What Happened When Amy Lang Made $113,000 Helping Parents Teach Sexual Health
Amy Lang assumed that when she became a parent that she'd be able to know precisely what to talk about' with her child.
In her job as a teacher of parenting and sexuality for over 17 years, she was used to speaking about sex everyday. But she didn't realize how uncomfortable -- and ignorant- she'd feel when she was asked to talk about sex with her own child. "I was ashamed to be having "the conversation" with my son. I'm an educator in sex," she says.
Wanting to know how to become a reliable resource for her child's needs and her family, she started doing studies. She leaned on her background in applied behavioral sciences and began to learn more about the best ways to communicate with kids about sexuality -- a conversation she believes is crucial, but often neglected. "We are all aware that children require physical, emotional, and social health. However, we do not discuss sexual health issues because it's taboo," she claims. "We don't have enough details about healthy sexuality and the development of sexuality in children."
Through research and research, she was able add more tools to her toolbox and was inspired to continue helping parents in this arena -- but this time via online classes. She developed her first course, Birds & Bees Solution Center for Parents. In the following year, she has launched the second program, Preschoolers, Private Parts & Playmates. "My conviction is that knowing empowers," explains Lang. "The more information you have and the better you'll be in a position to help your children's ."
Her online courses make up 50percent of her overall earnings. Since launching her first course in 2017 the course has generated over $113,000 in income. The most impressive part? Her sole source of income is her email list and her word-of mouth to promote the courses. "I haven't had to try to do it," she laughs.
"I'm making money as I do the dishes."
While her success increased naturally, she was intentional about the actions she took. Here are a few of them:
Skip ahead:
- She uses
- She builds an email list
- She makes use of social media as a marketing tool, not selling
- She develops a membership course
- She has created a bonus course
- She designs content via trial and error
- She determines her audience's wants and needs
She is using HTML0.
Lang was in her business for over a decade prior to launching the first course online. Although she's passionate about instructing in person, and takes many live gigs, online courses felt like a natural next step for her company.
In addition to the ability to reach more parents and folks who interact with kids, she also wanted people to have the option to learn from home; talking about sexuality is uncomfortable for manypeople, and online classes provide students with the privacy they need they can learn.
She chose to host her courses over other platforms for e-learning. "It was most welcoming and easy to use, and was affordable," she explains.
She constructs an email list
At the time Lang began her online course, she'd built a large mailing list that now has over 17,000 subscribers.
The way she built the bulk of her email list was simple; when giving live lessons, she would give out a QR code that led users to the newsletter sign-up page. Or, she'd pass an iPad around the room to ensure that people could manually enter their emails. She strategically asked for people's emails during her classes, right just at the time that her students were captivated and interested in learning more.
In the meantime, she's continuing to gather emails via live events as well as her website. In her navigation bar it has a button that says 'free tips. If users hit it the button, they're taken to a webpage that allows them to input the email of their choice to get an offer: Seven Tips To Have Great Birds & Bees Talks. They're sent this value-packed freebie via email, which is also a call to action for the school she runs.
While she's got a huge mailer list right now but she also reminds online course creators that it didn't happen over night. "I've been doing this since 1997," she says. "That's 1,000 people a year. I'm not new at this. It takes a while to create a course that is successful if you don't have an extensive platform."
She uses social media as a marketing tool and not for selling
Although she has a YouTube channel that has close to 850 subscribers, an Instagram page with nearly 4,000 followers, a Facebook group with 10,000 members, and an audio podcast that is Q&A-style, she says her email provides the highest number of conversions. Actually she does not use social media for selling her courses -- just her email list. "It's much more intimate when you receive an email. It just is," explains Lang. "Social media is primarily used for marketing -- not for sales in my personal universe ."
While Lang doesn't rely on social media for the sale of her classes however, she finds that the channels are useful to market her courses. For ease of use for her, she posts identical content across all platforms. She posts the same content on all channels each week and schedules the posts ahead of time. Each article includes an invitation to action. she invites readers to join her newsletterand to schedule one-on-one conversations with her -- what she wittily names a 'Quickie Consult' -to purchase one of her courses online and/or employ her as a teacher in person.
