UNSELFISH SELLING: the strategies, methods, and lessons that got me $6K in 2 days passively

Being unselfish doesn't just apply to vlogs and lifestyle content, and actually, it's even more important when you're selling. I'm Alyssa and welcome to the Inspired Media Podcast, a space for creators, creatives, and entrepreneurs who know they're meant to do more than just stop the scroll. So we're putting the spotlight on the unspoken truths and unconventional takes on how to truly build a standout brand online. Now, let the show begin. Hey, Vestee, I'm so happy you tapped in because today we're going to talk about something I know gets a ton of heat on socials, and that is courses. Apogas editor, I want to need some scary dramatic music, like a big. Selling courses online. Right now, it's July 2025, and I'm actually in the middle of a soft launch for my unselfish content guide that, first of all, in just a few days, over 80 creators. 80 of you have opted into this offer already, and I'm so excited if you have opted in. Thank you so, so much. I'm so excited for you to dive into the lessons, the modules, the guides, the templates, all of that, so you can take action and create that unselfish lifestyle content. But being unselfish doesn't just apply to vlogs and lifestyle content, and actually, it's even more important when you're selling. So I thought this was the perfect time to give you the live BTS, T lessons, racks, opinions on selling unselfishly. So let's dissect. Now, before we even get into all of that, can we be so for real? Like, is this a safe space? Can we be so for real? When I say the word "course," and you can just think this in your head, but if you have feelings and emotions right now, I would love for you to just DM me. What's the emoji that reflects your thoughts and your feelings? When you just hear the word "course," what words come to mind, what feelings come to mind? Because I don't know about you, but when I read the comments on somebody, and it's always the biggest, most dramatic, like they come in with so much passion about this story and this thing, and they build it up, they build it up, they build it up, they're so good at marketing, and it's like, boom, there's the course, there's the pitch. And then you're just like, oh, great. And the comments are brutal. I could just feel the eye rolling through the screen, the scrutiny, the scammer comments, and honestly, I don't blame them. I don't blame you for feeling that way, because sometimes I feel that way, especially when you know right off the bat, the vibes are off, and they're just selling you this big dream, and you know it's gonna be some basic PDF with no customization and care, like, listen. I get it. It's giving suspicious. We've all seen someone launch a course that looks like a repurposed canvas deck with zero depth, zero originality, and zero actual help. So the skepticism is earned, but there is another side of it. Selling digital products can one be really awesome for another stream of income that's passive, and can be actually used to nourish and serve your community. Maybe right now you're thinking, I want to sell a digital product in e-book, a guide, or whatever. Don't take this as no you can't know it's a scam, no, no one's gonna buy. Literally, I'm living it right now, not true. But I think we need to do it unselfishly. So I wanna go through the BTS, the mindset, the things that I focused on in order to sell unselfishly so that I don't give myself the IK about selling. Education as the base, delivery as the priority. So the first thing I want you to focus on, and this is something that actually stuck with me from the very first time I ever created the course, which is the first round of social standing out, to the second round of social standout to IGBB, and for this current offer. I want you to come in with the intention of education as the base, delivery as the priority. Tips, tricks, facts, they're all Googleable, chat GBTable, now, especially, but it's the delivery, how you say the information, not just what you're providing, but can you deliver in a way that people can understand, process, and actually do something about it. When you get that down, that's how selling can not only be so rooted in your purpose, so it doesn't give you the IK, but that's how you can have so much fun with selling, because you know that it's coming from that unselfish place. Like, there's a real purpose behind it. So that's first just setting the intention when it comes to selling, when it comes to selling unselfishly. Now I want to get into the stats and the strategy, aka the soft launch T, and I want to give you, and just be honestly super open and transparent about my stats and my numbers about this launch, so that you know what is possible with this approach. So in just the first two days of soft launching, we hit over 50 sales, in six days we hit over 80 sales, and made over $8,000 in passive income, mostly marketing through all organic, Instagram stories was my primary place, then I sent out about three emails and a few feed pieces of content, and if you're watching my Instagram stories or have been right now around the recording of this, you know how unserious this launch is, like, please, please, you can totally tell I don't have any corporate experience. You can, like, no ounce of corporate lingo, corporate strategy is in my body, because I was doing hand nail dances as part of my launch, quote unquote