Business Reflections Podcast Episode #23 - Building an Online Presence with English With Purpose
Episode Transcript
Meredith Matics: Welcome to Business Reflections with your host Meredith Matics, and we are here to reflect on the business topics that are affecting you today and how you can better run your business. Today I have Julie Yoder, Founder, and Lead Coach of English With Purpose. Hi Julie.
Julie Yoder: Hi. How are you?
Meredith Matics: Good. So, Julie, tell us a little bit about you and how you ended up owning this company.
Julie Yoder: It's a long winding story that I will try to condense, but in short, I actually, I trained to be an English language teacher. I trained to teach academic English or like university level. I have done that, but I ended up in the public school system for six years, basically because I needed health insurance.
After teaching overseas and teaching at some universities, I grew to love that I taught sixth graders and recent immigrants who had just arrived in the country, but after six years I burnt out. I mean, absolutely completely burnt out. Like physically, mentally. I got very, very sick with no real answers as to what was happening.
My self-employment was really kind of forced. And at the time that everything sort of fell apart. I realized I did have the skill and I did have the proper training and credentials, and I was still living in DC where there's a lot of international people. So after spending a little bit of time recovering at my parents' house that summer, I just slowly tried to put together a business plan.
At that time it was 2007. I did a little bit of market research because I knew there were a lot of embassies around here. I was thinking, well, that might be cool to go in and out of embassies and just tutor people on an individual basis. I actually couldn't find anybody with a web presence who was doing that.
I knew there were people who did that, and I knew there were local schools that had contracts with embassies, but it wasn't easy to find online back in 2007. It all came kind of easily to get the first clients because I built a basic website. I didn't know what I was doing. I had friends do it at first and then upgraded to paying someone to do it properly.
As soon as I just kind of put it out there, like this is the clientele that I serve, the clients started coming. It was really that simple in the beginning, but now all these years later, I'm having to learn absolutely everything there is to learn about digital marketing, because I didn't have to learn it the first time around.
I was actually working on jobs. I had quit my public school teaching job to recover. But I didn't have any other resources and I didn't have any funding. At one point I was bartending, I was walking dogs and I was trying one by one to build the company with individual tutoring clients.
After about a year, year and a half of that, there was a tipping point where I had enough clients to quit all the odd jobs and start doing it full-time. For nearly 10 years, it's been the one-on-one model. It's changed a little bit, but our clientele has largely remained the same, which are advanced level English learners who are international professionals.
Many of them have high-profile jobs and they don't have time to attend a regular class and that was what I had discovered in my market research. In the beginning, that was an easy draw. I would say I would come to you and I will customize this tutoring course, because I know you don't have time to attend a class.
The past few years I've actually been working on moving into groups because I'm tired of the one-on-one model. I love them. I am grateful to them, but I don't have really been trying to get off this model where I'm selling my time.
Meredith Matics: That model of one-on-one to time basis is a really hard model to grow because you only have so many hours in the day. You can change your prices, like, you can raise your price, but at the same time, you can only make as much as you can work. So if that's eight hours a day, whatever you charge for hourly rate will be maxed out at the eight hours a day so it does put a hinder on exponential growth, but there's different ways around it.
We wanted to talk today a little bit about creating an online presence and transitioning, shifting your mindset and how to adjust your business as things change. You had already been, as you mentioned, working with an online presence prior to COVID. So adjusting your business to be online only, was that a big shift for you or was that a small shift?
Julie Yoder: That was a small shift. I had made the decision back in 2018 that I really didn't want to travel anymore. Because I think, this was happening in every city. It was actually largely connected to the rise of the rideshare companies and traffic just became impossible.
That model just stopped working because into my pricing, I built in I would travel up to 30 minutes, but no more. And then suddenly, it was taking 45 minutes, 50 minutes, an hour to travel.
I realized it just wasn't working anymore. So I started transitioning the individual clients to online because there they were feeling it too, it was hard for them to get in and out of the city, to get home. I might need them for an hour after work, but then what used to be their 30 minute commute is now an hour commute.
With some clients, I had to retain them physically because that's just what they preferred, but a lot of the people were like, sure, there's no reason why we can't meet online.
