- We're gonna do something a little bit different
here on this channel,
something I've never actually done before, ever.
And I'm gonna do an honest review
of a digital program that I invested in
to learn and grow my online business.
So as you can tell from the title,
this is my honest review of Business by Design,
or BBD, as it's called,
which is James Wedmore's online course.
And I'm gonna kinda go through
what it actually it is, how does it work,
what do you get with BBD, who it's for,
and how it has helped me?
Now, if you're new here, my name is Meredith Marsh.
And here on this channel,
I help smart side hustlers
grow their audience and income online
using video content and YouTube.
And I'm trying to reach 100K YouTube subscribers this year.
So it would be amazing if you could hit
that subscribe button while you're here,
and we'll dive right into this.
Now, in this video, like I said,
I'm gonna share my honest opinion
and my experience of being in Business by Design,
and what I think about it,
what my opinions are on it,
and how to help you figure out
if it might be right for you.
But before I get into all of that,
I wanna preface this by saying
I am an affiliate for Business by Design.
So, full transparency.
However, I am going to give you my honest opinion.
That means pros and cons.
So I don't want you to just take my word for it
because I think, actually, the best way
for you to learn about who James is,
and what Business by Design is really all about,
and how it might fit into your business journey,
it's just to sign up for
James' annual Rise of the CEO Digital Video series.
So, I put a link down in the description
to either watch or get on the wait list
for The Rise of the Digital CEO series.
It's totally free.
And even if you're not even interested in BBD,
it's still really informational, it's entertaining,
and there's some kind of mind blowing things
about online business in general.
So, I highly recommend that you check that out.
Now, at the time of this recording
and when I publish this,
that series is gonna be available next week.
And again, it's totally free.
But if it's not available when you click that link,
just put your email in to the wait list,
and you'll get notified the next time around.
So, what the heck is Business by Design?
It's kind of hard to explain
because it is a course in online business,
but it's also a little bit more than that
because you will kind of get the clarity that you need
to focus on the right things in your business
so that you're not wasting your time
on useless and unproductive tasks.
You'll kinda learn to recognize
what your audience and your market wants,
and create online products that they'll love
and actually buy, which is nice.
And you also get the done for you
or kind of fill in the blank processes
for 11 different styles of launching
a digital product or course.
And I gotta say,
that's worth the price of the course alone.
And it's really designed to set you
on the path to your success, and your business.
That's why it's called Business by Design.
It's business by your design.
Now, as far as what BBD helped me with.
Now, I joined back in April 2017.
So, I have had three years.
And I think James and his team
has added more and more content to it
every single year.
And it just keeps improving.
So when I first joined,
the absolute biggest thing that it helped me do
was to see exactly how to make sales in my business,
because I was focusing a lot on passive income,
like ad revenue here on YouTube
and ad revenue over on my blog and affiliate revenue.
And I wanted to create and sell digital products,
like a course, like my Social Video Pro course,
or like my membership, the Video Pursuit Society.
I wanted to create those things
but I knew nothing about sales.
And, I mean, I actually didn't think I needed
to know anything about sales.
I was wrong.
That was the first really big game changer for me.
And then over time, once I got the sales thing down,
I was able to kind of focus in
on what I really wanted to do with my business,
what I wanted to accomplish,
who I really wanted to help,
who I was really here to serve,
and why my business exists to begin with
so that I could implement even more processes
for becoming a Digital CEO, as James calls it,
and developing a team
so that I can do more in my business and help more people.
So, that's how Business by Design helped my business grow.
But there's this whole other side of BBD
that, to be honest,
I was not expecting when I first enrolled.
And that's the whole mindset side
of starting an online business,
having an online business,
doing these weird things like talking to a camera,
creating YouTube videos.
The amount of mindset shifting
that has occurred for me in the last three years
around business, around life, around relationships,
around money, has really been,
I don't have a word for it other than
just absolutely extraordinary.
And then also, with BBD, you get a ticket to BBD Live,
which is a live event.
So the people that I have met through BBD,
I have two mastermind groups that I meet with
of people that I've met through BBD
who have just become basically my best friends,
in and out of business.
And so with a course like Business by Design,
I think it's really important
to look at the case studies,
and the people who have participated in BBD,
and really ask yourself, "Is that me?"
Or, "Could that be me?
Is that the type of person
that I would want to be like?"
Or, "Is that the type of business that I want to have?"
Because those are the people
that you're going to be surrounded with, right?
So who is Business by Design really for?
This is a tricky question.
If you look at some of the case studies from BBD,
there's all different kinds of people,
all different kinds of businesses and niches.
Of course, when I joined,
I was a YouTube creator and a blogger.
And so, I definitely feel like it was for me
as a content creator who wanted to create and sell
online courses and digital products.
I knew that that was something I wanted to do,
and I knew I needed to learn that sales piece.
And so, it was perfect for me.
So it is really great for a content creator.
But there are also service-based businesses,
so graphic designers, social media managers,
people who are using their online business
and online platform to sell a service,
or to productize their service so that they can scale.