strategy, and we'll get into all that in a bit, but those are the stats, those are the real numbers that we're working with. Now let's focus on behind the scenes. The first thing you wanna set is the why. I know it sounds cheesy, but it is truly that important. Ask yourself, why are you creating this product? And if the answer is only to make money, you're making it for the wrong reasons. And I know you've seen this before, where you can just tell. You're not really passionate about what you're doing. You can tell when you sniff that on someone, you don't wanna be that. It's okay to wanna make money, please don't get it wrong and think that that's not a good thing or that's an evil thing. Money itself is an evil, money itself isn't bad. But let's be honest, if you're only creating this thing to make money, then by default, you're not really coming in to really serve your community. And when you try to sell, we're gonna sniff it out. We're gonna see it, we're smart. So I wanna share with you my why and why I created this offer specifically. And honestly all my offers, but truly, truly, this is the thing that really pushed me to create this offer after years of people asking. I honestly felt really guilty. My one-on-one slots, my one-on-one intensives, bundles, social strategy coaching, ever since 2024, I have been booking out about one to two months in advance, now to the three months in advance. And some of my offers get filled up three to six months at a time, which first of all, is such a huge blessing. Like I have no words, it's such a huge blessing. I am so honored that so many of you truly trust me to be a part of your content creator journey, your entrepreneur journey. And it's amazing. But I would be a liar if I said I didn't feel guilty 'cause I'm like, damn, it's either you booked and you're waiting months, or you're putting in an application and you're waiting months for a spot to even open up. So I'm like, oh my gosh, like I'm leaving the girl-i-pop. So I'm leaving the girl-i-pop's high and dry. So this course became that bridge, like even though I can't serve you one-on-one, even though I don't have capacity one-on-one, here's the next best thing. Here's a way that I can still help while you're waiting. Know your why and know your why can be an aunt. And in fact, with it is an aunt, I actually think that's like the most ideal why. It can be, I wanna make money, I wanna increase cash flow, and I wanna serve my community. You have to have that deeper place that you're coming from. Okay, second thing. Don't feel pressure to rush. This was not an overnight decision. This framework was something I originally built out and was testing in 2021-2022 in my business. But before, through my theater background and acting and being on camera, I was always surrounded with storytelling and flexing my storytelling muscles and my creativity. So all of that knowledge was built up after years. And then once I got that framework, I wanted to not only test it and experiment it with myself, but with my clients and get the results. This was years in the making. So don't feel this heavy pressure to be like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna miss the opportunity. I started posting about this in 2022, but I waited because I wanted to be intentional. And if you're like that, don't feel pressure to do something just because you think you're running out of time. You're not. Your people will value your intention. And especially in the age of AI, intention is a non-negotiable. Quality, basically focus on the quality. Third thing, proof, testing, and market research. Do not guess that your audience needs this. Do not guess that your audience wants this. Do not assume what they need or what they want. You want to actually gather market research. And the way that I did that is I gathered market research through my community, through audiences, through other creators that just discovered me by creating free content on selfish vlogs, on selfish content, giving free advice, watching your lifestyle content. I even did a roast. I used to do this kind of like profile audits, but these would call it the public roast. And I did it just on vlogs so I can gather all of this research. Paying attention to your DMs and FAQs, I have a whole folder of screenshots of questions and comments and DMs that I use to create this offer. I watched what wasn't being said in other offers. And then again, experimented with not only my own account, my personal and my business, but with my clients. And something I kept asking myself and something that you can keep asking yourself Is this repeatable or is it? just look. It is one thing to make something work for you. It is a whole other to make something work for someone else that has a different background, different personality, different interests, different niche, different industry. And I wanted to make sure that I had enough social proof that I wasn't going to waste your time with this offer. Again, understanding that there is a huge skepticism around offers like this, around courses, around digital products, I get it. Like sometimes the comments are a little harsh. Okay, sometimes they get people can be truly unhinged, but I get it. You don't want to waste your time. You don't want to waste your money. I don't, when I'm buying something, I don't want to waste my time. I don't want to waste my money. So I wanted to test these methods and these frameworks