How Violette de Ayala launched over 100 chapters around the world

• Course Instructor:  Violette de Ayala

• Website:  www.femcity.com

• Course Topic:  20 Module Course on How to Launch a Business

• Interesting Stats:  We have over 100 chapters in the US and Canada

1. Who are you?

Violette de Ayala is a Cuban American serial and Social Entrepreneur, Founder of FemCity®, and the International Best-Selling Author of The Self-Guided Guru© Life Lessons for the Everyday Human.

Violette has been quoted in Success, Forbes, Entrepreneur, CNBC, Fast Company, Thrive Global, Medium,  Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Small Business, Authority, Business Insider News as a small business expert and in MarieClaire.

Violette has also been seen in featured campaigns in People, InStyle, Real Simple magazines in addition to bareMinerals “Women We Love” Series. 

She was selected by Isaac Mizrahi for the Malibu Collection campaign.

She served as part of The White House: Women Environmental Leaders Program and was a commissioned Keynote speaker for Accenture’s International Women’s Month Event, the SBA Regional Women’s Conference, and Luxury Brand Partners.

FemCity has been seen in Gilt, Vogue, Forbes, AP, Mashable, and Fast Company and has over 100 locations in the US, Canada, and the Islands.

Violette is a Member of the NationSwell Council, Entrepreneur Leadership Network and a Contributor to Entrepreneur.com. She was a Moderator for the Global Women Empower 2020 Summit and NationSwell’s “The Great American Lie” Discussion.

2. What’s your course all about?

The course walks women through a 20 module format on how to start a business from the very start.

3. What makes you an expert in this field?

I started my first company at the age of 22 and continued to launch and scale those. FemCity is my 4th successful business.

4. What is the transformation your course offers to the students?

It helps women design their business and includes all the key points on launching successfully.

5. Which market does your online course serve and how did you get into it?

Our online course serves women over 40 years old that have always wanted to start a business and are now finally moving forward with their dream of being a small business owner or entrepreneur.

Try Thinkific for free here.

6. Why is it important to you to serve this market?

When I started my first business at the age of 22, I made every mistake possible.

I craved having a mentor and guidance to prevent making poor decisions and to grow exponentially. I made a promise that when I could, I would help other women launch businesses so they wouldn’t make the same mistakes I had made.

I wanted their journey to be more smooth and with fewer bumps in the road.

7. Describe the moment when you decided to create your own course. Where were you, what happened and why did you decide to do it?

It was a few years ago and a Member of our community had mentioned that they had wished there was a guide to start a business. I had thought of writing a guide but then realized, it would be better to create videos and have experts come in and lead with their experience per the topics and their industry.

We initially launched one course a week and it started as a 20- week course and after we completed the series, we then moved it to a 20-Module course.

8. How did you overcome doubtful moments during your course creation journey?

I feel since we had the request come in from a Member, that there was really no doubt. I just moved forward in creating it and tweaked it along the way based on feedback.

9. What are some of your tricks to deal with imposter syndrome?

I go back and do a fact check and go through my wins. I note my daily wins in a journal so when the “imposter syndrome” shows up, I review my journal and it reminds me of all the amazing strides and successes I have accomplished.

It’s like checking the receipts to show the proof. I review what I have noted over the last few weeks and it reminds me to look at the facts and acknowledge the hard work I put in for this moment.

10. How long did it take you to create your course?

I created it two weeks out from publishing and it took me 18 weeks to create as I went through the curriculum.

11. How did your first launch go?

It was wonderful and it’s still serving many women and incredibly helpful for those that take the 20-Module course.

12. How do you structure your launches in general now?

This is the only course launch we have done.

13. Where does your traffic come from?

Referrals, affiliate marketing and google search. We invested in hiring a professional SEO expert to work on our site and assist with SEO and the two work really well for us.

14. Which content do you like producing the most?

I love producing content around business trends, mindset themes and professional development too.

15. What online course platform are you using?

We have used in the past Teachable, Thinkific for our organization’s training for leaders and made our 20-Module course via Zoom or Loom and then added the pages in a Member-Only protected page. We use Streamyard as well for our ongoing produced content.

Try Thinkific for free here.

16. What is amazing about these platforms?

It’s incredibly easy to use and since we have experts in our curriculum, it’s easy for them to use as well.

17. Which features do you wish this platform would have?

I would love it if we had a platform that would stream into IG stories, LinkedIn, Facebook groups and fan pages and YouTube all at the same time. That would be amazing!

18. Why did you choose this platform over other platforms?

It was easier for our experts to log on regardless of computer or location.

19. Which other tools do you use to keep your online business running?

We count a lot on:

• Facebook Groups, 

• Streamyard, 

• Loom and 

• Zoom 

Our site is hosted on Squarespace and that’s been wonderful too. We are big fans of Google forms, sheets and Zapier. 

20. How many students have you served so far?

We have thousands in our community and add on average 200-300 each month.

21. How much revenue have you created during your first launch, and ongoing?

Our course is free and we used it as a lead generator so we didn’t specifically make money on the course since it’s free if you sign up for a Free 30-Day Trial Membership.

22. What are your running costs to keep the online course business going?

Really there is no cost beyond the monthly cost of our host website with Squarespace which is around $40 a month.

23. What are some of the biggest mistakes you made along the way?

I should have done it sooner. I don’t know why it took me so long to think of the idea, honestly. I wish I had done the course years prior.

24. How has your business changed since implementing an online course into the business model?

We have more interest in our organization and we find our Members share our organization often because of this course.

25. How has your personal life changed?

I feel more joy knowing that we are helping women create and design their first business. This makes me smile so very much.

26. What’s the greatest transformational story you can tell about one (or more) of your students?

I just heard the other day from a Member that she was going through the course even though she had already launched her business.

She was taking each module and really editing her current business.

She was so incredibly excited and shared so much gratitude to our organization that she had [finally] a step by step process to help her by holding her hand and making sure she had all the necessary steps to really create a very successful business.

What an amazing feeling to know that the course is living beyond the intention of walking through women step-by-step when starting a business but also serving women that want to make big improvements.

27. If you could use a time machine and send yourself back to the time before you started out, what advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know now?

Not everyone is going to be a fan of mine or the work that I am doing in this world, so there is no point in trying to be all things to everyone. I serve a certain niche and for those we are a perfect fit. But we aren’t for everyone and that’s alright.

We incorporate a lot of business, community, gratitude and a touch of woo-woo-ness. And some people get it perfectly and some don’t. And that’s alright.

28. What is your million dollar piece of advice to those who are just getting started in their online course journey OR for those who are looking to scale?

I love to talk about scaling a business and if you want to scale, think about each process point and every little detail and if you can do that same process while serving over 1 million people.

This question will help you streamline your process and operations to make it more and more efficient.

As you continue to grow into a larger scale, review your operations and ask yourself, “is this set-up in alignment with the next batch of big growth?”.

Generally, as we level-up, we need to also tweak and edit the way our operations work. Be ready for big success and get organized before that next enormous up-level occurs.