Energise Wealth

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Hello everybody! Welcome to Episode #10 of Feminine Wealth TV! Today I am delighted to be interviewing Jane Copeland of Coping With Jane. Jane has very successfully transitioned from the corporate world, to having a baby to running her own business!

Many women will identify with the motivations and challenges that Jane faced. She has built her brand into a very popular and successful business in under 2 years, all while raising a young son! Her story is an inspiration for anyone looking to take the leap into starting something of their own and a reminder to just get on with it! She also shares some great insights for anyone else who is wanting to build their brand online…

Prefer to read? See full transcription below!

Barbara Turley: Hi there, I’m Barbara Turley, and you’re watching another episode of Feminine Wealth TV, the show that uncovers the diamond tips on creating truly conscious wealth from change makers, world shakers, and wealth creators. I’m delighted to be joined on the show today by Jane Copeland. Jane is the founder of a hugely popular website called copingwithjane.com. She’s also the author of this fantastic book, “Boardroom to Baby: Lifting the Lid on What Every Career Girl Needs to Know When She’s Expecting.” She’s also been nicknamed, which I love, the fairy blog mother. Jane, welcome to the show.

Jane Copeland: Thank you so much. I’m thrilled to be here, Barbara.

Barbara Turley: Yeah. I have been watching you since the beginning, I think, of your entrepreneurial journey. What I love, you’ve been hugely successful both online and offline. You’ve got copingwithjane.com, and you also have your offline brand and consulting business. What’s even more amazing for our viewers is that Jane has managed all of this while also giving birth to and raising a two-year-old little boy, gorgeous boy, called Elliott.

Jane Copeland: Yeah that’s true, it’s been a bit intense, very busy.

Barbara Turley: I can imagine. That was one of the reasons I was watching you for so long, just watching this going on. Tell us, how did the whole journey begin? How did you go, I suppose, from boardroom to baby to business?

Jane Copeland: Yeah, exactly. A really good question. It’s now something that I talk about a lot, because I did start up my business while I had a baby. I guess the thing that a lot of people don’t know is that when I was actually pregnant I got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. Actually, illness was the catalyst for changing my life, I guess.

What actually happened with this autoimmune disease was that it affected one of my eyes. I had Graves’ disease, and randomly it went to one of my eyes and it caused my eyelid to retract which meant that for two years, it changed my whole identity. It’s really weird. Looking at me now you wouldn’t have no idea at all, but I’ve actually had three operations to correct it.

Anyway, the point is that I went through this enormous change that happened in my life, that and also becoming a mother, it really caused me to lose my identity, to be honest. What I did was, why I started my whole business was, because I’d lost my identity, I decided to create a new one, which was to leave my corporate job and to put everything into creating this blog called copingwithjane.

It really started when I was on maternity leave and I thought, it’s now or never. Actually, another thing that happened was around this time when I was going through a lot of change in my life, I was flicking through the pages of Sunday Life Magazine and I came across this article that was written by this journalist Jacinta Tynan. In this article she was looking at how likely you were to follow your dreams as you got older. She concluded that the older you are the less likely you were. Because you get, things are okay …

Barbara Turley: I suppose you get set in your ways and you’ve got a lot more to lose. I think you’ve got a lot more to lose in your life.

Jane Copeland: You get comfortable.

Barbara Turley: You get scared.

Jane Copeland: Yes.

Barbara Turley: Everything you’ve built from here to this point goes to pot, and you think, “What did I do it all for?”

Jane Copeland: Exactly. Reading that article, it really resonated with me, and when it did I got this vision and it was of this massive cargo boat that was in Sydney Harbor and on the back of this boat it had lots and lots of cargo, and to me that represented my hopes, dreams, and desires. This boat was setting sail and it was tooting its horn, and I was on land looking at it, and that was really …

Barbara Turley: It was leaving.

Jane Copeland: It was leaving.

Barbara Turley: I’m just imagining this feeling of, this ship is leaving.

Jane Copeland: My ship was about to set sail.

Barbara Turley: About to set sail.

Jane Copeland: I actually wrote into Sunday Life Magazine and I said, “If this gets published,” you know the letters at the beginning, “then that is a sign I need to do this.”

Barbara Turley: Isn’t it wonderful? I didn’t know that about you.

