Consistent Course Sales in NON-B2B Niche? (Mimzy & Co) | Ep. 22

Can a YouTube funnel really generate sales in a non-b2b niche (like sewing or home decor)? Absolutely! In this episode, I dive into how YouTube strategies, like a youtube funnel, can drive consistent revenue—even in non-business niches. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1  
Does the YouTube funnel concept and the strategies that I teach inside a video brand Academy actually apply to a non marketing, non business, to business niche? Well, mimsy's niche is sewing. It's actually upholstery to be even more nichey niche about it, and she has generated 10 sales of her program from her YouTube funnel that she set up about a month and a half to two months ago. So if you will forgive my raspy voice, I'm getting over a cold. I'm here to bring you episode number 22 of video brand infusion. My name is Meredith. I'm here to help you generate consistent revenue with your courses, your programs, your Online offers and digital products using YouTube, and I'm just gonna dive right into this interview with Mimsy. Hey, Mimsy, welcome to the show. Thanks for coming on. Hi Meredith,

Unknown Speaker  
thank you so good to be here. I

Speaker 1  
am dying to talk to you because you've been inside of the membership video brand Academy for a while now, you've been growing your channel, but you also just launched a course with your YouTube channel, and so I want to dive into your channel and how the course went in terms of getting actual sales and generating revenue, And what exactly you did to make that happen with YouTube. Give us a little background on when you started your channel and like, what your niche is. I

Speaker 2  
started my YouTube channel eight years ago. My niche is sewing. Well, I kind of started it as DIY and then with a little bit of sewing, home decor sewing thrown in there. But then as time progressed, I realized I needed to niche down in order to be able to create a product, I needed to have something more specific than just DIY, so I decided to niche down to just sewing so that I could create a product around that. But I started out way back, like in 2009 just as a blogger, doing just general DIY stuff. Throughout that whole time, I was running a home decor sewing work room, making slip covers and window treatments and all kinds of home decor, sewing

Speaker 1  
like four, four clients. Yes, they would come to you, I need this thing created, yes, and you would just sew it, like, like, locally, yep.

Speaker 2  
Okay, yep. So yeah, I was doing that for for years, and all kind of always did DIY stuff for myself. And that's kind of where my passion is. I've always just loved just doing home DIY stuff, but sewing the whole time. And so when I started my blog, you know, it was two dimensional writing and taking still pictures of my sewing. And I realized quickly that was really hard to communicate that. So I thought, why don't I just start making videos? So I started making videos, and that's kind of how my youtube channel started.

Speaker 1  
So when you started your blog and your YouTube channel, did you know that you wanted to create an online course or program or something or like what? What was your inspiration to even start creating

Speaker 2  
content? No, I did not know I wanted to start have a course or anything like that. Back then, it wasn't as prevalent to do courses. I just was like, Well, other people are making money doing this. Maybe I can too. I was just thinking of potential affiliate revenue, possible sponsorships and ad revenue. Really Gotcha.

Speaker 1  
Okay. Do you have a background in, like, writing or blogging or like video or business or anything.

Speaker 2  
No, none of it. I I hate writing, and that's one of the reasons why. Another reason why video was appealing to me is I thought, Oh, this is actually easier than having to sit down and write this all out. So

Speaker 1  
okay, so you you went into your YouTube channel not knowing, not liking writing, and not knowing anything about videos or any or YouTube, or anything or business. So how did it go for growing your channel? Because I feel like most people start a channel from that place of like, I don't know what I'm doing, I just kind of feel like making these videos, and we'll see what happens. So how did your channel growth go for you?

Speaker 2  
When I started, I wasn't consistent about posting videos, so growth was super duper slow. And then in 2020 I decided to post a mask video, and I had a little bump in growth. So then that inspired me to get consistent with my publishing. So then I started publishing once a week, and then I saw just steady, steady growth that might have been when I first joined year. Your community. So

Speaker 1  
what made you think to join the membership, which is now called Video brand Academy, what made you think to actually join something and like invest your time and money into into it, to have some

Speaker 2  
accountability and some community and just an inspiration and just help to get things, get things rolling. My YouTube channel was growing slow and steady, really slow and steady. What was the

Speaker 1  
first thing that you tried like, once you got into video brand Academy? What was the first sort of, like, new strategy or thing that you tweaked to try and get your channel to grow a little bit faster? Definitely,

Speaker 2  
titles and thumbnails. That was the first thing that I realized, oh yeah, I have got to do this better. So

Speaker 1  
walk me through that process. Did you just like, improve your titles and thumbnails going forward. Or did you go back to old videos and change things up or over? I

