Leonie Dawson is a CEO who has generated over $10 million in revenue working 10 hours a week, an international best-selling author and blogger.
Leonie is a teacher, mentor and inspirer, helping highly sensitive oddballs (just like her!) discover their big glorious dreams, feel less alone and change the world!
Full Transcript
Bev: Welcome everybody. I'm just so delighted today that I get the opportunity to speak to Leonie Dawson. So welcome to you, Leonie.
Leonie: Oh, thanks, babe. It's a joy to be here.
Bev: So Leonie let's kick-off and talk. I could introduce you, but I think you'll do a much better job than I will. So, tell me about yourself and your business.
Leonie: Sure. I'm an essentially best-selling author of Gold Planning Workbooks that get released every year and they've been used by over 400,000 people worldwide which is so fun. And they're rainbowy and they're creative and they're glorious. And I also run online courses about how to get your book finished in 40 days and how to create and sell your e-course in 40 days, and how to get your money and manifesting sorted so that you're creating an abundant future and really whatever else I get interested in, I create programmes about.
Bev: Yes, so, I'm excited that I'm going to be doing one of the online courses. So that's why I thought, oh it was going to be awesome to talk to her how she got going online. So tell us what your first online experience was and how that worked out for you Leonie.
Leonie: Sure, for me, everything I do is just about play and trying things out and having fun as I go. And one it was back in like 2004. I think and I started a blog because that was like new in those days and it was so exciting and really it was like being able to share my journal with the world. And, it felt like such a joy, and from that, it’s kind of really easily float in terms of just creating and sharing what I was creating online.
And, so I started selling art prints online and selling solid custom commissioned artwork and then books as I wrote them and then eventually started creating courses as well. So it, it took a number of years but really it's just about creating and sharing and building relationships as I went.
Bev: Yeah, and you've got a wonderful track record. I was just on your website. It's just such joy to read first of all because it's just bright and beautiful and happy so that's divine. So, if you think of that first online experience to where you're now, how has technology supported you? How here leverage technology to do what you're doing right now?
Leonie: Well, I think we're so blinking lucky to be able to live in this era, and progressively it's just gotten easier and easier to be online. So, when you were like when I started the blog the only option really back then was like LiveJournal or Blogspot. Those are the two big ones and you'd to code a lot of it yourself and then WordPress came along and more plugins and more software.
And now it's amazing that you get progress like software like Kajabi where you can basically run your whole online business off in terms of you can do all of your mailing list and your websites and your courses and webinars, everything. All in one bit of software. It's amazing and considering I've been doing this for like 16 or 17 years now. It's a beautiful thing not to have to custom code everything yourself.
Bev: And so does that mean that, once somebody signs up for a course, they kind of in another part of the website.
Leonie: Yeah. That's right. So you join to the get access to my course platform which is so still part of my website, but you get your own login and you be able to work through the courses at your own rate and know what parts you've completed and what you haven’t completed, and you get access to every course that you've bought through me as well.
Bev: Yeah, that's amazing because I think that's the thing we forget that as a consumer, if we put our dollars in the hands of this business we don't want to go to a whole lot of different places and have of lots of logins and have to remember passwords for different websites or different places because that's the one thing I'm finding a struggle now because I've my own website, but my learning platform is on a different place. And, then it's the log in, they've forgotten the log in and then how to help them get in and it's a different experience. So my website actually looks different to the landing pages on that platform. So I guess that brings you cohesion as well in your business.
Leonie: Yeah, I mean I still have my main website built on WordPress just because I've been on there for a billion years and I've two and a half thousand blog posts on there so I couldn't move that really easily into Kajabi, but it's still relatively seamless trying to build that interface and also just trying to pre-answer people's questions for them.
Bev: Yeah, I get there. And so if there was a tool that you couldn't live without, what would that thing be today?
Leonie: Probably LastPass just to rub it LastPass. All right, I don't know how to access anything anymore. I just have a LastPass.
Bev: Yeah, that's good. It's as long as you remember the master password.
Leonie: That's right.