Jane Copeland: No. It’s really big because Jacinta Tynan has gone on to be one of my biggest clients, and I’m working with her a lot. Another really weird thing is that the image … It’s a bit freaky, but she was wearing this yellow dress in that particular article and that’s the dress that I’m wearing on the cover of my book. It’s just really weird how things come round. Anyway, yeah, I had a feeling that it was now or never. If I wanted to do something, this was the time. I had to, otherwise I would never be realizing my dreams.

Barbara Turley: What was it about it? How long were you in the corporate world for? You’re probably the same as me, I think we were there about twelve, fifteen years, something like that.

Jane Copeland: Yeah exactly. My identity was very tied to my job, which is why when I became a mother and I just felt like …

Barbara Turley: Everything changed.

Jane Copeland: I said to my employer, “Keep my seat warm, I’m going to be back in five months.” They went, “Are you sure you don’t want to take a twelve month maternity leave?” I was like, “No way, what do you mean? I’m coming back.” When I had Elliott, oh my gosh. I thought I was prepared, but nothing could have prepared me.

Barbara Turley: Could have prepared you for that.

Jane Copeland: Yeah. I fell in love with my son, and I realized that whatever it was that was going to take me away from him had to be really special. Although my job was, I was doing quite well, it just wasn’t enough. Yeah. There were also other issues there, as well, it just becomes a little bit restrictive to have …

Barbara Turley: I think this is going to resonate with an awful lot of women that are watching because I know I’ve gone through that, as well. I haven’t had children yet, but I think you get to a point … It’s that whole thing that your ship is sailing, and is this the legacy or is this the thing you want to do with your life. What would you say about, specifically, if you can think of anything about the corporate world that you weren’t keen on anymore after Elliott came along?

Jane Copeland: For starters, I was used to working till maybe 7:00 in the evening, and when I had my son … I did go back on a part-time basis, and for starters, although no one said anything, I felt bad that I was working three days a week.

Barbara Turley: I think a lot of women feel like that, they feel guilt, they feel guilty for their children and they feel guilty that they’re also not giving enough, or that they’re perceived as not giving enough, to the role.

Jane Copeland: I had to leave early, so I started leaving maybe at 5:00.

Barbara Turley: It’s not really early is it?

Jane Copeland: It’s not really early, and actually because I felt so bad I used to sneak out of the kitchen where no one would see me. It’s crazy, and then I just lost my desire. I really wanted to live a life that was true to myself and do stuff that was going to make a difference.

Barbara Turley: I’m interested, so the blogging thing, you started with a blog, so what was the decision, was it just that you found you wanted a creative pursuit to look at, or did you have this big strategic plan from the beginning that got you to where you are today, or did you just start writing? How did that come about?

Jane Copeland: I really wanted to have a strategic plan, and because I was sick, I was like really sick, and because of the way I was looking, I was spending a lot of time at home and I’d just had a baby. I spent a lot of time Googling trying to come up with a fantastic business idea or what was going to be the hottest, latest thing. I just could not find it. At the time, I could see that women were starting to really want to have a voice online, they were starting to have a lot of opinion pieces written by women. I knew that I’ve always been passionate about women’s issues and that sort of thing, so I wanted to be part of that in some way. As I was a new mom and I wanted to connect with other mothers, so that’s really what I did was I started up this blog, and talked about issues that were relevant that I thought were important.

Barbara Turley: To other mothers out there, yeah.

Jane Copeland: Yeah.

Barbara Turley: I love the name Coping with Jane. It’s like, “hopelessly coping” with this baby and all this new life and everything, yeah.

Jane Copeland: When I started I did have a lot of celebrity experts and some of Australia’s biggest, best writers and things like that on board, too. I guess that was another thing. I saw lots of opportunities. For example, I did a course at Sydney Writers’ Center. It was a [inaudible 00:08:37] writing course. What I saw was that a lot of these really amazing journalists were pitching work to magazines, and they were getting rejected, so I knew that there was amazing content out there.

Barbara Turley: I know that you had contributors from day one on the site, and I always wondered how you did that, actually. That’s really huge.

Jane Copeland: That’s also how I was able to get traction very quickly, because these people already had big networks, so when they were on copingwithjane, then they would share with all of their followers.