I had already was kind of working at like a 60, 40 model like 60% online, 40% in-person. And I had, at that point, partnered with a couple of companies to offer group classes online. I had already worked out my systems.
The only thing, it ended up working out. I had sold out my first group course. I had done market research and people indicated that they wanted to meet in person. I have a wonderful coworking space where I rent the conference rooms for those courses.
In late February, I started to realize that wasn't a good idea. And I went back to the group and I asked everybody, would you be willing to try this online? And I lost half of the participants because they just couldn't see what was coming. They said, No, I, I know myself and I'm not really an online person. I really want the group experience. I definitely want this class just call me again the next time you offer it in person. But half of them said, yeah, sure. Let's do it. It was a small group at that point, but it allowed me, beginning in March, to absolutely be at the forefront of that.
I ended up with only three people, but they were three people who knew me. It became very intimate and we were all very supportive of one another, so it allowed me to work out those systems early on. I had planned to offer online classes and group classes, but then of course, all of our hands were forced.
Meredith Matics: But it sounds like because you started doing it really early on in the pandemic, by the time it got really heavy, you probably were a pro at it.
Julie Yoder: Yeah. I took an online facilitation course. There's a business coach that I follow and I have purchased some of her courses and she did something really smart in April. She offered a mini course on, she calls it epic facilitation. One of the things that came out of that is, we had these subgroups and my subgroup, somebody who I met her online through this coach, and another guy in Australia, we continued to meet. We all have different businesses, but we would meet once a month to try out the different technical tools and to have a safe space, to try things out that we maybe wanted to try with our paying clients. That was wonderful. And we did that for the rest of the summer in 2020.
Meredith Matics: Wow. That's a good way to test run it. So, can you tell me more about how you carved out your niche online presence?
Julie Yoder: Sure. I did a big rebranding in 2018. One of the things I want to tell people, because it goes back to the beginning of my business, I actually had a partner in the very beginning.
We were teaching together at the same school. We were both on the edge of burnout. We worked on the idea together initially. But she was also a forceful personality and she kind of forced the business name on me. So for 10 years, the business was called the English teacher collective.
Meredith Matics: Oh, okay.
Julie Yoder: Because originally it was going to be a collective model of bringing in a group of teachers and having people co-manage. And I never liked the name. I thought the name sounded like a group for English teachers, rather a place for English learners to come and get their problems solved. We parted ways amicably, but then I was stuck with this name I never wanted. The LLC had been filed. The website had been built. The email client had been set up, everything connected to this name and the business was new. I didn't have the money to go through that frankly. Then I ended up with a very solid organic place in Google so that was another argument for not changing the name.
Meredith Matics: Cause it works.
Julie Yoder: Right. I don't like it, but it's not working against me, and it's expensive and cumbersome to change it.
I realized I needed to show more of myself in the business. I thought I needed to present my services in a very certain way but at some point I realized that was what was holding me back.
Marketing had shifted where it became all about the authenticity and the personal story and how you got to where you were.
Seeing that in other people's businesses and startups and especially other women's businesses kind of helped me break through and group of mentors helped me through the process of the rebranding. This name came to me, English With Purpose, one day. I immediately searched for it. I was shocked that it was not taken and I called a trademark lawyer immediately. So my real online presence started after I rebranded the company.
Meredith Matics: Tell us about that. So when you rebranded, you built this new online presence and so what does that entail?
Julie Yoder: So at that point, I had been working with like a spiritual life coach and she told me to take Marie Forleo's B-School and she's like, just do it. It's the best thing I've ever done for my business. So I had already taken a course to walk me through that process and I had my network. But this time around what was different, was really concentrating on you have the niche clients. So instead of say, okay, I serve vaguely this type of person, I had to really narrow down, okay, who exactly do I serve? What's their pain point? Why my English service over somebody else's? Why choose me over any of these other English coaches, especially when you could find somebody online, anywhere in the world.
Meredith Matics: Okay. So you've built this niche online presence. And what have you brought to the online presence or what has been the draw for people?
What is making them come to you versus somebody else who teaches English?
