Jacques Hopkins [00:00:00]: If your business feels more complicated every time you try to grow it, then this episode is for you. Stefanie Gass built a multi-seven-figure business by doing almost the exact opposite of what most online business owners do. She stepped away from social media for two years, committed to one podcast, built one core offer, and made the whole business just really, really simple. And today, she's going to show you exactly how. Hey everyone, Jacques Hopkins here, and welcome back to the podcast. I recorded this conversation with Stefanie earlier this year. Since then, my business and this podcast have shifted quite a bit toward AI, and you'll hear me refer to a few parts of my business that have changed since we recorded this.
Jacques Hopkins [00:00:40]: But I've kept coming back to this conversation, and it's time I've shared it with you, because the foundation of what Stefanie teaches still absolutely matters. Her business is built around one person, one problem, one offer, and one primary way to reach people. For her, that's her podcast. In this conversation, we get into how she grew past six figures without social media, why she starts people with coaching before they build a course, how she moved from live launches to evergreen, and why she has intentionally said no to adding more offers, even when revenue was sitting there. And stick around after the conversation with Stefanie, because Rocky and I are going to come back and talk through what still holds up, what AI changes, and what course creators should take away from Stefanie's model today.
Jacques Hopkins [00:01:26]: And jump in. Hello, Stefanie. Welcome to the Online Course Show.
Stefanie Gass [00:01:32]: Well, thanks for having me. So excited to be here.
Jacques Hopkins [00:01:34]: I love your message of simplicity when it comes to business. So many people are struggling. Just because we get an idea for an online course or a coaching program or a membership, it doesn't mean we're going to succeed with it.
Stefanie Gass [00:01:48]: Yeah.
Jacques Hopkins [00:01:48]: When I hear you talk, it just sounds so simple. Why do you think people, why do you think so many people struggle when it can be so simple?
Stefanie Gass [00:01:56]: You know, I think it's information overload. We're trying to grow these businesses, and we don't know how. Just anything new in our life, right? You have no idea how to actually go and do that thing, so we ultimately research. The problem, though, is what the online space looks like today with research is a million voices all saying a million different things, often with just the intention of selling us something. So we are inundated with information. We don't actually know what works. So we try to do everything at once, trying to throw the spaghetti at the wall to see which one of these noodles is going to stick. Like, and I'm guilty of that, too, because that's what happened to me in the beginning.
Stefanie Gass [00:02:35]: And I think that's why we see so much overwhelm and confusion when it comes to building this business and especially having something that's monetized and actually making sales is we think we'll just do more. We'll try all of these strategies because something is going to be bound to work.
Jacques Hopkins [00:02:53]: So why don't you share, like, what is the model? What is the simple model that you preach?
Stefanie Gass [00:02:58]: Yeah. So I started just that way, kind of being everywhere, trying to do everything, had a bunch of different offers, and I felt completely frustrated by it all. It was so many hours online, four to five hours on Instagram, trying to get leads, and then I would have four different offers of, like, well, you could do this one, or you could do this, or you could do this one. I finally would get a sale after so long of having to explain what the right thing was, and it all just felt so chaotic to me. And I kept praying. Faith is a huge piece of my life and specifically my business now, and I've realized, like, we have to be surrendered to God's will for our business if we ever want to get anywhere.
Stefanie Gass [00:03:42]: And so I kept praying, like, help me find a way to do this in an easier, more fulfilling, less time. And I had this prophetic dream in 2018, and I heard and saw in this dream start a podcast. And at this time, I didn't even listen to podcasts. I had no idea that that was going to be the way that I was led. But I was like, okay, well, if the Lord's telling me to start a podcast. So I plugged in this staticky mic that I had, and I started podcasting twice a week. I didn't have 100% clarity yet on, like, what is it exactly that I'm doing in the online space, but I had a direction.
Stefanie Gass [00:04:20]: And so what happened was, as I started podcasting, I also laid down social media. So it was like this cool, like, business experiment was born that I unintentionally started. And so I stopped using social media. I was fasting from it, but loved it so much that I stayed off for two years while I was growing this podcast. And the podcast ended up being the only lead generator that I needed to pass six figures. And I did that within one year, which then really opened my eyes to, like, okay, if it's audible long form that people want, and that's the thing that helps people find me, connect with me, then I can convert them into something.
Stefanie Gass [00:05:03]: So I started with coaching one-on-one, and that helped me to learn what my person actually needed and wanted. And that grew so fast because podcasting was growing their trust. The conversion was happening so fast. And they would book these one-on-one calls with me and then say, can we just have more sessions? Within 18 months, I went from $80 an hour to $800 an hour in my coaching business because I didn't have capacity. So I was like, I'll just keep raising the price. Great problem to have, except that I finally got to this point of going, I need to build an offer that people can go take on their own so that I can get out of coaching and having to fulfill at this level.
Stefanie Gass [00:05:45]: So at that point, I created my first online course. It was called Clarify Your Calling, and it was kind of what I was doing in the coaching calls. So I replaced myself with that course. People started buying that one. And then, of course, they're asking me, well, Steph, how do we start a podcast? So I created a second course called Podcast Pro University, and they would go from the first course to the second course. At this point, it's a half a million dollar revenue business by year three. And then I had this epiphany, and it was like, okay, the podcast is working to bring in all the leads. That feels really simple.