Speaker 2  
did not go back. No, I did not go back. And I probably should go back and overhaul some of them. I might have done a couple of them over, but mostly I just worked from where I was at forward. And I really I used your quadrant the it helped me a ton. Yeah, it really helped me to get that kind of push and pull from the thumbnail image to the title and getting maybe vague with the thumbnail image, and then very, very specific with my title. I that clicked for me when I when you went over that, I was like, oh, okay, I get it. Now

Speaker 1  
I'm gonna put a little diagram on screen. This is my own little cheat sheet for myself on a little three by five card. So this is the we're calling it the quad chart. Another of our members Sherry, she named it the quad chart. And I just started using this based on something I learned from somebody who teaches Tiktok, of all things, and it had nothing to do with thumbnails. But I was like, wait, what he's saying actually applies to thumbnails and titles. So I started using it myself to come up with, like, I obviously know the topic of the video, but what exactly should the title be? Like? What are the words to put in the title, and then what should the thumbnail be? So it's like, Yes, I know how to make a thumbnail. I can do whatever I want, Canva or Photoshop or whatever. But it was like, but how do you decide what to put in it? That was the thing that was a huge roadblock for me. So I created this quad chart to just simply help me decide what goes in the title, what goes in the thumbnail, so that they can play off of each other, compliment each other. Yeah,

Speaker 2  
it works. Because before that, I was just doing like I would end up repeating the title in the thumbnail, which is like, no, don't do that. And it's really helped. I same thing. I get the green green

Speaker 1  
checks, so changing up how you did your titles and thumbnails helps to get that green check in your analytics. So like when you upload a video, and you have your latest video performance, your views, your click through, rate, your average view duration, and it will give you either a down gray arrow, which means this wasn't doing as well as normal for your channel, or green checkmark, which is like you're on track, or the green up arrow, which tells you, hey, this is doing better than than average. And so it always feels so good to get a green up arrow, even sometimes it feels so good to get a green up arrow for me that if I just get a green check mark, I'm like, Oh, is that all? But that's what you want to see happen when you make a tweak or a change to your strategy, even something small, like titles or thumbnails, because those things are actually huge. It when you you can see like immediate results, looking at the analytics, like, oh yeah, my thumbnails are doing better, my click through rate is higher, so you started getting those green up arrows for your clicks. Did it affect your views and your channel growth? You think? I

Speaker 2  
think so. It was still slow and steady, but I was continually, you know, over the course of my channel, it was continually up. Yes, I didn't see a huge spike in my graph. Gotcha when I changed when I went to that, although I did have a few videos where. Sure I well, I had a couple videos when you put out the list of the titles, oh

Unknown Speaker  
yes, the 52 click worthy, click worthy

Speaker 2  
titles, yeah, yeah. I used a couple of those. And the very first video that I did where I used one of your exact titles. I It was a huge jump in traffic, huge, big spike in my and I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna next one, next one, next one. I'm gonna keep using them. So that's that work. That's

Speaker 1  
another tool that I love hearing people use, because again, it takes the decision like make. There's so many decisions that go into creating videos and growing a business and everything just everyday life to like, have this list of video titles where you just plug in your actual topic. It takes the decision out of it. All you have to do is decide which one of these is, am I going to use? And you could reuse them. You could just reuse them a different topic. So at what point it sounds like you're you started your channel. It was growing slow and steady. You made some tweaks with some of the strategies inside Video brand Academy to improve and grow. At what point did you decide you were going to create a course and sell a course and generate revenue that way? It

Speaker 2  
was a couple years ago. I was like, I definitely could do a course because I ran a home decor sewing workroom for so many years. I'm an expert at making slip covers and a lot of different home to course sewing. But slipcovers. Was like, my I have made hundreds of slip covers, so I'm definitely an expert. And so I was like, I could definitely teach that a couple of my slipcover videos, one of my top five videos consistent for since I published it is a slipcover video. So I was like, I could definitely make a course on this. So I'd been thinking about it for a couple of years, but it's overwhelming to think about making a course and everything that you have to do to sell it. Making the course, I think, was the easy part for me, but then having to sell it, I was like, I don't know about webinars and launching and just all the other stuff that the tech stuff that goes into it. So when you were talking about having a YouTube funnel to your course, I was like, Oh my gosh, yes, I could do that. I'm already on YouTube. You know, I I'm already, this is my my home on YouTube, so I could definitely do that. Do

Speaker 1  
you Do you know how many like about how many subscribers you had when you first thought, Oh, I I could maybe create a course,

