Case Study: Amy Jo Higgins

How did you find out about WP Rockstar?

I found out about WP Rockstar when I was just on Facebook. I saw an advertisement for it. So I found out about Rock Star during GeekFest and I think I was just browsing on Facebook.

What was your life like before you joined the program?

A few months before I joined the program, I had left my daytime job in order to be home with my kids more and homeschool my kids, and also to start to pursue a career in tech. And I was learning random coding skills. I was doing some Udemy classes. I did some projects just for fun. I made a home server for our DVDs and I made a minecraft server because we like Minecraft and I learned some C-sharp and did a few projects there, but I was I don't know. I really didn't know what to learn and what I really wanted to do and what would work well for me. I had just found a client and I was helping her with Facebook things and kind of making advertisements for her things for her classes that she was doing. And then she mentioned a website to me. And so I had started learning a little bit of HTML and CSS on my own, and I was learning that with W3Schools.

What actions did you take as a result of taking the course?

I joined WP Rockstar in October and that same month I launched my business. I don't know, I just, I just started working on the business, like working through the program, making my business website and just trying to figure out how to start my business.

Did you have any experience as a freelancer?

The one client I had was my first client as a freelancer. I had helped others like friends or family with a little bit of tech, but I didn't have anything paid in my first client. Like doesn't have a lot for me to do and doesn't pay me very much like and we just started out small, which is fine…

How long did it take you to earn back your investment?

It took me, let's see… It took me five months to earn back my initial investment. Took me four months to get the contract that would push me over. My contract was with a library, and they had to wait for the next library board meeting to get the check signed. And then get it to me. So yeah, I had one other client before that, but it was like a very small client. It was just a church website and I was charging like $300.

How did you make your first thousand dollars?

I think with lots of small projects. I was getting close, I was getting to $800 and then this library contract is for $10,000, which I was really, really surprised to get. Like, my dad does work at the library. But yeah, you know, I drove 45 minutes to meet with them for like an hour. I did lots of research. We email back and forth quite a bit and I had to research for like an hour or two to answer the emails, you know, really well.  It was very exciting. And I wish they would hurry because they're not in a hurry. And I really want this nice website in my portfolio. My first client website is really not that good and I kind of want to redo it, but they're happy, so I'm trying to make myself just keep going.

Are you also offering add-on services?

For my first client, the church I am hosting and maintaining their site. For the library, they haven't decided yet.  Right now their current site they host and do most of the maintenance and their web person just kind of gets on sometimes. So I've offered a hosting plan, but I think they'll probably host themselves. Or at least if I might talk them into like, like a cheaper hosting plan where I don't really do maintenance and they do maintenance.

How big is your $10k website project?

It's a little bit up in the air right now. It's like 40 pages and it's just absolutely ridiculous how many pages they have. When I was getting ready to when I was trying to figure out how much to charge them, I was, I'm trying to look up how many pages right now.  But like, I figured we could easily get it down to 25, but I think we could even go less than that. They've got a different page for getting a library card and there's one paragraph. They have a page for using your library card, which is like two paragraphs and just on and on forever like that. Let's see. So it'll end up being at least 20 pages, maybe 30.

And do you think being part of the program helped you get the confidence to charge this much for this project?

Oh, definitely.  You know, before I joined WP Rockstar, I was just learning HTML, CSS. I didn't know what WordPress was. I didn't know anything about hosting, like website security.  I didn't know a lot of things. And I think the mindset coaching was really, really important because, you know, I've got several no's already and that's always discouraging. And then you second guess yourself.  But I forget where I forget where I heard and I don't remember if it was part of GeekFest or part of the curriculum where I think it's Hellen and there's a deck of cards, you know.  I really like that. And she said, you know, go get 50 no's, you know, just keep keep going until you find your yes. So that's really helpful.  And the mindset coach Hellen, her stuff is really, really helpful. Well, in the Facebook community, it's helpful to just be able to talk with others who are going through the same thing, feeling the same insecurities and doubt. And then knowing that I can go to the Facebook community and get support if I need help with something, it's definitely that. The course helped me figure out how much to charge for this website. But then also a video that somebody in the Facebook group had shared was also very, very helpful to me to figure out how much to charge into being brave in charge. My first website client, I didn't charge them enough. I didn't factor in how hard it is to work with people like and how much extra work I would have to do to help them do what was supposed to be their job, you know. So I factor that into this one. Definitely.  And I factored in, you know, if they want to keep their 50 plus pages, you know, I'm going to pitch that much because they might, you know.