Stefanie Gass [00:06:21]: Feels so good. We nurture with email once a week. Easy. What doesn't feel good is the offers. I still have the coaching. I still have all these courses. It doesn't feel simple. And I actually felt like I was doing my people a disservice by getting them clarity and then being like, good luck. I hope you know how to go grow your business because not everyone would go through the pipeline. So I created a six-month group coaching program, which is the only offer that I have today. And it's called Podcast to Profit, and it's everything. It's we get clarity on your business. We optimize it. We start and launch a podcast.
Stefanie Gass [00:06:54]: We optimize it. We build one core offer. We learn to sell and scale. And our goal is to do all of that to get to that six-figure mark with one offer, one lead gen, one person, one problem. And when I dialed in and finally got clarity that that was my one thing, I retired everything else, and all arrows pointed to that one place. Well, it's high ticket, and not everybody's going to do that. But what happened is because they are not confused, they don't wonder or have a way to work with me any other way. They're just going to save up to do the thing because they can hear in my voice the conviction that you don't want one piece of the puzzle.
Stefanie Gass [00:07:34]: You need the entire business-in-a-box experience with coaching and with accountability. So that group coaching program is what took us to a multi-seven-figure annual company, and it's so simple. It's all that we do here.
Jacques Hopkins [00:07:51]: Wow. There's so many directions I could go with this. You know, for Piano in 21 Days, which, you know, it's been around for 13 years now, we've always offered one product. And that has always worked really well because it's like you're saying, like, there's one thing that people can buy. There's one outcome that they're buying. Learn Piano, you know, through my system. I love your progression of getting to the offer that's done so well with you. But my immediate question would be, it sounds like you have gotten to a place where it's like you're serving more of the beginner side of people, beginner to business. And so I'm almost going to, like, just ask you for advice here because, like, with this business, the Online Course Guy, The Online Course Show, I've kept it simple.
Jacques Hopkins [00:08:34]: But we have two offers because of, you know, my podcast audience is aspiring course creators, about half, and the other half is existing course creators. So I have two offers to serve each of those groups. I have a beginner online course program. And then it's called Next Level Coaching for people that already have courses and want to scale. So that would be the only, my only question is, like, do you feel like you're limiting yourself by not offering a more advanced training for people that already are set up and looking to scale? Or are you comfortable just being in the beginner niche?
Stefanie Gass [00:09:07]: Yeah, that's such a great question. And it's a question that I've asked myself a lot of times because I have students who come back to me and they're at 500K a year. And they're like, can we, can you work with us to get us to a million? And any way that I run those numbers, any way that I break it down, you know, even if I did a high ticket, it doesn't make sense for scalability. And when you look at the percentages and your desire, so there's a few things to look at. Like, what do I actually desire to teach? Where am I excited to show up? I love strategy.
Stefanie Gass [00:09:40]: I'm like, let me strategize with you. Let me reverse engineer your sales funnel and tell you what's broken. Let's do a live launch together. Like, I love the strategy and visionary work of helping people build the business they're called to build. And then I've trained all my coaches to help with the little details to get them to ultimately that six-figure, multi-six-figure stage. But when I ask myself, okay, to get someone to seven figures, it's a different strategy. Now they need paid advertising. I don't want to teach that. Now they need a team and systems. I don't really want to teach that. Do I know how? Yes. But what am I trying to create?
Stefanie Gass [00:10:18]: And so I always go back to, what is the thing that I want to be known for in the market? And how can I continue to scale that? Can I continue to scale it is the first question. Because what happens is we create a secondary thing. We simply dilute our marketing and attention. Because now we have two tracks we have to explain. We have two tracks we have to fulfill. We have two tracks. So that's kind of where I landed. And we tested this. I had my graduates come into other stuff in the past. We've tried, like, we have the alumni club and we have this other thing. And it just distracted me and my team.
Stefanie Gass [00:10:57]: It distracted us from, hey, if we just go get three more sales of the thing we've already built that's scalable, we don't need to do this other thing. That's just an extra thing. So that's kind of where I landed. And it does hurt because you're leaving some sales on the table in your own mind going, oh, man, but I could help my students go to that seven-figure mark. I could. I absolutely could. But the question is, is that, does it fit in with the life I'm trying to build right now? And I do think there will be a day my kids, you know, let's say they graduate and I'm bored.
Stefanie Gass [00:11:32]: And I'm like, I'll take five of my favorite people and run them through a high ticket or something. But when you're out to create scale and you're out to create a very successful business, lock in. Like, lock into your one core thing and just go all in on that one thing because it's capacity. It's scalability at the end of the day as you start to diversify that.
Jacques Hopkins [00:11:56]: Amazing. So one of the components of what you're teaching is obviously podcasting. You mentioned starting yours in 2018. I started this one in 2017. You and I have both been doing podcasting for a long time.
Stefanie Gass [00:12:09]: Yes.
Jacques Hopkins [00:12:11]: This is going to be a dumb question because I know the answer, but I want you to explain it. But like, podcasting is still a viable thing to start in 2026?
