Imagine escaping the rat race in a big city to live your dream lifestyle, thanks to online courses. That is exactly what Alessia Lugoboni and Iacopo Di Luigi did with “Lazy Dancer Tips”. They had successful careers in dance and visual graphics, but in this podcast they share how they reinvented themselves.
If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a good review. And if you want to connect head to http://www.markEganvideo.com
To find out more about Alessi and Iacopo go to http://www.lazydancertips.com
Transcript:
00:00
Coming up on the knowledge industry podcast, he said, Well, you can’t find a studio in London, you know, either to hire and do your own classes or, you know, someone that actually gives you a job to teach. And he goes, why don’t we do it online? You know, we build up a YouTube channel, we you do your classes, you’re happy keeps you busy. And I said, that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Do you sell online courses or run live workshops? Do you have expertise that can help people in life or business? Are you even running an online training Empire from your kitchen table?
00:37
Then you’re part of the knowledge industry, a fast growing industry that means that you can learn almost anything, and anyone can create a business around what’s between their peers. Welcome to the knowledge industry podcast with your host, Mark Egan.
mark egan 00:54
Hello, and welcome Now, have you ever thought it’d be great to just move somewhere else live in a completely different city and live the dream lifestyle? Well, today I’m going to be speaking to a couple who have managed to do just that. They’ve escaped. Well, when I say escaped, they’ve actually left very successful careers and moved back to Italy, where they’re both from to Verona and created more of a lifestyle business based on their expertise based on teaching people what they know. So I’m joined by Iacopo Di Luigi and Alessia Lugaboni. So in this episode, we’ll find out what they did, and most importantly, what you can learn from it. Okay, so Jacobo Alessia, thank you for joining me. Now, I’ve got so many questions. But first of all, I think it’s really important to go back to where you were a few months ago, how life was what you were doing, and how things have changed. Going back? Start with you. Yakubu a little bit about your background. So what what was your expertise? What were you doing? And if I were to bump into you, which I did, you know, maybe a year or year and a half ago? What would you have been doing?
Iacopo 02:00
Hi, Mark. Well, thanks for having us, first of all, and yeah, I mean, my background was always been in films and TV, I always wanted to be the guy that build the spaceships for movies. So since I think I was 16, I started working on that when it wasn’t even a job. But I had this dream, I was being a dreamer. And I’ve pretty much worked my way up to work in the best companies I could ever work, went to New Zealand, Australia, ended up in London spend 10 years there. And I became a supervisor managing teams. And then when I realized I was stuck in an office for more than 12 hours a day. And I think something happened at some point telling me I’m not sure I want to live my life like this. And in the process, I’ve met Alessia and fell in love with her so and she were doing something completely different. And she were doing a very, very, very well.
03:01
So just just before we come on to a lesson, because lessons got a really interesting story as well, we got to do a little bit of name dropping here. So what is the biggest project you worked on? Or what would impress people the most about your career in visual effects?
03:16
I think the first movie that I worked on that actually won an Oscar was Hugo from Martin Scorsese. And then the second one is Interstellar. So yeah, I was pretty much in the 3d team, I wasn’t supervising at the time, and Interstellar was in charge of a small sequence, the layout of the sequence, which is how you put together every shot all of the 3d assets and all of that kind of stuff. And then I became a supervisor on other projects like Star Wars beyond and yeah, did a little bit of a little bit of VFX in my life. Yes. Yeah. So
03:55
the reason I wanted to just mention that is, you know, when we’re talking about your life before, it’s not like, you know, you’re an abject failure, and you know, nothing gone right in your life, you know, you’d needed to change something. Actually, career wise, you’ve had a very successful career in that field. And the same would be said for you Alessia that, you know, tell us a bit about your background, because, again, you reached sort of the top level in a completely different field.
