So the time has come. My hands were literally trembling while I was changing my profile picture and cover photo. These aren’t *JUST* images. This is me. My identity. And it’s changing. For so many years, I’ve been known as THE technical SEO girl. And I loved it. I still do. I love the SEO industry. I love the people. My SEO students are truly the best. But it’s time to move into something I’ve been obsessing about. In the past few years, I’ve become really good at: 🤩 anticipation marketing and pre-selling (aka getting paid to create) 🤑 launching online courses people actually want to buy 🤓 using sales psychology to market better That’s why I’m launching The Honest Creatorpreneur newsletter — where I’m going to teach how to turn your valuable expertise into consistent income online. I’m terrified. And I’m also thrilled. It took me 2,5 years to finally pull the trigger on this. This is a new chapter. And I know I can help so many smart people boost their income and get paid what they actually deserve. The first issue of the newsletter — '6 steps to launch an online course profitably — drops on Wednesday, January 28th. Subscribe here kristinasparks.com/

Most people take a course to learn something new. I took Tech SEO Pro to organise what I already knew. Years of technical SEO, but fragmented. @azarchick connected the pieces, filled the gaps I did not know I had and built on top. Thank you so much. I wholeheartedly recommend 👇

Want to meet every version of yourself you've been avoiding? Start a business. So many people turn to entrepreneurship because they want to work for themselves, to be their own boss. (Me included) But oh boy, does it make you go into the deepest depths of yourself to uncover all sh*t and then work through it. Struggling with self-worth? Hello, undercharging. Don't know what you have to say that's worth listening to? Hey, invisibility and no opportunities. Being a perfectionist and self-critical? Oh well, then your boss will suck. And it's only the tip of the iceberg. Your personality will influence so many things in your business. How do you handle rejection? Or that the client decided to not work with you at the last minute? Or when you wake up and you have no idea who you are or what to do next, but you still need to show up? I don't think anything prepares you for that journey. Except for the journey itself. So when you decide to become an entrepreneur, you're not just signing up to be your own boss. That’s only half of it. You are also stepping on a very slippery path of constant self-development. That's why I always say that business is a heck of a spiritual journey. So the next time you're lying awake at 2am asking yourself why you even started this… breathe. We are all just figuring things out as we go. What did entrepreneurship teach you about yourself?

“I’ve made $1M selling digital products. Here’s what I’d do if I were starting from scratch." There are so many posts like this giving you “the exact steps from 0 to overnight success." But most of them are theoretical. These people didn’t try to start from scratch after getting successful. I did. Here’s what happened: I’ve built a successful online course business in the SEO industry teaching people technical SEO skills. I spent 15 years in the industry. Taught thousands of people from 33 countries across 6 continents. And I did make over $1M doing it (over 3 years). But I got bored. I’ve been feeling like my past success put me in a box that didn’t match me anymore. So I decided to do something most people would call crazy: Start from scratch. In the new industry, new audience, new offers. But with my lived expertise in how to pre-sell online courses and group programs. So here’s what I’m actually doing: 👉 I picked one person to talk to My expertise could help a lot of people. But "a lot of people" is not an audience. So I got specific: experts who are capped by 1:1 work and want to get paid to create their course or group program before building a single lesson. 👉 I started a new newsletter Social media is great but you don’t ‘own’ the audience here. Email, on the other hand, is an owned channel. My 10,000 email list in the SEO business is the backbone of it. That’s why I set up an email list in my new business early (The Honest Creatorpreneur, check it out here kristinasparks.com/). And I send free weekly tips on how to launch profitable courses and group programs. 👉 I opened a few coaching spots to walk people through my Get Paid to Create Framework I got 17 applications and approved 3 of them so that I will work only with the best-fit women. Doing 1:1 coaching is not my long-term strategy. But being close to the people I'm helping keeps me honest and sharp. 👉 I rebranded my LinkedIn and have been showing up every week Not the easiest thing I've ever done (the rebranding part). But creating content is genuinely my favorite part of business (2nd place after getting paid 😊) 👉 Everything I'm doing now points to one goal Pre-selling my program on pre-selling. (Yes, it's very meta. 😅) Every step I'm taking is a path to that. Is all of this easy? 👆 Heck no. Walking away from something that works is terrifying. Am I crazy to switch from a great business making money (almost) on autopilot to starting another business from scratch? Maybe. But boring and safe was never the goal. Freedom and impact were. What are you letting go of this year?

You don't need a big audience to pre-sell your course or group program. Why? Because a big audience doesn’t guarantee success. (You can ask one Instagram influencer who had 2.6 million followers back in 2019 but couldn’t sell 36 T-shirts from the first drop of her clothing line 🤯) So if you think you need to hit 10K followers before launching your online course or group program, think again. But there is something you definitely need before creating a single lesson: Pre-sell. So you can get paid to create your program WHILE also building what people need. That’s a win-win. The first time I used this approach, I made $5,000 in a single day. I was blown away by the possibilities. The second time this approach brought in $12,000 in a single day. This works. And it can work for you too. I put together a step-by-step game plan to show you exactly how. It's called Get Paid to Create Method. It can bring you thousands in revenue. I’m sharing it for FREE. Comment ‘PAID” and I’ll send it to you.

It was so fun to spend a day at the first-ever Canadian 🇨🇦 edition of Google Search Central Live! I am forever grateful not only for the SEO industry, but for the amazing people I've met thanks to it.