Bev: But I found LastPass to be really helpful when you also outsourcing. So, how do you use it for your any outsourcing that you do?
Leonie: Sure. Well, I mean, it's so great that, whenever you've got logins to different software, you can share it with your assistant. So, whenever she needs access to different platform. I share it to her and LastPass also gives you the option where I don't view the password and you just revoke like if they leave the company you just revoke access.
Because I do know at some point you'll have a staff member there's to leave and it's a big security flaw to leave them like still having logins to everything. And so what I used to have to do would be like if a staff member were or unfortunately, I'd have to be fired.
You know while I'm on the having the conversation about firing them, they'd have like all passwords across all of our platforms would've to be changed. LastPass is pretty easy because you can just click, revoke access, and they don't have access to those passwords anymore.
Bev: Yeah, but is it mean for the online world that's such an important thing because I've just heard yesterday of a friend of mine whose business, their website was hacked, and she said but I use LastPass. So how was that possible?
Leonie: Yeah, right!
Bev: So, she's going down the rabbit hole to find out how it happened because she's using the system generated passwords.
Leonie: Well fright.
Bev: Yeah, so she was wondering where the loophole came in and one of the clues was something to do with the new Facebook pixel,
Leonie: Right!
Bev: That was really interesting. If you've ever had this happen to you because I was on Facebook the other day and you’re passed through to somebody's opt-in or something that I needed to make a small payment and Facebook transferred my PayPal details, I don't even save my PayPal details even on my desktop.
Leonie: My word, I've got, that's bonkers. I haven’t heard of that before. That's exactly so.
Bev: I think security for an online business is an absolute must, and I agree. You know LastPass has saved the day for me in many first of all try to remember all the passwords but in the work that I do I'm also working on client’s businesses. So I say to them I'll only work with LastPass. I'm not interested in getting your password. Don't give me your password.
Leonie: Yeah. It's so much safer that way.
Bev: Yeah, and then if you choose not to work with me further on, you can revoke that access. I think that's absolutely. So yeah, I'm glad you mentioned LastPass because it's just been top of my mind. How did they get past LastPass? And I don't think it's the LastPass. I think it's a backdoor thing some how. Some smart person has found a back door loop and she said the only new thing she had done was a Facebook pixel. So that's good and worrying, all at once.
Leonie: I mean, this is the thing with WordPress as well. There's always going to be so if it's on WordPress or whatever website there's always going to be security flaws and there's always like a tax on service to try and data mine and stuff like that.
Bev: Hm. Yeah, so there's that. I think there's so many upsides though to being online if you just think of yourself. If you'd only had an offline business, what would that have done for you in the times we are in now?
Leonie: Oh, that's really tricky. I'm not sure what I'd do if I weren’t online. I think I'd be doing something similar in terms of writing books and training, but it definitely wouldn't have been COVID safe and I'd not have been able to scale to the amount that I've access to because I've brought in over 10 million dollars in revenue in 10 hours a week or so. So yeah, it would've been a lot trickier had I not had access to online world.
Bev: Tell us a little bit more about that. So you said in 10 hours a week, you've managed to bring in over 10 million dollars of revenue. So tell us your work principles then.
Leonie: Sure, so I'm a disciple of the Italian philosopher and social economist called Pareto and he realised through his studies that 20% of Italy's population owned 80% of the land. But that number of, a certain part of the population causing a larger than average outcome was actually across a huge range of applications and industries. So for example, when he looked into his garden 20% of his pea plants created 80% of the harvest. And for example, like it's that Pareto's principle that I've been applied to a whole bunch of other things. So 80% of crime is caused by 20% of criminals.
Microsoft found that when it fixed its top 20% of bugs that were reported, 80% of its system crashes would go away. So there's always this disproportionate impact of the top 20%. And so when I look at my work, what it means is 20% of my work creates 80% of my income. And the remaining 80% only creates about 20% profit.
So what I'm doing is just killing off the 80% that don't really matter and that a very low performing and just sticking to the stuff that's really important. And if you think about it, 10 hours is 20% of a 50-hour work week. You know, I'm not going to go chase that remaining 20% I'd rather focus on just doing really high impact activities. Maximum impact with minimum effort.