Alessia 04:23
Completely different and probably that’s why we’re still together. 100% 100% so I’m, originally I’m a ballet dancer. And I think once you’re once a dancer, you’re always a dancer and never kind of never leave you. And I left home to actually pursue this career when I was about 15. So I left home quite early. I had to grow up pretty quickly. And I ended up dancing with Roy New Zealand ballet for about seven years, our solos there and really enjoyed my time and let’s do that. When I met him before that I trained in England or was English National Ballet School. So there have been big names and big schools and big companies that I worked with, and absolutely loved it. And then it was time aware, I think, even during a ballet career where I absolutely adores, I had to question myself. And at that time, I kind of met him and I said, Okay, we are over in New Zealand, you’re you’re telling me that you’re stuck in that office, let’s, where is the place that where you can work and I can work and we can actually make our life run together. And so we said, okay, let’s move to London. Let’s go to London. Let’s, let’s stay there. Let’s find something. And I continue my career I went into the West End I was doing cabaret with will young for for about two years. Wow. So to do Phantom of the Opera, I mean, big names, big shows, I was, again, I did one of the last shows I did was with new English Ballet Theatre. And I was principal there and I was I was doing the role of Maria ram bear and the story of my way around there. So lots of beautiful things that kind of filled my heart with joy. But I think because in London I was doing our I was a freelance so I was getting jobs here and jobs there. And in the in the arts and showbiz your work for a certain amount of time, and then you’re basically your contract finishes, and then you’ve got to find jobs in between. And it was embarrassing that time in between where I think I felt the most down. And usually what a dancer or anyone that is in that kind of field tries to teach your gives their knowledge to students or anyone that wants to do it. And so, for me, it was okay in between jobs, I’m going to go in teach how to teach anything I can. But the hard part was finding a studio that actually gave me a job or had something available to teach
07:12
just to be face to face teaching and kind of like face
07:14
to face teaching in the studio with people there was way before a lockdown then anything like that. And I still remember one point where I find myself crying on one of the background remember will bridge in London it was but I still remember crying out loud again. I’m never gonna do this, you know, there is so hard, everything is so hard. So I kind of slapped my face myself in the face and said, Okay, get it together, what can we do? What can you do? And those are the hard times where you think about it, you you rethink your career, your rethink about what you can actually give to the world. Because again, no one was giving me a job in between and for m plus, this is a big thing I had or the experience or the knowledge or the passion to want to give or whatever I had whatever I learned, and no one was giving me a job because I didn’t have a piece of paper that said, hey, you’re you’re an actual teacher is a nine No, hang on, I’ve got this me I’ve got I’ve got it. People are learning, I can see the results in people, I can see what they can do and what they can achieve when I say something. And I was in absolute tears. And then one day I went back home and he obviously he was still working in his visual effects. And I was a rock and he said oh my god, my darling, you really need the hobby you need something else to do you really need. Typical man tries to fix every typical man, I bet. And and he said, Well, you can’t find a studio in London, you know, either to hire and do your own classes or, you know, someone that actually gives you a job to teach. And he goes Why don’t we do it online? You know, we we build up a YouTube channel, we you do your classes, you’re happy keeps you busy. And I said, that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. How can you possibly teach something online? That is so physical and so you need to be hands on like ballet.
09:24
And so we did
09:26
because it was the western element there because you if you’re going round, then you’re saying, pay me to teach this stuff, you know, face to face with through an element or a little voice in your head saying, Hey, wait a minute. If I put this stuff out on say, YouTube or something, then I’m giving away the thing I’ve spent all these years worked really hard for and I’m just giving it away.
09:48
It wasn’t so much of a prat I think for me was it was about giving and wasn’t about it wasn’t about just the money because it’s so there’s so much passion There’s so much love and what what, what we what I do there? So there is no point, okay, there is no point of me keeping it if I can’t, if I can’t actually share it and give it there is no point of keeping all the knowledge that I’ve got so secret, you know that only the elite can actually have it if they pay so much money to actually have it in big schools or, and you need to do an audition to get into those schools. And you’re so close. And so it leads and so into boxes. And I said, No, no, no, I just want to give you any, it doesn’t matter where you come from, what you do, what level you are, if you’re, if you’re a young dancer or an older dancer, I want to give you this because, as I said, there is no point of learning and learning and learning. If you can’t give this whatever you’ve learned back. And for me was that I just wanted to help that you had yakka Paul, with his sort of technical background did? Or did you start off in a fairly simple way, we actually set a bit a very, very simple way. And something because obviously we didn’t have, we didn’t have the money to invest in a studio either to buy it or really rent it. We didn’t have the money to invest in equipment. And so we had few little things, you know, like little cameras and all that. And I said, Okay, what can we do with this? What especially, what can we do with a 47 square meter apartment in London? Okay. A lot, apparently, a lot, apparently. But what got me is that when we when we started building this YouTube channel, again, maybe because I wasn’t looking beyond my nose, literally, it was I didn’t know what who I could reach and what I could reach and what I could give that I thought I was talking to a specific audience. For me, ballet was always training from from when you’re younger, until you are older, and you’re your career. So my first thought I said, I’m sure that people that wanted to the career, I look into improving their skills, and what they do, are going to take are gonna are gonna get the beneficial out of what I’m giving, and learn all the tricks that a professional ballerina has to give. That was my, my, my thought, you know, you can, because I wish I had something like this when I was younger, I wish I had all the videos and video cassette video cassettes, I’m talking about video cassettes, that’s how old I am.