Stefanie Gass [00:12:19]: Yes. I love this question so much. So, you know, I think podcasting is more viable than it ever has been. And the reason that I really believe this is because if you look at the statistics, and I'm going to get this wrong. So don't quote me, but it's somewhere in this wheelhouse. Like, out of 100 people that start a podcast, only 10 of them will ever pass 10 episodes. And then of those 10, maybe one ever makes it to their first year. And the reason is, is podcasting is not a feel-good platform. There's no virality. There's no likes. There's no comments. It's easy to start, which is where people think, oh, everybody has a podcast and it's oversaturated.
Stefanie Gass [00:13:04]: Well, everyone may have started a podcast, but who do you know that's still standing? Very few people. But the ones that are still standing, they're top 5%, top 3%, top 1% in their category. And then what they've done so brilliantly is created market share in all the SEO and keywords that they use for their podcast, right? When people type in online course, guaranteed you guys are showing up in those top search results. And same for me with podcasting or Christian business coach or whatever it is. And so, yes, it's still viable more than ever, also because short form content, it's getting louder. It's getting so saturated. And all of the data is showing that the person who's in a posture of buying is not actually choosing long form at all.
Stefanie Gass [00:13:53]: We choose long form or we choose short form, excuse me, when we want to numb out, right? I just want to lay here and go on Instagram and laugh at the cats or like, I just want to go over here and scroll. I'm not in a posture of learning. When I'm in a posture of learning, I'm going to go find an audiobook. I'm going to go into the podcast app and search my problem. Start an online course or YouTube, right? These are where people come to find solutions. It's the long form. And what happens with audible consumption is we can hold attention like 100 times longer than we can with video.
Stefanie Gass [00:14:25]: So podcasting allows us to lock in audibly to something over 10 minutes long, which is almost impossible in today's day and age. There's no other place that we can hold attention like that anymore. And so I think the pendulum has swung all the way back to podcasting as the hottest way to grow a highly converting business in 2026. And I think if you go and just test my theory, look up in your niche, the top keywords, you'll see a bunch of podcasts. But when you click them, they won't be active. They won't be posting. So it's wide open for you to get in there and claim your niche. And you've got to stay at this.
Stefanie Gass [00:15:07]: I tell my students 12 months is my minimum, but they really need to get over 48 months of podcasting because at that point, you've really solidified your place as an expert and you start to see the fruits of all of that labor. I know a year in, it was like the lid blew off for me.
Jacques Hopkins [00:15:22]: Amazing. So I'm a big fan of content marketing. And with this business, obviously I chose podcast as my main content marketing platform. With Piano in 21 Days, I chose YouTube because it felt like a more visual thing.
Stefanie Gass [00:15:41]: Yep.
Jacques Hopkins [00:15:41]: The interesting thing, if you lump in podcasting under the umbrella of content marketing, most of the other content marketing platforms are like owned by a company, right? Like YouTube's on Google and we've got X and LinkedIn. Whereas podcasting, I mean, nobody owns podcasting, right? You've got your RSS feed and then there's directories and all of that, right? So I feel like with most content marketing platforms, the name of the game today is make amazing content. And then the algorithm is going to serve out amazing content to the right people at the right time.
Stefanie Gass [00:16:14]: Yep.
Jacques Hopkins [00:16:14]: Pray that your stuff gets shown.
Stefanie Gass [00:16:17]: Yeah.
Jacques Hopkins [00:16:17]: To an extent, right?
Stefanie Gass [00:16:19]: Yeah.
Jacques Hopkins [00:16:19]: Yeah. What is the strategy in 2026 for a podcast to be found?
Stefanie Gass [00:16:25]: So what's really cool about podcasting is we still control our SEO search engine optimization and keyword visibility. So, you know, I have a YouTube channel and some of my videos will pop off. Oh, I got 200,000 views. The same exact video, the same methods, the same analytics, the same thumbnail. We got 5,000 and it all comes down to, did YouTube like this video enough to boost the impressions, to show it on the homepage or the next step? And that stinks for me because it's the same amount of effort. It's the same amount of money to edit the YouTube, right? But with podcasting, if I can learn, which I can because of market research, because of all the SEO tools that we have today, because of sitting with my people and understanding what their problems are and what they're searching for, what they sit down to look up on ChatGPT.
Stefanie Gass [00:17:25]: And I understand what those core keywords are for my market and I use them wisely on my podcast. So this means we have them embedded in our titles. We have them embedded in descriptions. We are very dialed in to the one problem that we serve. We get found from the search bar completely organically without an algorithm hiding us. So if someone is wise and they're building a declutter your house brand for postpartum moms and they are wise and found that they say, I have no time to declutter. I wish I could declutter, but I don't know where to start. My kids are capitalizing on my time. And we start utilizing these little phrases that our people are really searching for.
Stefanie Gass [00:18:09]: Our podcast is getting shown anytime people are typing things in. And ChatGPT is also recommending episodes now based on keywords. So that's my top strategy for everyone is really dig into your market research, understand your hottest keywords and use them. And the second thing is being really super consistent. Uh, one episode a week is minimum. Two is my preference for all of my students because we want to be front of mind. People subscribe to shows. And then when they open their podcast app and refresh, I need you to be at the top of that list. So if you haven't podcasted in a month, like they long forgot about you. So consistency is king.
