Ask and You Shall Receive!

It is true, my friends. Ask, and it shall be given to you!

Let me share with you some of the good news I received during the pandemic. It hasn't all been doom and gloom. I have been out of work for a year due to this pandemic. I went through many emotions during this time (still am), but I have been coping in my own way. (I went into how I cope in a previous article.) Well, I have some great news to share. I am not just using words to motivate you, but I want to share the good things that I have received because of the pandemic. 

I have been trying my hand at a few things to earn money. I started my own business, Amina Digital Solutions (I'll leave details at the end if you would like to know more). I have joined online merchandising platforms (I will share once I get to master this), online surveys, online entrepreneurship and more. I went through so many webinars that promised great money once I did some great work. Well, I learnt a lot from the webinars for sure. The only catch was that I needed to invest in the courses to get a step closer to developing myself as an entrepreneur. One would wonder what is wrong with investing in a worthwhile course if you will be assured of earning and having a community that will help you through the entrepreneurship journey? Well, there is nothing wrong with the investment. The problem was my wallet. I had already removed all unnecessary spend like Netflix (Oh, Netflix, my sweet Netflix😭), nails and hair, no new clothes etc. I was dry. I only had enough to sustain my recurrent bills then, and even that pot was almost empty. I did not know how the next month's bills would be paid for, but I knew God would provide. So, now you see why I was having a hard time investing in the opportunities that had come my way. 

I must mention this about entrepreneurship coaching, online merchandising and others. These opportunities had been made possible because of the pandemic. A while back, to get this information, for some, I would have had to be in a first world country. And let's be honest, I would have been too busy with my day job to have watched ads and actually looked into them (This is how I got to know most of these things). Right now, the internet has become the one place everyone can transact business without interruption. The geographical borders have faded fast for most online jobs, and it is only a matter of time for all online jobs to be accessible from anywhere in the world. 

On to my good news. I saw these online teaching platforms like Skillshare and Teachable in different ads on Youtube, and because I loved the way they work, I thought I would write about my experience.

Skillshare

Watch the intro into Skillshare.

If you do not know what Skillshare is, it is an American online learning community for people who want to learn from educational videos. The courses, which are not accredited, are available through subscription.

I was very intrigued by the platform since it has a vast pool of knowledge from different people, and you could access the content for free for 14 days to interact with the platform.  I must say, I loved it. It also has a free account for you to upload your own classes. Have you been educating those around with information that you could turn into a class? Have you been the go-to tech guide for those around you? You can now charge them for that information. How about that? I received 2 months free subscription once I signed up for the premium package. The only catch was, I wasn't able to pay for the course, soI had to unsubscribe before I got charged. I see now they are offering 7 days free for the premium package to new members. To sign up, create an account and link it to Paypal as your payment information. You can also get a free premium plan by sharing the link to Skillshare. The ones that click on the link get a 2 months free subscription, and you get a one-month free subscription for each friend that signs up with your referral link. Isn't that something! Try it out yourself, to learn or to populate courses. This link still has the 14 days free premium that I got to enjoy last year.

Screenshot of the offer taken 21/04/2021

Disclaimer: You only get your free month subject to them completing their first full payment. This means you do not get the free subscription if they opt not to pay for a plan after their free trial. 

Teachable

Watch the intro into Teachable

"Is a powerful, easy-to-use online course creation platform. Since our founding, we’ve been on a mission to make education accessible, engaging, and profitable." from the Teachable website.

When I saw the ad on Teachable, they offered a free webinar on how to build your online coaching. I chose to attend this since I had an interest in this topic. I got very useful information from it until they offered a challenge where you pay to get a step by step guide to developing your online coaching. I was in my dilemma again. I wanted to take part in the challenge, but I did not have the money to join. Then I remembered in primary school going through a lifeskills lesson on being assertive. I put that class to the test and chose to write an email to the Teachable team and offered to work to earn my spot in the challenge. I told myself over and over that the worst that could happen is they would refuse, and I'd just have to find my own way to learn all the information. 

Teachable's response

24 hours after I sent my email, I received a response. I must say, I was really astonished at the fast response.

The email response from Teachable

Not only was their response kind, but they also asked me to apply for a job from their career site despite knowing I was on a different continent. On top of that, they offered me a 2 months free coupon on their professional plan! I was over the moon when I got this. 

When I tried the coupon, it didn't work for some reason. I felt really sad. I was offered assistance, and here I was thinking of going back and telling them it did not work. I should be appreciative that I was even offered the coupon and go my way, right? If you agreed with that, so did my passive self. I actually did astonished my passive self so much that I'm even referring to myself in the third person as I tell you that. It was like I was a whole other person doing that.

I wrote back to the very nice customer service representative to mention that the coupon produced an error. Guess what? She kindly added the coupon to my site and wrote back to let me know it had been added. I now had access to the professional plan for free. 

The confirmation that the coupon was now in my account

To conclude, It is true. Ask, and it shall be given unto you. The main thing to note is even if the answer is no, do not tire. Keep asking until you get that yes. I leave you with the words of Winston Churchill "Never give up!" If at first, you don't succeed, try, try again!

Disclaimer: These are my opinions based on my current interaction with the said platforms. My opinions are in no way coerced or paid partnerships.  

Are you curious about what happened to my online coaching? Did I get to upload courses and earn? Well, that is a story for another day. Today, we were just letting you know to ask! 😊

Introduction to My Business:

Amina Digital Solutions is a tech startup focused on helping self-employed people, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and hopefully, in the future, corporates to increase their brand visibility online.

What value proposition do we offer:

We offer our target audience the chance to not only go after their dreams but to get there in the best way possible. We get them to ask themselves the hard questions on where they see the business 5, 10, or 20 years down the line. What do they want to be known as? Just a vendor or a business? What values does your business have? 

We don't only offer social media management (which many think is just posting on social media). We offer you a 360 solution to your future self and business.

More information will be shared in later issues on my official blog. Keep a lookout for this!

Image credits:

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