Bev: Well, that's amazing. It's so inspiring because a lot of people, who're starting out in business or that they kind of juggling all the balls doing all the things, but I think that gives them encouragement to look for what's that 20% that's going to make the difference and do more of that.
Leonie: Yeah, and it also like juggling all the balls is a great place to begin. You don't want to start a business with all the time under the sun because what ends up happening is you do all the dumb shit that doesn't really matter. Like it really doesn't matter. So for me, I always worked full-time in the Australian government and as my business grew I reduce my hours down to four days a week than three days a week and then I'd a baby.
So I've never been able to work full-time in my business. My baby didn't sleep. I could barely get an hour away from her. And so I'd to craft a business that enabled me to be a present mum for my kids and I'm the breadwinner for our family. So I absolutely need to make coin and that makes sure that your business model, you can scale it and you can't work that hard in it but do the right things so that you get the income from it.
Bev: And so I'm thinking well how then do you get out there on social media because I know you do a lot of lives on your business page and I've been loving your hats, wardrobe of hats. So do you just like choose a really juicy topic, 5 minutes do it boom and that's you on social media.
Leonie: So I don't even do it as lives. I do them all in one batch and upload them and to my assistant. My assistant get some transcribed and then she filters them out for four weeks or months. So I really only just like record those but I'm bored one day and I'll do 20 and ago, send it to my assistant.
Bev: That's amazing because it does feel like you're live. You've obviously mastered that art of you being there in the room, so that's awesome. And Leonie, you've had this brilliant journey and what would you say was one piece of guidance or advice, that you got, that really made the difference on your entrepreneurial journey?
Leonie: So I remember going for a walk when I was really in the phase of like, okay. I want to have a business. I don't know how to make it happen and I went for a walk and I was listening to this dumbass motivational tape, and it said to set three goals for the next 12 months and I was like fine, I'll do that.
And I wanted to earn $30,000 in the next year from my creativity, the things that I love doing, and as I was walking back home I was like I don't even know how to make $30,000. I don't know how that's possible and I got out a piece of paper when I got home and was working out how many bits of art I did to sell in order to hit $30,000 dollars and I was looking at the numbers and I thought I don't know how this is possible.
Like I can't see how this is doable and I think for a lot of people that's when they go. Well, I just I can't do it I give up. But I'm very grateful because my brain said, "well, I just don't know how to do it yet". And there's other people that have worked out these kinds of business and marketing keys. And that's why they're being successful, and I just don't know those keys yet. And also I've been spending so much time like at the creative and the spiritual gym, but my business and marketing muscles. I've never developed them in my life. Like they're completely flaccid.
And so I committed to myself to find out what other people knew in order to be successful and start building my business and marketing muscles at the gym by reading and learning and taking courses and investing and making sure that I actually like didn't just learn it but implemented it in my business and saw the results and worked out whether it was a good fit for me or not and keep on carrying on and building those successes.
Bev: Wow. Yeah, so it's not knowing the how but having the commitment and vision, I guess. The vision that this is where you are going and learning the how long the way, as you come to that next point or junction in the road.
Leonie: Yeah. I mean, I still don't know what I'm doing, but I just know that I can learn whatever it’s that I need to live.
Bev: I'm sure a lot more than you're letting on.
Leonie: Well, like I know you'd some ‘stump its’. Sometimes I still feel completely flummoxed. I'm like, I've got no idea about like Facebook ads or anything like that. I don't know but I can learn it. That's the great thing. I can learn it.
Bev: Yeah, that's awesome. So do you surround yourself with a team member because a lot of people talk about playing in your zone of genius and you've mentioned that 20%. So do you then have other people that can do the marketing, they're in your team?
Leonie: Sure, so I've I don't basically I've one part-time assistant. I thought for a while there that I needed to have a large team and I build so I'd about like 25 staff at one point in time. And I hated it.
I absolutely hated it and I discovered that having more staff doesn't necessarily mean making more money. It just means that you're spending more time managing people. And so it didn't mean that I could work of less because I'd more staff that meant I'd to work more because I was managing them.