Stefanie Gass [00:18:51]: And then the last thing is niching all the way in. So if you have that decluttering for mom, postpartum mom podcast, I don't want to see you talk about anything else. Like I almost have a thousand episodes that are all saying a very similar thing in a different way because my podcast, it's not the tool to get people the solution. It's the lead generator. So I always want to stay at the beginning of their problem with my podcast. The purpose of it is to bring them into my ecosystem, get them on my list, and then I'm going to move them into the group coaching offer. So where I went wrong, so pro tip for everyone, is I started moving my content to now we're going to talk about, you know, building a funnel or we'll talk about scaling.
Stefanie Gass [00:19:38]: My podcast got real stagnant for a long time until I realized I'm not talking to people who've already bought my program. What am I doing? So I went back to the basics of like, they're afraid to start. They don't know what their podcast would be called. They are confused on what their business will be. Boom. There we go again. Leads. Boom, boom, boom. So really remembering like you are truly saying the same thing over and over again until you're blue in the face about the beginning problems that your person is experiencing on your show.
Jacques Hopkins [00:20:12]: What about the format of the podcast? Do you have a recommendation on if it should be interview-based solo episodes or a combination of the two?
Stefanie Gass [00:20:21]: Yeah. So this is really where I look at analytics. The first thing is, what do we want? So ask yourself, what do I want? Do I want an interview show? Do I want to do just solo? How do I want to show up? You know, for me, I was like, I think I want a hybrid. So I tested it. I had guests on my show. I did ones that were solo. And then after 30 days of something being out, I would go look at the analytics and say, what do my people want? So we found that my audience, I had a sweet spot of how long my episodes should be.
Stefanie Gass [00:20:51]: They stopped listening after a certain point, that they preferred the solo episodes to the interviews. So I did less of the interviews, but I still kept some. So you really want to look at, don't be afraid to test, I guess is my answer here, and look at your analytics and then give the people what they want. So that's my advice there is test some different things. I test titles because some of my students, their audience wants long, emotional titles. And for me, my audience likes short, punchy titles with numbers in them. So it's like we're constantly testing things with the podcast audience and then taking what's working and just capitalizing on that just a little bit more.
Jacques Hopkins [00:21:32]: If you go, you know, let's say somebody is listening to this and they're a beginner and they start a podcast in 2026, I'm assuming you would recommend doing that before we create our first offer. And if that's the case, are there certain metrics that you're looking for with the podcast or whatever long form content we create? Like that would be a good time to create that first offer.
Stefanie Gass [00:21:55]: So I definitely agree with you. We want to start our podcast before we build an offer. So it goes podcast, it goes clarity first. What is my business? What am I doing with my life to podcast? Then we can do some simple brand stuff like start an email list, get a website set up. Then we would go offer. And really, my goal with that is let's start to grow some visibility and get some leads before we build an offer. And what I recommend to my students is to do one-on-one coaching for a little bit before they jump into building their online course or group coaching program, because you don't know what people actually need.
Stefanie Gass [00:22:35]: We think we know, but we're guessing ultimately. And so I have my students, at least they do five free calls. Because everyone will coach with you for free to get that demand kind of going. And at that point, they can decide, like, do I have enough clarity to build an offer? Do I need to do some more coaching? You know, I did coaching for over 18 months. And that helped me so much with building a course that was really clear in my mind. But some of my students, after a month, feel equipped. Like, I've done five calls with people. I know what they want. I feel ready to make this easy, small, bite-sized offer for them.
Stefanie Gass [00:23:10]: And just know that the course you create is not one and done. I promise. And if it is, that's not a great course. You need to go back to your course every year and say, what has changed? What have I learned? You know, mine is breathing. Anytime I learn something, I'll record a new tutorial and toss it in there. If something gets old and crusty, we'll take it out. We'll replace it. Your course is going to live and breathe as you become better and better in your space. As you talk to people that listen to your show or reply to your emails, you'll be able to implement that and pull it into your course.
Stefanie Gass [00:23:46]: So I know that's kind of like an iffy-iffy answer, but that's the order at least.
Jacques Hopkins [00:23:52]: For monetizing the podcast, we're talking about, you know, various forms of offers, starting with one-on-one coaching. How do we bridge that gap between the podcast and the offer? How do we, you know, for lack of a better word, do the selling through the podcast? I mean, do you have some kind of funnel that sits between? What is your philosophy on this?
Stefanie Gass [00:24:14]: Yeah, so I have two main conversion tools. One, I do a live launch. And I do that a couple times a year. It's called the Profitable Podcast Bootcamp. And it's free, five days. And it takes people through hanging out with me for five days on basically what my offer is. So it's clarity on what your business will be, starting and launching a podcast, building an offer, scaling it. And so that is a live experience. And the reason that that works so well is that urgency and excitement sell. So people want to come learn from you and hang out with you for free, which is fantastic. And they don't have to buy anything.