Unknown Speaker  
um, I had, I think, just over 20,000

Speaker 1  
and what made you think this? Because this is a very common question. I know my listeners and viewers are thinking? What made you think that if you had videos, free videos on your channel, on a topic that were doing well on slipcovers? What made you think, Oh, I could create a course that I could charge money for on that same topic when you already have it on your channel for free. Well, slipcovers

Speaker 2  
are pretty intricate, and, like my most popular slipcover video is there, you know, it's like 27 minutes long, and it only covers a really a fraction of the process. So I thought, you know, if a lot of people are interested in this, maybe they would want every detail that a course could provide. Did

Speaker 1  
you launch it and immediately make sales? Or, like, how did that go for you in terms of results of selling the course? So

Speaker 2  
I launched it and I did immediately make sales. I initially, I think I made five or six sales initially, right when I launched it, and then, since then, and I launched it in, I think it's been about a month, maybe a month and a half, oh, I'd have to look at that now anyhow. So I made five or six sales when I first launched it, and then I made two sales, just randomly, as it's been, you know, running on my channel, that's a funnel. And then I posted another video just last last week where I seeded my course in the middle of my video, as I was talking about something else, I did mention that I have a course, and at the end, I put an end screen on there. If you're interested in learning how to slipcover for yourself, then you can click on this video and I got another. Couple sales from that. So I'm up to 10 sales so far. Wow.

Speaker 1  
Okay, I love this. So we're gonna, we're gonna go into all these nitty gritty details and like, work backwards or start in the back and work forward. So you initially made sales by posting something on YouTube or sending something to your existing list. Or how did you get those initial five or six sales?

Speaker 2  
I did both. So I posted my lead getter video, which led to my secret video, my funnel, and I also sent my list the lead getter video, which put them through the same funnel.

Speaker 1  
So you've been building your list this whole time that you've had a YouTube channel, just sort of like adding people to your list with freebies and lead magnets and things like that. Okay, yes, you had people on the list who are interested in you and your topics, but you also have the channel itself, yes. So you set up a YouTube funnel in in just like took everyone that you have and sent them down that funnel made five or six sales initially, and then the funnel has been working on its own as intended to generate sales since then, over the last like month and a half or two months or so. Okay, so let's go back to, did you create the course? But what was the process there? Did you create it first? Did you have a wait list or, like, what did you do to initially kick it off? I

Speaker 2  
created it after. Actually, I kind of saw, you know, went through your funnel process, through your funnel course, and then had to create the course. I hadn't created it yet, okay, so I did it in 11 modules, and I just did it really the simplest possible way. And I put the modules in it in Google Drive and and then sent people that way, because I I just wanted to get it done and do it the least expensive way I could. And I already, you know, I knew how to do that. Kajabi was a whole I wanted to do Kajabi so I could kind of put everything in one place. But that was really complicated for me, plus, I already had a payment platform that I purchased previously, and I already have my MailChimp set up. So I just wanted to keep it simple and get it done.

Speaker 1  
Okay, so I remember you asking about this in the group, about, course, platform delivery like that, like, what should I do here? I feel like there are more platforms out there now that are more affordable for just getting started, but so what you did was you have your videos and all of your course material in a Google Drive.

Speaker 2  
Yeah, it's in a folder, and it's labeled, and then it's just module 123, down to 11.

Speaker 1  
Oh my gosh. That is so brilliant, because it's almost like so simple that it doesn't even seem like it could be a solution for how to host a course. But everybody knows how to use I mean, they may not necessarily know how to use Google Drive, not everybody. But they know how to use a folder. They know how to what this means. Double click a folder and you get a video like it's it's inherent. Now everyone knows how to do that. Um, so, and you already had, what did you use for the payment? Then

Speaker 2  
I have a payment platform. It's Milo, tree, cart, okay, okay,

Speaker 1  
so you already had, you had a way to pay, to for people to pay you. You've already got email, you've got Google Drive, you just connected everything together so that people could pay you for your course without having to even not only did you not have to pay for some like course hosting software, which I do love, Kajabi, but it is expensive for what's getting started. So not only did you not have to pay for that, you didn't have to take the time to, like, set all

Speaker 2  
of that up. Yeah, it was the learning of that that I was like, Oh, that was overwhelming.

