149. Uncommon Business Growth Secrets from Culinary School Master Meghan Telpner
Hey you wild woman!
Looking for ways to grow your online business and stand out in a crowded digital course market?
Then you’ll love this chat with culinary school master Meghan Telpner, best-selling author, speaker, nutritionist, and founder of the Academy of Culinary Nutrition. Meghan didn't follow the conventional path of most online course creators. Instead, she took a risk and went against the grain.
And you know what? It paid off big time.
Meghan’s programs have graduated over 3000 students from 80 countries, while maintaining a 90% student completion rate - unheard of in the online course world! Meghan's secret sauce is in her uncommon approach to marketing and growing her business. Instead of relying solely on paid advertising and funnels, Meghan relies on student feedback to help her fresh and improve her flagship program every year. Her ultimate goal is to give every person who joins the Academy the most live and in-person experience they could have, while preserving her own quality of life as an entrepreneur, wife and mother. As a result, her program has not only been financially successful for over a decade, but her students rate their confidence in the kitchen at 100%!
From implementing 4 day work weeks to ‘cleaning out’ her email list, Meghan has figured out a winning recipe for success, allowing her to consistently stand out from others in the online course space. So, what are these secrets? Tune in to find out!
In this episode, you will learn about:
Uncommon strategies to stand out and succeed in a crowded digital course market
Implementing 4 day work weeks to increase your team’s productivity
The power of organic content marketing
Secrets to increasing your student completion rates
Why email list size is not everything
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Connect with Meghan
Connect with Renée:
Renee Warren: please welcome the incredible another canadian woman megan telpner
meghan_telpner: hello ben thank you so much for having me
Renee Warren: as for joining me we
Renee Warren:c onnected the dots and how we knew each other
meghan_telpner: yeah thousand ways and so now i
Renee Warrenyeah
meghan_telpner:
have to move to Kelowna that's what we've decided
Renee Warren: apparently yeah et's exactly it as soon as i say i moved to lona people are like oh no don't tell me that
meghan_telpne: yep
Renee Warren: um and here you are joining me
meghan_telpner: i know so nice to connect
Renee Warren: it is i love it so let's jump into some quick questions i know you have some really cool stories and growth strategies to share but i'd love to know where you're from
meghan_telpner: i am well i live in toronto i was born in winnipeg which for those not in canada is a little
Renee Warren:
no
meghan_telpner:
town in the idle of the country that's winter most of the time but i moved
Renee Warren: yeah
meghan_telpner: here with my family when i was a child
Renee Warren: that's why they call it winter peg
meghan_telpner: yeah i've only been back i've moved thirty two years ago i've been back once in the winter like it's like what did
Renee Warren: it's so contrasting i find the summers because
meghan_telpner: yeah
Renee Warren: I've only ever been here in the summer but my recollection of it is very very hot
meghan_telpner: it's beautiful it's beautiful in the summer and it's the prairies so it's sunny
Renee Warren: yeah
meghan_telpner: like really late into the night but
Renee Warren: yeah
meghan_telpner: yeah i know i've lived in toronto for the majority of my life
Renee Warren: i love to live in tranto to loved it there what is one of the toughest moments you faced as an entrepreneur
meghan_telpner: i think i mean daily there's something that's like what did i choose this for
Renee Warren: ye
meghan_telpner: but there's there's always been moments i think having a baby in the middle of growing
meghan_telpner:
a business was pretty challenging and in that year one by one my entire team resigned so rebuilding a team during that period when i had a new born was like am i meant to keep doing this so that was a lot and i had a moment recently in well it was i had been building in february march twenty twenty two i decided i was done and i was going to leave and i announced it publicly that i was retiring i was going to run my program one more time and which i don't know if that was the challenging part coming to that decision was challenging and figuring out what it would look like leaving was challenging but ultimately
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
what happened was
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
that i built out my team beast responsibility on everybody hired an incredible operator and the whole thing became so much more fun to be part of again and so i'm staying with it so there's
Renee Warren:
hilarious
meghan_telpner:
that it's
Renee Warren:
well
meghan_telpner:
like i think every entrepreneur has these moments were like i'm done i'm quitting
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
and then i act le did and in giving myself the freedom to do that it like lifted a weight off me and i was ready for more
Renee Warren:
isn't that hilarious but
meghan_telpner:
hm
Renee Warren:
i want to just interject your little quick side bar is my husband's book just came out buy back your time
meghan_telpner:
yes
Renee Warren:
and the whole premise is about delegating those things that you know you shouldn't be focusing on such you can game our time back in your day
meghan_telpner:
my
Renee Warren:
is there any truth
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
in that philosophy to you
meghan_telpner:
yea
Renee Warren:
actually coming back to life
meghan_telpner:
well i there was a couple of things so i have long since put up pretty i mean since having a child basically putting up boundaries on my time more so than most entrepreneurs i know and that i my husband also has his own business so we take turns picking our child up from school and in twenty twenty we had a baby sitter it was really cute so we had a babies that are take care of our child so we could keep working when everything was shut down and she was twenty years old working monday to friday was just too much work for her so she was only willing to watch our child monday to thursday and so friday's josh and i started taking off as a family so every weekend was a long weekend for about six months and it was wonderful then when our son started pre school like let's we manage let's keep fridays off for us and so we still
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
like do not work on fridays there for personal care self care for us my husband and i to go and do something fun during the day while our sons in school and so really i've cut my work week down to between twenty and twenty five hours a week so it wasn't so much having to protect my time but i was just becoming less and less tolerant to nonsense and to dealing with