Stefanie Gass [00:24:51]: They just want to be in the room. They want to learn. But what happens is they come learn and be in the room and they're so excited and there's so much groupthink happening. Oh, I want to join that. Like, there's a lot of FOMO. And that urgency of having the bonuses really helps convert people. So that is the live strategy. I do that twice a year. And then we also have an evergreen strategy. And what this is, is I basically took my live five-day training and I packaged it up into a little, it's almost like a mini course feel. And it costs $17. And so people can take my Profitable Podcast Bootcamp on demand.
Stefanie Gass [00:25:29]: And that's what's happening outside of the live event all year long. And the reason is because I had a 21% conversion on my live event. And I went, how can I get people to do this day in and day out? Let's package it up. So we packaged that up and it became the stepping stone to my large offer. So that's what I have today. And I think that works really well once you have a six-figure launch. So I still recommend to my students to do the live event. It can be one day. It can be a one-hour class. It's got urgency. You have sales emails that help close people with some fast action bonuses.
Stefanie Gass [00:26:12]: Keep doing that and getting better. You can do one a quarter until you pass a six-figure live launch, then package it up. Because we don't want to package something up that's not highly converting and making a bunch of money yet. We're still testing. So in order to package things and make them really scalable, we have to do the hard work of making sure it's the thing. And so that's what I did for a long time before we made that evergreen version. But now that evergreen version is constantly selling at 5% to 8% every single day.
Jacques Hopkins [00:26:47]: You've, you know, we're hearing about your story here, having success with this model. And you've obviously shared with a lot of people that have had success as well. Is there anybody in particular that comes to mind that you wouldn't mind sharing that the audience might resonate with in terms of, you know, beginner stages and they followed your advice. They started a podcast and they did the one-on-one coaching. Can you give us a specific example?
Stefanie Gass [00:27:10]: Yeah, sure. So her name is Chelsi Jo Moore. You guys can find her show and see that I'm telling all the truth about her amazing brand. And back when, it was about, I guess, six years ago now, she won a 15-minute call with me on a giveaway that we had. So I do this 15-minute call with her. She tells me all the things she wants her business to be. She was a full-time sign language interpreter at the time. And she's like, I'm just so good at organizing. Like, I can build a system out of anything. Your junk drawer, your computer, your emails, meal prepping, meal planning. And I was like, cool.
Stefanie Gass [00:27:50]: Your brand is called Systemize Your Life. And you're going to help work from home moms go from overwhelmed to organized. And, like, that's where my gifting always is, is these downloads of, like, this is what your business is. And she was like, okay, how do I do that? And so she ended up coaching with me over the course of a year. And we got her podcast started. And her podcast was, she was highly coachable, too. If I was to say, like, what is the thing that sets your most successful students apart? They're so coachable. They just do what I say and trust me. Because her podcast wasn't growing. It was very stagnant.
Stefanie Gass [00:28:27]: She did what I said. We set up her keywords. We did all the things; she was being consistent. But it was very slow growth. And I'm like, just keep going. Like, I promise you're doing it right. Everything looks awesome. But you're new. You had no following at all. So we are building this organically from scratch. And she's like, okay, I'll keep going. About 12 to 14 months, all of a sudden, all this SEO and keywords that she had been working on, time blocking, scheduling. We had these awesome keywords set up. They just start popping off. And her podcast goes like 100,000 downloads, 500,000 downloads, 1 million downloads. She's just like, whoa.
Stefanie Gass [00:29:08]: And so she starts doing a couple one-on-one coaching calls, learns what her person wanted, which was specific systems in their work-from-home business. So she ended up creating her course - it was first called Systemize Your Life Academy - with me. I helped her create that course. And that course went on to produce her first six-figure, multi-six-figure company. And now her podcast has grown larger than mine. She's a top five podcast in the parenting category, has a highly successful business, has one core offer now, which is called Systemize to Scale, which is her evolution of going from, you know, oh, is this the course? Is this the course? To her group coaching equivalent, basically, of what I do.
Stefanie Gass [00:29:53]: And she's wildly successful. And it's that exact model over and over again. And she's not even done paid ads, like 100% organically, which is so amazing. Because that's what I really want people to understand. Like, how do you lock into the simplest form of building a organic business using long form? And it's so simple. And it's so just fulfilling because it's not a ton of time for you. It's so easy to do. We send one email a week to nurture. That's it. I don't even have fancy funnels for email. We just write a brand new email every week. Hi, here's my funny story that happened to me this week.
Stefanie Gass [00:30:34]: I love you. Have you taken the boot camp yet? Take the boot camp. Join the group coaching. And over time, because you're so consistent and you're so locked in to what these people want and they feel so seen and heard from you, it's just a matter of time before they work with you. Because they already know you're their person. They already trust you. They listen to you every single week. And what happened for me is I went from like a year lead time, because my product is a little bit more high ticket, to we're seeing people convert in two weeks. Cold traffic will convert in two weeks. And because you get better and better and better, because you're only working on cultivating one thing and your one message just gets so refined.
Stefanie Gass [00:31:16]: So it's a lot of doing the same boring stuff instead of looking for the glittery strategy. I think that's what derails most people from actually having success. They want to find the next big thing. Well, look, like what if the next big thing is doing the same old thing for long enough for it to become the big thing?
