interesting. We’re finding that at the bookshop as well, but I’m also finding that I’m managing to maintain the volume of sales, but the effort required is much more than it used to be.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Yes.
Kate Toon:
It’d be hard if you’re trying to do ADPIPs, you know, but at the end of the day, You know, and I know that something’s got to give.
You know, and there’s obviously going to be maybe a slight financial step back before you can take a step forward. This is an investment. That’s how we have to say, it’s not a frivolous project. You’re not throwing time away. You’re investing in something that will pay off in the long term. And that can be really hard as a small business owner, because we’re so focused on the bottom line and this month’s revenue and this month’s revenue, and therefore to take a one, two or even three-year view of the future can be really, really challenging.
So my advice to anybody else who’s listening, who has the same issue of like, yeah, well, I want to work on this, but actually I need to make some money this month is, you know, you really do need to sit down and do that maths. And even if you say to yourself, I’m just going to spend an hour every Friday, because by the end of the year, if you do that for the next, next year, that’s 25 hours.
By the end of the year, there’s a lot you can do in 25 hours. Um, and so I think it’s carving out. The smallest amount of time you can making a commitment to it and sticking with it because an hour a week is not going to impact the other business, but it could have a big impact on this future business.
So there’s my tough coach advice Stephanie. Now, also, Stephanie is going to be part of the Six Figure While You Sleep Program, which is, uh, It’s launching soon, so she’ll be a member of that community. And I think, you know, the point of that community is much like the community Steph wants to set up, is it’s a group of people on the same adventure, a group of people trying to build automated digital passive income products with the ups, the downs, the challenges of trying to do this while running their normal business, whether that’s a service based business or e commerce.
And it’s not easy, you know, nothing, nowhere in the book, you know, it’s do I say this is a get rich quick scheme or it’s an easy process? It is a long, slow burn, but it is an investment in your time. Um, maybe that time doesn’t come from your business hours. Maybe it’s one hour a week, less of, and I’m not saying this to you, Steph, but generally it’s one hour a week, less of Netflix.
It’s getting up at 5 AM for two days in the week or staying up late. If you’re a night owl, you know, it’s finding little blobs of time because it’s only for a short time. Once you’ve built that lead magnet, it’s built. It’s built forever. You may tweak it, but I’ve never really, I think I’ve updated my SEO checklist maybe once every two years, you know, so it’s, it’s done.
It’s a big investment now, but once it’s there, it’s just sit and doing its thing as well. The first course, it take you eight hours to make that first workshop. I, that’s my estimation in the book. By the time you’ve written it, done the PowerPoint, recorded it, edited it, got it in the shop, done all the backend stuff and the payment, it’s about eight hours, and then it’s there forever.
So the first eight sales will just cover the time you’ve spent. But once you get to your ninth sale, yeah, and you’re making money. And every sale after that is money. So it’s really important to do the maths, do the spreadsheet, do the literal figures, because then you start to get into rational land.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Yeah.
Kate Toon:
If you don’t do that, you think, well, it’s going to take me ages to do this course.
It’s like, no, it’s going to take you eight hours.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
That’s it. Yeah.
Kate Toon:
So in eight weeks, if you spend an hour a week, it’d be done. If you spent two hours, it’d be done in a month, you know, and then it’s logical and undeniable. And then you get to the real problem. Okay. Which is if it is undeniable and doable and only two hours a week, is there another reason why you’re not doing it?
Now, I don’t think there is with you, Steph. I think we’ve overcome your fears, but do you think maybe that there is something that, you know, why aren’t you getting up at 5 am and do, I’m not saying you’ve obviously got other things going on in your life, but you know, like, why aren’t you like, wild about this and desperate to get it out and up out of bed at 4 am thinking, I want to get this out there. Is there something holding you back? Do you think?
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Oh, 100%. I think just in business in general that we are great at procrasti-planning. Yes. So we are great at, you know, I’m going to get to that. Oh, God, he’s this shiny thing. Oh, yeah. I’ll quickly knock this out and then I’ll get back to that.
Oh, no, there’s another shiny thing. All right, I’ll quickly do this shiny thing. Then I’ll get back to that. So 100 percent what I know from my personality, if I don’t have a goal and say, right, I’m blocking out this time. And this is all I’m doing. And I shut down all the tabs and all the things. I’ll find a shiny thing every time.
Kate Toon:
Well this is your shiny thing. This should be your shiny thing. And the thing I would question, and this is something you all need to think about, is it, is it shiny enough? Because if it was really your shiny thing, you’d be wild about it. You’d be so excited, right? At the beginning, at least, like when I was writing the Six Figures While You Sleep book, you know, that’s how I got started.
I was excited about it. Halfway through, that shininess is gone and it’s no longer exciting. And then you’re relying on willpower and persistence. So then we need to look and go, why isn’t it shiny enough? Why aren’t you wildly excited about that? Now that could be just generally lack of motivation. Life is getting you down, yada, yada, yada.
Hard to take that, you know. through your view, or it could be fear that maybe this isn’t gonna work, or fear that this is gonna work, or fear that why the hell are you doing this, and who are you to do it? Do you think any of those fears are coming into play? This is turning into a psychological counselor.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Oh, yes. Welcome to the couch. Welcome to the couch. Um, I think we’ve kind of dealt with the fears and again, I 100 percent credit the DMC for that like, um, and the ‘go lives’ that we’re kind of not forced, but requested to do a lot of that, like definitely helps get over the, um, because if not you, then who? I kind of is my latest thinking, so, but I think it’s more, it’s more the embarrassment of I’ve got this thing and I really want you to fix it.