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
things that i want to deal with and so i was just became more selective about who wanted to work with how we were going to work and what we would and would not take on as projects or opportunities
Renee Warren:
that is smart i love that the date day and then
meghan_telpner:
m
Renee Warren:
your child is not even there so you guys can connect as a couple
meghan_telpner:
yes and then we can
Renee Warren:
i feel
meghan_telpner:
give
Renee Warren:
like dan
meghan_telpner:
our
Renee Warren:
and i were doing that but then we just got really busy again
meghan_telpner:
yeah you have to guard it and
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
and there's an opportunity cost to it like we used to have my husband i used t have a podcast and we did it every fridays we would record
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
our one or two episodes and we're just like
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
that's a choice we have to make right now and for now
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
we're choosing each
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
other instead of the podcast
Renee Warren:
that's a beautiful example though because it is possible it
meghan_telpner:
hm
Renee Warren:
is possible and anything about okay the average forty hour work week made sense and i think edmelett said something about this in show long i go where the forty hour
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
work was created because it was
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
needed at the time of the industrial
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
revolution and even there are certain institutions and businesses that require that like banks for insten but really
meghan_telpner:
h m
Renee Warren:
a lot of banking electronic you don't
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
really need to go to see a teller um
meghan_telpner:
and i've
Renee Warren:
and
meghan_telpner:
extended
Renee Warren:
so
meghan_telpner:
it
Renee Warren:
and
meghan_telpner:
to my team well
Renee Warren:
so
meghan_telpner:
no
Renee Warren:
they don't work on fridays either
meghan_telpner:
no
Renee Warren:
oh i want to work for you
meghan_telpner:
most of them do and i mean
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
this was something i learned from the group i'm in with your husband is um so many people as entrepreneur and as business ones were doing such incredible things to make their companies places that incredible people really want to work at
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
and
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
i knew for myself the benefit i was getting from having a little more
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
breathin space and some of
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
the people who work with me are parents and we have other things they like to do and so we made fridays we called it flexible friday so we have no meetings
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
no tasks do so it's an opportunity for or
Renee Warren:
i
meghan_telpner:
team members to catch up
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
on what they have
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
to do finish up what they need for the week in their own time between thursday and monday basically we're not on slack that day they can do personal appointments they can go grocery shopping they can do their professional development which everyone has a budget to do and so our productivity hasn't changed because again like you said the forty
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
hour work week like are
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
people really
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
working forty hours straight or if there's an incentive to optimize their efforts are they going to work more efficiently so instead of having long slat conversations will quickly have a call and find solutions and move
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
forward with them and so at least for my team
Renee Warren:
yep
meghan_telpner:
size it's it's working really well it's been almost a year
Renee Warren:
i don't i don't even use slack
meghan_telpner:
a
Renee Warren:
so i'm
meghan_telpner:
eh
Renee Warren:
hiring right now for v a and podcast and
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
just a bunch of stuff and end up finding great people that do certain roles and one of their questions was what's your communications down internally as like oh please don't stay because i hate it i'm the worst slack user
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
ever i'm the slackest slack user
meghan_telpner:
you're slacking its lag
Renee Warren:
yes because
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
it's just it's too much and like i felt like there's this need to go and be i understand the entire context of every single conversation of which i have a notification to go it didn't
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
work for me but anyways i love that you do that so the friday is off it and here's what i used it with my agency and we used to have twelve employees they ended up working anyway because there was no pressure to have calls there was no pressure to do things and deliver bles they were their most creative
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
like you can choose to work on this day we never scheduled recurring phone calls if there's anything that came up they were available obviously then they loved it they didn't have to ask if they can leave early to go away for the weekend or to go to their daughter's dress rehearsal whatever just go and live your life
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
and work when you can
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
it's a beautiful it's a beautiful thing and like even in dan's book to come back to that as he talks about transactional leadership and umtransformational leadership so like that is an example of transformational if you trust your team enough to do the work they know what their objectives are
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
just let them do it
meghan_telpner:
ah and in my experiment of quitting my company um and i took most of the summer off
Renee Warren:
h m
meghan_telpner:
getting out of the way and knopping the bottle neck and often it was like you said like they'd have a whole slat conversation i'd hop in not actually knowing and i would actually create more challenge and more problems
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
and more confusion
Renee Warren:
exactly
meghan_telpner:
i sort of like you know the homer simpson gift for you like back away into the bushes
Renee Warren:
ye
meghan_telpner:
like i felt like i was doing
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
that a lot and so it really
Renee Warren:
ah
meghan_telpner:
taught me how to trust and how to be a leader that can fully trust and if things don't
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
work out that person takes responsibility learns from it and we come out ahead in the end
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
always so
Renee Warren:
a hundred
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
percent
meghan_telpner:
it's it's worked out really well
Renee Warren:
i now i'm going to picture homer simpson
meghan_telpner:
m a
Renee Warren:
for the rest of the day
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
it's true and and but
meghan_telpner:
ah
Renee Warren:
you're like pomare
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
like what what's this funny cat joke about because
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
with my team they were half remote half in our office
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
and so it was it was a great way for them to have their own little channels and to chat each other i loved that um and then there was like a whole team fun channel
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
and sometimes it would be like a joke that would just i was like i'd poke in and
meghan_telpner:
m
Renee Warren:
be like hey guys what's everyone talking about
meghan_telpner:
ah
Renee Warren:
that was then they had to film
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
and it was just like now you're ruining it rene
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
it's not funny anymore like damn it
meghan_telpner:
yeah yeah
Renee Warren:
okay so tell us now a little bit case you have a couple of things going on but tell us about your online culinary school
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
why you started this
meghan_telpner:
well i
Renee Warren:
i also want to get to the uncommon ways that you actually grew the business
meghan_telpner:
right so i did everything uncommon because no one was doing it when i started doing it and that's the simplest way to explain it so there was no model for it and there wasn't there wasn't even the programs or the software to do what i wanted to do
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
but i started a long time ago in two thousand eight teaching in person cooking classes in toronto in a loft that is now my off s at the time i lived in it and would have six to twelve ultimately we ended up at twenty four people coming in and we do these cooking workshops and cooking glasses and they were incredibly fun i also was growing tired of working evening and weekend so i had to be working when everyone else was off work and the demand was growing beyond what i could sustain and you know
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
we don't like the word scale but i needed a way to build this into a sustainable business that wasn't taxing my human energy so much like i am an introvert
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
and utting on dinner parties multiple times a week and every week end was becoming exhausting and i started dating someone who i have now married but i wanted to hang up with him on the evenings and weekends so i experimented with filming i did a live stream class my first live steam class was in the fall of two thousand eleven where i had to bring in a whole crew to make this possible
Renee Warren:
okay
meghan_telpner:
to like film and people like it wasn't just you turn a push a button on your phone and you can so it was pretty involved and it was amazing and we had people joining from
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
all over the place and asking questions and it was it felt almost tell us on like like people would like call in with their questions because that was the only way we could do it was like a phone
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
and and but it was super fun and then the following about eight months later i filmed my first course so taking what i was offering in person and did a course online
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
and you know figuring out i think it was like a password protected page of my website because there weren't out of the box learning management systems that you could easily just set up on your own they just didn't exist yet so this was in twenty twelve and so slowly i started converting what i was doing in person into stand alone video based classes meanwhile in person people were saying to me
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
can i just sign up for everything you're offering this season and so i started to order my workshops and classes there were ten of them at the time into an order that kind of made sense as a flow and i offered it as the culinary nutrition expert program so people could sign up for the whole thing i created a curriculum of assignments and people loved it and i was like okay so now that
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
i've you know over the span of three years have filmed everything that was how i first offered what i do online and that was in the fall of twenty third and we had a hundred guests register for the culinary nutrition ex program online from eight countries and i was blown away that in three months i could fit more people for this than i could in over two years in my kitchen
Renee Warren:
wow
meghan_telpner:
and the work that our first set of students were doing was so incredible
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
that i realized we needed this was bigger than just you know me s cooking classes so that
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
was what inspired the launch of the
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
academy of culinary nutrition in the spring of twenty fourteen to kind of house this program and what we did that was uncommon was that first of all everything i do online i had originally done in person and i think that for a lot of people that's the most powerful way to own your ability especially if you're in a teaching role is to be able to say something and get immediate feedback or
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
understand what questions will come so that you can answer them in a video setting where you don't get that real time feedback so when i first started filling my classes they were as real as if you were here in the kitchen and that like you know food flew stuff happened and we just went with it and i would laugh and i would just keep going and so there was this in agement that happened that they at the beginning at least they were not very polished i had a crew come to it but i just didn't have the budget to re film anything or have multiple ingredients or so it was just we just for it and over the span of time i started growing it and my ultimate goal was to always give people who joined us the most live and in person type of experience they could have so even now