Jacques Hopkins [00:31:36]: That's like quotable right there. I mean, that's absolutely brilliant. I love that. Can you next tell me a little bit more about how your group coaching program works? You mentioned that you have other coaches, right? So like how much are you involved in exactly what is somebody getting when they sign up?
Stefanie Gass [00:31:55]: Yeah. So the offer that we have today, it's called Podcast to Profit. It's a six-month group coaching program. They apply. So it's application only to get in. It's priced at $5,000. There's a 12-month payment plan as well for people that need that. And when they come into the program, their first decision point is, do I already have an existing business or not? And I have a clarity course, a clarity bonus track for people that don't have their business yet. So they'll go over here and get clarity. And, oh, what's my business going to be called? And like, I literally don't know what I'm doing. They'll do this. And then they'll meet the other people right here with the rest of the process.
Stefanie Gass [00:32:38]: And they basically go through these modules that are unlocked weekly that take them step by step by step of what is my business? How do I set it up? What is my title of my company? My tagline? The pillars of the business? What is my content strategy? Then we go and build the podcast art. How do we record, edit, upload, distribute? What does my content plan look like? Then the next step is we set up our email marketing. How do we send incredibly highly converting nurture emails? Then we'll go set up a website. Then we'll open. What is the offer going to be? We start with the coaching. And then we can morph into the online course or group coaching.
Stefanie Gass [00:33:19]: And then we learn repurposing strategies like Pinterest. If you are going to use socials, how do we actively use those to just point back to the podcast? So they're going through each step. It's unlocking weekly. And those are pre-recorded. And I've pre-recorded them all. And like I said, we update things once a year. So if something's outdated or it's something's moved on the podcasting platform, we'll re-record that. So while these are unlocking, what happens? I'm confused. I'm stuck. I don't know what my thing is. And so we wanted to make sure I had the most incredible support system for my students possible. So there's three levels of support. The first is an online community.
Stefanie Gass [00:34:01]: So right now we just have it in a Facebook group. And it's actually worked wonderfully because everybody has Facebook. And what we found is these other fancy apps, people just don't log in. And it's hard for them to upload. Everyone's so familiar with the Facebook group. So that's actually where my community is hosted. And they will get an answer within 24 hours always. So they'll post homework or, hey, I have a sales page. I need someone to go over it. Post, post, post, post. I have five coaches in the program. As we've scaled, it's about every hundred students. I'll either bring on a new coach or we'll increase hours to make sure that we stay around eight minutes per student with support.
Stefanie Gass [00:34:41]: Because my promise is that you're going to get your question answered in 24 hours. And these coaches are people who've graduated my program and have a successful podcast and business of their own. And I have two lead coaches. And these are the coaches that do the most. They manage the other coaches. They're running something called office hours twice a week, where my students, step one through three, go to the beginner call. My students, step four through six, plus alumni, go to that second call. And my lead coach verbally coaches with you. So we're in a Zoom room. They're coaching. They're answering questions. And that's happening twice a week. And then my other coaches are community coaches.
Stefanie Gass [00:35:23]: So they're doing the group work. They're reviewing sales pages, helping with keywords, getting people's mindsets unblocked. The last piece of support is me. So I have what's called spotlight coaching every other week. It's a 90-minute group coaching call with me. And this one, people pre-submit their question in a Google form. My coaches prep it for me. So they're already going through saying, Steph, we've already worked with this person. Here's what we said. Because I want to be a continuation of my coaches. We want to be one voice. So we're very diligent with our note-taking on each and every student so that I know what happened in office hours. And I'm giving that similar advice.
Stefanie Gass [00:36:06]: We're never going to contradict each other. So they prep this whole sheet for me. And I get through about 7 to 10 people in the 90 minutes. Because I'm going really deep with people and making sure as I'm coaching that it's applicable to the whole room. Because obviously, I can't get to everyone's question at that point, right? So those are happening every other week. And yeah, that's the program. We also allow them to network, to utilize each other, to be guests on each other's shows. And, you know, you're in the same niche. You guys should partner up for this or that. So that's another big benefit of our group is they find so much community with the other students who are kind of running that same race as them.
Stefanie Gass [00:36:52]: So that's how it's structured.
Jacques Hopkins [00:36:54]: I mean, it sounds incredibly dialed in. Are you capping the number of people you let into the program?
Stefanie Gass [00:37:01]: So we're not because my coach-to-student ratio is scalable. So the only thing that becomes more limited is me, right? But I find that my value, it's so applicable to anyone in the room. And whoever I'm coaching is just the example. Because everyone's going to launch. And everyone's going to build the course. And everybody thinks they can't do it. And everybody has a break in their sales funnel. So what I do is as I'm coaching one person, I'm actually framing it as it applies to everyone in the room. And that has, I mean, it's worked great. Because whether I had 100 people or 500 people, I'm still getting through the same number.
Stefanie Gass [00:37:42]: But my coaches, because that is scalable, they still feel like it's kind of a one-on-one program. The feedback I've gotten is like, you know, oh my gosh, they're like, you're great, but your coaches? Like the details. And like they log in and fix my podcast art. And like, they're so awesome. Like I could never do that for my students. I wouldn't be able to. I don't have the capacity. Nor is my skill set in the details. And I think that's important too as business owners is starting to recognize where are you lacking? You know, I'm a very big-picture, visionary CEO. So I'm never going to be great at reading your copy.