again and again and again and not only test the information, but test the way that I wanted to deliver it so that not only could you get the information, but process it and do something about it. Proof testing market research. Next, share the building process. The shareholder effect is something my business mentor, Tosh actually talks about a lot. And I love, love, love this. And I've done this every single time I have created something since the beginning of my business because it works. Bring your audience in from the early stages, ask questions, share sneak peeks, let them shape and build this product with you so they feel like they are invested within this product. They're invested within this journey. They feel like they are a part of it. And it's exciting. And you make your people feel heard, you make them feel seen, especially on something like Instagram stories where those are already your most tapped in, most engaged community members, your hottest leads, why not invite them into the product that you're making for them anyway. Here's a specific example from my Instagram stories, but on Instagram stories, I would do sneak peeks of the design. I would ask people what they think about the design. I would ask them the questions and the current struggles that they have on their lifestyle content. I would offer free advice and how I'm going to use that and create and how not only can I answer this question now, but in this offer, I'm going to go even deeper because I have the space to in an offer like this. And also another little tip here is don't be afraid to make mistakes. Don't be afraid to call out your mistakes. Don't be afraid to show the disagreements that you have with your audience members. Like that is going to make me respect you so much more knowing that, okay, I tried this platform and it actually didn't work out. And now I'm backtracked a whole week, but I'm fixing it now. Look, I want to see that. I want to see that you care about me as a customer, as a buyer so much that you're willing to call that out. Maybe make a little joke about it and then make your product even better. Share the building processes, especially on Instagram stories. That's the easiest way to do it. Next, focus on delivery. Remember when I said at the beginning of this episode, the education is the base, but the delivery is the priority. That was something I really, really focused on for this product. I was going back and forth with my team members on design, on the slides, on the delivery, on different ways that I could say things in a way to make it so tangible and so simple and so easy to digest. I didn't want to just throw some information at you. You have access to information. There's Google, there's chat GBT, there's so many AI tools, you don't need more information, we don't need more information. We need information to be taught and delivered in a way that makes sense. Here's what I included. Slide decks that are actually digestible, a little tip for you. Do not jam pack a bunch of texts into one slide. If you can avoid that, please avoid that. Nobody wants a thesis. No, no, no, no. Just make more slides and separate out your text. It's going to make it so much easier for your buyers to just go in and not feel like, oh my gosh, it's a lot of work. Video walkthroughs and frame-by-frame examples, a clear and repeatable framework. Both audio and visual, so not only did I make the deck with the visual, so not only did I make the deck with the visual graphs and text on the presentation, but I also recorded audio over it to further explain. I did this really cool AI podcast where basically we took the most common questions off of the DMs and the comments. We not only did it in a Google sheet so that you can read it if that's your vibe, but I also use this AI tool that reads all the questions and has two AI voices having a conversation back and forth like a podcast. It's crazy. It is so freaking cool. It truly does sound like two people. So for you, if you're more of an audio learner or you're busy, you're multitasking. You are commuting. Turn on this 15 minute AI pod all about unsalphished content and you can learn without being in front of your computer looking at the video modules. That's actually one of my favorite parts. I also included client examples and my own personal examples and throughout the entire creation process. My team members and I went back and forth for weeks being so picky on the design, on the layout, on the delivery. How can I make this better? How can I make this make more sense? Can I do this and show an example? How can I make this the most tangible thing that not only do I want you to actually complete it without the overwhelm, but I want to give you simple, structures that give you the guidance to go out and take action. I actually just got some feedback from somebody that did opt in and she said, loving the intro in hook section already. You're amazing, Alyssa, so much in depth information and also the examples. Like, yes, oh my gosh, that literally makes my day. That's exactly the feedback that I wanted and I'm getting so much feedback just like that because I focused on delivery and I was picky and I was detailed. My team, my team didn't probably did not love. My team probably wanted to strangle me a little bit when I kept going back and forth and being really nitpicky, but the feedback is totally worth it and I love them and thank God for their