Speaker 1  
Oh my gosh, that is so smart. Do you think that you will move to a course platform at some point in the future? Or have you, like, hit the jackpot with Google Drive? No, I

Speaker 2  
definitely think I will move to a course platform, okay, eventually, okay. Oh,

Speaker 1  
I hope anyone listening and watching is like, Oh, I already have Google Drive. Yeah, you could, you could, you could use PayPal for a payment platform. Like, it doesn't have to be this, like, robust system, if you're just getting started with launching a course or program. So you're like, the perfect example of just use what you have and and do it. Yeah. So you sent out an email to your list. You posted a couple, a video or two on YouTube. What was it? A. About, and I know, like we talk about this in the YouTube funnel clinic program, about, like, how to craft the offer in a way that makes people excited about it. People who want to slipcover or learn how to slip cover, it makes them go, oh yeah. This is the thing for me. I need this program. How did you like, what was the the process of figuring all of that out, how to communicate that this program is of value to somebody who wants to slipcover their couch or chair. You know, more so than what you can find for free on YouTube. That's

Speaker 2  
easy. I literally just copied your templates. I'm not kidding. I used your templates pretty much, word for word, and just plugged in my niche all of is that wrong? No, all of your sales pages, everything I just used all every, I mean you, I did it exactly like your templates, and which was life saving, because I hate writing, and particularly sales. Writing, yeah, is so difficult to try to make something sounds enticing and like exciting and yes, I need that thing. Forget it well.

Speaker 1  
I mean, obviously I love hearing that, because I created those resources. I want people to use them. But also because, when I first created, like, my initial YouTube funnel. I created it, and I was like, I think this could be repeated for anything. So that's what sort of kicked off, trying to repeat it for other people. But I wasn't entirely sure that my scripts and templates could be just directly applied to a non business related niche, right? So yours is a completely non business related niche. We're talking about flip covering sofas. So it's great to hear that it just sort of like works no matter no matter what the niche is even if it's not just like a business to business type of of niche. Did you make any tweaks to it at all? Or you just,

Speaker 2  
I did. Yes, I definitely tweaked it here and there, because there are obviously things between our niches that are different. And so, yeah, I did. I did tweak some things, but not all that much. I mean it, it's, it's kind of funny to me, actually, when I listened to my video, my lead getter video and your lead getter video, and some of this stuff is very similar, because I just did it the way you taught it, yeah, so, but yeah,

Speaker 1  
oh my god, I love that. I love that. So what happens now, because you you created the course that's all set up and running, anyone could go buy it at any point. You also have the YouTube funnel set up on your actual channel. But you also did mention that you recently published a video, just a regular YouTube video, right? Not. It's not like a sales video. It's not a hate by my course video. Is it a core? Is it a video about slip covers?

Speaker 2  
It was actually a video about how I learned to upholster Okay, so this is throwing a wrench in my course. Is actually how to upholster. Okay, okay, okay, so different from slip covering, but as I went through the process, I realized that it would be easier for me to create an upholstery course. So anyways, the video that I just created last week was how I learned how to upholster. So it's just kind of like my story, and yeah, and then in the middle, I just mentioned I have a course, and it just really organically came up that I have a course. And then at the end, I put the end screen on there, and I really directed him. I said, if you want to learn how to do upholstery. I have a beginner upholstery course click right here, and it worked. So you were sending down the funnel to the course, or to the top of your funnel, the top of my funnel, to the top of your funnel. Okay, gotcha

Speaker 1  
so, oh my gosh. There's so much I love about this. Because one of the things that I have to sometimes remind myself and remind people in the membership is that not every video has to be teaching something or how to do this or like instructional. Sometimes it can just be how I learned how to upholster. It's not I'm not teaching something, just. Doesn't have to be like a big production. I love that you used that type of a video of just, I'm just discussing this topic, and you then are seeding that you have a course. But also it's not a sales video. It's just you're sending people to the top of your funnel, which so for the people who are interested in upholstering. Who are watching the video about how you learn how to upholster like it's a no brainer, right? You're you. You have your ideal viewer and your ideal customer watching your video and connecting with you in that way and then leading them to where they can learn more from you about a full string. This is the idea behind the YouTube funnel is like you set it up. I call it a set in, forget it funnel. But is anything really? Forget it, not really, but it's, it's meant to be something that you're not constantly selling to people. It's doing that for you. The course is basically selling itself. And then you just get to keep doing whatever it is that you do on YouTube. You already have those like strategies from video brand Academy. So now you get to just make your regular YouTube videos and show up for your audience, knowing that as you do that YouTube, like the algorithm, is sending people to the top of your funnel, yeah, or you, you really set it all up so perfectly, like perfect student, star student, a plus. What do you feel like is the biggest win since joining video brand academy or going through the YouTube funnel clinic,

Speaker 2  
just having something that I'm actually making money on revenue that's huge, because before that, I my only revenue has really been AdSense, you know, and as much as I'd like to do more, I mean, I have some affiliate revenue, but it's very small, so having another revenue stream is fantastic, and now I know how to do it, so I can continue to create courses, more courses, on different styles of chairs, different styles of furniture, and I already know how to do it, so I I'm anxious to get going with more. Okay,

Speaker 1  
well, that was gonna be my next question is, what comes next?