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
different to how a lot of online courses are run we we don't our flagship program at least is not evergreen we have an enrollment period everyone starts on the same day everyone finishes on the same day there
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
is dead lines through out that they have to meet if they want to be granted their certification so you're buying the education you're earning the credentials through doing the work and every is assigned a dedicated
Renee Warren:
cool
meghan_telpner:
program coach that they submit their work to so it's as live and real time as you can get online and the other thing is that our program is real diculously
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
challenging like it's a lot
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
of work people have to set aside twelve to sixteen hours per week and that sort of a
Renee Warren:
wow
meghan_telpner:
a liberal investment that we we have estimated some weeks or less a lot of weeks or more and we have a ninety percent completion right ninety
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
percent of students
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
who enrol successfully complete the program
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
which is unheard of in the online course world and more so they're learning the information
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
and then going out and using it so whether it's
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
applying it in their life for their own health or helping support family members and and also starting incredibly brilliant businesses which is what
Renee Warren:
that's cool
meghan_telpner:
led me into creating a business course to follow the culinary course for people who wanted to do that
Renee Warren:
that makes sense so i just assume these people would be go would
meghan_telpner:
m
Renee Warren:
go be head chef somewhere
meghan_telpner:
well
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
we we have had we do have some that have done that or gone and worked at retreat centers or done recipe and menu development for hotels or resorts or even x most of it is i mean i design the program to be able to teach people how to teach it so as professional development but
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
which people do use it for that but we also
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
have had like loads of parents tons of moms lots of teachers who want to bring this information to their class rooms and we've also had loads of dieticians and nurse practitioners and physicians who want this information and it's not that
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
special i don't think it's basic from scratch cooking but it has such a wide application for such a wide variety of people where we've had our youngest student in their teens and our oldest student her late seventies and we've reached
Renee Warren:
yep
meghan_telpner:
people around the world and it and it keeps working and it's not because we're trying to be the biggest which i think is what a lot of people do with scaling especially with online
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
courses is like well this is a way to have passive income and scale in bla bla
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
and my goal has always been to o preserve my quality of life that's why
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
i went on line in the first place
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
so i could have three evenings
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
and weekends i didn't want to go on line and it suddenly i'm working evenings and weekends to keep this thing going
Renee Warren:
right
meghan_telpner:
um but
Renee Warren:
yes
meghan_telpner:
to insure that people through the program leave having their expectations exceeded and
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
we do a pool at the beginning of the course people rating their level of kitchen confidence like how confident do you feel in the kitchen and it's like i know where that room
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
is in my home i could follow
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
a recipe you know to i feel a hundred percent confident in what i know and being able to share with others we ran this pole at the start and at the
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
end and by the end one hundred percent of our students said they feel confident in what they've learned and being able to share it with others
Renee Warren:
m man i need to take this course i
meghan_telpner:
it
Renee Warren:
hate cooking
meghan_telpner:
oh no
Renee Warren:
but here's the thing it's like i don't like it is it i don't like it because i'm bad at it or is it because i is it i'm bad at it so i don't like it
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
know what i mean so it's like for me it's i don't mind it if i know that the goal is to achieve a healthy nutritious meal for my family as
meghan_telpner:
right
Renee Warren:
opposed to ordering in
meghan_telpner:
it
Renee Warren:
but i'm not i'm not good at it i think i've made one great meal my entire life
meghan_telpner:
what was it
Renee Warren:
i'm really good at breakfast am good at baking um i managed to cook the chicken right for the first time in a thousand tries
meghan_telpner:
we'll see that
Renee Warren:
my family was like they were shocked like you made this and i did make it
meghan_telpner:
well i think that that and one
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
of you know we have different messages we use in promoting what we do and ultimately like i don't do
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
i don't do and here's another ting that might be uncommon i don't do the web or with ike the undercover cell like join me for
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
five tips to reduce stress through food like and then i like slip in sign up for this program i run in nation sessions about the program so people are coming who want to learn more about it and from that the people who sign up know exactly what they're signing up for we're not like trying to sneak it in as a passive sale um and one of the messages we use well there's a few but one of them is build your confidence in the kitchen because if you go and do
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
something feeling