So my hours crept up to about at one point. It was like 25 hours a week and I just hated it because I'd a two-year-old at that point and she needed me, and I wanted to be around my family. It wasn't my best life. So I thought this isn't how I love living. This isn't how I love doing business. And so I right size that over a period of a few years back down to just one part-time assistant and that's my sweet and my happy spot and I love it.
Bev: Yeah, that's true, we often haven't noticed if we've outsourced because even if you give somebody a work practice document or assistance document. You still need to check it. Has that work being done to the quality and the calibre, that you want so yeah, I don't know whether it's my perfectionist control freak in me, but I found it actually a waste of my time. It was actually faster for me to just spend five minutes do that then outsource it and spend another 10 minutes checking everything.
Leonie: You know, and it also depends on like what outcome that you want from it. Like I've friends that as scaling and putting on a lot of stuff because their exit plan is to be able to sell the business and for them to remove themselves out of the business.
And for me, that's actually not my goal because my goal is this is a lifestyle business. It's one that will continue on until I've enough money to be my own trust fund baby and until I find my early retirement and then my business will gracefully recede back into the aethers. And so it really depends on know what it’s that you're wanting to create for your business and one size doesn't fit at all.
Bev: Yeah, that's so true. So true. So keeping the goal in mind and obviously latch, to get to their 10 hours a day. You'd to get clear on what it was that those goals were.
Leonie: Yeah, I know but like my goals are just like make a lot of money, have a lot of fun, and I still, I've goals each month for each launch for each year. All that kind of stuff and it's always just a matter of like am I doing the biggest thing right now that would've the most amount of impact and I even have look I've a little Post-It note on my desk and it says if I could only work two hours a week, what would I do?
And so I've got like three things that I'd do if I only had two hours a week. So I'm always thinking like how I continue cutting away the rest of the crap that I don't need to be doing and just import it like just focus on the really high-value stuff.
Bev: Yeah, that's really important. I love that. That's a big takeaway for today everybody. So Leonie where do you hang out online? Where can we lovingly stalk you?
Leonie: Oh sure. The best place is my website www.leoniedawson.com. Make sure you sign up for my mailing list because that's where I send love letters every week. And I send so much free shit.
I've a page on my website called free shit and I create so much good stuff. And that's why I really want to just delight and surprise and inspire people and yeah, I'm on social media. But social media is a shit way to keep on like contact with someone.
You're not going to see my posts you've pressed like when a billion people's like profiles and never seen them again. So that's not a good way to contact guys. Just stay collected, get on my damn mailing list so I can send you love letters and send you free shit.
Bev: Yeah. Awesome. Yes, I did see that big page of free shit. I've signed up for one thing and I thought well, I think I'll just pace myself.
Leonie: It's good, like I mean this is the stuff that I've created over the last 15 years. So it's pretty dense. It's like two of them are like 300 plus page colouring books. So you feel like it's going to take a while.
Bev: Yeah, I love that idea. And so when are your new goal books going to be released?
Leonie: Oh, good question. Once they're finished. We'll have them out in the world and available on my website and then across social media as well. So just look for Leonie Dawson awesome goals and you'll find them.
Bev: Brilliant. Thanks so much for being with me today. It's been such fun getting to know you a little better and all the pearls of wisdom that you shared with us.
I think it's one of those interviews that people can come back and take the next nugget because it'd be quite a few along the way. So thanks so much for being with me today.
Leonie: Thank you very much. It's been a joy.
No more needing to rely on a third-party program to duct-tape several monthly subscription services together. Groove combines 17 different services that are necessary to run your growing business.
With GrooveFunnels™, you can:
Capture leads and convert them to clients with GroovePages™
Send emails and create advanced automated campaigns with GrooveMail™
Grow your passive income and create a membership site with GrooveMember™
Boost conversion rates, increase engagement, and truly stand out from the competition with GrooveVideo™
Sell unlimited products to an unlimited number of customers with GrooveSell™
Manage and communicate with unlimited affiliates using GrooveAffiliate™
And so much more…