12:43
So at the beginning, it wasn’t like, we’re gonna build an online business and we’re gonna change our lives and everything. It was literally kind of, well, I’ve got nothing to do right now I want to do be doing something contributing in somehow, what could I do? And you had an apartment and a camera. And that was it. That was the beginning, there was no kind of great master plan. I think what I had was he had a secret had a secret.
13:07
Well, I did my research at the beginning. And I thought why don’t we do an actual Ballet School online where we sell something because yeah, videos are great, everything is going to be a fantastic Bob is going to be needs to be sustainable. So we need to profit somehow. So how do we do it? We started doing research, we had an awful quote from a web company that asked us 20 grand to build a membership site I didn’t know about all of the the other software that were around and then we needed the studio equipment and lights and all of the things that we didn’t have any we couldn’t afford. So a friend suggested guys you don’t even know if you have a market you don’t know if people want this Why don’t you just start with YouTube and see how it goes. And I thought what that sounds better. So then my shift my shift focus from Okay, we’re going to sell software to our we’re going to make millions on advertising on YouTube. So yeah, in one year, we’re going to have a million subscribers we’re gonna be famous and everything’s gonna be easy peasy from that. wasn’t that good? So that was naive enough for us to start. And that’s only the only thing it took us this being so naive to start something because we realize many people don’t and starting is the best way also because you never get it wrong. We realized that we were building an audience even if we didn’t have anything to sell and that was the starting point for for Alesia also as well to understand better who she was teaching to what kind of problems she were fixing what kind of joy she were bringing to the world. And I was in the meantime studying marketing and really starting to understand the principles. Okay, well We will need to sell something at some point. What can we do? But there
15:04
was but there was funny because again, I think you made us realize that’s why I was saying I wasn’t looking beyond my nose there was just so stuck in front of this tree in front of me. And I couldn’t see what the forest behind was. And it was so funny because as I said, Before, I thought I was talking to an audience, a young new, a young audience. Yeah, and so all these beautiful young dancers that wanted to do the profession. And little by little, I realized that I actually got my audience completely wrong. Okay, so I has women in around my age and older, so around 3025 30 and older up until 5060, that wanted to go back to ballet. And they had this childhood dream unfulfilled, shattered dream that wanted to go back and do ballet and really learn it, because maybe they never had the possibility to do it in the in the youth. And I went, Wow, I never thought of that. And the other thing was something that we take so much for granted, we always lived in city, the cities that offered everything. So London was one of those offers classes offers ballet classes, you can drop it, and you can do it. But I never thought people never had a pay. Some people never had a ballet studio nearby, or that offered by law classes, or they offered anything, or they may be in a city that is in the middle of nowhere, and it takes them about an hour to drive to the nearest, you know, living that there is something to offer. And maybe
16:40
they’re even afraid to step into a ballet class, because of all the
16:44
all the experience that they had before because as I said it was for the elite and anyone that had the right body and had the rights. You know, even the money to invest to say, hey, my part, my parents never could never afford this. So I kind of gave up and decided to do something else in life. But they always had this thing in their mind in their heart that they wanted to do. And I went, Wow, I never thought of that. And so I think the moment that you start something, it kind of puts you in front of different situations that for you, you might have taken for granted for such a long time. And then you realize, actually, it’s right there is right in front of me. So I kind of shifted my focus into the young dancers they already followed, they’ve got their schools and everything. And they they they’ve got their teachers into helping men and women because at the end of the day, we’ve got both to fulfill this childhood dream that they never actually done, and get fit, feel happy. And they are the best students I’ve ever had. Because they want to be there. They want to do it for themselves. And they’re eager to learn and to suffer with my exercises and get flexible and do anything that they haven’t done in life. And that that made me realize that not only it helps them with their body and shaping their body and getting them strong, but it gets them strong in their mind and get some discipline in their mind. And it helps them with life
18:21