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
confident you're going to enjoy the process a lot more and if you're confident and
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
you enjoy the process you're gonna be motivated to keep experiment and trying things and if it is for your family that in and of itself is the most important reason to do it
Renee Warren:
yep
meghan_telpner:
and
Renee Warren:
totally
meghan_telpner:
i think it's just that you know it's like for thirty on a week day like i don't know what i'm goin tonight and then
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
and when then when you're in that state and then it doesn't work out you know it's not a really fun
Renee Warren:
or it's
meghan_telpner:
experience
Renee Warren:
like oh you have his intentions on making something it's four thirty and you have to thaw something
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
like oh great now i have to thaw
meghan_telpner:
ah
Renee Warren:
the chicken it's the worst
meghan_telpner:
one of the first
Renee Warren:
and we've
meghan_telpner:
assignment
Renee Warren:
tried meal plans
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
oh man we had this one time dan and i were like super adamant about having very specific meal plans and i created this super in depth fred
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
sheet i'll find it i'll share with you later
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
it was color coded with th codes like number new merica and letter codes that would match the meal of the time of day a day of the week with the ingredients needed
meghan_telpner:
right
Renee Warren:
for that like even
meghan_telpner:
that's intense
Renee Warren:
to be a mathematician to figure it out and
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
i looked at it and i was so proud of the work that i had done and it worked for us for three days
meghan_telpner:
yeah so
Renee Warren:
because
meghan_telpner:
one
Renee Warren:
it
meghan_telpner:
of
Renee Warren:
just
meghan_telpner:
the
Renee Warren:
got too complex
meghan_telpner:
you know no one can follow
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
you plan so one of the first assignments we do in the program so people are in re certified levels who are doing the work get paired with someone else and so i would say anne
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
what are your eating preferences or do yo have any alergies or anything like that and i would take that information that i would create for you a one day meal plan you would do the same for me and then we have to follow them and so most
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
people learn that is that meal plans are completely
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
unrealistic because i'm not going to cook eight different recipes in one day for my eating
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
or you get a seven day meal plan where yo're making twenty one new things and so we get to doing the five day meal planets like okay let's be realistic about this maybe someone will do two or three new recipes in a week so what are things most people can cook without needing a recipe and how do we use left vers and that's all part of it so i am
Renee Warren:
that's
meghan_telpner:
certain
Renee Warren:
cool yeah
meghan_telpner:
anyone can learn how to do this and have it not be a painful process
Renee Warren:
right and i think for me too it's just a hey wasting food so if it doesn't
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
work and nobody wants to eat it i will get through it but i'll be the only one that eats it for the next three days um
meghan_telpner:
and then you never want
Renee Warren:
and
meghan_telpner:
to
Renee Warren:
we
meghan_telpner:
look
Renee Warren:
have
meghan_telpner:
at
Renee Warren:
our
meghan_telpner:
it again
Renee Warren:
solutions now
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
yeah i don't want to look at it again now the meal that i successfully made outside of the chicken was this it was a breakfast like it was a branch meal it was a oh my gosh like a bake it was a french toast bake i had like just eggs and french toast and a lot of maple syrup and cream cheese and it was like a desert it was so good though
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
don't even know where i got the recipe and i was so successful
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
everyone ate it out like well you're really good chaff i'm like not the only thing i made successfully
meghan_telpner:
well because
Renee Warren:
so
meghan_telpner:
so i'm i'm not a train chef at all i've been to one cooking class in my life and then decided i was qualified to teach them so that's another benefit in that
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
nothing we make is that complex like it's delicious and it's
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
creative but
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
it's simple and anyone
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
anyone can do it and
Renee Warren:
i
meghan_telpner:
then
Renee Warren:
love that
meghan_telpner:
and then so talking about uncommon i believe that the approach that i've taken in doing this is why ten years later i'm
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
still teaching this program
Renee Warren:
wow yeah and you haven't given up
meghan_telpner:
well i did but i came back
Renee Warren:
oh that's right you did for i a couple months took a
meghan_telpner:
right
Renee Warren:
pause
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
you needed to re group
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
that's it so when did you know
meghan_telpner:
yea
Renee Warren:
so be doing this for ten years
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
when did you know that your business
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
was successful
meghan_telpner:
i don't know i had a moment yesterday where i thought it might be working
Renee Warren:
it's only only ten years in
meghan_telpner:
i think as you may have experienced as an entrepreneur i feel like i'm waking up every single day trying to make it up as i go
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
and i still like i still think that this has all been a fluke the success we've had that we've graduated over three thousand people in nearly eighty countries
Renee Warren:
congratulations
meghan_telpner:
thank
Renee Warren:
that's
meghan_telpner:
you
Renee Warren:
amazing
meghan_telpner:
yeah my husband will joke with me because well do something and you know i'll do like a live online cooking class like as a le generator let's say and we'll get thousands joining live and my husband jokes he's like i think you're on to something and i'm still like
Renee Warren:
ah
meghan_telpner:
i don't know maybe it was just i don't know maybe it was a fluke
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
maybe i got lucky
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
this time so i
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
also think that that level of uncertainty is what keeps me continuously trying to uh not necessarily re invent but keep it really fresh and always asking
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
like is this still working like does this make sense like we're not do things the way we did ten years ago like there's better technology
Renee Warren:
no
meghan_telpner:
now and we have to market it differently and there's different tools and social media platforms that come and go so it's always evolving and i just want to keep it really current so that a student who does it
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
this year or four years ago enters it being like wow this is this is perfect like i can find my way through this the information is still relevant the approach we're taking makes sense and so we every year were kind of tweaking and looking at the feedback and seeing where we can improve it and keep it really really relevant
Renee Warren:
i love that so your metric for success is completion right students
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
completing the program
meghan_telpner:
it's one of our primary metrics of success i mean we do have an enrolment goals we tend to hit but i don't ever set like we offer the pegament four levels i don't ever set targets per level don't set targets for revenue um it's really about how many humans we can get in and deliver an exceptional
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
experience to
Renee Warren:
i love that because i know i kind of doubled in the online course space the last few years and taking all these online courses to learn how to do a the online course on i like they're always talking about how to make this like a side hustle and make ten k a month of recurring revenue and you follow the yes it probably works for somebody but at the moment you make it about that recurring revenue and not about the student you've lost you've totally
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
lost the game
meghan_telpner:
i also don't think it does work for anyone so the statistics on an
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
evergreen course is a one percent conversion so if you're making
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
ten thousand a month maybe
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
you have a ten thousand dollar program and you have a hundred people
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
coming in and
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
you get one to take
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
it then you've done it but if you think about how many people you need to get into that net in order to have one per cent conversion and make ten thousand dollars
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
on now the average course is maybe a hundred dollars or three hundred dollars it doesn't
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
really happen but it's a wonderful lure to get you into a
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
course it's going to teach you how to
Renee Warren:
make
meghan_telpner:
do it
Renee Warren:
yes i know there's good intention to people out
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
there i went through my porter field's digital course academy and i didn't do everything she said step by step i'm sure if i did there would have been some success and i would have
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
done it again those are the live launch method i all the people i know that went through it they're not doing courses anymore because i think it's positioned
meghan_telpner:
m
Renee Warren:
as something that's just like hey throw on the video teach people what you know and then it published and they'll buy
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
there's is my in my opinion there's a way more work involved
meghan_telpner:
yes there is
Renee Warren:
like
meghan_telpner:
i mean
Renee Warren:
this
meghan_telpner:
i i primarily run this one program we we dabbled in sort of instant access shorter courses were like
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
let's dangle these
Renee Warren:
h
meghan_telpner:
lower investment courses and then people will do this and then maybe upgrade to the full
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
shebang and it didn't happen and maybe we weren't selling it right which
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
is possible but ultimate i was like why do we put all this effort into selling a hundred and forty eight dollar course instead of
Renee Warren:
h
meghan_telpner:
putting all our effort into selling
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
our forward a six thousand dollar depending on the level people choose and i have team of seven people full time running this
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
thing so it's far from passive it's far from like let's film it and published and just like i'm going to go to the beach and watch
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
the money roll in i think that
Renee Warren:
thank
meghan_telpner:
especially
Renee Warren:
you for sharing that that's important to know because it's it's easy to go online and find you like oh you've written in these books and you do this wonderful online culinary experience but to know how many people are in the background to make this happen
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
and how you're constantly going how many times do you open up the core once a year or twice
meghan_telpner:
do
Renee Warren:
a year
meghan_telpner:
it i'll tell you we do it once a year i did it once twice a year and i was like i think i just split the difference i think i gave myself twice the amount
Renee Warren:
uh
meghan_telpner:
of work with the same number
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
of people who would have signed up if we had just done it once so
Renee Warren:
interesting
meghan_telpner:
we yeah we open enrolment typically in april that runs to september and then we run the program september to december and then even before we finish it we start planning the following year's enrolment
Renee Warren:
yeah i love that because it's not and like we said there's there's probably possibilities in which people have made ten k a passive income
meghan_telpner:
for sure
Renee Warren:
but i feel i feel like all of the things that lined up for them it's their lived experiences versus somebody else trying to achieve the same thing like their best friends with all famous people who shared the course