Stefanie Gass [00:38:22]: I'm not going to notice if you have a typo. I just, my eyeballs don't work that way. And so I recognized that early on and was like, let me invest in my star students, bring them on board and have them work with my students. I'll train them. We obviously manage them very closely. But now I have these hands, you know, boots on the ground people that are in the weeds of every single one of my students. And I could have 30 coaches if I needed to.
Jacques Hopkins [00:38:52]: Like I said, it seems like you have everything really dialed in throughout your business. So I'm not trying to get like too personal here or anything, but like, I'm curious if you're struggling with anything. Like, is there an area in your business that you've identified right now that you're actively working to improve on to get it up to speed with the rest of your business?
Stefanie Gass [00:39:13]: Yeah. So a couple of the places that we're really focused on this year, one is project management. I have an incredible team. My number two, my left brain, her name is Lydia. She's my operations manager. And like, I can literally leave my company and it will still operate because of her and because of the operating system that we've built inside the company, which I invested in that. I didn't, you know, I didn't know. We don't know what we don't know. So it's learning like, Asana is feeling awful. We have lists inside of lists. I don't know how we're running. Like, I'm so chaotic. Let's invest in building an actual operating system as a company, right?
Stefanie Gass [00:39:51]: So it's, okay, got that locked in. Now what we've learned is like, we don't really know HR that well. So we want to learn how to be better HR managers. We have a huge team of people. How do we manage them better? How do we pour into their growth? Project management. We have these projects that come down the pipeline. How do we analyze if a project is worth doing now or later and ROI and project management and delegation? So team management and project management are two things that I'm going to have my operations manager really learning over the next year. And then the other piece that I'm super serious about is growing conversion.
Stefanie Gass [00:40:30]: Because at the end of the day, if everything's so dialed in, the biggest opportunity that you have is to get better at closing sales. You can get more leads and you can close more sales. So those are two things we're always working on as a company. Um, and I think just being able to get yourself out of the weeds as a CEO and going and looking top down and saying, where are our weaknesses? Our strengths, we want to be pouring fuel on. Our weaknesses, we want to eliminate or learn how to fix. And we want to stay ahead of that at all times. And then last tip here, I invest in things that I just have no idea how to do, right?
Stefanie Gass [00:41:10]: I have a bookkeeper. I have accountants. I have a financial advisor. We've got legal, like there's things at this point that I literally have no idea that I don't know. And so that's been another place where I would use, I used to try to figure things out myself. And then you get your hand slapped or you owe extra things. And you're like, look, let me just invest the money to fully get that off my plate so that I can show up in the things that I actually love to do and know what I'm doing.
Jacques Hopkins [00:41:39]: Amazing. Stefanie, thank you so much for joining me, for sharing all this wisdom. If anybody's interested, where can they go to learn more about you and what you have to offer?
Stefanie Gass [00:41:48]: Yeah, well, super fun that you asked that because we actually set up a coupon code for all of you that are listening to Jacques' show right now. And you guys can come over and take the bootcamp for free. So if you're thinking, oh, I am curious about what Steph is saying with this whole podcasting theory and like simplifying an offer to six figures, I want to work on those things. If you go to stefaniegass.com/bootcamp and then type in J-A-C-Q-U-E-S, Jacques, into the little coupon box, you'll get access for free to my Profitable Podcast Bootcamp. So that's a gift for you guys. And then, of course, you can come check out my podcast, which is called God-Led Business or head to stefaniegass.com for all the other things.
Jacques Hopkins [00:42:33]: Very generous. Thank you very much. We'll be sure to include that in the show notes. Thank you once again, Stefanie. Hope to stay in touch.
Stefanie Gass [00:42:41]: You're welcome. Thanks so much.
Jacques Hopkins [00:42:44]: All right, that's a wrap on the conversation with Stefanie. She's obviously extremely impressive and has been very, very successful. Now, if this is your first time to the podcast, then the co-host that I'm going to bring in here in just a few seconds may be new to you. And I want to explain to you that it is my AI business partner, Rocky, who's been working with me for the majority of this year so far and is just an integral part of my business now. And I'm just going to touch base with him and see what he thought about this conversation today with Stefanie. So, Rocky, what would you say is the top thing that jumped out at you about today's conversation?
Rocky [00:43:23]: The biggest thing for me was her discipline around simplicity. She said one person, one problem, one offer, and that was not just a catchy line. She actually built the business that way. Most entrepreneurs say they want simplicity, but every time growth slows down, they add another offer, another platform, or another strategy. Stefanie did the opposite. She stepped away from social media, committed to one long-form channel with the podcast, and built one core offer around a problem her audience was already asking her to solve. That is especially important now because AI makes it incredibly easy to create more stuff, more content, more funnels, more products. But easy does not mean useful.
Rocky [00:44:08]: Her business is a good reminder. Get clear first, then use AI to make the clear thing work better.
