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[00:00:48] Hala Taha: Young and profiteers. Welcome back to the show. And today we have a super inspiring episode because my guest today has achieved success and a resulting lifestyle that many of us young [00:01:00] entrepreneurs out there could only dream about. Kat Norton, aka Miss Excel, generated 2 million annually in her business by the time she was just 29 years old.

[00:01:11] She bought her first home, and she has a hugely satisfying career and fulfilling career while only working just 4 hours a day. So, what was her secret? It was combining two of her biggest passions with social media savvy and a contagious energy. And today's episode, we'll learn about how Kat transformed her love and passion for dancing and spreadsheets together to then turn into a viral sensation on TikTok and parlay that into a successful online business and course sales.

[00:01:42] And we're going to get her insights on how you can do it too. I'm going to pick her brain. On how she went viral on TikTok and Instagram, we're gonna learn how she promotes her courses and strategies through webinars, and so much more. I can't wait to get into it. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Miss XL, Kat [00:02:00] Norton.

[00:02:00] Kat, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. 

[00:02:03] Kat Norton: Thank you so much for having me. 

[00:02:05] Hala Taha: I'm really excited for this conversation. So your story is one that a lot of entrepreneurs would envy, but I came to find out that your story actually started with 100, 000 in student debt and a job in corporate America that you weren't quite satisfied with.

[00:02:20] So can you walk us through your early career journey and where you thought you were headed at that time? Absolutely. So 

[00:02:26] Kat Norton: I graduated college back in 2016 with my MBA and I went right into the corporate path. I was at a consulting firm. And really quickly from when I got there, I realized that I had some enhanced Excel skills because people started just directing questions toward me of, Hey, how do I do this?

[00:02:46] So for fun on the side, when I was on the bench for a week in consulting terms, it's when you like don't have a client for a week, I built out the most fun, engaging Excel training for fun, just on my computer. And a [00:03:00] managing director looked over my shoulder and was like, what, what are you doing over there?

[00:03:04] And I was like, Oh, you know, I kept tabs on everyone's Excel questions. And I started building out this class just for fun. And they totally backed me and had me flying around the U S right when I started as a new consultant on the side of my job, hosting these Excel trainings. So I did that for five years before I actually made the business more so as a passion project and a way to really help people at the company I was at.

[00:03:26] Hala Taha: it's awesome that you got to learn and hone your craft as an Excel trainer on somebody else's dime. So you ended up becoming an entrepreneur. We actually have something in common. We're both COVID entrepreneurs who started our businesses in 2020. What changed for you during the lockdown?

[00:03:43] Why did you decide, okay, I'm going to try to step out on my own now? 

[00:03:47] Kat Norton: It really brought down the amount of travel I was doing, which gave me a lot more time to reflect. So before this with my consulting job, every week I was traveling to a new client in a new state, and I did that for years. So I was just [00:04:00] running, running, running, not really analyzing my life and what I wanted.

[00:04:04] And I was a very creative being, but I wasn't really pursuing anything too creative. And that is when I found myself back in my childhood bedroom of my parents house, no longer traveling, just working remotely. So I had a lot more time on my hands, because I would spend a lot of hours per week traveling.

[00:04:21] And that's where I started doing a ton of inner work, because I knew the version of myself that I was at that time was not my highest self. And I was like, okay, there's definitely some things I need to work on here. So I dove deep into inner child work, shadow work, meditation, Dr. Joe Dispenza's work, and really throughout that, over a two month period, every single day, I was just finding ways to keep.

[00:04:47] Working on myself, leveling up, and I'll never forget, it was about two months into that. I had no business. I was in my childhood bedroom. I came running out one day, and I was like, Mom, I'm going to be [00:05:00] rich and famous soon, so I need you to prepare your nervous system for that. And I was like, dead serious.

[00:05:06] And she was like, what? Like, okay, Kathleen, go clean your room. But Every cell in my body already knew I was on some other timeline, even though my current reality looked nothing like it at all. And then within a few weeks from there, I got the intuitive hit for Mystic Cell. I remember downloading the TikTok app for the first time.

[00:05:25] I was so against it. I was like, oh, I'm not gonna waste time on TikTok. This is like early pandemic days. It's like, I'm gonna read a book, you know? And then I opened it up, And I started looking and was like, oh, it's kind of weird. There's no Excel on TikTok. Do people not like Microsoft Excel here? Or could this be something?

[00:05:45] And I had no idea how to use the app at all. I watched a few YouTube videos and was like, okay. I'll figure out the buttons here. And I had a vision of what the video would look like right when the idea had come up where I saw the [00:06:00] Excel screen above my head, but me dancing below it. And it was to that Drake song, the Tuesday slide and the left foot, uh, right foot slide to the left and the right function in Excel.

[00:06:09] So that's really where I was like, okay, I want to see this vision come to life. I'm such a creative. I want to get this out of my brain and into something. And I watched the video back and I was like, Oh, this is actually pretty cool. Maybe I'll make an account. Maybe I'll post it. And that's really where it all began.

[00:06:26] Hala Taha: So basically you had this viral idea that you said you downloaded it and a lot of it had to do with your mindset work. Can you actually Dispenza. What kind of inner work did you actually do and how did your mindset change before you actually started posting on social media? 

[00:06:44] Kat Norton: There were three main tools that I use, and I always like to preface this with these are the ones that I use, but there are so many out there.

[00:06:50] It's really just a matter of finding one that resonates with you. For me, I was diving into the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza. I've been to a few of his retreats now, but at the time I was [00:07:00] just reading his book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. And that, for me, brought my self scientific logical brain on board with law of attraction, manifestation, how all of that works.

[00:07:10] Because naturally, I've always been a bit of a mystic with that stuff. But there was still this conscious part of my mind that was having a little trouble grasping like, Oh, think positive, good things will happen. I need a little bit of that science. So for me, that book opened up a ton. And then I was also doing kundalini yoga, which is powerful yogic technology with breath work and mantra.

[00:07:32] So that was keeping my energy in a really good spot. And then I started doing Lacey Phillips has a program called to be magnetic. And it's a really structured way to do inner child work and shadow work. So for me, you know, Capricorn, I like my structure out here. So I had a very structured way where I knew every day I was going in and working on certain parts of my brain.

[00:07:54] And then over time, due to neuroplasticity, I was able to go in and change some of the neural [00:08:00] pathways that were creating my current reality. Because I wasn't as much of a fan of where I was and knew there was somewhere else I wanted to go. So for me, that was my little trifecta to get my conscious mind on board, to have a yoga practice, and to be just overhauling a lot of the patterns and limiting beliefs that were keeping me in place.

[00:08:19] Hala Taha: So basically, you didn't realize that you could really break out and become something more and after doing this mindset work, you've actually got confidence to go out and do it. So did you have any previous social media experience before you first started posting on TikTok? 

[00:08:37] Kat Norton: None at all. 

[00:08:38] So if you looked at my 

[00:08:39] personal pages, you'd be like, okay, this girl is not an influencer.

[00:08:44] So I was really just learning by the seat of my pants. I would read the comments people had and I'm like, okay, what do they like? What do they not like? But also for me, it really came down to authenticity. So I love dancing, I love helping people, and I love Excel. [00:09:00] So I was like, what would happen if I put all of that inside of one video, right?

