Meet Heidi

“I started to realize that a lot of fashion designers didn’t have the computer skills they need to make it.” — Heidi

“I got my start in the industry because of my computer skills”

Heidi Marie wanted to work as a fashion designer since she was a little girl.

After graduating from college with honors and a double major, she quickly discovered the industry was cutthroat and highly competitive. So she settled for a boring administrative day job in a completely unrelated field.

Meanwhile, she spent her nights sewing and designing her own collections, slowly building a portfolio. After 3 years, she had her big break.

“I got my start in the industry because I had Adobe Illustrator on my resume along with the portfolio I created. I finally felt like my dreams had come true. I could say the words I’ve wanted to say since I was a little girl, ‘I’m a fashion designer.’”

Over the course of 10 years, Heidi worked her way from assistant designer to partner at a design firm. This experience made her come to a realization.

“I started to notice that a lot of designers coming out of fashion schools didn’t have the computer skills they need to make it.”

“I turned into a crazy person and poured hundreds of hours into creating a course”

Heidi discovered that she could teach other aspiring designers Adobe Illustrator and earn a decent side income. So she started running live workshops.

One of Heidi’s live workshops.

“I had been teaching live workshops for 5 years, running them a few times a year. The feedback was always tremendous.”

However, she didn’t feel like she was making enough of an impact.

“There were a couple of challenges with the live workshops. While students loved the material, they felt it was too much content to absorb in the 10 hours. They said a recording that they could go over and over again would’ve been helpful.”

So Heidi doubled down on creating a self-paced course.

“Once I had the determination to do this, I turned into a crazy person. I put so much time into it. I poured hundreds of hours into creating a course.”

When everything was ready, she offered it to her email list of 1,200 — people who previously attended her workshops.

“I took my course and emailed it out to my list of 1,200, and I thought they were going to gobble it up.”

But that wasn’t the case.

“I made a little over $1,000. For an email list of 1,200 and a course with over 10 hours of instruction, I knew I could do so much better.”

“I frantically scoured the internet looking for resources”

Heidi was hell-bent on making this work.

“I had a strong desire and determination. I frantically scoured the internet looking for resources to figure out how to package and sell an online course.”

That’s when she stumbled across a podcast interview with Ramit Sethi and discovered Zero to Launch.

“Everything he said resonated with me. I thought, ‘That’s what I need to do to make my course an amazing success.’”

So she signed up for his email list.

“I could relate to the stories he told me. His failures and his successes were all things I experienced to a degree.”

When the sales doors opened for Zero to Launch, it was an easy decision to buy.

“I figured if he could convince me to take out my credit card and buy this expensive course, he could teach me to do the same for my audience.”

“People started responding to me”

Since Heidi already had an email list and a course, she was anxious to skip ahead to the advanced parts.

“The first thing I noticed was that the course was insanely thorough. But some of the lessons seemed too ‘beginner’ for me. I couldn’t figure out the point of them.”

Once she went through the exercises, though, her perspective changed.

“I kept having these lightbulb moments. I discovered things about me and my audience that I thought I already knew. I realized there’s still quite a bit I don’t know.”

“For example, I thought I was in touch with my audience, but I was far off. Once I started telling stories about my experiences in the fashion industry, something amazing happened: People started responding to me.”

“My first real launch made over 5 times what I did on my own”

Learning how to resonate with her audience changed the way Heidi sold her course.

“I made just over $1,000 from my course without knowing what I was doing. After going through the Zero to Launch system, I made $5,500, even though my email list was roughly the same size. I followed the processes and guidelines, and they worked. It was like night and day.”

This changed the way Heidi thought about investing in herself and her business.

“I never want to look at something and think ‘I should’ve done that 3 months ago.’ There’s no reason to do that if you have a successful blueprint to follow.”

“I finally have the confidence to call myself a business owner”

Today, Heidi looks at herself differently.

“Before this, I barely had the confidence to call myself a business owner. My live workshops made $20,000 in 5 years.”

Heidi’s earnings with Zero to Launch.

“Now, in just 5 months, I made $30,000. I finally consider this a real business.”

But besides being able to call herself a fashion designer, and now a business owner, she realized another dream.

“I was watching the first vault in Module 1 of Zero to Launch. There were case studies of others telling their success stories. I remember saying out loud to my husband, ‘I will sit in that chair one day. I will be one of those case studies.’”

8 months later, Heidi is finally a success story

We were thrilled to bring Heidi into our studio. Watch the full interview where she reveals:

• How to find your first business idea. Heidi turned a single observation into side income and, later, an online business. You can use the same process to map out your next idea. (0:17)
• The #1 signal that it’s time to start an online business. After giving live workshops for 5 years, Heidi knew it was time to start an online business when participants kept giving her this one piece of feedback. (1:00)
• The power of telling stories. This tactic singlehandedly woke up a sleeping email list and got them to take out their credit cards in droves. (4:24)

Discover what it takes to go from selling a low-priced product to building a 7-figure business

Many people mistakenly believe that a successful business is about creating one product that becomes a runaway hit. The truth is, it’s more systematic than that.