Barbara Turley: With their own networks, which is, of course, the big trick. What I’m really interested to know now is going from corporate … I’ve been in the corporate world. Lots of people were [inaudible 00:09:17]. You go from a corporate boardroom, high achiever role, to pajamas in your kitchen with your baby on your lap, typing away.

Jane Copeland: It’s so true.

Barbara Turley: You’ve got no help desk. You’ve got no coffee, no heels, no dressing up, nothing. How did you cope with that? There must have been days when you felt it’s just …

Jane Copeland: Yeah. You know, Barbara, it’s been a really big adjustment, and I did not see that coming. No one says to you what you just said. It’s a massive change, you know, and it’s so isolating.

Barbara Turley: It can be very lonely, yeah.

Jane Copeland: Dealing with all the tech issues, not having an IT department. I mean, honestly, I was the type of person that if there was a piece of paper stuck in the printer, I would be …

Barbara Turley: Me, too. “Excuse me. Help.”

Jane Copeland: I was like that. Now, being a creative person, I’m not good at all that stuff, but I’ve taught myself how to do everything like I know you have, as well.

Barbara Turley: You have to.

Jane Copeland: You have to.

Barbara Turley: It’s very stressful, though.

Jane Copeland: It’s stressful, but it is easier and it is empowering on one level, and you just have to do it if you want your own online business. It is possible because of YouTube University you can find out everything you wanted to know.

Barbara Turley: Anything you need to know. It’ just time because you need to put the time into finding out this stuff.

Jane Copeland: The other thing with what you were saying, then, is that how I’ve been able to survive dealing with the isolation and the adjustment is tapping into online communities. You’ve got to be a part of something.

Barbara Turley: Be a part of something. There’s a lot of that out there. You can feel alone but not alone. You go online and there’s so much there.

Jane Copeland: Exactly.

Barbara Turley: A lot of people doing the same thing. I found Jane online.

Jane Copeland: Exactly.

Barbara Turley: What I’m really keen to know. I can imagine you came home and you said to your partner, family, whatever, “I’m giving up my high-flying career, and I’m going to become a blogger.” What was the response from the family like?

Jane Copeland: Well, they thought I was nuts.

Barbara Turley: [Inaudible 00:11:15].

Jane Copeland: No one gets it, but, again, because I was on maternity leave. It was almost like …

Barbara Turley: That you’ve really lost it. People would be thinking, “Oh, she’s just had a baby.”

Jane Copeland: She’s going cuckoo. She’s out there. I think I did. I was a bit crazy. I saw that was a window of opportunity for me to experiment, sort of thing.

Barbara Turley: To try something new.

Jane Copeland: That’s why I really had to get a push in to do something. It was now or never, that sort of thing. The other thing was that I did have some money, a cushion, if you like. I can just be honest with what that cushion was. I was prepared to spend, or the amount of money that I had to spend, was $20,000. I didn’t end up spending that much money.

Barbara Turley: That’s great. That’s a doable number. Most people can do $5, $10, $15. People can find that kind of money. It’s not like a hundred grand that you need to get this thing started.

Jane Copeland: Well, that’s right. If you can start a business for $20,000, it really isn’t that much money. Actually, now that I work with a lot of other female entrepreneurs who are starting their business, you really do need to have …

Barbara Turley: Seed money.

Jane Copeland: Yes.

Barbara Turley: You can’t start with nothing.

Jane Copeland: You can’t. I know that people think you can. [crosstalk 00:12:32]. You need to invest. For example, and I know you know the importance of this, too. One thing I learned, actually, when I started monetizing was when I got a coach. You can’t do it by yourself.

Barbara Turley: I was going to ask you about that because I know from looking at some of the people I’ve interviewed online, the question I often ask them is, “Have you had a coach,” because I can see strategy at work in the background. I think having a coach, and I have a coach, as well, because they push you. It’s a luxury to pay for a coach, but then sometimes I think people out there are really struggling for years to get anywhere.

Jane Copeland: That’s right.

Barbara Turley: Actually investing in something and paying someone to push you and help you will get you there faster.

Jane Copeland: Exactly. I know that with my coach the first one that I worked with was $1,500 a month. It was $750 a call. It was just two calls. I just sat on that for six months because I was like there’s … [crosstalk 00:13:26]

Barbara Turley: … wrap your head around that. I’ve come from the corporate world and somebody could be out there charging that kind of money.