[00:09:04] So for me, it was just an authentic expression. It was cool. It was something I had never seen before. seen anybody do before, in terms of the Excel space especially, but also in a lot of learning spaces. Integrating dance, which is more native to the TikTok app. But then layering in the educational piece and that polarity is what really helped the videos take off because if I just posted Excel tip videos, people would have been like, cool, I don't use Excel and moved on.

[00:09:29] But so many people were commenting because they were like, what the heck is this girl doing? She is dancing. She's doing the Tuesday slot, left and right function. What is going on here? And that's really what helped it go through the algorithm. 

[00:09:42] Hala Taha: And I want to laser in on something you said, we'll go deeper on it later, but you talked about polarity.

[00:09:47] So the fact that you combined two things that are really uncommon together, dance and Excel, it gets people talking, it gets people complaining. Why are you dancing, talking about Excel? Or some people will love it. And it [00:10:00] gets people talking, which really drives everything up in the algorithm. Do you have anything else to say about polarity and how important it is for social media?

[00:10:07] Kat Norton: I think it's a combination of polarity because obviously you want a healthy polarity, right? You don't just want to like say things to create polarity. It needs to be something that's actually authentic to you. So I thinkit's important to make sure that your mental health is in a great spot to be able to receive.

[00:10:24] what comes with polarity, right? Because a lot of times when a video goes viral, negative comments are the majority of the ones in there because it's being shown to people, it's being shared. And that's just the nature of the planet, right? We live on a polarity planet, there's always positive and negative forces.

[00:10:40] So it comes to making sure that your nervous system is able to hold the negative what we're the energy of what is going to come through from creating the polarity in that content. So for me, that was my biggest work. I was constantly working on myself because easily some people get some negative comments and it'll take them out.

[00:10:58] They'll be like, I don't want to post anymore. People [00:11:00] think this, or you start having certain limiting beliefs that then are adjusting the actions you'll take. So instead of following your intuition, you're following the actions that'll please the most people or things like that. So it's really important to keep coming back to yourself, come back to that intuition and know that the polarity is going to trigger some people and that's okay.

[00:11:19] That was a big lesson for me as a former people pleaser, you know, I had to let that go. 

[00:11:24] Hala Taha: So you're really big on TikTok. LinkedIn is my main platform. I'm an influencer on LinkedIn and you got me thinking one of my biggest viral posts was this post that had a lot of polarity and I never really put those words around it until right now.

[00:11:38] But basically I was wearing a hot pink jumpsuit and on the photograph it said, I'm a female CEO with female crossed out. And so there was a lot of polarity because I was wearing a hot pink jumpsuit, but I crossed out. Female. So like everybody was talking about it and now I, now I know why it went viral.

[00:11:56] So how soon did things take off for you? Did you go viral right [00:12:00] away? Did it take months, years? What was it like for you? 

[00:12:03] Kat Norton: The whole thing happened pretty quickly. And I do attribute a lot of that to the energetics that happened behind the scene where I was able to actually show up fully authentically and what I wanted to create.

[00:12:14] And was ready to receive the attention back, where normally I grew up with an anxiety disorder. I hated having any attention on me. I had to do a lot of overhauling to get to a spot where I wasn't going to subconsciously limit what was able to come into my field. So it was by the fourth video to that DMX song, X Gon Give It To Ya, I did the X lookup function.

[00:12:37] And that one, it was so good. That one got a hundred thousand views right away. And I was like, Oh my gosh, because this at the time was my secret TikTok account. Because I still had a corporate job. I wasn't really sure what I was allowed to do. So for me, I wasn't like, Hey, everybody, you know, like my video.

[00:12:55] Only my mother and my boyfriend knew about this secret account, Miss Excel. [00:13:00] So, for me, when that video hit, it got shown to all these people I work with. It got shown to all these people I know. I'm getting all these messages like, Is this you? And I'm like, Oh, maybe, maybe it's me. And then, within three weeks of that, I had my first video go viral on TikTok.

[00:13:17] And next thing you know, I looked down at my phone and within a couple days, I had 100, 000 followers. And that's where I was like, whoa, now what do I do? Because everything was going on in the news too at this time. This was like June, July of 2020 that TikTok's getting banned. All the things. So I was like, well, I gotta hedge my risk out here.

[00:13:37] I'm gonna create an Instagram account. So I created an Instagram, started posting on there. And then within a few months, both accounts had gone viral various times. And we had a few hundred thousand followers across the different platforms. 

[00:13:49] Hala Taha: That's so amazing. It's so rare to have somebody who just skyrockets on social media right away.

[00:13:58] You just alluded to the fact that you [00:14:00] came on with really good energy. And energy is really magnetic. So can you talk to us about the importance of ensuring that you have the right type of energy when you go film your videos? 

[00:14:09] Kat Norton: I view content as simply an energy exchange.

[00:14:13] My energy is coming through to you on your phone or vice versa. And you are the recipient of that energy, right? So my job as a creator is I want my energy through the roof. I want it in its most heightened, sparkly, magnetic state, because one, that's what's going to stop someone. Think about a bunch of people walking down the street.

[00:14:30] If there is someone that is magnetic and pure joy and like happiness, and that was something I worked on myself too to get myself to that place, that's the type of person and that's the type of energy where you're going to stop and be like, Whoa, that's What's that person doing? Why do I feel like attracted to them?

[00:14:45] Not in like a sexual way, but in like an energetic way. It's magnetism. And that's something I was learning early on is practices I can do behind the scenes. And a lot of that was where the Kundalini Yoga came into play, doing different yogic technologies and breath work and things [00:15:00] where my aura would become bigger, my energy would become bigger, and that way it would.

[00:15:04] stop you on the phone. So whether it was like the polarity of the video, like, I'm looking at Excel and a girl dancing at once. What is this? Or just the energy behind it, right? Like if I looked really bored or like I was having a bad time, I wouldn't want to hang out. It's kind of like creating a little room with someone when you're watching a piece of content and you're like entering their room.

[00:15:21] It's like, do I want to go in that person's room? You want to make sure the energy is there, you're inviting, and you're actually providing value. So that was something too where I'd spend a lot of time researching the tips and tricks, making sure that one, people were learning, but two, also that we were having that entertainment factor because.

[00:15:38] Each video too can bring someone's energy up or down. So if you're watching dark things that are going to bring down your frequency, bring down your vibration, that's something that's going to create more negative feelings in the body. My job is, I'm trying to lift that up on the planet. I want to make you smile.

[00:15:54] I want to make you laugh. I want to brighten your day in any possible way that I can. So, that's where, with [00:16:00] my content, I need to make sure that I'm in a good spot before I go and actually make that piece because that energy translates every single time. 

[00:16:10] Hala Taha: So, I love actionable advice on the podcast.

[00:16:12] Most of our listeners, they're entrepreneurs, they might be creating content, we're on video right now. What is something that we can do right now? Because you heard me. When we got on camera, I was like a little upset because I have a new makeup artist and she put way too much makeup on my face and I was like, Oh, I don't feel like myself.

[00:16:30] What would I do to get my energy up in a situation like that? 

[00:16:33] Kat Norton: Well, first off, I think you did an incredible job of one, expressing that, right? Because so many people internalize that. So you just opened it up to the room. You were like, Hey guys, this is how I'm feeling. And that openness is automatically releasing any type of shame you're feeling around that emotion.