was once you figured out, okay, this is my audience. And actually, they’re not necessarily coming for the reasons I thought they were coming. Then, you know, how does that change your direction? Because originally, you know, we’ve got this plan, you’re going to do some YouTube videos and make millions in advertising. Now it turns out your audiences different than you’re expecting. They just want different things. So how did that realization lead to kind of what you’ve ended up doing since then,
18:49
I guess is from Well, first of all the analytics that showed us the age of people following the channel. And then the overwhelming stream of comments that we’re all mentioning, all thank you for this gift to my life. I did ballet when I was young, but then my family was against it. Or maybe I was afraid to do it in a real studio. And I can do it with you all of these messages started building up. And because we’re slow, we took a little bit of time to sort of fit all of the pieces of the puzzle together and realize, actually, this is our audience. This is the people that you can have the most and also you said to yourself, you want to you want to give your passion and your knowledge to people that are not within the elite sort of area. So that’s even better. And that also allow I think, you to craft your mission. Because
19:47
Because Because it is funny because I’m one of those that I always got told you’ll never be a ballet dancer. You don’t have the physique for it. Yeah, you might be teen in your mind. be cute, but you’ve got a scoliosis or you got one leg days longer than the other. And you didn’t have the legs and the feets to actually have those beautiful shapes that a ballerina needs to have. But, but every time that someone said, you can’t do something, I wanted to prove them wrong. So it started with, I needed to prove other people that they were wrong, and that could do it. And then I went, actually, you’re proving yourself that you you can do something. And so that that kind of shifted my mindset. And so anytime that someone comes to me and says, I’m too old, or I don’t have the body, or I’m a bit of under chunkier size, or I’m too skinny, I don’t have this, and I don’t have that. I’m like, No, I’m going to prove you and you can prove yourself that it doesn’t matter what body and what, what you look like, you can still do ballet because ballet, for me was a way to learn, again, the discipline, the mindset, the grit, to do something not only in the in ballet, but in life. And that’s why every time we did something as a Don’t tell me I can’t do something, because there is no chance I’m going to stop in front of that. So that was that is always that is crafted my mission and is crafted my mission with with the audience and with my lazy dancers because they are now part of the group. They are the lazy dancers,
21:34
because because the little bit of the jigsaw that we probably need to speak about is you were doing the YouTube videos. What was the product? What what online course? You mentioned membership? What were you selling? And like to know, kind of how many people were you getting signed up? So in really practical terms? How did you turn what you were talking about as a hobby into a business? What was the product you were selling, you know how many people you getting in
22:00
there with? The funny thing is, when I said when I said you need to know who you’re talking to and who your audience is, they will tell you exactly what they want, they will tell you exactly what they want at that at that point. And they said, Give me something and I want to buy it. And I want to buy it now. And we didn’t have anything at that time. And so we had the great idea to put together a membership where I could give more of my time, more of my ballet classes and exclusive to the membership and plans and workout plans and anything that was structure for them to follow a path into this membership. But it’s funny because we didn’t even think about so it was about a year into the YouTube channel, okay, a year into the YouTube channel, working our butts off like never before. And then people started going, I want to buy from you give me more. Give me more. And we looked at each other. I said, I think we need to do something more. But we don’t have the time. How do we fit? How do we do this?
23:10
But when you say more, because you know, like you would think that, hey, you’re getting stuff for free on YouTube. And this is a very common question people ask, how does anybody make money with things like online courses? When somebody can just go to YouTube and everything’s there? Like, what was? What’s your sort of theory on that?
23:28
Okay, what I figured is that you can have as much free content online and given so much value online like never before. But what I figured that people don’t know what to do and how to do it is how to take one step after the other they don’t know, the progression they don’t know. If for example, in in on YouTube, you might have a library full of videos is like walking into an actual library and have bookshelves and bookshelf and bookshelves full of books with so much good stuff. And you either know where to start. And you’ve got someone to tell you, Hey, you got to go from that book to that book. And then you’ve got a path, or you’re intelligent enough to figure it out by yourself. But most of the people that I know are either lazy, they don’t have the time. They don’t want to figure it out by themselves. And they want you to say, Tell me what I need to do. Tell me what to do. And I’ll do it and I’ll do exactly what you say from A to Zed.