Speaker 2  
Yeah, just other styles of upholstery, other styles of furniture I'm gonna do,

Speaker 1  
and you'll set up a course and a funnel and everything, just like in the same exact way.

Speaker 2  
I think so, yeah, I think I'll do the same exact thing. And then eventually, once I have a library of courses, styles of courses, then I might put that into a membership. What

Speaker 1  
advice would you give to somebody who is kind of in the place where you were right before you thought maybe I should create a course, like, I have a channel. I it's, it's going, I'm publishing. People are like watching my videos. What advice do you have for somebody who's like, not totally sure if creating a course as a revenue stream is right for them and and the caveat is you can't just say, Just do it, something other than just do it. What advice do you have around thinking through, like, making that decision if, if going the course route is right for them,

Speaker 2  
I think it's right for anybody who has an expertise in something. And I think that maybe even possibly pre selling it before it's even created, or maybe just create the first module and sell it, and then even maybe drip out the other modules or something like that. I think pre selling is a really great idea to see if somebody's actually interested, if somebody will really pay you for that thing. I

Speaker 1  
love that you brought that up because I know that's a big, a big roadblock for a lot of people, while I don't have a course to sell and that, and it's actually, I think in some ways it's better that way, because then you get to focus on crafting what it is that is really going to help people and let your audience, kind of like tell you what they need or want in order to get the whatever the desired result is. Where can people find your channel and connect with you on YouTube or any other social

Speaker 2  
on YouTube? I'm at Mimsy and CO, actually, no, I think it's Mimsy and company on YouTube, on Instagram. I'm Mimsy and CO, but I'm not too active over there, feeling bad about that, trying to get better, but YouTube's my number one, my number one. Same,

Speaker 1  
same, awesome. Well, thank you so much, Mimsy for sharing your YouTube journey and course. Journey with me. You're welcome. Thank

Unknown Speaker  
you. Meredith, so

Speaker 1  
let me just give you a breakdown of the things that I picked up on in our conversation that I think are really huge for anyone who's not in a marketing or business to business niche. First of all, let's talk about the fact that Mimsy created her course in Google Drive. I think there's a huge trap that people sometimes can fall into with thinking I have to set up this, like course delivery platform. I have to spend the time doing that. I have to create the videos. The videos have to be perfect, and then I'll get it out there, and then I will figure out how to sell it, how to actually generate revenue with it, when in reality, it's it's the work you put into crafting the offer and crafting the content around the offer, so that the people that you know who are right For the offer, like your ideal clients and students can find the offer and go, Yeah, I want that. I want that thing. That's where the real work is of creating any kind of a digital product, a course or a program. That is definitely something I had to learn for myself early on. The results that you want, the sales, the revenue come from the work that you put into crafting the actual offer. Not that the not the work that you put into crafting the actual course. And it sounds backwards, even as I say it coming out of my mouth, it sounds backwards. But that is how, in my experience, and my clients and students experience, that's how you get the desired results that you want, is approaching it from a sales and marketing perspective, from the very beginning. And also, I'm glad that Mimsy dove into what made her think that because she had a popular video or a popular topic on her channel that that would be a good course topic, because that comes up so often with, you know, people who reach out to me asking, like, I want to create a course. I don't know what it should be about. And I will look at their channel and say, this, this, this, and this. I can tell just by looking at your channel where you might want to start looking, and they're like, but I already have content on that, and they see that as a roadblock, and I see it as an opportunity, and I want to thank you for listening through with my voice sounding the way that it does. I could not put this episode off any longer. I needed to dig into these details with Mimsy and nerd out about her YouTube funnel in her YouTube journey. So if you want to apply the same YouTube funnel concept that she was explaining in this episode, I covered all of the details of that in episode one, I explain every single stage of how to make a YouTube funnel work for your channel, and now that we know it works whether you're in marketing or business to business or you're in something as nichey niche as upholstery. Gosh, I love a nichey niche. You can simply take those steps and apply those to your channel. And I cover everything to do with the YouTube funnel in episode number one of the video brand infusion podcast.