[00:16:48] So I had this a lot going on with acne. I was trying so hard to hide my acne for years and years and make up and things. And the second I started talking about it, it releases the shadow aspect of it. So then. [00:17:00] Just releases that electromagnetic charge. So you did an amazing job. You literally came on, you're like, yo, guys, this is how I'm feeling, right?

[00:17:06] And then we were able to hype you the F up because your perception of that reality was different than our perception of that reality. We're like, oh my gosh, she's drop dead gorgeous. Look at her. And then that was your perception of the reality. So we were able to merge that a little bit and get your vibration back up.

[00:17:22] And now you're so sparkly and magnetic as always. So it's really cool. What you did was so on point. 

[00:17:28] Hala Taha: Yeah, I love that. I love putting some real life situations into perspectives. Okay, so let's talk about the different ways that you can trend on TikTok. You talked about polarity. You also talk about craftsmanship, creativity, and authenticity.

[00:17:45] Can you break down those things and how they can help us do well on TikTok and Instagram and all the other short form video content out there?

[00:17:53] Kat Norton: When it comes to authenticity, I do think that's one of the biggest ones because I see a lot of people trying to fit [00:18:00] themselves into a certain box. That's not their box.

[00:18:03] It's not the box that feels good for them. It's not what they actually want to do. I remember when TikTok back in like 2020 with it, everyone's like, Oh, I If I go on TikTok, I have to dance. You absolutely do not have to dance. And obviously we see that now in all the content that's out there now. But at the time for me, I was just dancing because I genuinely love to dance.

[00:18:24] That is when I'm so sparkly and magnetic and I will do that behind the scenes to hype myself up. So for me, it was a very authentic expression. I do think too, when it comes to actually creating that polarity, I like combining different things. I like having a unique spin on something that you haven't seen before.

[00:18:42] So I think when it comes to creating that authentically for you, what I like to do is just literally make a list. This is how I got started out. I made a list of like, what do I like? Because I remember this was back when I was at my corporate job. I was just very much a dull version of myself. And I was really contorting to be the way that I [00:19:00] needed to be to fit in the corporate box.

[00:19:02] And I was doing Securitization reviews for banks. I had a marketing degree. I always constantly felt like I was just not in the right room. I was like, Oh, finance, you know, so it was one of those things where I needed to get clear on who I was and what I genuinely authentically wanted to do and create.

[00:19:21] So I literally made a list of what lights me up and what do I love. And then you could take a step back and look at that list and be like, okay. Is there a way to branch these things together? And then if you feel like you have limiting beliefs popping up being like, well, you don't have time for that.

[00:19:38] You can't do that. People think you're weird. You're going to get fired. All the things. Those are the biggest blessing, right? Because that is when it is shining a flashlight. on the limiting beliefs that are holding us in place from getting to where we intuitively and authentically want to go. So I think a big part of it is I view whenever I catch a limiting belief, I'm like, hell yes, [00:20:00] because now I see it.

[00:20:01] The biggest thing is Having the gift of awareness and that's the thing with the kundalini yoga technology. It's the yoga of awareness so I was constantly like doing things to bring awareness to my own self because a Lot of us go through life trying to and I did this for the longest time just hide ourselves right hide our flaws hide things And I was like, you know what?

[00:20:19] I need to bring my own self awareness to where my quote unquote flaws are, if they're even flaws. People view everything different. It's all perception. And be able to not stand in my own way when it comes to getting those goals, when it comes to reaching what I actually want to do and what timeline I want to be on.

[00:20:38] So I think it's all just a game of. Authenticity, polarity, awareness, and just doing things in your own way. 

[00:20:45] 

[00:20:49] At what point did you decide, okay, I'm going to start monetizing this thing? At what point did you decide to [00:21:00] put out a course and start making sales?

[00:21:02] Kat Norton: That was in October of 2020. So at this point, I had a few hundred thousand followers on TikTok, on Instagram, and a business coach slid into my DMs, as he should, and was like, Hey, notice you have a few hundred thousand followers. No lead magnet, no link in your bio, no mailing list, no product. What you doing over here?

[00:21:24] And I was brand new to the digital marketing space. I did not know any of these things. So I did a one off session. I ended up doing the classic. I had the MailChimp, the Linktree, you know, the little automation going. And I started growing a mailing list. And that happened pretty quickly. And by November of 2020, so about a month later, is that Black Friday is when I started selling my first Excel course.

[00:21:48] So this course, I took two weeks off from my day job. So at this point, I'm still working 50 hours a week at my day job. Took two weeks off on vacation in my living room. Yeah. And I built the most fun, [00:22:00] engaging Excel course I could possibly think of because if you've seen my content, your girl could not have a boring Excel course after that.

[00:22:06] I was like, this needs to be really cool and fun. So I built the whole course. I taught myself video editing. I edited every single video. It was over a hundred videos. And I started selling it Black Friday, and two months later, by January, it was bringing in more revenue per month than my day job was per month.

[00:22:25] And I was like, wow, Mystic Cell takes me like 10 hours a week, and my day job takes me 40 to 50. I would be dangerous with those hours back in my week. I would be able to just go off and really scale this thing. So to, you know, Everybody's discontent. I was like, I'm going to quit my steady, cushy, stable day job in order to make TikTok content and courses.

[00:22:45] And everyone was like, what? But for me, it's really just a game. This is how I view entrepreneurship. It is just taking the bet on you. And I knew as long as I made that promise to myself, I am not going to give up on me. [00:23:00] There is no risk. As long as I'm not giving up, I will 100 percent be successful because I will not stop until I get there.

[00:23:06] And I just went into it with that mentality with all the people who were like, what are you doing? And, you know, trying to like explain to your 30 person team that you're quitting. Oh, what company are you going to? My company. What do you mean? Have you seen me on TikTok, Steve? It's a very interesting time.

[00:23:23] But really taking that bet on me is what opened everything up because from there I was able to create nine more courses. Started doing webinars and started bundling them together, and once I got that price point higher, that's when we scaled into a seven figure company. 

[00:23:36] Hala Taha: Yeah, that's awesome. And I'm sure it was easy to quit your cushy job considering you were already making more money in your side hustle.

[00:23:43] I was the same way. I was making way more money in my side hustle at one point than my corporate job, and I was like, okay, it's definitely time to release these golden handcuffs. So something that you did that was really smart is that you went really niche. You dominated Excel training. [00:24:00] There was a gap.

[00:24:01] Open on TikTok. Nobody was talking about it. You did it in a really fun, engaging way. And you basically dominated that Excel space, which is a niche of a niche, right? So it's very, very niche. And I do want to point out to everybody listening, because I teach a lot about entrepreneurship, And social media is that it's so much easier to dominate a small niche and then go broad.

[00:24:25] So a lot of people try to go broad. They might launch a general entrepreneurship show out of nowhere when it's way better to just laser in on one aspect and dominate that and compete there and then broaden out. So do you ever think about how you're going to broaden out your brand now that you've really dominated Excel?

[00:24:43] Kat Norton: So, we've done a little bit of it in the last year and a half. So, I went from just Excel courses, and now we teach across the Microsoft Office suite. So, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, OneNote. We also do Google Sheets. I also teach AI and kids courses. So, that's really [00:25:00] where we started going out more inside of the course space.