Jane Copeland: I know, yeah.

Barbara Turley: What they do is they move the dial.

Jane Copeland: They do. I think from the day that I started my blog to when I had my first session was a year and a half, I can’t remember, but that was the day that I monetized. I had a lot of traffic to my site, but people thought that I must have been making a fortune from advertising. Absolutely not. It was like a couple hundred dollars a month.

Barbara Turley: Often things can look much bigger and more successful than they are.

Jane Copeland: Exactly.

Barbara Turley: There’s a lot of bloggers out there doing that, and they’re not making any money.

Jane Copeland: I know, and that’s why I changed my whole business model, but that’s a different story. Then, this coach said to me, “Well you need to be a blog coach because you get asked about it the whole time.” Then I was like, “Oh, really, me?” So, yes, from there, it just grew.

Barbara Turley: Was that another identity shift again going, “Oh my god, I’ve been blogging about babies and women and the boardroom and all that stuff and corporate women, and now I’m moving into coaching about other people monetizing their blogs.” That’s a totally different business all of the sudden.

Jane Copeland: Yeah.

Barbara Turley: That’s pushing you outside your comfort zone again.

Jane Copeland: It was. It really was, but then I guess it was a different way of looking at things. It took someone else to say that for me.

Barbara Turley: Show you how.

Jane Copeland: Exactly. I never saw myself originally as a coach, but now that’s what I do all the time.

Barbara Turley: That’s what you do, yeah.

Jane Copeland: Sorry, then I’ve learnt to leverage that.

Barbara Turley: Online, because you do a lot of stuff offline, as well. Your whole brand in consulting, I think, because you do quite well in that space, as well.

Jane Copeland: Exactly, and there’s quite a lot of demand for that, actually, because I guess because I’ve done it with my own stuff, and that was really how I wanted to differentiate myself when I started. Although I didn’t have a business plan, as such, although I really wanted to, one thing I was sure about was I really wanted to differentiate by having a high-quality, really strong branding, and I didn’t skimp when it came to getting images or the look and feel of my website, that sort of thing. Now that’s what I do, consulting.

Barbara Turley: I think that’s important because your website does have a really, very sophisticated look and feel about it.

Jane Copeland: That’s what I really wanted, so thank you for saying that.

Barbara Turley: I want to talk a bit, as well, in the middle of all this chaos … You’re ill, you have a baby, you’ve started a business, you’re all over the place, you managed to get a book out, as well. This is only two years. I want to just make sure the viewers realize this. Copingwithjane only started in mid-2012, and we’re now not even in mid-2014 as we’re doing this interview. How did you find the time, the structure, to get a book out?

Jane Copeland: Well, I guess it’s like I really couldn’t afford for what I was doing not to work, so I pushed myself. I had incredible determination because of the crap that was going on in my life. I used that to push me, to propel me forward. With writing the book, I wrote it and published it in three months. It is a big deal, but it can be done. I know I work with clients and teach them how to do it.

The key to that is you really need to have isolated blocks of time that you can do it and just smash it out. It was hard, but anything’s possible, you know. I do work, so I had a lot of support, and this is really important for other mothers listening. I was only able to do this because my partner was extremely hands-on. He doesn’t have that typical 9:00 to 5:00 job. He did shift work, so he was there a lot of the time, and he had three months off when I had my baby, and my parents [crosstalk 00:17:14].

Barbara Turley: He was supportive of your vision, or was he? He must have been really …

Jane Copeland: He didn’t really have a choice.

Barbara Turley: You’re like, “It’s either that or the highway.”

Jane Copeland: It’s having that determination, drive.

Barbara Turley: You find a way.

Jane Copeland: You find a way.

Barbara Turley: I think the trick is, what I want to say, as well, is that there’s always a solution and your resilience is your best asset. You’ve got to cultivate that.

Jane Copeland: That’s a really good thing to say that. Also, you learn to survive in the chaos and it does get easier, a lot easier.

Barbara Turley: It’s quite overwhelming in the beginning. I used to watch you online when I wanted to start my own site. “Oh my god. Look what she’s doing. It’s amazing.” When you look at other people, you can get really even more overwhelmed because you think, “If only people could see the mess of my office and everything’s all over the place.” How did you deal with that in the beginning?

Jane Copeland: I know. It’s just the same thing with me, as well, because when you’ve got a little baby your house can’t be perfectly clean.