Although she doesn't have communities that her children can join however, she does create an environment of friendship on her social media -particularly through a program she runs known as "Help Another Parent. This the series Lang asks parents questions and allows the community to offer kind and helpful tips. "I regularly play with my friends with me, and the majority of these users are great with their advice," she says.
Lang advises course creators to make sure that their social media posts are tailored according to their users' needs. Plus taking marketing into consideration in the right way is crucial.
"Believe that what you're offering is helpful."
Aside from social media and her email list, her audience has developed organically by word of mouth; numerous people who have attended to her sessions in person or taken online classes spread the word to other teachers and parents.
She creates a membership course
Her primary viewers: parents of children aged 5 - 12, as well as professionals who are predominantly early childhood educators.
The course she offers is for parents. Birds & Bees Solution Center for Parents is offered as a member-only site that costs $89 USD annually. It was an experiment until she landed on this number; she wanted it to be as affordable as she could. "I would rather there not to be a lot of thinking about the cost," she says. "I prefer it to be a simple yes ."
Lang compares the course to the term "library," which refers to a collection of information, which includes video, handouts, audio recordings, special topic webinars, extra resources, and weekly sessions known as "Hump Day Half Hours. They include an hour of instruction and then the group coaches. "These classes are my absolute favorite things to do, since they're live, and I can interact with my students," shares Lang.
She set up her course using a library format, as typically, parents only have one question. Instead of having endless hours of content that students must wade through in order to have their inquiry answered, the library lets students pick and choose the content they require. "With libraries, you don't have to be concerned about content being suitable for children or research-based because it already is," adds Lang. "People tell me all the time, 'thank for this, it made the whole process so much easier' .'"
Content is added to the course on regular schedule. "I get to assist so many parents without having to attend per se," she says. "It's just one of the advantages of having a site that offers membership ."
She has created the bonus course
Alongside working with parents, she also engages professionals including early childhood educators in order to assist with sexual assault prevention.
Her second course, Preschoolers, Private Parts, and Playmates, targets this audience. In this course, she will teach about the sexuality of young children, including the typical as well as what's not typical in addition to how to determine the need for help.
Plus, this course provides companies with an easy option to employ her. "Some organizations can't afford to bring me in," she says.
After students have completed her classes, she does not offer them any additional services or products. Her goal for 2023 is to put more effort into upselling an 'I'm a Quickie Consult as well as the book Sex Talks with Tweens and Teens: What To say and What To say it.
She develops content through trial and error
It took her a while to understand the process of making material for her online course -which required lots of trial and failure. When Lang reflects on her online course creation journey one of the biggest challenges was coming up with the perfect length of the video, how many handouts she should include (and whether they actually helped), and what kind of content would be most popular with her audience.
In retrospection of Lang's development, she would like that she'd conducted an audit in her first year to see what people were watching as well as making tweaks based on feedback. Although she's changed her course content in the past, she is convinced that feedback from users is paramount in helping to improve as a creator.
At first, she was creating hour-long videos in her courses before deciding that they were too lengthy. Then, she cuts them much shorter and more approachable because her target audience is composed of busy parents who don't have a lot of extra time on their hands. "I want to create something accessible and simple," she says.
Her family doesn't assists her in creating content. Rather, she says she reads books, keeps current with her research, and let parents' queries guide her in creating new material. Additionally, she has friends she speaks with who help in the development of concepts and offer assistance.
She is able to determine her target audience's wants and needs
In the event of deciding to start an online-based course She suggests that the creators consider the reasons they would like to create the course. The reason will allow in establishing a specific objective that they could approach in small increments.
Lang emphasizes the importance of figuring out the audience's wants and needs. "What you believe they would like and want is not always what they actually require and want," she explains.
In order to determine the desires and desires of your prospective client, Lang advises that creators ask their customers to take a survey and use responses to guide their online course creation process. "Be patient and remember that it's not about you. Your people are the focus," she says.
Join the newsletter to receive more stories from the creators inspiration.