[00:25:03] And then, I'm always listening. Right. I'm listening to our audience. I'm like, what do they want? What do they need? And then where does that line up with my talents and what I'm able to bring to the marketplace? But yeah, when we scaled out to the other Microsoft Office products, that's where we went from six figures to seven figures.

[00:25:19] We needed that higher price point because it's interesting. So Excel courses are actually one of the top selling courses. It is a really popular course topic. I didn't know that getting into it. And what we brought to the Excel space too is different from what had been there before. Because a lot of people looked at it and they're like, Oh, there were already a bunch of Excel YouTubers and bloggers.

[00:25:39] That was the space when I first came into it. No one was really doing short form content on Excel. So that's where I came up with the differentiator because a lot of people to look at even like niche industries and they're like, Oh, there's so many people in there. I can't get in there. There's some people that have been teaching Excel since before I was born, but I was like, I'm going to bring my own authentic spin to this and [00:26:00] really make this topic fun because it doesn't have to suck.

[00:26:03] Like a lot of people look at Excel and they're like, Oh. And if you're hanging out with me, you best not be having those feelings. I'm going to make sure you are having a good time. And you're actually learning things that are going to save you hours in your week. And that is my big thing with it. Not only we're going to make this functional, but we're going to have a good time together because life is short and we should all be having a good time.

[00:26:23] And I would never want someone to sit through a course that was really boring. 

[00:26:27] Hala Taha: I can imagine in the future that you actually help people launch courses or explain how to go viral on TikTok because you learned a whole set of skills putting your expertise out to the world and you could probably help other people put their expertise out to the world as well.

[00:26:42] Kat Norton: Yeah, that's something I do think about a lot potentially for down the line. I feel like there's something really big coming on the Miss Excel side, and so I've been putting my eggs in that basket, but I do think down the line I've gotten pretty good at course creation and webinars and selling, so I do think [00:27:00] that's something I can help people with down the line.

[00:27:02] Hala Taha: Yeah, and I definitely want to pick your brain on that, but first let's talk about spreadsheets. So I figured this is Primarily an audio podcast. We're not going to be able to get too nitty gritty in terms of spreadsheet tutorials, but of course you can go to Miss Excel's channels and learn all that stuff yourself.

[00:27:19] But I do want to just talk about the fact that spreadsheets sometimes get a bad rap. People are always talking about. We gotta get out of spreadsheets. We gotta get out of spreadsheets and in Airtable. Out of spreadsheets and in ClickUp. Out of spreadsheets and in whatever tool is out there. So what is your perspective?

[00:27:36] What is Excel good for and what is Excel not so good for? 

[00:27:40] Kat Norton: I think Excel is incredible for data analysis. When you want some answers and you want to know those answers are accurate, Excel is the way to go. And it's also great for bringing data together. So much of business is really going in and analyzing the data, analyzing what's happened, analyzing what you're [00:28:00] doing moving forward, and even just simple tasks from like an entrepreneurial perspective, right?

[00:28:04] Cleaning your mailing list, analyzing your mailing list, doing the uploads, the CSV files, things like. Having those Excel schools really, really help. What I do see more of in the entrepreneurial space is moving into other platforms for more collaboration type efforts. So I've even seen that with Google Sheets too.

[00:28:24] A lot of people do that for more simple collaboration. But I would say the hardcore data analysis side, when you need to pull all that data out, pull out your customer data and start looking at what people are buying, what they're doing, and really getting to those answers, that's where Excel really stands strong.

[00:28:41] Hala Taha: And when you say data entry, the first thing that comes to my mind is, oh, all this manual data entry. But talk to us about the ways that we can use Excel to automate some common repetitive tasks. 

[00:28:53] Kat Norton: Exporting from systems, first of all. Exporting all that data and then functions that you can use, like the lookup functions, those [00:29:00] are great ones for combining those different data sets together.

[00:29:03] And then when it comes to the automation space, that's where learning VBA and macros and ways to create basically little tiny programs like automations that you can hit a button and it'll do the same things you may need done to your spreadsheet each time. are great ways to automate and save time too.

[00:29:19] But I really think a lot of it comes down to just knowing. Excel's kind of sneaky. Most people don't understand the capabilities that it has. It is like a Ferrari. There's so much you can do with it. And a lot of people treat it like, you know, it's like a Camry. They're like, I'm just gonna put the data in there and change the color to yellow.

[00:29:37] Cool. But it is a machine. So I try to inspire people too, to actually. Open up the HUD, take a look and see how much time you can be saving because so many people actually use it and waste time with it versus saving time with it. And that's where I come in. 

[00:29:54] Hala Taha: Does Google Sheets and Excel have generally the same capabilities?

[00:29:58] Kat Norton: Yeah, I would say they're pretty [00:30:00] similar, but Excel is definitely better for the data analysis side of things. I would say Google is a little bit stronger in the collaborative features. Like if you all need to be working on the same spreadsheet at the same time. Okay. Cool. But if it's something where you're going in and you're analyzing stuff and you're pulling down different things, Excel's where it's at.

[00:30:17] Hala Taha: We use Google Sheets, specifically, all the time at YAP Media, and I made a joke the other day to my business partner. Man, we just made 50k from a row on a spreadsheet, you know? Like, we make so much money off just using Google Sheets. It really is, honestly, what powers our business is using Sheets. So it's so important.

[00:30:38] I would love my employees to take some of your trainings and level it up. Is there anything that we can do for our daily lives? Little known hacks that we can use Excel for, even for our own personal lives outside of business?

[00:30:53] Kat Norton: I typically use it in my own personal life for different tracking type things.

[00:30:58] And then also from the sense of [00:31:00] templates. So if you ever need to do similar tasks time and time again, or also with SOPs, I'm trying to think for more of the entrepreneurial perspective. If you have SOPs for people on your team where, you know, if there's certain data points or certain forms that you collect each time for us, for example, every time we host our webinars, there are certain metrics we want every single time to be pulled.

[00:31:21] So having those places where you keep it consistent and you're able to analyze it, not only on a narrow level, but on the broad level. So you have monthly different sheets for different things you're pulling in, but then you also tie it together on a dashboard. We have a dashboard course for that too. So we are always talking about able to have that bird's eye view when it comes to your data and be able to zoom out and make those strategic business decisions.

[00:31:45] Because it really depends to where in your business you are. If you are a CEO, like you want to be looking at that bird's eye view. If you're a data analyst, you want to be getting into the nitty gritty of the numbers. So it's a matter of merging those two worlds so the data can actually be [00:32:00] used to make those decisions.

[00:32:02] Hala Taha: So like we talked about, this is an entrepreneurship podcast. A lot of people have their own courses and you've done a phenomenal job promoting, creating courses, selling your courses. So let's walk through some of your strategy there. Can you talk to us about how you promote your courses today? What are the things that you're doing to drive people to your platform to buy your courses?

[00:32:22] Our biggest revenue 

[00:32:24] Kat Norton: driver is webinars. So I host typically every month or every couple months live sessions where I, for 45 minutes, am teaching a full blown Excel class. We're either going into data cleaning, pivot tables, lookup functions. I have a little intro, and then I go in and I teach a full blown class because I want them to get a taste of what I can do and how I can actually break these concepts down.