24:35
Yet here. Here’s an example. This is what I also teach in the course I’m putting together is it’s a no brainer. You want to put as much as possible for free online because you need the attention. You need people to know like and trust you and the only way you do it. I mean the best way to me is YouTube because YouTube is your post never goes away like in it doesn’t disappear in the feed and you You can just give as much as possible. But, for example, I was looking for some workout I could do at home for myself. And I was looking around and I found this guy, and he had a million videos. So I could just take whatever video put it together do my workout. Am I sure I’m doing it right? Not? Because I’m not a personal trainer? Do I know what to eat while doing his exercises? Do I know how many times do I need to do all of this? Do I know the structure? No. But the brilliant thing that you could do after all of them is just having a nice call to action. In one of those we’d actually noted the videos, where you say, hey, do you want a structured workout plan, if you like my method, click on this button and buy it. Of course, if I like what you say online, and you help me achieve some kind of one of results in advance that makes makes me trust you, I’m going to buy everything you have. Because now you got my attention, right. And that is the trick. It sounds simple. But the way you deliver this is the key to actually make a profitable online. And don’t worry about holding anything back. Because people will always think that you’ve got more on the backhand that you holding up, which is what might not be true, you might just be giving everything out. But in a structure program, they will pay attention, or they will pay you first of all, and therefore pay attention. And it’s a chance for you to have more committed people and lead them through through a specific path with tasks with assessments, and rewards and all of the thing you want. But that you cannot do on YouTube or on social media, because that will be counterproductive. But if you don’t offer anything for for, for sale, you I think you’re actually making them a disservice for this specific reason. Because people if you don’t sell them something, they will go somewhere else and spend money with somebody else. Because the problem is still there, the wanting to achieve something is still there. And that is what I would suggest anyone wanting to go online because it’s great.
27:11
Coming up on the knowledge industry podcast is at this point, you are the bottleneck of the whole thing. And if you’re not 100% on lazy dance tips, there is no way we can progress and we can actually break that glass ceiling.
27:26
Don’t forget, if you’ve got any questions, comments or suggestions, go to the knowledge industry page on Facebook. If you want to learn more about using video to educate, connect and build rapport with your audience, go to mark Egan video.com yakko. Boy, you posted on social media, I saw a picture of you waiting for the tube train at Canary Wharf in London. And that’s how your life was, you know commuting in, but you’re not in London anymore. So explain where you are. And how come you’re there now.
27:57
We’ve been thinking about moving somewhere else for probably three years now. Because the thing that I always hated was commute. When I was young was going to school, I had to go to train station, take a train half an hour train, go to the school, which was a tragedy for me. So I always hated commute. And London was just the amplifier of all of that, even though it’s a great city. It’s very big. So you’ve got to take the tube every time especially if you need to go to work every morning so that for me it was a nightmare. He became a nightmare after a while because at the beginning, I was more focused on my career. And that was okay with me because I was going somewhere. But then when the career sort of dissipated in my heart, I only had the commute to deal with and I didn’t like that and and I asked a lesson million times if you had all of the if money wasn’t a problem, if you could work from anywhere, where would we live? And we started thinking and we went to Florida, catching up with some friends because we loved the hot weather. We loved it. But it’s not that easy to get into the US. So we said maybe not.
29:09
And also we didn’t want to do another overseas big overseas. Move Move. Yeah, because we we did quite a few from Italy to New Zealand and then it was a witness it no no, no, I’m not going to
29:24
went to Vancouver beautiful city, but is it cold in winter? Yeah. So it’s a no, no. So one went to Portugal for two weeks house hunting and then weather was amazing. But there was something that wasn’t right for the
29:40
gut feeling whenever you’ve moved to a place there has to be it has to feel home. It has to that there is a gut feeling that tells you yes or no. And it’s interesting and then we realized that we were looking for the Italian lifestyle everywhere apart from Italy and and that’s when he came to us when we go back to Italy
30:00
I’ve always loved Verona, which is the city that I know because she Alessia was born here. And every time I visit, I find myself looking at the buildings and inside the windows to look at the ceilings, because they’re all painted. And, and I love that it makes me feel safe somehow. Maybe it’s because I was born in Florence. But I love every time I go out, and it’s it’s no Mediterranean weather. So that fits template. We checked the prices on the houses, and they were less than a half the prices of London and we said actually, if we move to Italy, we can save money having a bigger place, and we can go out enjoy the best food in the world. And it sounds like a no brainer to me. What do you think? So we decided, we decided to take a chance. And we’ve been here for how long now? Three months?
