Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey, Gorgeous. This is episode number 220. I’m so excited to have the wonderful Meike Hohenwarter back on the show today.

Meike Hohenwarter [0:11]
Hi, this is Meike Hohenwarter. You’re listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:18]
Well, after the first episode where Meike actually talked about why an online course is key, I am so super excited to have her back on the show. We talked a lot about last time, about the customer journey, where to plug in your online course, when you actually have an online business and what you need and why strategy is also key. Today, we’re going to talk about like leaving the comfort zone and making baby steps. Meike has found a way how she automated rejection so she only ends up with a yes. Well, if that is not amazing content then I don’t even know. Have fun. Tune in and really get the hang of how you can create a successful online business with the help of online courses, from the queen of online course creation herself. Well, I am so excited to have you back on the show today, Meike. Welcome.

Meike Hohenwarter [1:16]
Thank you, Christine.

Christine Schlonski [1:18]
The first episode with you was so much fun because you give so much value, you shed such big golden nuggets that people are not really aware of when they go into building online courses because they just think, “Well, to have a successful business. To have income that comes overnight while I’m sleeping. I’m making money by offering the online course”, we talked a lot about the strategy and that you have to have the client journey mapped out to really put that course or position that course or your courses on the journey. Because most of the people will not buy. Most of the people will just be lurkers, just hang around, get your free stuff and we’ll not really move forward. But there are people that will move forward. That might go the path all the way even to your highest packages. That will be fans that will get all of your value. We were also talking about mistakes. Can you give us a little bit more about the strategy inside? Like, how did you even manage to sell to 20,000 people without video? There must be a strategy behind that. Especially for the trust part, I think it’s important to show up on video and we do have a little video clip that at the end, so people can also see you. Give us a little bit of background and what has changed that made you show up on video.

Meike Hohenwarter [2:59]
I now show on video nowadays but it was a very long journey for me. I know some people don’t have any problems at all in showing themselves. Many people have their phones with them all day and taking lots of pictures and putting them on Instagram and lots of videos. I am not that kind of, I’m still not. But I was really worse. I was recording so many videos and just waste I dumped them in the end because I didn’t like myself and I really wasn’t good. I dumped them all, but I found one from the year 2009 and this is a bonus material in one of my courses and people are always loving about me. It was really terrible. I was in terror. I was hardly breathing. I was talking much too fast with the redhead and bad lightning — . Everything was terrible. You could just tell that I was feeling completely unpleasant there. I never gave up. I always recorded and recorded it again and again. But it seems not to become any better, but of course, it did. I just didn’t give up. Once there was this one video that survived. It was on Christmas Eve. I just came from the hairdresser’s. We had to wait to go to my parents where we always celebrate. My son said, “You look nice. Now let’s have a video. Hello, and welcome to the course.” This was all about and then they leave the name the course because then I couldn’t — then it was just possible to put it in front of any course. I always thought, “Okay, they have to see me once.” This was really four years my only video I was showing. “Hello, welcome to the course and like enjoy yourself or something”, it wasn’t much more. But I come to recording until in the end more and more of the videos past my judgments. Today, I’m wanting to do every day, about my life and webinars and everything. But what I want to tell people who are really as myself are terrified of showing themselves on video. I was really already successful when I didn’t. I made it much harder for me. No point there because as Christine already pointed out, it’s easier to get familiar with a person you can see on a video. But I was having lots of webinars, they only saw my picture. And I was selling many online courses like I did the following of 20,000 or so on Udemy and still, nobody had ever seen my face on video, just always in the photo. It worked out and I already earned quite well then. But of course, it was a big change when I started showing myself regularly. You’ll always get better. Still, when I look at my videos one or two years ago when I was already showing myself regularly, I laugh at them. Yeah. And maybe have a laugh at all my material I’m doing right now in one or two years. Yeah. So he gets better and better all the time and people are laughing at my old videos people aren’t they’re taking this serious yet because you just see that you are growing with it. Yes, yeah.