[00:32:48] And on the other side of that, people are like, what, I just learned all these things. And then we give them an incredible deal to keep learning with us and a massive discount and gift with purchases. And I actually first learned [00:33:00] this from, I was on Boss Babes webinar back in like January of 2021.

[00:33:05] That's how I found out about Webinar Jam was through Natalie and Danielle. And really from there we do the webinar and then we have a closed down sequence that goes through and we also get a lot of sales on the back end. And another huge driver of our webinars has been our affiliate program. So we came up with an affiliate program where we do a 50 50 split, meaning if someone brings in a lead to us, whether we have like Morning Brew, we work with some of the huge Excel creators where they get their own events.

[00:33:32] And then we have tons of people, if they're smaller creators going into our webinars where if you send us that lead. And they make a sale, you get 50 percent of the revenue. So that's something where we have creators making, you know, 10, a month to up to like 70, 000 a month with us in commissions. So that's something where I wanted to create something like, you know, an affiliate program with our courses, because there's so many creators out there not making money and it [00:34:00] really upsets me.

[00:34:01] They have huge followings. And I'm like, what's happening? Because I feel like that's where I was. And a lot of people don't have topics that are as conducive to courses. And they're just doing work. Brand deals and stuff where I was like, okay, I want to make something where they can make good money out of this too.

[00:34:15] And they could quit their jobs too. Like a lot of these Excel creators have like 8 million followers and no products. So I was like, okay, let's get in there. We already built it. We have a team of seven team. We're running the backend. Let's create something where all they need to do is push a link. And then everything's taken care of for them on the back end.

[00:34:32] So that's been a huge revenue generator for us too is bringing in all those affiliates and it's a huge revenue generator for them. So it's been a win win. 

[00:34:39] Hala Taha: Yeah. I love that strategy of affiliates. That's one that I've never heard of before, specifically driving people to your webinar and then if it converts, they get a portion of the sale.

[00:34:50] So I kind of want to like. Yeah. distill some of the things that you had mentioned. Webinars are really important to me. I use it to sell my LinkedIn courses. I'm actually putting out a webinar [00:35:00] about using webinars to launch info products or sell info products, sponsored by Teachable in And so I'd love to get some of your perspective.

[00:35:08] about this topic specifically. So first of all, you mentioned that you retarget folks after the webinar is over. You said after the webinar is over, there's also sales that are happening afterwards. So a lot of people don't realize that when people are signing up to Zoom webinar, you get to collect emails.

[00:35:25] So one of my favorite things about webinars and Zoom webinars is the fact that people have to give you their email and it really helps to accelerate and grow your email list. And then you can retarget those people on email afterwards, but talk to us about your retargeting strategy after the webinars over what happens.

[00:35:42] Kat Norton: Our full process is on the front end. We're getting the name, the email, and sometimes we have an optional for phone number. So we also have a text campaign that's going out too. We use those more so on the show up side. So on the front end, you're getting a five email drip for a show up sequence. You have extra tickets, invite other [00:36:00] people.

[00:36:00] And then we also do a Right before the webinar, you get a little text. If you signed up with your number, it's like, Hey, reminder, it's on there. We also integrate with ad event to be able to give them little calendar links and they can hit a button and boom, the events on their Google calendar, their Outlook calendar and whatnot.

[00:36:15] From there, after the webinar, once we hang up, we have all the email sequences going out. So people get gifts for attending live. So we have those going out. We have people who get gifts with purchases from their purchases. And then we also have our traditional closed down sequence. Which we do a six email sequence and it goes through and gives them, you know, the discount code again, the replay link.

[00:36:38] And then throughout those emails, we're also just integrating different testimonials and things that'll go and work through to the base with the sale. And then we have the last call on the bottom there too. 

[00:36:49] Hala Taha: Got it. Can you walk us through some examples of what you mean by gift for attending the first session?

[00:36:55] Kat Norton: Yeah, so we, we have lots of presents when you come to our events. I never heard that before. That's why I'm like, [00:37:00] tell me more. Yeah, so that helped with our show up. So we essentially advertise that anyone who attends in person, well, in person, virtually, you know, our live event, you get a practice file that I worked through in the class or you get an extra little bonus for coming live because the conversion of the people who come live is obviously much higher than the people who watch the replay.

[00:37:21] Or people, you know, who don't watch at all. So our goal is to get you in the room. One, because you're going to have the best experience and actually learn the materials and dedicate that time to you. And then two, it helps us from a marketing perspective and a business perspective. So we add in bonuses for attending live.

[00:37:37] And then we have tracking on that on the back end. So right when we hang up, we send them those. Give me an example, like a free download or something. Yeah, yeah. So it's really, it's more so free downloads, I'd say, in the broader entrepreneurial space. For us, it's an Excel workbook. So you get a workbook to do further practice of the lessons that you learned today.

[00:37:56] Because I typically do not give out the spreadsheet that I'm working with, because it's a [00:38:00] huge file with macros and we gamify the Excel experience. In order to make things really entertaining, we've built Escape rooms inside our spreadsheet, and they're, you know, as we're clicking and doing it together, different rooms are unlocking, and yeah, so they're very big files.

[00:38:13] So for our audience, we typically say you're not missing anything. Sit back, relax, just watch what's on the screen. But if you came here live, not to worry, you will get extra practice. And that's something that gets a lot more people in the room. And then we also do big gift with purchases. So for people, purchase on the live.

[00:38:30] They get a gift with purchase. So that's something we have tracked on the back end, too, so when we hang up, our team sends out all the different presents into the inbox. 

[00:38:39] Hala Taha: I love these ideas. These are such good ideas that I've really never heard before. I've interviewed a lot of webinar experts like Jason Fladline and Russell Brunson, so it's cool to get your unique perspective.

[00:38:50] So one of the things that I know that can scare people with webinars is providing too much education. If you teach them too much, oftentimes they feel [00:39:00] overwhelmed and then they're like, well, I learned so much. Why bother getting the course? I have so much to implement just with today. This is overwhelming.

[00:39:06] This is a lot of work. It can scare people away. So what is too much and too little education for your webinar? How do you think about that? 

[00:39:14] Kat Norton: I look at our course webinar, I'll give away maybe 5 percent of that course. So if you take a look at it, our courses are roughly about 12 hours long. Excel has so many different topics that I typically go to like a core three because we realized we did have a lot of people just always coming to our free classes because I was switching them up all the time.

[00:39:35] So now we keep it into three different topics where you don't really get the other topics. So having that repetitive nature, if you are doing tons of webinars does help. We do have tons of our existing course members who joined our free webinars. And it's honestly, it is a really big blessing too, because they'll type in the chat like, yeah, I love my courses so much.

[00:39:53] It definitely does help with sales too, but one, I try not to be afraid of doing that because there's [00:40:00] always just so much more you can teach and things in the courses, but niching down into one topic is what we do. I don't just teach. Here's a little pivot tables. Here's a little lookup. Here's a little bit, you know, all the different things.

[00:40:10] Because then someone might look at the course outline and be like, I just learned all that, but they don't realize you can go deeper. So I niche it down. So we just did, for example, data cleaning. Why? We have a lookup one coming up. That's something we niche it down. 