How much time on average would you say you put into the course?

It's really hard to say how much time I put into the course because I was also trying to do lots of other things too. You know, I have a 3D printer, which is more of a hobby, but I was getting ready for the craft fair, so I was trying to print a bunch of stuff so that I can go to the craft fair and pass out my business cards for my website business. So that was good. And I made some good contacts there, but I didn't really get any contracts or any clients from there.  And then I was also seeing all these other ways people can make money online, like building Shopify stores and shit. And so I was like, Oh, that'd be easy. I could learn how to build a Shopify store or Oh, I wanted to save money and my brother in law had told me about Digital Ocean because he had helped me with some things for my home server, which is on Linux and you can do that on Digital Ocean. So then I was trying to figure out how to do WordPress, digital Ocean and it's complicated. I wasted a lot of time trying to do that. So yeah, it's hard to say how much time I spend on the course because I wasted a lot of time pursuing other things, even though I finally decided, you know, to listen to what the coach said and you know, focus on one thing and then later I can add stuff. So I think if I had stayed focused, I would have easily been able to follow the three month track, which really I actually, if I had to say focus, I probably could have done it faster because I'm not working another job right now. Like I still got the kids, like I've got a toddler and six year old. I'm home schooling the six year old and you know, all that stuff. So but I think if I had stayed focused, I think I could have got it done in a little less than three months.

Did you feel supported while going through the course?

Yeah, yes, I definitely felt supported while I was doing the course, like through the Facebook community. And I also really like the weekly emails that come out, the Weekly Geekly with, you know, like I don't read very many newsletters. I don't subscribe to their newsletters. But in the newsletter that Julia sends out, we've got job opportunities. We got the Wynns Wisdom, giving different tips on website building. So I feel supported through the weekly newsletter and through the Facebook group.

What are your future plans?

My plans right now are to really focus on building WordPress websites and getting clients there. I recently purchased Oxygen Builder and I really like that. So I'm learning more about that and I plan on doing well. I might go back and look at some of the old WP Rockstar curriculum.  Once I get some more income, hopefully later this year, I can either join the coaching program or the new GeekPack program just kind of to see what where I'm at and what I think would be best for me there. But I definitely will stay part of the WP Rockstar Facebook group for all the support.

What stood out to you about WP Rockstar?

I guess the thing that stood out to me about WP Rockstar, and GeekPack in general was during the free GeekFest there was so much information that was immediately useful and so much I could have done.  You know, I could almost build like I almost could have gotten a client. From what I learned just in GeekFest. So that that really sold me on, you know, maybe I'll look at this program and see what it's like and, you know, oh, my goodness, I think that this program could actually help me. I think it actually could do this. Like, I guess I'll talk to my husband about it and he was on board right away, said, you know, it was I think it was Tuesday night's geek fest that I looked at it and I showed him and he said, you know, you should buy it. And I was like, Well, I'm not even done with the free stuff yet. And, you know, let's let's sleep on it. And he's like, No, you can do it. Like you should do it. So we did. Definitely the support from my husband is a big deal So and he is you know he's very happy with like he's he says I'm doing great that it's great that I'm already like earning money. When he went back to school in 2014 to get a nursing degree to make more money for our family and his. And so, you know, when I feel like I'm not moving fast enough, he says, well, you know, I went back to school for three years and, you know, racked up this much debt before I started making money as a nurse.

What would you say to someone who's on the fence about joining WP Rockstar?

If somebody was on the fence about joining WP Rockstar, I would say if you're worried that it doesn't, I would say that if you're on the fence because you're not sure that the program works, then you should go for it. If you're on the fence because you don't know if you really want to do that, it's still probably worth going for it because I really believe you can get back your investment quickly. And then if you decide it's not for you, you know, there's nothing lost except a little time. So I would say it's worth it.