Barbara Turley: No, and can I just say that we’re actually in Jane’s wonderful, beautiful house right now. It’s fabulous.

Jane Copeland: Oh, thanks, but I always thought, “What if somebody came over and saw really how messy I was or me sitting in my pajamas,” and then I realized just by hearing other women’s real stories, we’re all like that.

Barbara Turley: It’s like that for everyone. We have to let go a bit, I think, of the perfection.

Jane Copeland: Totally, and I also initially I would sleep in and work really late, so you’ve got to go with what works for you, as well. There really are no rules, and you’ve really got to just be the …

Barbara Turley: I think that’s what works. I think that’s why women are going for this whole starting their own business thing because they can make it work for them whatever way works, particularly with children.

Jane Copeland: Yes, totally. I mean that’s really a massive advantage. Also, it’s just so rewarding doing work that is made for when you’re really changing people’s lives and things like that. It’s amazing.

Barbara Turley: Really want to do that, yeah. The blog has gone through a big evolution, as well. As we talked about, it started out as copingwithjane was helping other moms who have come out of corporate and have children, and then you sort of evolved quite quickly, I guess, into this business blog. Talk to me about that evolution and going through that change.

Jane Copeland: Yeah, well, first of all, I think that one of the key success factors is implementing fast.

Barbara Turley: Speed of implementation.

Jane Copeland: Exactly, imperfect implementation because you’ve just got to make it happen. There’s so many people, and I see it all the time, they sit on amazing ideas for five years. Some people won’t move forward with a business idea because they don’t haven’t got the right name.

Barbara Turley: I know, or they don’t know what color the logo’s going to be.

Jane Copeland: Exactly.

Barbara Turley: I know that matters. It does matter, but it doesn’t matter enough, and then what’ll happen is somebody else will start your idea because ideas are all over the place.

Jane Copeland: That’s so true.

Barbara Turley: Somebody else is going to come out with it.

Jane Copeland: Oh, yeah, totally.

Barbara Turley: It’s not your idea until you do it, even though it’s in your head.

Jane Copeland: The other thing that I want to mention is that I always see, as well, women who just had babies wanting to do something baby-related.

Barbara Turley: Yes.

Jane Copeland: My coach said to me, “Well, you really need to be careful about how you’re going to position yourself because you’re going to grow, evolve, and you’re not always going to be in the baby stage.”

Barbara Turley: Not always going to be in the baby stage.

Jane Copeland: You’ve got to have something that … You have to think about your five- and ten-year plan. That was when I sort of realized that and did shift the focus of copingwithjane. My blog has kind of evolved as I have as I’ve moved from having a baby where I was talking a lot about that on my site to now more everything to do with having an online business and babies, the whole … [crosstalk 00:21:06].

Barbara Turley: They’re not mutually exclusive. As women, we literally do have baby on the lap and laptop and things going on.

Jane Copeland: That’s right. When I did that, also, my market has changed a lot, too, with the readers that were on the blogs, too.

Barbara Turley: Did that frighten you a bit when that started happening? Did you feel like, “Oh, am I losing my …” You build this big list, and then you’ve got a whole new list happening.

Jane Copeland: Yeah, well, actually, it’s funny you should mention the list, because originally I had a lot of traffic, and my blog was on lots of people’s radars, but I didn’t have a big list because I didn’t really understand the importance of building a list. Whereas, now that I’m spending a lot more time working, and I actually don’t blog as much … before I was publishing press three times a day. Now it’s like maybe twice a week.

Barbara Turley: Oh, wow, that’s a lot.

Jane Copeland: Yeah, so I have less traffic, but my list is bigger and I’m making money, so it’s not about traffic.

Barbara Turley: This is something I really was hoping you’d touch on this actually because a lot of people are out there trying to get traffic, but traffic is totally useless unless you’re monetizing it. Traffic, and even list building unless you’re converting it somehow down the track and getting a proper business model out of the blog. Otherwise, it’s a hobby and there’s lots of hobby bloggers out there, which is fine if you just want to write and that’s a creative pursuit.

Jane Copeland: That’s exactly right.

Barbara Turley: So you had all this traffic. When was this sort of light bulb moment where you thought, “I need to do something more here, I need to be getting email addresses and list building as opposed to traffic building?”