And I know I really want Charlie Brown to do my thing cause I’ve seen his work and he’s amazing. So if I could just hand it over to Charlie Brown and get him to think it, I don’t want to present that work to that person yet. And then come back and say, excellent, that’ll be X amount of dollars. And for me to go, Ooh. I don’t have that kind of dollars.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, yeah.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Honestly, I think that’s where I’m at at the moment.
Kate Toon:
Yeah, I mean, I think, and that’s something that the program will help when that kicks off, be providing suppliers who are very upfront about their costings. You know, like, how much does it cost for a graphic designer to design your lead magnet?
You know, I would be saying, 300, 400 dollars, you know, that would be my estimation and that seems a lot and that’s not a small amount and you need to have done the work and use the templates and stuff to get it done but it’s setting that expectation about what each stage of this should cost and that’s something I can definitely help with in the program because then now you know so I’d be budgeting 400 dollars.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Right. That is completely reasonable to me. Yeah, exactly. Like now, you know, he’s gone straight away.
Kate Toon:
So you know what, as well as a supplier, as a freelancer, as a contractor, as a copywriter, whatever I’ve been people asking that question saying, Hey, look, I want this. Can you give me a ballpark? Any decent freelance will be like, absolutely.
It’ll be about.two to four hundred dollars. You know, they won’t give you a detailed quote and a functional, they’ll just answer that question. And then you, if you go, okay, cool. I can’t afford that right now. They’ll go fine. Fair enough. No drama, because saying I can’t afford it is very different saying that’s too expensive.
You know, it’s like, it’s not too expensive. It’s just, I don’t have the budget for that right now.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
That’s it.
Kate Toon:
And I remember as a copywriter, people would Ask me stuff. And then a year or two years later, they would come back and say, I can afford it now. I’ve always kept you in my inbox because I knew that when I had the money, I wanted to work with you.
So never be afraid about just going out and saying, look, this is where I’m up to. This is what I’ve got. Can you give me a rough costing? And then they come back and say, it’s this much. You say, cool. Give me a couple of months. I’ll be ready. You know, then you got a deadline and you got the money and that fear is gone.
So it’s, it’s such a process. And how would you be expected to know these things? You wouldn’t. And it’s having the permission to have someone say, it’s all right to just ask, you know, so Steph, we’re not going to talk for eons, because you can read all about Steph’s journey in the book. I don’t know why I’m holding it up as we’re not even videoing this, so it doesn’t matter.
Her story’s in there, and by the time you listen to this podcast, I reckon she’ll have her lead magnet out to a graphic designer and getting that started. And that’s the very first step. Once you’ve got that up and you’ve got your email flow there, even if you’ve just got the first email written, you are on your way.
And it’s also a bit of a line in the sand of saying, I’m freaking doing this. I’m doing this. It may take me another couple of years to get everything there, but I’m doing it. And just to bear in mind, it took me four years to get everything in place. I’m talking lead magnet, funnel, mini course, big course, membership group, social media, blah, blah, blah.
For the first time last month, Steph, for the first time in my 15-year career of doing all of this, I managed to write 30 social media posts up front. Now everyone says that’s what you should do, right? It’s taken me 15 years to get to that point. So you have to give yourself permission to do it in your own time, but you have to not give yourself permission to just mess about, which I don’t think you’re doing.
But, um, hopefully this session has helped. This felt like a session.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
This has been an amazing session on the couch and I feel like, uh, I’m about to hang up and go and speak to my graphic design person and go, okay, give me the real figure. It’s just a number.
Kate Toon:
Let’s get started.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Give me the figure, let’s happen.
Kate Toon:
Let’s get started.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Look out world, she’s coming.
Kate Toon:
Well, you know, a lot of us are on our own trying to do this stuff and it’s just me, myself and I, you do need a cheerleader. You do need a permission giver. You do need someone to give advice to. To your point about community, education is all very well and good. Someone could buy my book and pretty much do it from the book if they’re that kind of person.
But the rest of us need someone to say, come on Steph, or well done Steph, or that’s not a good idea Steph, or why don’t you try this Steph? We need that. To help us get to our end result. So, um, you know, that’s why we’ve got the community to help us with that. So Steph, any final words for anybody thinking about turning their, uh, services and skills into high profit, low digital, low effort, digital products.
Any final words of advice?
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Get Six Figures While You Sleep and either join DMC or the workshop, because honestly, apart from the big SEO course, it’s the best money I’ve ever spent. You can go in there and you can celebrate, and there’s no tall poppy syndrome. We build everybody up. And you can also go in there and say, I’m having a really shit day, but I need to move forward, what can I do? Yeah. And people will give you some honest advice and you can also just go in there and not even post and not even do anything and, and just feel good just reading some other people’s posts. So I get some inspiration.
Kate Toon:
I get a lot of pleasure out of that. Just reading through other people’s questions.I learn a lot because sometimes I don’t know the question to ask.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
That’s it. You don’t know what you don’t know. So yeah, when somebody asks, Oh yeah, that could work on my site too. Yeah, that’s a great idea.
Kate Toon:
I love it.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Community, community, community.
Kate Toon:
Community, community, community. I think that will be the episode podcast title.
Steph, thank you so much for joining us and thank you hugely for volunteering to be a guinea pig in the book. It was an amazing, amazing working with you. Best of luck with all your adventures. I will be watching and keeping you accountable. We’ll find out more from you soon. All right, so thanks very much.
Stephanie Holdsworth:
Thanks so much for having me. Thanks, Kate.