[00:40:23] Hala Taha: So you're saying you have three core topics that you rotate, because people like to attend multiple webinars before they actually make their choice. That's what I found. People might attend my webinars two, three times, and then they make a purchase. Some people need more warming up, but they're just not ready, or they need to be sold more.

[00:40:40] What kind of psychology? And words are you using during your webinar to try to draw people in, get them engaged, get them bought into wanting to take this course. 

[00:40:51] Kat Norton: I think for me, this might be a little different than what other people do, but I just go from a place of love. Because I feel like, especially in the Excel space, it can [00:41:00] seem really cold and really sterile.

[00:41:02] That's not me as a person. So I go in there and just blast them. I'm like, you are going to feel like your hand is being held because I know this experience of learning Excel can feel really overwhelming. And I'll go through and just make sure that they understand once you're in our ecosystem, once you are in the Mystic Cell family, like you are taken care of.

[00:41:20] And I make sure that everyone I hire is incredibly heart centered and love filled and just great human beings. So that way I know they're being taken care of when they're in our courses. Because that's something that worries a lot of people is when you're teaching a topic that feels really overwhelming, they might need that extra help.

[00:41:37] Extra hand holding to be able to feel comfortable. So I always try to bridge that gap because that's something, especially in my space, that's really missing. If you're maybe like a love coach or something, that might not be something that's missing. But for us in our space, I've found that that's something really authentic to me and something that works really well.

[00:41:53] And then also I always speak to their pain points. So I know what's going on in their minds and I know how our product [00:42:00] is the solution to it. So I bridge that gap. A lot of people feel overwhelmed. They feel anxiety and things around it. And then our course members are saving hours in the week, getting promotions, getting raises, feeling confident at work.

[00:42:13] So making that messaging match up with what we're delivering and what their pain points are is really big too. 

[00:42:19] 

[00:42:19] 

[00:42:23] 

[00:42:27] Hala Taha: Walk us through how you would communicate pain points and flip it on its head. What would you say in the webinar?

[00:42:35] Kat Norton: If you open up your spreadsheet and you feel really overwhelmed, you feel like the person next to you knows so much more than you do and you might get passed up for the promotion or things in that realm is what I'll like, focus on where it's like the overwhelm, the anxiety.

[00:42:49] And then I explain, I have testimonials. We have 24, 000 students and I show them our course members and what they're actually doing. And I have their words. I got the promotion, I got the [00:43:00] raise, I showed my boss these tips and tricks, and now they want to bring on the courses for our whole team. And that's really where I'll bring up those points, and then I'll bring up these points and kind of merge them together.

[00:43:10] And we do it through different slides. So we have like a slide presentation that goes with it. 

[00:43:15] Hala Taha: Do you talk about your own personal story in the webinar at all? Do you intro with your own story, how Excel changed your life? How do you intro everything? 

[00:43:23] Kat Norton: I think it was, I forget who talks about it, it's like the hero's journey.

[00:43:26] You essentially have, yeah, in the beginning. So I mean, I really do have a journey with the product. So I talk about how my MBA program. Our professor on the first day actually told me to drop the class and told me I shouldn't be studying data because I didn't have the prerequisite courses. That was the first moment where I was like, you know what?

[00:43:45] I'm going to put in 110 percent every day. I want to stay. I want to try my best. Ends up the whole class is in Excel. Whole majors in Excel. So really, in efforts to pass this class, that is how I ended up falling in love with it. And then when I got into corporate, I talked about the first [00:44:00] presentation I gave in our New York office where I thought like 10 people would come.

[00:44:03] And it was the most packed training room I've ever seen. People carrying in chairs from the kitchen because they ran out of seats. And I was like, why do so many people care about learning Excel? And that's where I had my revelation about how being efficient in Excel can help you x, y, z. You know, and then it flows into the whole value promise.

[00:44:22] Hala Taha: I love that. And how do you keep people engaged in the webinar? What are you doing to get them to chat, to communicate, and why is that so important throughout the webinar? 

[00:44:29] Kat Norton: They're always chatting in the chat. So we typically have two to three thousand people on each live event. So the chat is constantly, like, the second I get on, I'm asking them where they're from, you know, it's going so fast, I like read as many as I can, but it's too much.

[00:44:43] And then, you know, As we go through the training, I don't actually look in the chat until after I'm done teaching the Excel part because I am full screen Excel on the screen and I'm in a flow state in my teaching zone and sometimes there's some people [00:45:00] being negative Nancy's in the chat like little things where I don't want that to ever throw off my energy.

[00:45:04] and giving them that attention. So I will go through the Excel class. We do have my boyfriend, Mike. He's my CFO. He's also my bouncer in the chats. So he's in there. If things get weird, we got Mike in there and my team's in there too as a backup for me. But we just keep me in my high vibe bubble so I can make sure I'm performing at top capacity.

[00:45:23] And then once we get to the pitch, that's where I can then visually see the chat and our slides. And we just added things actually in our last set that were pretty cool. where I intentionally ask them if I can pitch, which is something we've never done before, where it's like, guys, I have something really exciting.

[00:45:40] Can I show you? And then we also ask them, can you let me know in the chat how you like the session? Those are two things we actually just added. It's awesome for testimonials because a lot of times people are putting it in there, but it's more scattered. Now I have thousands of people. I get moving really quickly of all the different feedback.

[00:45:56] So those two we integrated, and then I stay on an extra 30 [00:46:00] minutes, and I will answer any questions they have, literally as long as they need. And something, too, with the chat that actually works really well, it kind of turns into like, almost like auction vibes at the end. Because all of people would be like, Nancy, be like, wait, I'm getting my credit card.

[00:46:13] Don't shut it down. I want the gift with purchase. I'm like, okay, we got Nancy in the chat. Anybody else? Let me know your name. I will keep it open for you. People are like, wait, me. And then more people start going through. So I usually stay on an extra 20 minutes where people are just like, But wait, I want it too!

[00:46:28] And that, you know, drags it on longer. But we're having fun. We're having fun out there. 

[00:46:33] Hala Taha: That's amazing. I love that you pointed out a couple of really cool things. So asking for permission for you to sell. You're probably saying like, hey, if I accomplish XYZ, do I have permission to tell you about this new thing?

[00:46:45] And then people are like, more open to buy. And the other thing that I love to do on webinars is get people to say yes. Yes. Want them to say yes throughout the whole webinar so at the end when you're selling, they feel like they're in the mode of saying yes. Right? And I [00:47:00] feel like that's a strategy too.

[00:47:01] So let's talk about how you actually bring people to the webinar. What's your best strategies to invite people to the webinar? You talked about affiliates, but what are you doing personally to get them to the webinar? 

[00:47:12] Kat Norton: We do the majority of it through our organic channels and our mailing list. So mailing list is number one.

[00:47:17] Okay. mailing list is the gold. We do a five email drip to the mailing list. We also have a newsletter that goes out every week. So we have it like inside of our newsletter as well. And then we also do a little bit of paid ads. That's something we've been ramping up over time, but we do have paid ads and then the affiliate programs, the other really big one and social content.

[00:47:37] And I do like stories. It's so interesting. My audience likes very specific stories. It has to be like Me, far away, doing something, and a bunch of words on the screen, and those will blast through the algorithm. And then anything else just doesn't, but I'm able to slip in the promotions on the bottom of those posts.