patience. So that's the BTS of the creation of this offer and this launch and really creating something unselfishly in order to serve your community. But now let's talk a little bit more about selling and selling through serving. I know selling sometimes gives people the IK. I know it gives people the IK when they see people selling. I know it gives people the IK when you're trying to sell. I get it. It does not have to be like that. And here's what this launch taught me. Focus on community over landing the sale. When I launched this product, I launched it not by itself, but with free content to give you the choice to take what you need. I had a dedicated podcast episode that launched. I did a free piece of content that launched. I have existing content that's in a playlist on TikTok, but also reposted on Instagram. I have another podcast episode on it. I hate this narrative, especially when I see people sell that they make you feel like you need it. That's the energy. It's like, oh my god, you have to have this. You have to have this. You're going to be nothing without this. This is going to save you. And it's like, what? You don't need this. You don't need anyone to tell you that. No, especially something like this where knowledge is so accessible. Information is accessible. So the approach that I took, and honestly, just my honest thoughts and opinions on something like this, is that you don't need it. But I'm going to give you options so that you can choose what you need and not feel pressured that you're forced to need it. And it works. And the 80 plus and counting, I actually think we're at 90 now. Prove that. Another GM, somebody sent me was this is so valuable for being only $97 coming from someone that's created content for years. Exactly. That's how it should be. Exactly that. Second, you don't have to have this big professional launch strategy. You can keep things cute and chill and whatever. Let me walk you through my exact Instagram story set for launch day. Because sometimes people really do too much. Like, we don't have to do much. Like, why can't we just have fun? Like, why can't we just be like, here's my Instagram stories. June 25th on the day of launch. My first Instagram story is a cute little picture of me, a cute little selfie, cute little pic. And the text says, your lifestyle content is about to get a whole lot better, more fun, and way more you coded. You offer a job today with a little sparkly emoji to get them quite literally tapped in. Second, building hype, showing what other people are saying. I did some screenshots of people saying, waiting for the email like and then all this like these crazy emojis. I can't wait. And this is why I love love love love the shareholder effect and inviting your audience into the building process because it creates this type of community. It creates this type of genuine organic hype. And honestly, my girl pop's are hilarious. They're comedians. I had somebody set me. I was like, okay guys, I'm going to drop it. Oh my gosh. Did I just say that? You okay, girl, pop. I'm going to drop it in like a few days. Somebody sent me this meme of this old lady saying it's been 55 years. They're like, please. Another one said, my body can't wait. My body can feel it. I can't wait. You have to drop this right now. Like it's so much fun. It is not that selling is this disgusting, achy, slimy thing. Like your people do want to buy from you. People want to buy from you. It's not like a crazy thing for people to be excited for you to sell. It's so possible if you do it unsalphically. And this is a perfect example of that. So I have those screenshots. And then the text overlay says, now the vibes in the DMs are it. Period. Cause they are. I'm so excited to finally go live. But first, let me give you a little story time about my girl, Kaylyn. Like you, she wanted to share more of her and her content to be known, not for a niche before her personal brand and wanted to create standout vlogs. AKA, let me show you the receipts. Let me show you the social proof. Next slide. Pivot a little bit. I talk about myself. I reposted an old vlog that I did in 2023 and said, made in 2023. But there's many from high school that are in the archives. Something I learned very quickly from doing content like this on my own account is if we want people to watch and connect. We need to answer the question, what's in it for them? Receipts, but receipts for me. Next slide. Text says, "So we got to work, blending creativity, storytelling, editing, and filming with strategy, testing, seeing results, and of course teaching these frameworks and methods to my clients. Tap!" We see the social proof from one of my clients who we did actually work on unselfish vlogs together. 