Jane Copeland: Yeah, even though, I mean I heard that. I guess I did this course called [inaudible 00:22:49]. Then I understood the importance of building a list, but even today, really the turning point, again, with my business was when that was it, that I realized my list, so all of my work comes from my list. I’m not really sure what the turning point was. I guess it was an evolving thing, but the more I learn about building the list and how important it is, that’s …

Barbara Turley: And to nurture the list, as well.

Jane Copeland: Yes.

Barbara Turley: You’ve got to build the list, you’ve got to nurture it, and then you convert it.

Jane Copeland: Absolutely. That’s what it’s all about, so I guess, with that, if anyone can learn how to be a good copywriter, it’s such an amazing skill.

Barbara Turley: Oh, I know. Is it hard to learn? You’re pretty good at that.

Jane Copeland: I am now, but from when I started and how slow I was. It used to take me about two weeks to put out one blog post. Now I can do it in half an hour. It is really a matter of practice makes perfect. What I’ve learned is that it’s about getting personal and writing like you speak and really connecting in with your audience and revealing about yourself. The more I reveal, the more I connect, the more value I add, the more people connect with me and the more business I end up getting.

Barbara Turley: Then it all just flows through. When you started the list building exercise, did you play around with different opt-in offers? Did ones work better than others, or did you just have one, leave it up there, and that was your opt-in?

Jane Copeland: That’s a good question. I think the fact that you can now pay for traffic, and what I mean by that is you can do a low-cost Facebook ad, send it to a landing page that has just an opt-in offer on there. We’re giving away something of high value in exchange for getting on their list. That kind of really changes everything because you don’t need to do what I call “hope knocking,” and hope that you’re going to write a blog post, share it with social media, get people to your site, and that they might sign up to your newsletter.

Barbara Turley: Of course.

Jane Copeland: Now you can actually …

Barbara Turley: Actually target, more targeted stuff.

Jane Copeland: Even though I get traffic to my blog, the most growth that I see on my list is when I have specific opt-in things, so my advice is for everyone to try and create something new to share in exchange, getting people on your list once a month. I don’t do that.

Barbara Turley: Change the option every month, you mean?

Jane Copeland: Yeah.

Barbara Turley: Oh, wow, so that means [inaudible 00:25:22] said to do whatever …

Jane Copeland: Yeah.

Barbara Turley: That’s interesting. I hadn’t thought about that actually, changing.

Jane Copeland: I’m talking about on your website, but I’m also talking about paying for it, sort of thing.

Barbara Turley: [inaudible 00:25:36] $2, $5, $10, $15 a day sort of thing.

Jane Copeland: Oh, yeah, definitely, and it’s more just like so you can use really inexpensive technology such as Leadpages to create these landing pages that can kind of do the whole, you can send them to the …

Barbara Turley: And get the email addresses.

Jane Copeland: I’m getting a bit advanced here, but it’s crazy the stuff you can do at the moment to get people on your list, but it’s so important. It’s really important. You don’t need to have a lot of traffic to your website. You don’t need to have a massive, thriving blog in order to build your list.

Barbara Turley: Okay, that’s good advice, actually, because I think a lot of people feel like they have to build lots of traffic first.

Jane Copeland: No. Yeah, exactly. You actually don’t need to spend time doing guest posts, doing all the commenting on other blogs. I have that in my program that you should do that, and, yes, you should, but …

Barbara Turley: It’s very time consuming, though.

Jane Copeland: Yeah.

Barbara Turley: I don’t mind. I like to write, so I don’t mind guest posting, but all the sudden you’re doing so much guest posting and sometimes you’re not getting the return for that, so you’ve got to measure everything that you’re doing.

Jane Copeland: Little things, as well. I have a lot of contributors on my site, too, but if you are guest posting, you really want to have a strong call to action back to you.

Barbara Turley: To your site to look what you’re doing.

Jane Copeland: Exactly, or tell people that they can get a cheat sheet, a plastic cheat sheet, whatever.

Barbara Turley: Offer value, basically.

Jane Copeland: Yeah, exactly. I know a lot of blogging experts say do guest persons. Yes, that’s true, but the reality is that you can list build at the moment by just paying for it.

Barbara Turley: Which is a lot easier. I was thinking of even paying for it. There’s lots of free ways of doing this, but I think that’s easier. I think it’s a lot easier.