There are coaches.
There are teachers who have set up
these whole online businesses
around the things that they teach,
helping other teachers.
So, who's behind Business by Design?
Well, it was created by James Wedmore,
as I already mentioned.
James is a YouTube creator
turned 9 million dollar a year entrepreneur.
And James is a fantastic coach
on helping you get clarity on your niche
and know what to do next in your business.
And he also has a team of coaches that he has trained.
So they're in the Business by Design Facebook group,
answering questions, helping you get clarity,
and helping you kinda figure out how to move forward.
When is it open?
So, Business by Design usually opens
about once a year.
It's going to open in a couple of weeks.
Yes, I did time this video just right
so that it's open in a couple of weeks.
Because I want you to be excited about it,
if it's something you're interested in.
And I want you to be able to dive right in, right?
So usually it is once a year,
and if you use the link down in my description
to get on the wait list
for The Rise of the Digital CEO series,
then you'll also be on the wait list,
and they'll let you know when the course is actually open.
So, some of the things that are included in the course
is the 6 BBD Core Training Modules.
And then there's the plug in play launch maps
and execution guides,
and that's the system and the strategy
on how to implement doing a webinar,
doing a five-day challenge, doing an email launch.
There's so many different types of launches.
I have lost track of them all.
But they're all in there.
There's marketing templates.
He does live coaching sessions with him
and some of his other coaches.
There's always different bonuses,
and so I don't know exactly
what all the bonuses will be
and what will be included in this next round
when the doors are open.
And so, I also don't know exactly what the price will be
because there's usually more than one tier.
Now, I want to get to the pros and cons
and be really, really honest with you here.
Because, first of all,
the pros, Business by Design is a very in-depth resource.
It's kind of like, I like to think
I sort of have a PHD in online business
after going through Business by Design.
But there's so much in there,
which is a great thing
because there's something for wherever you're at
in your business, even if you're just starting out,
even if you don't know what you're doing.
Like, for example, I just recently,
just this year, I dove into the module
on how to hire a team, how to hire a virtual assistant,
where to find them, how much to pay them,
and how to structure your business
so that you are maximizing your time
and then also utilizing your team really effectively.
And I didn't know that I needed that module
when I first joined.
So, I didn't use it until just this year,
and I've been in BBD for three years.
You also have lifetime access to Business by Design.
It's not a membership.
You don't have to renew to stay in the group
or anything like that.
You make that investment,
you make that purchase,
you go through it, and every time it gets updated
or content gets added to it,
which James does pretty much every year,
you get all of that,
so it's a lifetime access type of a thing.
You also get a ticket to Business by Design Live,
or BBD Live, which is a three or four day
in-person conference.
It's a conference like no other.
It's so different.
And it's a lot of fun,
it's really informative,
you get to connect with a lot of people,
and make amazing friends.
And one of the cons, actually, of BBD Live
is that it's on the west coast,
and I'm on the east coast.
And when you have a family,
just the cost and the time and everything
of going to another coast,
it can be kind of a pain in the butt.
But it's always been worth it.
I've been twice.
It's definitely something that I would pay to go to,
but when you join Business by Design,
you get a free ticket.
There aren't very many other cons that I can think of
other than, well I can think of two.
One, as a content creator,
I focus a lot on organic content, right?
I'm here on YouTube.
I'm showing up in your subscription feed,
or I'm showing up as a search result or something.
And inside of BBD, there's a pretty heavy presence
of people using Facebook ads
instead of creating organic content.
And I have nothing against Facebook ads.
But, they cost money, of course.
Nothing against spending money to grow your business,
but they also cost money to learn what not to do.
There tends to be a pretty heavy emphasis
on using Facebook ads to grow your email list,
to fuel your launch of your course or your product.
Nothing wrong with it, though.
I just like organic content.
The other thing, too,
and this is not so much a con of BBD,
but a con of online business
and creating and launching digital products in general.
And that is that it's real easy
to look at the success that people are having
and assume that you're gonna have that same success
when you launch your course,
or when you do your next launch.
And it may not necessarily be the case
because everybody's audience is different,
their offer is different, the products are different,
everybody's different.
And so it can be a little bit disappointing
when you see people with their six figure launches
and stuff, and then,
I've never had a six figure launch (laughs).
I don't know if I ever will.
And so, you have to kind of manage your expectations there.
Everybody's on this different journey.
But like I said, that's not really a BBD con.
Overall, there's way more pros than cons,
and like I said, if you are at all interested
in figuring out if BBD is right for you,
the best thing you can do is watch
or get on the wait list
for The Rise of the Digital CEO series
which, at the time that I'm publishing this,
it's going to be live like next week.
So you can use the link down in the description
to hop on there so you're the first to know about it.
It's a totally free series.
It's like eight videos.
And James does a really great job
of flipping everything you know about business
and online business upside-down.
And, before you go get on the wait list for that series,
make sure you hit the subscribe button
so I can reach my goal
of 100K YouTube subscribers this year.
(futuristic electronic music)