What It's About
A P.E. Teacher works out how to get her lessons to a global audience.
Words of Wisdom
Larissa used the power of observation and leveraged her skills and experience to meet a need in the world. Here’s what she said about this, “Find something that is truly needed ... For my business, I knew families would be feeling the need for connection, the need for positivity, the need for healthy habits and relationships during the pandemic.”
Fun Fact
After graduating college, Larissa was a professional beach volleyball player and actress!
Notes from Chris
Episode 1711
On a Friday afternoon in March 2020, high school fitness teacher Larissa Maloney sat in a faculty meeting discussing how the school might go virtual as COVID-19 swept across the country. Later that night, she received an email announcing that everyone would be doing just that: going fully virtual starting on Monday, so they would need to figure it out—and fast. Fortunately, as a teacher and mom, Larissa is used to thinking on her feet. She sat at her kitchen table and wrote up a plan. On Mondays, the kids would run a mile, on Tuesday they’d do arms and abs. But she immediately crumpled up the plan because it sounded boring. She knew if it sounded boring to her, it would be boring to her students, so she came up with a new idea: streaming workout videos for her students on YouTube Monday through Friday at 9am! When Larissa shared these workouts with other teachers in her community, she started getting requests for other kids to join as well. She also posted on a forum specifically for PE teachers. When Monday morning came and she pressed play, she started the warmup for fifteen kids. Not a bad start. When she finished the warm up, however, and looked at the screen again that number was climbing. Thousands of students logged on to workout with her that first Monday! How did this happen? The magic algorithm of YouTube had discovered her. Larissa conducted online workouts every weekday, livestreaming to YouTube. At the end of the week, even her own kids would join in for a fun, active dance party. By the summer of 2020, Larissa was getting email testimonials from the kids and their families saying that these videos have been the glue to keeping their families together since the pandemic started. That inspired her to grow Active Kids 2.0 into a business. With kids around the world stuck at home due to the pandemic, there was clearly a need for this type of content. Active Kids 2.0 offers a monthly membership for $40, an annual membership for $400 and a school membership for $500. There’s also a three-month online summer camp (three active videos a week) for $100. Larissa still offers some free classes on YouTube, and that’s helped her attract new customers. In fact, she hasn’t done any paid advertising at all, but her income continues to grow. How much money? She’s now projecting net income of $100,000 for 2021! Even as schools reopen in the future, the need for physical activity will continue and Larissa has built a loyal following and a community of people who love her workouts. She plans to keep on creating new content that helps kids stay active.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Learn more about Larissa and check out her website, ActiveKids2.com.
- Professor Starts Marvel-ous YouTube Channel: A university professor manages depression by sharing his gift for gaming and community building on YouTube.
- Mexican Artist Becomes YouTube Superstar With 50 Million Views: An artist uploads a drawing video to YouTube and discovers a massive audience for tutorials, allowing him to pay off debt and make a good living.
- Adjunct Professor Puts Course on YouTube for $100k Profit: An adjunct community college professor uploads his final course to YouTube, then converts it to a Udemy course. In just sixteen months, he reaches almost 35,000 students and makes over $100,000 in profits.
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