Christine Schlonski [6:23]
Yeah, I just love that. Let’s stay a little bit here because I know, I was. Well, I wasn’t terrified, but I was really, really uncomfortable being on video. I remember when Facebook Lives came out, and people started to do them and I saw the success they had with it. I was like, “I gotta do Facebook Lives.” But I just couldn’t stand myself on video. It’s like hearing your voice for the first time and probably everybody can relate. Like the first time, you hear your own voice recorded. I was in shock. I could not believe that person on tape talking to me was me. I mean, I just couldn’t get. I just couldn’t get it. The same happened on video. I was like, “No way. I mean, that’s not what I would envision.” I think like growing, getting over yourself to serve. I knew it was important and I knew people connect in a different way. I recorded a lot of videos. I remember this one day I dressed up in different outfits and I recorded videos, I dumped them. As you just said, I dumped them, I couldn’t get myself on video. Then I thought, “Well, how can I make it easy for me?” So when my next travels came up, I just started sharing, like, “Oh, I’m here at the beach”, and then I turned the camera so people could see the beach. I’ve kind of got used to it a little bit to overcome the feeling of being so out of place, of being uncomfortable, of seeing myself, which I haven’t before a lot. I mean, obviously, when you put out some makeup in the morning when you brush your teeth, you see yourself in the mirror but I’m not one of those people that spends all day long in front of a mirror. It was so weird to see myself and I think that lots of people have these judgments about themselves. What we forget is that someone else perceives us in a totally different way.

Meike Hohenwarter [8:31]
If we completely concentrate on, I don’t know, some people or two big noses or whatever. Other people don’t even see that. It’s just our focus that we have. Just forget about it. Other people see you completely different and are not that judgmental as you are yourself with you. In my Facebook groups to my different courses. I always offer them to show themselves as often as they want just to get used to it, it’s a small group. It’s, yeah, somehow, like it will be protected from the outside. So just give some status on where you are in your online business or whatever. What just drives you? And yeah, just tell us and so many people do that. And this is a good way of just not going all the big way right away. But testing yourself a little bit about going outside for some people.

Christine Schlonski [9:32]
Yeah, I love that. I do the same and one of my courses, the Heart Sells! Smartstart, where people learn how to say what they do without being boring. Like, you know, “I’m a coach. Well, duh.” I mean, what can you say that the other person that might be your ideal client says, “Wow, tell me more.” And we also practice that on video so they can see like the energy they’re showing up with. Are they believing what they saying? What’s the body language? It’s so important. I love that you have that element as well. And also, as you said, you practice, you practice, you practice you never gave up. I think that’s something that’s so important that you will crack the code at some point if you keep going. But you will not if you just turn around and give up.

Meike Hohenwarter [10:24]
I always consider that business and especially an online business is a great place of self-development. If not to say, the better place if you believe in yourself. You grow when you get out of your comfort zone. The comfort zone will not make you grow in any way. So just take baby steps out of your comfort zone all the time and you will be amazed on what happens to you in some months or even years.

Christine Schlonski [10:53]
Yeah, 100% agree. So talking about stepping out of comfort zones and growing. Do you remember the very first thing that you ever sold in your life?

Meike Hohenwarter [11:08]
I would say my lessons as a teenager but maybe I’ve even sold earlier, but it’s nothing I can recollect the moment. But of course, when I was like age 14, age 15, I started giving lessons to other pupils and this was pocket money of course, but as I did many lessons, it was quite, I earned quite some money then.

Christine Schlonski [11:32]
So you already had a business back then.

Meike Hohenwarter [11:34]
So to say, yes.

Christine Schlonski [11:36]
Cool. And do you remember how it felt the very first time you collected that money?

Meike Hohenwarter [11:47]
I don’t have a picture but I’m sure it was a proud feeling to earn your first money.

Christine Schlonski [11:57]
Well, you know, some people feel like they shouldn’t be taking the money or that they are a little bit afraid. I think it’s important to see we all come from different backgrounds, obviously, we all have different experiences, some are better, some are not so great. But at the end of the day, you can make each and every day a new decision of where you want to go and what you want to do.

Meike Hohenwarter [12:26]
I sure had lots of money issues also then. It’s just, you have to look where you grew up. I remember that my mother always told me to keep my prices very low. I was the best-recommended teacher then and I was really asking for a very small amount of money. This was, surely you to that, that my mother said, I’m not supposed to ask for a high charge.

Christine Schlonski [12:54]
Oh, that’s interesting.