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
and of a sudden their exposure to fifty million people as opposed to your five hundred
meghan_telpner:
exactly
Renee Warren:
changes
meghan_telpner:
if you
Renee Warren:
everything
meghan_telpner:
have if you have famous friends with massive audiences who are willing
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
to be affiliates and
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
pay for their own
Renee Warren:
exactly
meghan_telpner:
ads to sell your course so they can get their commissions that's good a different situation even i mean we have affiliates any graduate of our program in any podcast host that has me on communifiliou ith program we have a twenty per cent commission like and to me i'm like it's it's easy like it's so easy especially for someone who's done the program experienced it had the transformation is creating amazing things in their life because of what they learned send one email out and you
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
will refer someone and you will get your commission and people
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
don't do it
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
and you know those are things that we we are up against constantly and we're like how do we incentivize how do we inspire people to do this and now again if you have friends with massive audiences who want to do that that's
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
a huge asset
Renee Warren:
it's important to try to have those friends too though because they definitely give you a hand up
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
so give us a quick summary of some of these like top of mind uncommon ways that you are able to grow your business
meghan_telpner:
yeah what i think because i mean we didn't do paid advertising until maybe twenty twenty really like we it was all organic and some of the things we were doing we're through co and through you know what the kids call content marketing but we would look at our most popular posts and insure that every single
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
one that was in our top ten had option on it so we were getting seventy to a hundred organic options a day just through our website and people searching for content that we had covered and that was really powerful and really beneficial
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
i also it was interesting because i used to what i thought was going to be a big break wasn't which was in two thousand and eleven i was cast in the on the maryland dena show when it launched
Renee Warren:
cool
meghan_telpner:
yes so i was i was a nutritionist on the first season and then got fired um
Renee Warren:
uh
meghan_telpner:
m and so there was all these things where i thought they would be the big sort of tipping point ultimately i
Renee Warren:
h
meghan_telpner:
realized and again
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
i don't know if this is uncommon or not but i realized that there would be way more impact if i could control the things that created the tipping points for us and so
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
one of things i also stopped doing because i realized it didn't do anything for my actual business was i stopped doing mainstream media appearances because they were a ton of work and built someone else's audience and it never it would give me like a blip in traffic but it never converted to anything and the only way t v appearance is anything like that really worked in my opinion is if you're on repeatedly and people get to know you and so i
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
opted for putting my time into creating my own
Renee Warren:
this
meghan_telpner:
video content rather than someone else is that i was like if i'm going to put together a whole cooking demo i will do it for my community so that they can enjoy it and share it so we started creating
Renee Warren:
yah
meghan_telpner:
sort of our own
Renee Warren:
h
meghan_telpner:
broadcast events with these live cooking workshops live on line that weren't selling anything at all they were just classes to get people cooking and we would give out a spot in the program in it for anyone who cooked something and posted it so media submitted their thing to us so we could talk about it i created my own commercial breaks in these live sessions so my commercial rakes were testimonial videos from my student so i would take a break to reset my kitchen play two minutes of testimonials and then carry on as if nothing was said like was a show
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
and so we started creating
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
these these live events to bring people in where we could get like three to five thousand people added to our list by
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
one live cooking demo yes it was really like not looking at what everyone else was doing and really focusing
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
on who do we want to attract and hear what do they
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
need and want from us and how do we deliver on that and then be completely straightforward like when i do these events i'll be like would you like us to sign you up for the information session and we run a pole and if they say yes right
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
we add them to our list and that's it so it's making things really easy for people and being again really straightforward not trying to be like here's this and i'm going to upsell you to this and that and that what i real i does it i can sell our flagship program our highest ticket
Renee Warren:
yep
meghan_telpner:
offering and those people
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
will then buy just about anything afterwards and the conversion
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
from the high ticket to the lower ticket was way higher than the low ticket to the high ticket and none of this is what anyone had ever said to do but we would look at and be like this isn't making sense why i'm going to send someone twenty emails but a hundred dollar product or i could send them the same twenty emails about the thing i actually want them to see and look at and decide if it's for them or not so those are a couple i think
Renee Warren:
wow no that is huge
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
because from what i know it's get the low ticket give away your best stuff for free
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
and then try to upset them on the bigger ticket item because if the consumers thinking wow if i got this for just forty seven dollars imagine what i can get for three thousand dollars and then there's
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