1.6 million views, thank you so much, amazing engagement, original storytelling, personality forward, and a little note by her. Next slide. Photo showing a little sneak peek of the course on my laptop. And I said, "This isn't some go viral quick thing. It's creating content that's so rooted in you and connects to your people. This is something that I was getting so much in the comments in the DMs working with clients. I want to connect, I want to connect, I want to connect." So I wanted to relate to that. So that you know that I am listening to you. I get you, I feel you, I made this offer for you. And then I did a little cute engagement poll sticker thing because we love those. Next, I posted a free piece of content giving you selfish versus unselfish content ideas to show you not only the content ideas but the method I used to take a selfish content idea and make it unselfish. I have a whole playlist if you want to check that out. And I dropped three different resources for you to choose from. We post, free podcast, paid offer, you choose your choice, no pressure, literally. Because we don't force people to buy from us, it's disgusting when people do that and it makes me want to slam my head into a guards' whore. And then of course something I love to do on my stories is my nail talk series where I literally just talk with my hands and with my nails because I naturally do that all the time in my content anyway. But this time I'm literally just filling my nails. So I was talking about the launch, doing my little nail talk series, which is kind of like a signature thing that I do on Instagram and it makes it so fun, it makes it cute. This is now where really gets so unserious. So there is a viral TikTok dance going on right now to the song. I think it's lights down low and it's so hot. Look at it, it's so hot, it's so good. I can't do the dance pull out because I have a broken knee. So I just did the dance with my hands. And I put the text and it says, "To do so you the purchase with this TikTok dance." Someone take my fun away. This is such an unserious launch. But then somebody commented and of course I had to post, "Your sales tactics are unhinged, I mean unmatched." And then I did a screenshot of this order literally coming in because during this launch day it was crazy. The orders were coming in like crazy. So it worked. Apparently hand dancing works. Somebody bought it, tagged me, I reposted, of course, Anastasia. And I'm gonna put your name. I'm so sorry Anastasia and Genova period. Love you. Reposted her story and the orders just kept coming in and I was having literally so much fun. I probably looked so crazy. Like if there was a camera in my room I would look like a crazy person because I was literally dancing, screaming, smiling. Every single time I got the notification that an order came in. I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so excited, the girly bobs are gonna get this offer. I know they've been asking for it and I'm having a lot. I'm gonna be like, I was like, "Woo!" The sales are coming in. Period. We love it. In the first few hours, over 20 people opted in. So I posted that screenshot and then this TikTok of this guy that's like dancing with this rainbow disco effect and it was so fun. No crazy big formal six week plan. No need to be posting 20,000 pieces of content. No need to be constantly throwing your offer in people's face and then feeling so guilty and so I don't have an ounce of Ick from this launch from selling because one, you should feel so confident in your offer. If you did the market research, you have the social proof. You tested. You did your job. Do not let your own self sabotaging thoughts be like, "Oh, well you're selling so that's Ick and that's super slimy." Like why? Why? You did the work. You have the social proof. Why would you feel like that? And it can be so much fun. I didn't need the perfect email funnel. Oh my gosh, also T. I didn't even have a sales page. I still don't have a sales page. Nothing. I have a really cute simple straight to the point check out page. Okay, you can actually look at it right now if you're listening to this when I'm recording. I didn't even have a sales page and it's still sold. I kept it simple. Keep it simple. It truly is. It boils down to you've been asking, "I've been testing. I get you. I see you. I can help you solve this problem and we can both have so much fun together." And that's it. You don't have to wait for everything to be super super perfect in order to launch, in order to sell, in order to share. I think that's a huge misconception and please take me as a sign. I don't even have a sales page and this still worked. Now, am I going to be working on this? Yes. You can add on. You can improve later. But if you're constantly trying to get this thing to be perfect before even doing anything about it, you're going to be stuck in the thinking ideation phase and you're never going to actually bring anything to life. Now we've gone through the BTS of creating, of selling the main lessons. I truly hope you took notes. I hope you have at least a few takeaways that you can take not only with your content, but if you are selling or creating an offer to do that unselfishly. So our course is cancelled. No, I don't know about that. But the era of lazy, low-effort digital products is, if you're going to sell something, let it help someone. Let it meet a need. Let it actually deliver. I'd love to know what your main takeaways, your favorite parts, a little gem that you're going to take into action. I'd love to know where your heads at now that you finished this episode. Please let me know. Tag me on Instagram stories. DM me @inspiredmediaco. Email me. Let's y'all about it. But please just remember, you can sell, you can serve. But if you're going to take anything, please do not get caught up in all this crazy you have to do it this way. This is the way to do it. Like you can sell in the way that's not it. You can serve your people and you can have so much fun doing it and have a successful launching of this business. If I doing it unselfishly. Okay, that is all. And as always, break a leg.