Julie Yoder: Well, I think the, all of the work and the depth of going through the rebranding process, which honestly nearly killed me. Cause it's just that the number of details never end, never, never, never ended. And then three years later, you're still getting emails for your old company name, but it was like, why stop at that?
I really finally upped my game with getting serious about growing my email list and actually sending newsletters more routinely instead of whenever I felt like it. Planning out six months ahead, instead of just a month or two ahead. Overhauling my social media channels and playing around with, I use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, and it's been an evolution about which one to put more energy in.
Learning how to put out solid content, that's going to reach my target clientele, but also learning how to do it, how frequently to do it.
I strongly believe in not just pushing stuff out onto the internet, just because. In my industry, one easy way to differentiate myself was to stick with the quality content, because there's a lot of lazy memes on Instagram of like one grammar point.
Meredith Matics: So how do you create valuable content to your viewers?
Julie Yoder: I just draw on, the more than 10 years of experience I've had working one-on-one with people because I got to know them very well, you know?
And there's the pain points are all pretty similar. They can be, you know, more niched as well. Like I know what Spanish speakers struggle with more than Arabic speakers. I know what Russian speakers struggle with more than French speakers so it can be as narrow as that. But I tend to stick with more of the broad stuff because my clients often think that they are the only ones struggling.
It's like a secret shame, right? Because they landed in this position, which may be their dream position or a stepping stone to their dream position. And they're functioning fine, but internally they're not feeling good about their communication skills. So often internally there's a lot of anxiety. I can't speak up in the meeting or I missed my chance again, or my boss thinks I'm just quiet and have nothing to contribute.
So I really just take the pain points that people have told me, over and over, over the past decade and stick with that. Solutions for that and genuine tips and tricks, things that I give my own clients if they're working with me. That was kind of an easy way, at least on LinkedIn to set myself apart.
Over time, I realized I'm just not a good fit for Instagram, for example. When I realized that and I made the decision, to stop investing so much time in it. I felt so much better. I know the common wisdom is pick two social media channels that are definitely where your clients are hanging out.
Don't add any more than that, or you're going to go crazy unless you have somebody you're at the level where you've got somebody managing that stuff. Well, I overhauled the website, I put a lot more thought into what is my brand and rewrote everything with more of a brand in mind this time around instead of just a service.
Meredith Matics: So you targeted your rebrand to your ideal clients?
Julie Yoder: Yes. And I upped my game. I think the newsletters, I have people who've been on my newsletter list for 10 years. Every holiday season, I had been sending out a digital holiday greeting. And it's simple, but I always hear back from people cause I always signed it with like I would love to hear from you, how are you doing?
People I haven't talked to in 10 years will respond to that holiday greeting. It's wonderful. You know, like it's and often unintentionally it'll generate a little bit more work or like, hey, you know, I have a cousin who needs this or my son needs help with his graduate school application or I have this document or I have this issue.
I think that reconnection, the consistency with the former clients has been for me much more valuable than trying to hustle online, to gain new ones.
Meredith Matics: Yeah. I heard once that it was some statistic of how much more it costs to sell a product to an unknown then previous purchaser.
I know we're not talking about a physical product, but you and your service are a product that's out there. There's a theory behind that if you were able to go back and touch base with a previous purchaser previous buyer, a previous client, you're more likely to put less effort out, less financial losses out in marketing, and you'll get two fold of it in because they'll refer to family, friends, and then you may or may not sell to that same person.
Because I know a certain things, you would think like, how often do you need this product? Or once they've graduated from your English class, do they need to come back? Maybe, maybe not. But what you want is you want them to market for you by sharing the words of how great you are.
What I've heard or what I've read and seen is that statistically your best marketing investment is your past happy customers.
Julie Yoder: That's definitely what I've been focusing on during the pandemic. I had been going in the direction of really trying to expand my online presence to reach new clients. I knew the audience was out there and I was trying to reach them. I was trying to grow my email list. I was hustling to some degree on the social media channels. I was publishing on LinkedIn a lot. I was trying to be more consistent blogger and show people my expertise because that's been my differentiation all along. That seemed to be working until the pandemic hit.