[00:47:54] I can let them in of like, behind the scenes of what I'm actually like, doing in my life, because I'm probably like, the [00:48:00] worst influencer. I never post what I'm doing online. Most people do not know where, what country I'm in, what I'm doing. I keep it very DL. But during webinar promotion, I open up the door and I'm just like, Hey, we're working on this behind the scenes and like kind of let them into that stuff.

[00:48:15] Hala Taha: And what's the best way that you've found to actually get people to go from TikTok or Instagram to your actual website to purchase your course? Is it a link in bio? Is it many chat automations? What are you doing? 

[00:48:28] Kat Norton: We do it all. So we usually do many chat into the webinar. So we have like a funnel, they comment level up, they get the link to the webinar, and then I sell them on the webinar.

[00:48:36] We don't do as much direct to course sales, unless it's the Black Friday sale or something like that. And then we also always have the link in bio for that too. So I would say those are the main ones. Sometimes we'll repost a viral piece of content with the call to action on it, and that'll make it through the algorithm pretty far too.

[00:48:53] Hala Taha: Cool. So your main strategy is. From social posts to webinar, email to webinar, and then everybody gets converted on [00:49:00] one big webinar. Yeah. I love it. So what other revenue streams do you have outside of your courses? 

[00:49:06] Kat Norton: In addition to the courses, we also have the B2B side of the business. So that's what my partner, Mike, he's our CFO.

[00:49:12] He runs that and we have a sales team now that goes out and sells to companies. So we work with over 300 organizations now from like Kraft Heinz, Enterprise Rent a Car. We work with all different schools, organizations, and we do a couple different things there. For some of them, they do bulk course purchases.

[00:49:30] So we'll either integrate with their learning management system or if they just want like a small group like five to ten, we give them discounts and we put them in the courses there. And then we also do live custom one hour sessions. So those are either with me or the demand for me got so high that I hired another trainer.

[00:49:48] So we have a certified Mystic Cell trainer who I trained up and she's incredible. And so a lot of times too, we'll book her out on jobs, depending on what the client wants. And then we're also working on something this quarter [00:50:00] where it's essentially going to be a Simulive experience. Because I realized, for example, I do trainings for one of the big four accounting firms and they like pre produced events.

[00:50:10] You know, it'd be like 17, 000 people on at once. They don't want me on a live. They want to pre produce it. They got, you know, the videographers, everybody's on camera. And or on, on the zoom meeting while I'm recording it. And that's where I had a brain blast. I was like, whoa, like they want to have the ability to have this video pre recorded.

[00:50:28] We know it's perfect. We know everything's lined up and then they're the ones who hit the go button. So we're working on our end to create a really cool experience that. I honestly don't think the corporate space has seen before, where we're integrating some things that we do in our courses. So, for example, our courses, I refilmed my entire Excel one recently, where we leverage AI to make them so cool and engaging.

[00:50:50] I build worlds inside of Excel. For example, with the Mystic Cells Zoo, it is a zoo built inside of a spreadsheet where I'm full blown dressed as a zookeeper with AI. I'm inside the zoo in [00:51:00] my spreadsheet and we're working on the animal data. We have a kitchen one where we run a restaurant. I'm in a chef outfit.

[00:51:06] I'm literally recording it in my room here on a blank background, but I'm inside of this kitchen world. And we have that data. I'm now able to, if it's prerecorded, to be able to integrate those aspects to create really cool simulated live experiences. And then where someone on our team is running the Q& A live on the chat, but then I don't have to physically be there.

[00:51:26] And then we could really scale this up because the demand for me has been really high. So that's something where we're looking to alleviate some of my time, but then also just make the corporate experience so much cooler. 

[00:51:37] Hala Taha: Yeah, it sounds so fun. You are so freaking creative. You really are a true creative mind and you make what other people probably think is boring, so fun.

[00:51:48] And I feel like that's really one of your secret sauces in terms of how you bundle your packages and sell your courses, the price points, do you have any thoughts? You've been doing this for a [00:52:00] while now. How do you feel like people should sell their courses most effectively in terms of how they bundle and price it?

[00:52:05] Kat Norton: For us, we did not pass the six figure mark until we got to the around thousand dollar price mark with creating more courses and then bundling them together. For us, what works really well is I give them the most no brainer deal, where you are getting nine courses for the price of one and a half. So when you're on a live webinar, when you're getting that discount code, plus gift with purchases and things like that, I make it the most no brainer situation for them.

[00:52:34] And that has helped a lot with driving up our sales and getting to those higher price points because our Excel courses start around 2. 97 for A regular Excel course, and then we go up to a little over a thousand dollars to get our complete Microsoft Office suite, where you're getting lifetime access to all the training videos, supplies, all the things, and they're continually updated.

[00:52:54] So I kind of equate what our product is, is like the Netflix of Microsoft Office. [00:53:00] And that's how I get a lot of people to like, draw the connection, because they're like, wait, I can watch whenever I want, anywhere, anytime. I'm like, yes, you have access to all of that in your back pocket. Everything's clearly labeled.

[00:53:11] It's like having me back there like, Oh, what did Kat say about a VLOOKUP? There she is. 5 to 10 minute lesson. Boom. So that's something that's really helped us too. 

[00:53:20] Hala Taha: I love all your tips that you shared. I'm sure a lot of entrepreneurs that are tuning in are like, how can I sell my expertise like Kat? And some of them might be thinking, am I really a good enough expert to sell my expertise?

[00:53:33] Like, am I ready? What would you say qualifies somebody to be ready to do something like you did and start selling their expertise? You're 

[00:53:41] Kat Norton: ready before you think you're ready. That's the biggest thing. A lot of times people will stand in their own way and you know more than you think you know. And especially if you are a teacher and you're teaching something, you're a really quick learner.

[00:53:54] So if you feel like there are any gaps, I would say fill in the gaps with what you need to do to get yourself to [00:54:00] that level. But a lot of the time, you know, already what you need to know, and it's a matter of breaking any subconscious patterns that are keeping you in that place where that's telling you that you're not the expert.

[00:54:11] It's very easy to get intimidated by other people, especially if they have a big audience, great website, they must be so official. Like, Dig into those people. I do a whole thing too where instead of viewing, I don't view anybody as competition. I view them as expanders where I can look at them and I'll find a way that I can relate to that person and be like, Oh, like they did this for four years.

[00:54:32] I did this for four, like little, little things where then you can create that connection to them and be like, if they could do it, I can do it too. So using anyone that's intimidating you as a way to expand your own subconscious, use it as a tool to further your own development. And then also just having that confidence in yourself because there are so many people that will go out there and just pitch their stuff.

[00:54:55] I've seen this time and time again. They don't even have experience in the thing. Like some people are [00:55:00] just really good at sales. If there's people out there doing that, trust me, if you're to the point where you can make a course on something, you know your stuff. 

[00:55:08] Hala Taha: I know that authenticity is really important and I think why people are drawn to you is because you really do have a super deep expertise in Excel and you really can teach a lot of different things.

[00:55:19] So what advice do you have to other folks who want to become better experts? What should they do to become a top expert in their field? 

[00:55:28] Kat Norton: So I think it depends on what the field is. But I'm always a big fan of continued education, obviously courses. I'm in the course business, so I love taking courses and learning things.