30:53
Can I do that? But to do that, you presumably you know you had a career visual effects that you’ve built up over years? Were you still planning to carry that on? Or was it Okay, we’re switching completely to online teaching, we’re going all in on this particular business, cutting ties starting again. But because it’s location independent, we can just pick our location and we choose Verona
31:21
I think I worked on less dancer tapes, and in visual effects for about three and a half years, four years. So I pretty much had two jobs for that amount of time. And I’ve been working weekends, late afternoons nights to make this thing take off. And last year 2020 on 13th of February, I left my job with the idea of cutting completely from the VFX industry because not because I didn’t like it is because of my stress levels. I just couldn’t give as much to an industry that always asked for more. So we needed to figure it out, we need to figure out a way a different way. We didn’t know any any better at that point. But
32:15
I think I kind of gave him an ultimatum as well, because as you were saying before, he was working nights and afternoons and weekends. And pretty much when we started the YouTube channel without without at this point without sending anything. You know. So there was I said, Derek, we don’t have a life anymore. Okay, I understand completely, we don’t have a life. And I think it was him being afraid. He wanted to support me and us together and actually living a good life with a job that could support us. But keep on going and with with this, my hobby on the side wasn’t it wasn’t a hobby anymore. So it didn’t mean it wasn’t a hobby anymore. And so we started seeing the results after we were working on it, we put together the membership. We had two people in the membership and money was coming in. And he was still working two jobs. And I said at one point is okay, when are you going to let go because at this point, you are the bottleneck of the whole thing. And if you’re not 100% on laser dance tips, there is no way we can progress and we can actually break that glass ceiling. And and so I think at one point, when we figured that laser tips and his job, were making the exact same amount of money, I said, Okay, it’s time for you to go actually more, I want it to be sure. To be sure, especially when you’re in London, you never know London is is a very expensive city. And so the struggles and the work that we put into it to actually get into to that level. It was extreme, it was hard both on our relationship and our lives. And as I said we didn’t have a life outside so he was working. And I remember I remember when in the mornings he used to he was leaving to go to work he would set the cameras up. So I would record the by myself at home or the videos and and then he would come back from work at like eight o’clock at night. I would prepare dinner and then he was eating in front of the computer while he was editing the videos and good old times. Remember those and we were so tired. I said okay at one point when you need to let go, we need to kind of do this we need to jump and we need to do is jump and really go for it. And then at that point, you know that you’re we are going to move forward.
34:56
In general terms you’ve managed to kind of you say quit you normal work, move to the place that you want to live, live a lifestyle, which we’ll talk about briefly in a moment. But what would be your main advice for somebody who has some kind of expertise? has heard that, you know, actually, you could teach this online is possible, because sometimes I think people look at, you know, some big names in the online spaces. And think, well, this isn’t possible for a little old me with maybe my expertise or in my niche, it’s not possible, what would be your main advice for somebody who has some expertise, and wants to kind of do what you’ve done?
35:32
I think the best way is realizing, when the thought comes in, I don’t think is for me, comes in, it’s a self limiting belief, this is I can guarantee you that. But if you want a confirmation, I would suggest anybody to do some marketing research before doing anything, because you don’t want to start building something for like a year and then going out in the world and have zero sales or no interaction whatsoever. So the first thing I would do is what we did at the beginning. The the question arises, is anybody else doing ballet online, let’s have a look.