And then suddenly, no more new inquiries, less engagement. But this was the formula that I had invested in, in the marketing classes. This is what everybody tells you, you need to do. And. My current clients were working harder than ever. At the beginning of the pandemic had more work than I could handle, which I was grateful for, but everybody was so scared and so anxious about what may or may not happen. Somewhere in the middle of the summer, everything shifted. And I started to notice that, I just figured it was pandemic related, but I had known in spite of me upping my game and being more active on all of these channels and paying more attention to having a comprehensive plan online.
I was not getting any new bites.
Through my own research, I noticed that suddenly all these global branded franchise English schools, which don't necessarily target my clientele, but these were physical brick and mortar schools that were at risk of losing their businesses.
They started popping up all over with Google ads and the digital language learning platforms that has always been kind of cutting in with competition over the past few years. The typical model is I build the platform, you upload your profile and then you compete with all the other teachers on the profile to get students and then take a cut of it.
I refuse to deal with any of that. I consider myself at a better professional status. That's great for people who are trying to go independent, get a foot in the door and accumulate some clients over time. Those exploded all over the place at the same time that all these English language teachers lost their jobs and then jumped onto those platforms.
This all happened like somewhere between June and July. Then I hired somebody to help me with my search engine optimization. She ran a report and she confirmed all these big companies are spending tons of money on Google ads. You cannot compete with their budgets. But I'm going to show you ways that you can organically reach your SEO again. Cause I had had an organic position in Google under the new name. That was a lot of work and a lot of patience, and then it disappeared again because of all these changes. I wasn't getting local bites either. It was definitely a moment of like, well, I don't know what I'm going to do because this is unprecedented. It's also super annoying to see competitors who are essentially lying about what they're offering just because they have the budget to do it.
Meredith Matics: And I'm sure small businesses across the board will agree with you on that one.
Julie Yoder: Yeah. But hiring that expert and getting her validation, for me, was helpful. It didn't solve the problem of all the work that needed to be done and keeping the faith, but it had just been a hunch of mine. To see that fed back to me in data form was like, okay, This isn't me, this isn't about my services. This isn't about my quality. This isn't about anything that I am or am not doing. This is a market force. One that we haven't seen before, so I just kind of stuck at it. I kept at it. I realized at some point that I probably wasn't going to sell another group class anytime soon. I made the decision to dig in with my individual clients. So I'm going to give the best possible service I can to the people who are still here.
But it did involve the mindset shift because, for two years I had been hustling and thinking I was going to grow my income and expand the business and sell out these groups, and I have this whole lifestyle plan to based on this.
It's personal and it's emotional need, to make more money to do the things I want to do. So for the pandemic to hit right at the point where I felt like I was breaking through, there were definitely some bad days, we were all having bad days obviously, but I did spend a little bit of time feeling sorry for myself, like what is going on with my timing.
Meredith Matics: You're not probably alone on that one.
Julie Yoder: Yeah.
Meredith Matics: We've all had to just run our businesses the way we need to run them to grow them. But you can't predict what's going to happen around you and to hold back and not do anything is a problem, but to make too many of the wrong choices is also a problem.
So taking each day as, as you can is, is important.
Julie Yoder: Yeah. And then to, you know, maybe unknowingly invest your energy. You won't know that you're investing your energy in something that's not working until it, you realize it's not working, right?
Meredith Matics: We're starting to come to the end of our time. But I wanted to know if you had a piece of advice that you received from a fellow business owner that you wanted to share with our listeners.
Julie Yoder: Yes. It's this has been oft repeated by my mentors and pretty much any other business coach I have followed, but consistency is the key to success and trying again. Yeah. I'm higher in my online visibility than I was a year ago and I'm not sure that would have happened had I not been forced to really hustle and get serious about it.
Meredith Matics: So Julie, where can our listeners find you on social media? LinkedIn.
Julie Yoder: Yes, under my name, Julie Yoder or the company page, English With purpose. And then Instagram is English_With_Purpose.
Meredith Matics: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for coming on Julie, and we hope that you keep going strong.
Julie Yoder: Yeah. I feel good about everything. I'm still here and I work with great people.
Meredith Matics: That's always the first step.
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