Jane Copeland: It’s all about giving away stuff of high value, like even doing a webinar. Another way that I’ve been able to list build is by doing free webinars. People sign up for the webinar.

Barbara Turley: I noticed a few months ago you moved into doing live events.

Jane Copeland: I did.

Barbara Turley: Was that your first one?

Jane Copeland: That was my first one.

Barbara Turley: Again, that’s another evolution, another step up out of your comfort zone. How did that go?

Jane Copeland: Oh my gosh.

Barbara Turley: Was that a paid event, a free event?

Jane Copeland: I charged $65 for a ticket, and I sold 80 tickets. It totally sold out. I had twenty people [inaudible 00:27:58]. I was blown away by the response to it. Like, I guess, for everyone, getting up on stage and speaking, it’s a huge profile building thing. Also, I did want to give back to my community, and try to share information. It’s definitely something I want to do more of moving forward, but, again, it is an evolution for me.

Barbara Turley: It’s a new part of the piece of the program. I’m going to talk about the money bit now. You’ve been massively successful, right? Business has gone really, really well, and your strategy has gone well. Last year you did a quarter of a million dollars?

Jane Copeland: Yes.

Barbara Turley: That’s mega. That’s great. You’re only two years in, and you’re going really, really well. Where was the real pivot for you in terms of … You said you got a coach and then you started monetizing, but was it the online stuff, was it the one-on-one coaching? What were you selling that really got you to that point?

Jane Copeland: Yeah. First of all, the book really put me on the map.

Barbara Turley: So that was pivotal.

Jane Copeland: It was.

Barbara Turley: So writing the book did move the dial.

Jane Copeland: Not in terms of money, but in terms of my profile. I started getting a lot of paid speaking gigs, store openings and things and things like that, but when I really started to make money was I released a group coaching program, which I then turned into an online program.

Barbara Turley: What was that called again?

Jane Copeland: Web Celeb.

Barbara Turley: Web Celeb. I loved that.

Jane Copeland: [inaudible 00:29:28]. What I did was I released that and then all those people, or a large percentage of those people, went on to work with me.

Barbara Turley: One-on-one.

Jane Copeland: Not just that, then they went on to get me to do their whole branding, strategy, things like that. That’s really how it evolved. It’s sort of like one customer, they ended up being worth a lot of money to me because they stayed with me for a long time, so I got this program that gets the people in, and then they stay with me for a long time, so that’s really what my business model is. It’s almost like a one-stop shop.

Barbara Turley: Did you find when you were doing that, before you had success with that, was there a part of you thinking, “Are people going to pay me for this?” You know that feeling of wondering … I think we all question our own value … could you take it to that level? Then you did. I love that.

Jane Copeland: Yeah, what I did was I sold my first program without actually having anything, so the program was six [inaudible 00:30:31] calls with me.

Barbara Turley: Right. A group.

Jane Copeland: Yeah, and then I taped them and that is now what my program is. What I’m saying is I got out there really quickly, and I didn’t invest too much into it because I wanted to see if it was going to work.

Barbara Turley: You kind of sold it before you built it.

Jane Copeland: That’s right, because I wasn’t sure if this was going to resonate with people. By the way, just an example of how quickly I do go to market with things, I put this sales page up, and originally I called it Million Dollar Brand or something. No one touched it. I changed it, and I sold out in the second day.

Barbara Turley: When you went to Web Celeb?

Jane Copeland: Yeah.

Barbara Turley: Why do you think? You’re a brand [inaudible 00:31:12].

Jane Copeland: You really had to sell branding. Things are changing now because people think they’ve got a problem with blogging so therefore, it’s like, “Oh, well, then I need to do something.” They don’t really understand.

Barbara Turley: Or branding. People don’t understand that.

Jane Copeland: No, which really that’s everything with me.

Barbara Turley: That’s your job then to make that, to communicate to people, “What is branding?”

Jane Copeland: It’s a hard thing to sell. That’s what I mean. It’s not even where I start.

Barbara Turley: You’re doing pretty well with it.

Jane Copeland: I know, but I don’t go out there saying, selling the brand thing. When I start educating them, then they realize just how important it is.

Barbara Turley: Is that the whole sell them what they want, then give them what they need?

Jane Copeland: Yes.