36:11
But also is for me was don’t take for granted some skills, that you’ve got a new that you’ve learned, and they come easy to you. Because most of the time, the, the big thing that comes comes to mind is, but I’m sure anyone can do it. I’m sure everyone knows how to do something, I’m sure everyone knows how, I don’t know to sew a dress. No, you’re taking that for granted. Because you can do it, you’re good at it, it’s your special skill is your superpower. And it might be your superpower to actually be able to teach anyone how to grab a piece of glass and make it into the most amazing dress ever. You know, I can’t do that I don’t have that skill. But some people take that for granted. And so what is for granted, you know, is for you don’t assume that other people can do it as well. So that
37:13
and also another important thing is because I can I have received many messages from people asking me, I want to I want to do this online thing I’ve got was thinking of a blog where I just go around, make videos and you know, interview people. Yeah, that sounds great. That’s definitely your passion. But passion doesn’t really mean that it’s going to be a business, you’ve got to do the research to see if there’s a market for it. So this is so crucial. You’ve got to understand that if there is a need, you can, you can fail with your not just passion by with your skills, expertise, knowledge and wisdom, then you can start doing something with it. If you just want to get out making videos because your passion, do it. But that doesn’t mean it could become a business because you need to know first if there is a market if people want to. And there are many ways to test the market before creating any product. But yeah, that would be the first thing I would do
38:16
market research. And once you’ve done the marketing research, what would you say if there was kind of one method that you said, Okay, you’ve got a product, you got a course you need to get people there to buy it, what would be the one sort of tip or method you would suggest,
38:32
I will start creating an audience somewhere in just pick one social media, it doesn’t have to be YouTube, even though I prefer YouTube. Just get some audience get some interaction, because you need data, you need feedback. And once you get some feedback, you know what people want, you can actually ask them, I would also have an opt in page right away, because you need to build your list. An opt in page is pretty much a page where you collect name and email address so that you can nurture these people that one more review. And we when you’ve got about 100 people, which is very doable in a short amount of time, you can start having a conversation with them and see where they’re coming from, why they’re starting following you. And they will tell you what the next step will be for them. And then we’ll start make your gears start spinning in your head. And then you can start thinking about your first paid price product, which doesn’t have to be $1,000 product. If you’re not comfortable with that yet, you can have a mini course you can sell for $97 and you’ve got 100 people in your list, you can sell it and and they will be happy, you will be happy because you see money coming in and they will make you think about your next product which can be a higher ticket one. But as long as you care about the people that you want to serve because if you’re only in for the money, I guarantee you this is not going to work
39:54
as well. That’s definitely a message I think you’ve put across strongly is you know serve them figure out well People want to give them what they want, as opposed to what a lot of people will do is they’ll kind of have an idea of what the money they want to make, and then try and kind of ship a product to help her and hope somebody buys. Just looking at the big picture now because we’re almost out of time. with things like the lockdowns, a lot of people have moved to teaching online and also learning online. So as far as kind of the whole industry goes, where do you see this going? As far as right now, you mentioned Alessia that, you know, in certain industries, you need a piece of paper and a certification to teach something, whereas in the online space, if you know it, you can teach it. Where do you see this whole industry going over the next few years?
40:44
Do you can I can I say something? Um, I think Finally, again, for for places like, you know, the ballet world, as always been taboo of saying you can you can’t teach something like this. So physic online, and I think the lockdown and the pandemic has brought a lot of goods, especially given the possibility to say, hey, online, works online can be done online is now accepted. Okay? Because when I started, I had a lot of people going against me and saying, Why are you doing this online is the most stupidest idea and I had that belief as well. Now, this pandemic has opened up the world of online, and anyone can teach anything, I think the most important thing is, I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable teaching something that I don’t know, and just making up, you know, making it up from nowhere. Again, I would niche down, I would really find what my superpower is, and I would really find what I’m good at, and then know it works, okay, you don’t need a piece of paper. But what you need to give to your audience is their results is what you’re teaching and what you’re doing and what you are giving, actually bringing results to people, because that could be finally a change in society that says, oh, you’re only a good teacher, if you’ve got a piece of paper. And there might be beautiful and wonderful teachers out there that don’t have a piece of paper, but they’ve got the knowledge and the experience to actually make you go from zero to a year, I know time with more passion than those ones that have a piece of paper. Do you know what I mean? So that is my that is my? Yes, it’s a big world. Yes, you’ve got to elbow your, your yourself through it, because you need to prove that you can give this results. And you can actually offer this results to people. But finally, you know, it gives the possibilities to people like me, that have been putting aside for a long time to actually prove themselves and prove others that yes, results can be made and can be done in a different way than has been done up till now. So we are not stuck into what schools says or what a Job says. Or what you know, your your, your boss says you can kind of shift and go around and open up people’s mind and open up different roads and paths.