I've just sent my best email yet to my Honest Creatorpreneur newsletter subscribers. It's about the syndrome that kills most course sales before they even begin: Overdelivering. Most course creators pack their program like I once packed for a 2-day trip to London. 10 outfits. 5 pairs of shoes. 4 of them heels. You can guess how that ended 😅 The email breaks down why overdelivering happens, what it costs you, and the one shift that solves it. It's only for subscribers. If you're not on my list yet, jump in - kristinasparks.com

My little coworker is helping me every day 😍

The old way: Build your course. Record the videos. Set up the platform. Write the emails. Now launch it and... hope people buy. My way: Sell first. Get paid. Then build exactly what people already told you they want. That’s how you get paid to create.

A Friday question: Entrepreneurs, what's your one favorite thing about working for yourself?

In the past month I: - Got 18 applications for my 1:1 coaching for course creators (I take 3 best-fit people). - Scheduled 7 market research calls for my new offer (I'll need a few more) - Received 3 podcast invitations - Almost finished my first lead magnet - Got at least 15 new conversations with coaches and consultants looking to launch their courses or group programs What I need to work on: - My LinkedIn reach. It's still down 😬. Partially because it's down for all creators, and partially because not everyone in my audience is interested in my new direction, and that's ok - Getting more people into my new newsletter for course creators. The lead magnet will help with that. I went all-in on the new business direction 56 days ago. Working 20 hours/week. The first weeks were the hardest, it felt like nothing was moving. And now it feels like things are coming into place. I show up, I do the work, even when I don't feel like it. I call it boring consistency. And most of the time, that’s what creates the results people later call “momentum.”

Many burn themselves out trying to achieve success overnight. But boring consistency always wins. → Showing up when you don’t feel like it. → Working on your goal 1 hour every day. Or a couple of hours a week. → Getting back on track after life happened. → Making small steps that don’t seem like progress but add up over time. Most breakthroughs look unimpressive while they’re being built. Until one day, you realize you’re living the life you were dreaming about 2 years ago.

You want to learn something, so you ask AI about it. You get the first answer, and it seems great. Dopamine hits. Then AI offers you to go even deeper. You gladly agree. You get the next answer, with another dopamine hit as a bonus. Then another. Exactly 2 hours and 34 minutes later, you realize that your brain is fried. And you still haven’t arrived at the final result. And if you really think about it, you’ve been going in circles for the past 2 hours. Why? Because AI’s KPI is not to give you the answers quickly. Its KPI is to keep you in the chat as long as possible. And that’s exactly what it does. So yeah, sure, you can use AI to learn things. Just don’t expect clarity. AI will gladly give you a rabbit hole to fall into. But it will not give you the fastest path.

A Friday question: We all had bad clients. What did your worst client do? Tell me

My mornings these days: Putting as many plates as I can into the dishwasher before my baby crawls to it. My evenings: Helping smart experts build knowledge profit systems by launching online courses. Work-life balance can look very different.

I've had a few calls with coaches and consultants who are looking to free up their time by launching their group programs or courses. And omg 🤩 These are the smartest, most caring people I've met. And they know their stuff really well. So I'm so excited to see how my new project can help such people scale beyond 1:1 work and add a new stream of income. P.S. I'm taking a few more people for market research calls. You're a good fit if: - You currently work with clients 1:1 - You are looking to launch an online course or group program in the next 6 months - You are great at what you do and want to share your knowledge with the world - You want to get more freedom over your calendar I'm doing 30-minute market research calls where I ask you a few questions about your course idea. If this is YOU, my friend, DM me. At the end, you can ask me any questions. After making over $1M in digital products, I'm happy to share what's working.

You built your freelance career so that you can have freedom. You built your freelance career so that you can have freedom. But you’re still working late evenings and weekends. And you need to sign 3 new clients a month just to keep your head above the water. You’re great at what you do. But the math is not mathing. You’re suffocating as the promised freedom never comes. (And you’re still wondering if you can take that vacation you’ve postponed 2 times already.) And since you’re stuck in the delivery mode, it’s really hard to look around and see that what you’ve been building is keeping you small. After all, your expertise should buy you freedom, not burnout. That’s why I’m so passionate about helping smart experts and professionals scale beyond working 1:1 by building their knowledge profit system. P.S. If this resonates, you’ll love my free newsletter with exact tips on how to turn your knowledge into freedom, sign up here - kristinasparks.com

As entrepreneurs, we start businesses to be free. To be our own boss. To decide our working hours. To use our knowledge and expertise to bring value to others and get paid for it fairly. But it’s not that straightforward, is it? Some entrepreneurs are building carts. And some entrepreneurs are building cars. Here’s what I mean. There are experts who are really good at what they do. They’re passionate. They love their work. So they keep adding: more services, more clients, more skills onto their cart. And they push it as hard as they can. Even when they feel exhausted. Even when they feel like giving up. They keep pushing. And the cart gets heavier. Really heavy. Eventually, pushing the cart takes a toll, and they burn out. Then there is another kind of entrepreneur. Who builds cars. Every new skill they learn gets integrated into the car. They upgrade their car. Tune it. Replace old parts with better ones. Improve how the engine runs. They don’t push the car. They get in and drive. Some even build systems that allow the car to move without them. So it keeps going, even when they’re not actively driving (working). I call it a knowledge profit system. That’s the difference. Both types of entrepreneurs work hard. Both invest energy. Both care deeply. But one builds something that becomes heavier over time. And the other builds something that carries them forward. So be honest with yourself. Are you building a cart or a car in your business?