Barbara Turley: I love that expression. What would you say to our viewers, what would be your top tip, your top secret, if somebody wants to build and monetize an online powerhouse brand?

Jane Copeland: Well, I would actually say that it actually has to do with building your list.

Barbara Turley: Yeah, a lot of people say that, and just focus on that for a while. How long would you say? How long is a piece of string, but …

Jane Copeland: You can make money off a small list, but like you say, it’s all about once you have people on your list, connecting with them, being so valuable to them so when you do put anything in front of them to sell …

Barbara Turley: It sort of sells itself. It’s even sold before you put the offer out there.

Jane Copeland: That’s right. It’s all about people buy from people they know, like, and trust. With my list, it’s an asset. I don’t have a huge list.

Barbara Turley: It’s more a hot list.

Jane Copeland: Oh, gosh, yeah. I know that, actually, because I’ve [inaudible 00:33:02]. It’s very, very [inaudible 00:33:07].

Barbara Turley: You can have a list that’s 40,000, but nobody knows and nobody cares. Speaking of buying lists, this is the other thing. I’m not a fan of that, personally, but people are data mining and buying lists.

Jane Copeland: That’s right.

Barbara Turley: Of course you can have a huge list and nobody cares who you are. They’re not going to buy.

Jane Copeland: Also with that, it is an evolving thing. You plant the seed. It’s like a relationship that you start over time. Say your list is dead. You can actually …

Barbara Turley: Warm it up.

Jane Copeland: You can, absolutely.

Barbara Turley: Before you go in and try to sell anything too early.

Jane Copeland: The other two. I know that you said one, but you really want to solve people’s problems. You want to start by really understanding this ideal person, what kind of problem do you want to solve in their lives?

Barbara Turley: They need solving, the want to be solved.

Jane Copeland: It’s just so much easier if people have a problem and you can solve it. I didn’t start like that, but now …

Barbara Turley: Well, that’s good to know, too, though, that you didn’t start with that.

Jane Copeland: No.

Barbara Turley: Sometimes there’s people out there who just have a blog and they’re thinking, “Oh, I don’t know. I’m getting overwhelmed again.” I think the thing I would say, the tip I’d give from this whole interview would be just go and do it.

Jane Copeland: Just do it.

Barbara Turley: Let it evolve. Just let it evolve and keep working and keep going.

Jane Copeland: Keep going, keep hustling.

Barbara Turley: Keep learning and keep hustling.

Jane Copeland: Otherwise, it’s just a journey always, isn’t it?

Barbara Turley: Speaking of money and wealth and building assets and being a savvy femtrepreneur, what does the future hold for the Jane Copeland empire?

Jane Copeland: Well, yeah, definitely the word leverage is really something that I want to start doing more of so I can work with more people, but also have a bit more free time. I guess with the beauty of the Internet it is possible. What I mean is instead of working one-to-one, doing more group. That’s really important for lots of businesses, especially coaches, moving out from the one-to-one stuff and doing more.

Barbara Turley: Because you can help people. I think, as well, people think, “Oh, one-on-one is my thing. It’s too impersonal,” but you can help a lot of people. A lot of people have the same problem, and you can probably help them all together and then putting them together, they can help each other in the community then.

Jane Copeland: There’s magic that happens then.

Barbara Turley: And it’s cheaper. It can be cheaper for people. You can reach more people.

Jane Copeland: That’s right, exactly.

Barbara Turley: I loved the fact that you used the word leverage because I know that’s something that in my programs and things that I’m doing, leverage and value, they’re the two things.

Jane Copeland: Yeah.

Barbara Turley: At the end of the day, if you want to build assets, right, and your business is a proper asset, you have to have leverage.

Jane Copeland: You do.

Barbara Turley: That’s when you’re getting into the big time.

Jane Copeland: Exactly.

Barbara Turley: Jane, it’s been absolutely wonderful having you on the show.

Jane Copeland: Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.

Barbara Turley: Great tips for everyone out there.

Jane Copeland: Thank you so much.

Barbara Turley: Remember that you can catch me later this week on iTunes on my Wealth [inaudible 00:35:58] podcast where I’m going to be doing my key takeouts from my chat with Jane today. Remember, also, to come back next week when I’m going to be interviewing Brooke Alexander. We’re going to be talking about living your legacy. See you then.