43:33
Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree. I think one of the things that Yep, I mentioned about having to learn a new skill all the time. I think that’s the other factor is that people now even in their normal careers, they’re constantly having to learn new skills, and they’re often kind of a very specific thing I need to get from here to there, we’ll be able to just do this thing. And traditional education tends to be a lot slower, a lot more cumbersome. You know, often you have a course that runs for a long period of time. I think that’s the other role that this can have is that just, you know, people need to learn things much more regularly. And online learning is much more nimble and flexible. And again, doesn’t matter where you are, whether you’re in a big city or not, you’re able to do that. So let’s just finish up by making everybody jealous. So now you’ve moved away from London, and you’re in Verona and I know you know this lockdown, so it’s probably not completely life as normal. But what is the typical day that you can live? If you have an online business where you’ve got people who love what you’re doing, they’re learning, and it’s sustainable. So what’s your normal day looking like?
44:38
Okay, well, we wake up, we have coffee, we chat a little bit, and we do our workouts. I do a workout like five days a week Alessi does a yoga slash ballet slash whatever you want to kill yourself with. And shower and then we get to work. Sometimes we have you know chats with people like you mark you know, Like today,
45:02
you should be actually enjoying yourself you’re speaking to me.
45:06
It’s actually relaxing is nice because for me is inspiring others to say do it. It is and and then we go out for lunch whenever it was possible at the moment here in Verona it is possible. So we go out for lunch, we say out for lunch, then we come back, we work for few more hours. And then we have our aperitif around five, six o’clock in the afternoon.
45:30
I have to say this week, we didn’t really feel like working as hard as usual. So we took longer breaks we sun was shining outside, so we had went home. And that for me, I you appreciate that. 10 times more when you come from a life of working nine to five or nine to whatever the other day when you can say yeah, let’s go out for a walk. Or maybe she sends me a message because she she’s out and saying, shall we have lunch in the city center show I’m coming, I’ll be there in 10. That makes me so much more happy than anything in in the world because that’s what I wanted. And when when you’re there sitting in the sun, enjoying your glass of whatever you want to drink, I feel blessed. And it doesn’t really matter from now on how much money we make. Because that’s for me the goal the dream is. And we I know that what we work with the our work is helping people as well. I mean, what else would you want?
46:33
So it’s a kind of a win, win win, isn’t it? Because you are kind of living the lifestyle you want. you’re sharing the things you’re passionate about, and people are learning from you. And they’re benefiting. So it’s kind of Hey, what’s not to love? So we’re going to wrap it up there. But I just obviously I think there’ll be a lot of people thinking, I want to learn more, whether it’s dancing, or whether it’s the online business side of things. So where should they go help people? How can people follow up and find out more about what you do?
47:01
We’ve got a website. Well, social media everywhere lazy dancer tips. Our big one is obviously you too lazy dancer tips. And well if you’re interested at all in the business side of what we do, I’m starting. I don’t have much stuff around, but you can find me on Facebook and Instagram with my name and surname, Yakubu de Luigi and you’ll find me.
47:25
Brilliant. Well, I think what’s great about your story. I mean, the reason I really wanted to talk to you was first I’ve seen a bit of your journey because we’ve you know, crossed paths of various events. But what you’ve done, what you’ve done with our being, you know, some of the practices we see online with people the way they market, you’ve done it all sort of really nicely, really authentically. stuff you produce is good. I mean, if you haven’t go across the YouTube straightaway, you can see what we’re talking about. And it’s worked. So I think it’s a really inspirational example of how you can take something you’re good at, you know, fulfill yourself, help other people and make it sustainable, which is a great combination. So I wish you the best of luck. And if I do manage to get to Verona at some point after lock downs, you’re going to promise to take me out and show me the cities that a deal of I won’t ask you to teach me to dance because hey, some things are impossible. Okay. But thank you for your time and best of luck, and hopefully we’ll see each other in the flesh some point soon. Thank you, man.
48:25
I wish that thank you so much and have a great day. Thanks again.
48:29
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