Meike Hohenwarter [12:56]
Of course. When I was having the center of the learning and everything is personal. We are the people who are offering similar services. These were teachers who were earning that from not paying taxes, business students, and everything. So there was not a big range. I thought today, with my knowledge today, I would also do my learning center completely differently. I saw all these poor people, this is immigrant children and people from socially poor families who couldn’t afford anything. But at the same time, I couldn’t see the other range here. People from really rich families who like to see there’s a privilege to like have their own teacher for the children in the afternoon. I could have gone a completely different way but this was out of sight for me due to my money, mindset. Today, I would see this as a great combination of earning good money from the people who can easily afford it. To be able to give something back to people who cannot. Also, they’re very important, also there, I had big learning when I started my online courses and because like I was charging 30 euros often per hour as a really no money and then there came people from like, I don’t know, the parents couldn’t even talk German and so on. And they couldn’t afford it and I saw that they needed it yet and so I gave it even cheaper. My costs were already at a very high point. I have a center. I had people employed. I pay taxes and so on. I was really cutting into my own flesh offering it that way. And then there can be online courses and sadly it didn’t hurt me. If I gave it an online course for free or did a bit of offer on their online course. It wasn’t a problem then. This was also a very big aha moment for me that I knew I can charge a high price and still give special reductions to people who need it. Like one of my products is the university and I always give three places for sure half price, because I want to help people who really show me that they’re committed but cannot afford it.

Christine Schlonski [15:27]
Yeah, I love that. And you said in the first episode, I remember you learned how to multiply yourself. That’s what you do with an online course. The work is already done. So obviously there’s continuing work and promoting it and having conversations but then there’s also the beauty that if you are giving something at a different rate or for free or as a scholarship or whatever, that people who really show the commitment can have that opportunity without you putting in more of your personal time.

Meike Hohenwarter [16:04]
The clothing is passive income. And at the same time, you can always give something. Also in online courses, which is not that passive, you still can give your time. But you value your time more. You think twice if you add your time in some way. Like, webinars, mastermind groups, group coaching, Facebook groups, everything you put in there, you can put all of your time in there. But this is the magic of online courses. When you look offline for new clients, most of your time is spent there because you usually have one on one talks to people who are not even aware of who you are. You have to tell them who you are, what you’re standing for, what your values are, what your program is like and so on and many people will turn around. As I say, 95%, just to say a number, will turn around and say, “Okay, thanks. But no thanks.” These noes that pull you down. They always make you like, ask yourself questions if you’re really in the right place. But when you all put that in a strategic online business concept, then talking to people who are not yet committed, talking to people who don’t know you yet become automated to them, becomes you, it doesn’t ask much of your time you record things once. Like good videos, or like auto webinars, things like that. You write some blogs or have some podcasts or something, but this is your time once in our hourly pieces. Then it’s aired all the time and people can see it, as many people and as often as they want to hear. So you’re talking to many people by spending your time very wisely so that you have your have valuable time to work with those people who already have said yes. Who are already committed, who say they want to go with you. You don’t have to explain to them who you are, what you’re standing for. You don’t have to explain what your program is. This has all already taken part automatically. Now your time is just there to help those people who are willing to invest more money and want to have a bit of your personality. Most improved processes, you don’t even have to have one on one coaching.

Christine Schlonski [18:34]
Yeah, I just love that there was so much magic in there. I hope if you’re listening right now, just go back the two minutes or three minutes and re-listen, because that was just gold. To really understand, you invest your time with people who invest in you. Because that will create so much more value. Then you can help them with your knowledge. You’re not wasting your time with people who don’t really care or where you have to explain 100,000 times what you’re doing.

Meike Hohenwarter [19:09]
Yeah, and decided yet.

Christine Schlonski [19:15]
How do you handle rejection then? Or a better question, how do you used to handle rejection to how do you handle rejection now?

Meike Hohenwarter [19:27]
You know, the way I do it with my online business concepts. I don’t really feel the rejection anymore because like I said, in earlier days, people would say no to my face, and this would always hurt. Also, if it’s only my business and not me personally. Also, I mean, it’s understandable not everybody needs to learn to coach. Not everybody needed my answer. Of course, many people say no for many reasons. But it still hurt because I had this one on one talks with them. Nowadays, people would like, for example, to hear my Podcast or read my blog article or see some video on Facebook or on YouTube. Some people might say, “Ooh, who is she? I don’t like her.” But they don’t say to my face. They just press the stop button or stop reading so they don’t hurt me. I’m only confronted with those people who say yes, and yes and yes again. And those people know me, know my values have to think they know me personally. And they just asked, “Where to signed?” They just ask, “Where can I buy this?” All the rejection, which is of course, still taking place, but it’s also automated. It doesn’t reach me and so it doesn’t hurt me.

Christine Schlonski [20:50]
Awesome. Automate rejection of people. Such a cool takeaway. So can you share with us a book or another resource that has made a big influence in your life and has changed the way you’re doing business, anything coming to mind?

