How Millie Adrian Made $400K by Teaching Aspiring Social Media Influencers
Millie Adrian is on a goal to show new social media influencers on how to make money on Instagram.
Her enthusiasm for the creation of content started young; in 2008, she started a YouTube channel with her young brother, which lasted nine years. "It was all amusement," she says. "We made random videos, skits, jokes and also tried different ways to live our lives. ."
After she got a new corporate job during her early 20s but she was not a fan of the creative opportunity that video-making gave her -- so much so that she decided to try her hand at Instagram writing on the side of her 9-5. She promoted herself as a lifestyle blogger , and published "anything and everything," posting photos about travel, food, fashion and wine, coffee, books and her pet.
Her account, @itsmodernmillie, quickly increased in popularity and before long, she was receiving all kinds of questions from her followers. The followers wanted to learn how she was growing, why she took specific pictures as well as how she managed to get the amount of interaction. In order to provide her fans with the best possible answers she decided to start an additional YouTube channel. Soon, teaching about Instagram became her niche.
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"My YouTube began to expand, my Instagram began to expand which led to an entire snowball effect, helping people more," she explains. "I wanted to see which platform took off and then run with the one that had been successful. However, they all interacted naturally over a ."
In the month of October she resigned from her job at a corporate company and began to become an all-time creator of content. Sincethen, she's accumulated an Instagram following that is 117K. She also has the YouTube channel has 246K followers, and- after launching online courses in 2021 -- enrolled 600 students and generated more than $400,000 USD. "Next year, I'd like to earn seven figures," she says, beaming.
Here are the 10 ways she earned multiple six figures in her initial 16 months of selling her courses:
Skip ahead:
- She listened to her instincts
- She has launched three courses
- She conducted market research to figure out the right pricing
- She created her content according to the needs of her viewers. would like to hear.
- She is constantly improving the learning experience for her students.
- She was very generous in her knowledge
- She designed a straightforward sales funnel
- She offered freebies for every course
- She was able to overcome burnout
- She stays consistent
She listened to her instincts
While working for her company, Adrian created content for Instagram as well as Youtube at weekends. It was a way to rekindle her sense of creativity, and she soon found herself craving to have more time.
While she loved working from 9 to 5 however, she noticed the "gut feeling" that she was bound to go on. "I could not sleep as something inside of me was telling me that I could dream more," she shares. "I knew there was plenty more to offer me in the ."
The decision was made to leave when she was consistently making more than half the amount she earned at her current company job by creating content. "Everyone will be faced with many different requirements for this transition," she says.
Once she achieved this goal, she left the job she was working in and joined the self-employment world in October 4th, 2019. With an enthusiastic following and an abundance of time it was decided that the next stage of her journey was creating an online course.
She has launched three different courses
Presently, Adrian has three courses: The Modern Influencer, which is her highest-ticket course at $997 USD, Email List 101, which is her mid-ticket course at $297 USD and The Reels Roadmap, which is the course with the lowest price with a price of $197 USD. Each of her courses teaches individuals how to become an online content creator However, The Modern Influencer is her main focus.
At first, the company called The Modern Influencer that was launched in the month of July in 2021 started as a six-week group coaching call for $597. After that, she was able to convert the group program into a 3-month one-on-1 coaching program. But Adrian soon learned that she didn't have the ability to train hundreds of people one-on-one. Adrian decided to transform The modern Influencer into a recorded course instead.
When looking for the right online course hosting platform the platform she chose was her previous experience with a variety of online courses, while a student was among her top choices.
"From the perspective of a student it's the simplest way to learn and the most straightforward."
In addition to offering three courses, she now offers extra resources that she offers at checkout for an up-sell to boost sales, like Pitch Email Templates, Pitch Slide Deck Template, Kit Guide for Media, Kit Guide, and 100plus caption ideas.
She did market research in order to find the best price
In the case of pricing the Modern Influencer the course, she performed market research. She wanted to know what other creators were charging for similar courses, and compared her content to theirs. "I looked at what they were teaching, and the subjects I taught more about," she says.
"I could never find a course that taught the use of Instagram as well as brand collaborations. I combined both," continues Adrian. "That's how I was able to assess the best price ."
She developed her content in response to what her target audience desired
Adrian designed her courses, not just based on what she was looking to impart however, she also considered what programs were not available.
She asked the audience whether they have taken an Instagram-related course Instagram and the information they wished they'd learned but did not. In the next step, she designed The Modern Influencer's syllabus using "brain-dumping" everything she was aware of into sticky-notepads. "The table was a disaster of sticky notes" she laughs.
The sticky notes were arranged from A-Z, covering everything needed for somebody to go from knowing nothing about Instagram to being a full-time creator of content. Each A Topic was turned into sections, while others became lessons. Although she claims that her course is primarily about Instagram, it's never ending each year as she will add more lessons. Additionally, she's planning on herself adding lessons on YouTube as well as TikTok as that's what her audience is wanting.