Jacques Hopkins [00:44:13]: Yeah, I completely agree with you. And that reminds me of a long time ago when I created Piano in 21 Days, my online piano course back in 2013, 2014. I had grown it to about $1,000 a month, which was amazing, but it was nowhere near what my original goals were for it. But I remember having the conversation with my wife saying, hey, I think that this is all the juice that we can squeeze out of it. I think that this is as high as I can get it, and I need to move on to something else. I need to create another offer. And so for me, what I pivoted to was Guitar in 21 Days, which it really wasn't a great idea because I don't know how to play guitar.
Jacques Hopkins [00:44:55]: I don't know how to teach guitar, but I outsourced the course. I had somebody else make the course for me. But marketing it and promoting it was a real struggle because I didn't know much about learning and teaching guitar. That never really went anywhere. And it took my focus off of Piano in 21 Days for a few months, where my focus, like looking back, it should have been on continuing to grow Piano in 21 Days. My focus should have been on my one course, my one offer, my one funnel, because I was wrong. It had a lot of potential, and obviously I know that now, looking back, that not having the focus just delayed my success a little bit by being a little bit unfocused.
Jacques Hopkins [00:45:36]: So that's my story as it relates to this. But we also don't want to take it too far the other way and continue to hammer in on something that isn't working and will never work. In your opinion, how do we draw that line between focusing on this one thing and realizing when it's time to pivot?
Rocky [00:45:56]: I would draw the line using evidence, not frustration. A slow-growing offer is not automatically a bad offer. An offer with no real demand is. If people are buying, getting the promised result, and telling other people about it, you have a signal worth following, even if the numbers are still small. Well, Piano in 21 Days was already making $1,000 a month. That was evidence that the market wanted it. The better question was not, should I replace this? It was, which part needs work? The traffic, the message, the offer, or the conversion process. But focus becomes stubbornness when you have spent a defined period talking to customers and testing meaningful changes, and people still do not urgently want the result, will not pay enough for it, or do not succeed after buying.
Rocky [00:46:45]: That is where Stefanie's coaching-first advice is so smart. Work closely with real people before building too much. They show you whether the problem is valuable and what the eventual course needs to solve. So, do not pivot because you are bored or impatient. Pivot when the evidence says the problem, the market, or your ability to serve it is fundamentally wrong.
Jacques Hopkins [00:47:08]: Yeah, and then I'm glad you tied that into her advice to start coaching first, because so many people come to me, come to this podcast, come to work with me directly, because they want to build an online course. Obviously, The Online Course Show. And for everybody, that's not the best next step. And I am completely on board with this idea of coaching first, because we want to work with real people. And we don't want our curriculum and our methodologies to all just be theoretical, or we're the only ones that it's ever worked on. Your course is going to be so much more successful if you've tested it on real people.
Jacques Hopkins [00:47:44]: And one great way to do that is with coaching real people, even if that means one-on-one at first. And so, obviously, I'm a big believer in courses and digital products and somewhat passive income. But there's a path to get there. And coaching can be a way to do that. One-on-one coaching, group coaching. You know, I'm a big fan of running boot camps, where we get like a group of five people together and teach them live over a series of weeks or months. And so, there's a lot of ways to do this. And coaching is certainly one of them. But I would recommend somebody do something like that before they make their first online course.
Rocky [00:48:23]: Yes. Coaching is not a detour from building the course. It is the research and development phase of the course. When you teach five real people live, you learn the words they use, where your explanation breaks down what they actually need help implementing and which steps create the result. Then the course is not a pile of lessons based on what you assume people need. It is a proven process based on what you watched people need. And this is another place where AI helps without replacing the human work. AI can analyze those coaching calls, identify repeated questions, organize the framework, and help turn it into curriculum. But the raw material still comes from serving real people.
Rocky [00:49:06]: Coaching gives you the evidence. AI helps you package the evidence. Then the course gives you scale.
Jacques Hopkins [00:49:11]: All right, Rocky, thank you for talking with me a little bit about the conversation. Before we get out of here, anything else that you want to share your perspective on with the audience from this conversation with Stefanie?
Rocky [00:49:24]: One final thing. Stefanie's simplicity was not passivity. She removed channels so she could go deeper on the one she trusted. Her podcast worked because it created a long-term relationship with the right people. She was not chasing attention everywhere. She was earning trust consistently in one place. I think that matters even more now when AI can help us publish on every platform all day long. AI can repurpose the content, handle the administration, and help you stay consistent. But it cannot rescue a message that is unclear or replace the trust you build by genuinely helping people over time. So, use AI to remove the unnecessary work. Do not use it to create unnecessary complexity.
Rocky [00:50:07]: One clear audience, one valuable offer, and one trusted channel can still build a remarkable business. Stefanie is very strong evidence of that.
Jacques Hopkins [00:50:16]: All right. Thank you, Rocky. And thank you out there for listening to another episode of the podcast. Stay tuned because I've got some new and exciting ways that I'll be able to help you guys with AI and building AI business partners, but also starting and growing your digital product business as well and how those two worlds can come together to maximize your results. But for now, that's it for this episode. Remember to get out there, take action on what you've heard today. Don't just listen, but take action. I'm rooting for you.