Meike Hohenwarter [21:13]
Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller is a very important book. It is about your positioning and your storytelling about making yourself a brand. Then, Launch by Jeff Walker is also very important when you want to go for launching. I like Bushra Azhar that has the book called, something with influence, but I don’t know exactly. She’s also a great market —

Christine Schlonski [21:46]
Persuasion hacks. She talks about persuasion.

Meike Hohenwarter [21:52]
There are many good books outside on online marketing. But of course, it is online, many people have their things put into courses. Many of them don’t write books but have good programs and there are lots of good programs outside. There are people really help you to build an online business.

Christine Schlonski [22:13]
Awesome. Well, thank you so, so much. I want to send people also to, if you’re speaking German, if you have any knowledge of German, even if it’s a little bit, you need to be able to order more than a beer, you need more German than that or say I love you in German. If you do understand the German language a little bit, I highly recommend you hop on over in the resource section of the show notes of this podcast to check out the wonderful resource that Meike is giving us, five reasons why you need an online course. It’s very well done and it will give you even more clarity. If you are on the fence right now and you’re thinking, “Should I go down this path or not?” this will really help you to get clear. Thank you so much, Meike. Any parting piece of guidance that you want to leave us with?

Meike Hohenwarter [23:07]
Yeah, I have some courses on Udemy in English. It’s not so many online businesses. It’s more about like personalities like time management and things like that. But you can have some courses by me on Udemy. If you want that. Maybe one very important thing too, regarding the strategy we haven’t talked about yet, but which is also important is that you really think about how to sell it in the end. I can recommend launching, having a real launching concept, because many people have online courses ready to buy and nobody buys it. And this is of course, the saddest part of the story.

Christine Schlonski [23:52]
Yes, such a good point. Thank you. So if they have a course they need to launch it? It’s kind of obvious, not obvious, right?

Meike Hohenwarter [24:06]
You know, when I finished my first online courses, I like sent one email, “Hi, here’s my new course”, and some people bought it. But only when I found out about launching a new that I really left lots of money on the table because most people, I would say about 75% buy on the last day and most of them in the last hour that your offer is on. You have to produce scarcity to have people take time to decide because people hate nothing more than decision making. And so they’re just postponing it. In the end, it’s not buying because they just can’t make up a decision. So you have to make this up for them that they just have to decide. And it’s not about having everybody buy your course, it’s about taking the time and saying yes or no to your products and you have to offer that to your clients.

Christine Schlonski [24:59]
Definitely. Thank you so much. This also what I always say, like get a yes or no. Don’t get maybe. You’re not helping the person with a maybe. Just get a clean decision and help them to move forward in whatever way they decide to, that’s fine. But I yeah, thank you so much for pointing that out. So another goodie at the end. Thank you so much for sharing with us today and have an amazing day. Thank you.

Meike Hohenwarter [25:29]
Thanks for the invitation, Christine.

Christine Schlonski [25:31]
Well, there were again so many golden nuggets. And I really love the idea of automating rejection, which you can do when you have an online course. And then you do not need to talk to people anymore. On the other hand, what it also does for you, it really helps you to call in the right people and repel the people that are not meant to work with you. And I think that’s really important that when you have your course, that you are strategic about it. That you map out your client journey. That you know exactly what your course does, what the benefits are, what the growth potential is for your ideal client. Then you really build like a value strategy to feed your tribe so to speak. I’m super grateful that Meike has shared all that knowledge with us in the last two episodes. If you have not yet checked out Episode 219, just do so. It’s all about an online course and why it is key and that customer journey. Also, Meike provided her webinar, five reasons why you need an online course, it is in German, so if you can’t speak German, I’m very sorry. You can also hop on to the Udemy platform where she has her German courses and she has a couple of courses that are really supportive in English. You can check that out. Hop on over to https://christineschlonski.com/podcast Find episodes 219 and 220. And check the resources. I also have all the links to Meike, it’s just one click away so you can connect with her. As you know, she speaks German and English. So if you have any questions, you can always approach her and get an answer. Thank you so very much for tuning in, for being here. Make sure you sign up for Heart Sells Podcast, thank you for leaving a rating and a review on iTunes, Stitcher, wherever you are tuning in from, that really helps us to grow Heart Sells! Podcasts, and to help us to bring this amazing free content to even more people who want to build a successful business with their hearts, from their hearts because Heart Sells! Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world. And I’m saying bye for now.