nothing left for the three thou the program i don't know just my experience and there's so much pressure into creating those small programs what goes into it like what is it you're supposed to teach the why and sell the how okay that makes sense the way you're doing it is kind of like it's reversed
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
i
meghan_telpner:
it's
Renee Warren:
love
meghan_telpner:
just
Renee Warren:
that
meghan_telpner:
there's no i can't i can't fake it i can't pretend
Renee Warren:
i
meghan_telpner:
that i want something other than what i what i want and what i want is for the people who
Renee Warren:
but you've also figure out that's what they want to
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
they don't want the forty seven dollar program and maybe afterwards as a compliment to the stuff that they've already just finished in your program
meghan_telpner:
we
Renee Warren:
but
meghan_telpner:
give out
Renee Warren:
you
meghan_telpner:
we
Renee Warren:
also
meghan_telpner:
go about
Renee Warren:
know
meghan_telpner:
lots
Renee Warren:
that of
meghan_telpner:
of
Renee Warren:
them
meghan_telpner:
things we give out lots of things to
Renee Warren:
ah
meghan_telpner:
the people invested and i you know we do another thing we do is you know there's all these programs like we're list building which i
Renee Warren:
hm
meghan_telpner:
don't want a big list because it just costs more every month every person who is on your list you have to pay for and so we do list cleanses i'm like i don't need someone on
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
my list for ten years at that they're not they're not they're not they don't want this like this isn't what they want they're here for
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
the freed stuff which is great and they can keep coming back for it but i can't carry the load of all
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
these people especially you know having been do this for fifteen years
Renee Warren:
that's so true that's a very good point and you know there's something to be said about the size of your list there's many ways of getting a big list very quickly but
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
is it relevant
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
and i sure you get asked all the time i get asked so much to speak at these virtual summits and i love i get honored to be part of the requisite is you're going to get exposure to over five hundred thousand people in comun ation of all these other people social networks but you need to have
meghan_telpner:
my
Renee Warren:
five thousand people on your email list and you have to share one social media image and you have to mail your list and you have to do this and you're speaking for free
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
you're like what
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
what
meghan_telpner:
no no
Renee Warren:
this
meghan_telpner:
one
Renee Warren:
doesn't
meghan_telpner:
asks
Renee Warren:
make any sense
meghan_telpner:
no one asks me any more because
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
i say straight up that i will not be sending a dedicated email
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
using
Renee Warren:
you
meghan_telpner:
my
Renee Warren:
know what
meghan_telpner:
social
Renee Warren:
my reply
meghan_telpner:
media
Renee Warren:
is i love
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
i'm so honored that you've sent this for thinking of me
meghan_telpner:
ah
Renee Warren:
i do charge for these events can i send you my speakers fees
meghan_telpner:
that's a good one
Renee Warren:
and
meghan_telpner:
too
Renee Warren:
it's happened a couple of times yeah
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
and they're like um yeah sure and
meghan_telpner:
right
Renee Warren:
then and then my secrerspes and then at the bottom of
meghan_telpner:
m
Renee Warren:
the email is and i don't use my list unless i think it's relevant to my
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
guests like my
meghan_telpner:
a
Renee Warren:
audience if it's not relevant why
meghan_telpner:
ah
Renee Warren:
and
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
most time i don't get a reply but say
meghan_telpner:
i know
Renee Warren:
madam
meghan_telpner:
now i mean we i mean we worked out and like we've
Renee Warren:
oh
meghan_telpner:
gotten really great at thankfully there's people in my team who love spread sheets and statistics and
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
grateful for
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
and we worked out that from our enrolment in our flagship program
Renee Warren:
yeah
meghan_telpner:
seventy five percent of people who enrolled joined our list within the previous twelve months
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
ah about sixty percent are within the previous six months from our start date so we don't need
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
that list i
Renee Warren:
right
meghan_telpner:
don't need i don't need to like oh i have this many subscribers to prove my value ah
Renee Warren:
your
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
list is juicy
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
they're warm they're ready
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
to go they're ready
meghan_telpner:
yes
Renee Warren:
to put on their chef's hat
meghan_telpner:
ye
Renee Warren:
and get cooking
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
love that okay i love this these are some really great on common ways that you've grown your business last question for you when i ask you what it means to be a wild woman what
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
is that for you
meghan_telpner:
oh gosh i think it's just being exactly as you are i think that i think especially with women we grow up trying to fit in to something whether it's fitting in with our circle of friends or fitting in with mom groups or fitting in with female entrepreneurs and i mean i've never fit in whole life and so i think that
Renee Warren:
m
meghan_telpner:
is part of it and being able to embrace and accept that i just don't think or function or two things like everyone else and that's part of become my magic i think that's what makes me a bit of a wild woman
Renee Warren:
you are wild
meghan_telpner:
oh
Renee Warren:
well thank you so much for joining us today
meghan_telpner:
yeah
Renee Warren:
where can people go to find you on line
meghan_telpner:
i am at megantelpner dot com and at megantelpner and the school is culinary nutrition dot com and culinary nutrition on instagram
Renee Warren:
cool all that's in the show notes again thank you so much for joining us today
meghan_telpner:
thank you so much one was a pleasure
Renee Warren:
oh