[00:55:38] And then also, Similar to what I said with expansion, finding people out there who are doing what you want to do. And that's something to work. It's like the four minute mile thing. Like when people saw that people could do it, they could do it. Same thing here. If you feel like you can't get to that next level or there's something in your way, like finding people who are there in order to [00:56:00] expand your own mind and then take a look at what they're doing and start living and making decisions from that place.

[00:56:05] That's something that's been really big for me too. We hired a lot of people in the last eight ish months, we added like 10 more people to our team. And I had this moment. I was listening to, it was a podcast episode actually with my business coach, James Wedmore and Natalie Ellis. And I was listening to that and they were talking about how they figured out when they were spending too much time on certain tasks that needed to be outsourced.

[00:56:32] For me, it was just like listening to a podcast episode. I was like, boom, wait, that's me right now. I need to hire people. I'm the one holding myself in place. I'm the one. The bottleneck here. From there, it just became super clear of what to do, and then it's. following your intuition.

[00:56:47] Hala Taha: What I found for myself is that when I actually teach other people, it reinforces it in my brain.

[00:56:54] And even if I'm teaching something that is kind of new, if I teach it two, three times, [00:57:00] suddenly it's like, I know it like the back of my hands. I'm the expert on this specific topic, even if I learned it two weeks ago and I just taught it a bunch of times recently. Right? So I feel like, don't be afraid to just learn something and teach it right away.

[00:57:12] And you'll actually. Get it reinforced and it will become part of your nomenclature like just automatically if you do that. Okay, so last question for you. I found out that you only work three to four hours a day, which is incredible. I don't know if this is true or not, but this is what I read in my research.

[00:57:30] You work just a few hours a day. Walk us through what your typical day looks like and why you've decided that you're going to have this four hour workday. 

[00:57:39] Kat Norton: It's even less now because I've outsourced pretty much like 90 percent of the stuff I had to do. I can work when I feel creative and when I want to do something.

[00:57:48] And that was something when designing this business, I was not going to put myself back in the same spot where I was working 50, 60 hours a week. I did a little hustle in the beginning, got this thing off the ground, but I was like, I'm not going to build [00:58:00] something that's entrapping me. And I want to.

[00:58:02] Enjoy the journey. I want to live my life as I'm growing this because miss excel is a direct reflection of my own energy So if I'm feeling contracted if i'm feeling like i'm being forced to do something It's not good energy for the business so really It was a game of just hiring out certain things that I was doing where they could do it so much faster than me, too things that they're experts in and having the team to back it up helped a lot, but Typically, our day to day looks totally different depending on what we're doing.

[00:58:31] Like, we spent the summer living in Europe and just traveling and maybe we got on a team meeting once a week, but the business is a well oiled machine now. We have systems in place. We have an incredible team. Everything running smoothly. It doesn't require much from me. Where I come into play is more of a strategy, visionary, partnerships.

[00:58:50] Where are we taking this train? And that's something I take really seriously. So even if it looks like on the outside, I'm not traditionally working, sitting at a desk, I'm When [00:59:00] I'm off roading through the desert, riding on their quads, that puts me in a creative flow state because my body is relaxed and I'll start getting tons of ideas and I write them down.

[00:59:09] So I've learned the way to work my body and work my nervous system to be able to make myself into a place where I can get the creative downloads. Cause in the end, I am the one making the decisions and being the visionary. And it's really important that I need to work my intuition. So I mean, typically our day to day, I've been really into like the biohacking space.

[00:59:28] So I'm like, getting all crazy with optimizing my body and my health. So I'm waking up, going out on the balcony, looking at the sunrise, helping with my circadian rhythm, eating clean food. And I just say yes to things that feel like a hell yes, like this podcast, talking to you. I'm like, hell yes. So things like that, things that light me up are the things I'm going to do.

[00:59:48] And then sometimes webinar weeks, for example, I'm hustling during a webinar week. I'm running six or seven 90 minute events where during those, it takes a ton of my energy. [01:00:00] If I was sitting there then doing all the emails myself and doing everything, that would be really hard for me to spin it back around and do it again.

[01:00:06] So that's where I'm like, okay, I need to outsource that so I can hang up the webinar and I have another one in an hour. I'm like laying on my PEMF mat with negative ions wrapped in a crystal blanket doing some meditation. I gotta do things to bring my nervous system back. 

[01:00:21] Hala Taha: Yeah, I love my P. E. M. F. mat, uh, higher dose.

[01:00:25] Higher dose! I love them. I love them. Yes, it's the best. Every day. Okay, so one thing that I found out is that you're actually editing your own videos still, is that true? Because you were talking about outsourcing, but are you still editing your own videos? No, not anymore. Not anymore. Not 

[01:00:42] Kat Norton: anymore. No. We have, we have a couple editors on deck now.

[01:00:45] One that does social. One that does courses. We built like a full course studio in my house now. So we have like a TikTok studio. I got rid of all my guest rooms. 

[01:00:52] Hala Taha: Amazing. 

[01:00:53] Kat Norton: Yeah. And like I built studios and offices. So I'm like, I want to utilize every room of this house. We bought our dream house in Sedona.[01:01:00] 

[01:01:00] And I was like, I want to just make sure we're fully utilizing the space. So we have core studio, we got TikTok studio and then office down below now. 

[01:01:09] Hala Taha: Amazing. Well, congratulations on all your success. I end my show with two questions that I ask all of my guests. The first one is, what is one actionable thing our young improfiters can do today?

[01:01:19] To become more profitable tomorrow, 

[01:01:21] Kat Norton: taking messy action is what needs to be done. So it's one of those things where I would not have a business right now. If I did not step past any perfectionist tendencies, like in waiting for the right time and all the things, all I did was take messy action. That is all I continue to do.

[01:01:38] Don't be scared to fall flat on your face. Most people are not even watching. You pick yourself back up. You're good. 

[01:01:43] Hala Taha: I love that advice. And what would you say is your secret to profiting in life? I would 

[01:01:49] Kat Norton: say the biggest secret is continually working on myself because I will only call in the amount of abundance and the amount of opportunity that my nervous system can [01:02:00] hold.

[01:02:00] So I can actually tell in my body when I'm reaching that threshold, my eyes will start twitching. Like I'll start having like little bits of anxiety. Like I can tell I'm reaching that limit where the amount I'm taking on the amount of opportunities and I won't receive any more than that. My whole business pretty much has been inbound leads.

[01:02:18] So all our corporate clients, all the opportunities, all the things, the partnerships, they come inbound. So if my energy is repelling that, I'm like, ah, too much. they won't come through. So my job as an entrepreneur and CEO of the company is to keep working on me so that I can grow the biggest business I can and the most profitable and most impactful business I can because I can hold that opportunity.

[01:02:41] So that's something I'm always just working on myself. 

[01:02:44] Hala Taha: Well, I've just thought of a new course idea, Manifestation for Entrepreneurs, you really got it down. So, I love that Kat, it was such an awesome conversation that we had today, I feel like it was really actionable, I feel like your story is so inspiring, thank you so much for spending time with us [01:03:00] today.

[01:03:00] Kat Norton: Thank you for having me, this was awesome. 

[01:03:02] Hala Taha: Yeah, it was super fun.