Each of her classes is delivered in a few mediums; she rotates between her videos, her speaking slideshows, slide presentations, and screen recordings. "It is all about the subject and how I feel the learner will best digest the information," she says.
Plus, her content is completely pre-recorded and has no live portion except for occasionally, a Q&A which she holds on her Facebook page.
She is constantly improving her students' experience
Her Facebook group is where The Modern Influencer students are joined. Members have lifetime access to the group. It also offers a forum where they are able to ask them questions regarding creating content.
In addition to the group on Facebook, she says she's played around with several ways to keep people engaged in The Modern Influencer; she's currently considering developing an Modern Influencer certificate that proves that the person has completed the training and have been certified as influencers. Plus, she wants to connect those who've completed the course to get brand-related deals on a PR list. "I do not want to become an agent, I just wish to assist people in taking the next step to take," she says.
She also wants to give her students the opportunity to join the class, which means that Adrian will offer students a share of cost of the course by referring individuals. "Those are just some concepts we're experimenting with and we'd like to develop solid strategies next year," she explains.
She was generous with her expertise
Her target audience are aspiring influencers, or that is, people who create content and want to become the face of their brand online.
"I don't work with businesses or anybody who doesn't want to appear into the spotlight, because a lot of my strategies are about creating an emotional connection with your viewers on camera" she states.
Just like her students building Adrian's audience took stepping beyond her comfort zone however, she puts it, "you don't grow from places of comfort."
She says she built her followers by spending time in her own studying. "For quite a while, I was taking those free webinars and analyzing what other people were doing," she says. "I quickly noticed the change in my life after I bought online classes to yield the results I wanted ."
The most important thing she can do to help content creators build their fan base is to be generous with the information they wish to impart She strongly believes that creators should avoid being an information gatekeeper.
"Don't hold back what you know, share the information you have.Once I said , 'no way I'm going to teach everything I knew without the intent of getting paid I was able to find my audience."
She designed a straightforward sales funnel
In lieu of getting overwhelmed by elaborate sales funnels, Adrian decided to keep the funnel simple.
A few months before the launch of The Modern Influencer, she set up a waitlist on a Google form and put the URL on her site and all of her social media platforms. When she finally launched the course, she was greeted by many people waiting to receive her email.
She suggests that course designers avoid letting sales funnels scare them; rather her advice is to develop a basic funnel such as waiting lists so that they can make leads and ensure that they have customers eager to buy their courses after it's been launched.
The instructor offered freebies with each of the courses.
Now, Adrian's sales funnel is now a bit more elaborate and she provides free tools that correspond to each of her classes. "When somebody downloads that offer or takes part in it, they're then put into an email automatization system, which will eventually upsell them through these emails," she says.
For the Modern Influencer, she has a 60-minute webinar that teaches the 100-day Instagram plan -which is i.e. all the steps needed in order to get 10,000 followers and make $1,000 in 100 days. At the end of this free training, they're sold the course.
In The Email List 101 course, there is a cost-free 10-page pdf download that will teach people how to start, grow and serve your email database. Then, for The Reels Roadmap course, there is a no-cost download that teaches people how to increase views, draw attention to themselves, and help their reels be viewed by millions of people.
She overcame burnout
While Adrian's company is growing rapidly but it has come at a cost: her mental wellbeing.
Although she had the job of her dreams however, she was caught up in the pattern of working too much. "I did my best to be at work every minute of every single morning," her statement reads.
In the aftermath of suffering from burning out and panic attacks for several months after the first time she launched her course and she decided to employ a team to help her run the backend of her company. "If I'm not making videos, my business will die," she explains.
She now has the position of a digital business administrator, a funnel strategist, an engaging and community expert and a virtual assistant video editors, a brand collaborations manager and an SEO specialist, and a Pinterest manager. With the help of a team she's been able to set more personal and professional limits on the self-care she takes. The outcome? The freedom to focus on making content instead of being in the weeds. "I've learned lots about myself in order to avoid hitting those tipping points again," she says.
She is constant
One of the key aspects that Adrian learned throughout her content creation journey -- and burnout experience -- is that it's a marathon not a sprint. She recommends that other creators follow this same approach as well, particularly when it comes to getting rid of burnout and building a business with longevity.
"You're on the long-term," she explains. "You don't require results right now and neither do you require immediate satisfaction."
She advises makers to tackle their business everyday in little smaller pieces. "It isn't necessary to have everything occur at once," she adds. "This is the long game. If this is something you're trying to achieve improve your performance by 1% each day. When you focus on it by focusing on one aspect at a and over three years you'll have so far more success than any other person who tried to do it all at once ."
So far, her greatest achievement has been obtaining her YouTube Play Button -- an award honored to one of the most popular YouTube channels. "It was the most complete experience in my life" she recalls, smiling. "I wish I could go back in time and tell twelve year old Millie that the dreams that she had in her head might come true. ."
Another thing she wishes that she had the time to tell herself is to believe in the process. To other aspiring online creators she suggests concentrate on the outcomes of slow, regular progress. "Don't think about how long it will take you," she advises.
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