161. We Made $2M When Everyone Said Online Courses Were Dead — And It's Because We Did the Opposite of What Everyone Else Did
Plenty with Kate Northrup
Kate Northrup
4.8 • 840 Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are online courses actually dead?
Or are most people simply building them in ways that no longer work?
In this solo episode, Kate pulls back the curtain on the behind-the-scenes numbers, strategy, emotional reality, and nervous system dynamics of her latest Relaxed Money launch—which crossed the $2 million mark at a time when many online business owners are panicking about the future of digital education.
But this episode is about far more than launch metrics.
Kate shares the real emotional experience of navigating fear, pressure, uncertainty, and expansion while leading a multi-seven-figure launch in a rapidly changing online landscape. She opens up about the nervous system spiral she experienced when early registration numbers came in lower than expected, and how using the exact tools taught inside Relaxed Money helped her regulate, recalibrate, and ultimately make clearer strategic decisions.
She also walks through the specific shifts that dramatically improved their results, including simplifying messaging, prioritizing human connection over automation, strengthening affiliate partnerships, improving retention, and creating higher-quality experiences for students instead of chasing bigger audience numbers.
Along the way, Kate explores why recurring customers matter more than vanity metrics, why over-delivering free content can actually hurt conversions, and why building a freedom-based business requires structure, boundaries, and enough spaciousness to sustain creativity and service long term.
This episode is part launch debrief, part business masterclass, and part emotional transparency around what it actually takes to build sustainable success online today.
If you’re an entrepreneur, coach, course creator, or anyone trying to create meaningful work in an increasingly automated world, this conversation will completely change the way you think about growth, connection, and freedom.
“The more structure you have in your business, the more freedom you will have in your life.” — Kate Northrup
🎤 Let’s Dive into the Good Stuff on Plenty 🎤
00:00 Online Courses Are Dead? Kate Says They’re Wrong
00:58 The $2M Relaxed Money Launch Breakdown
02:57 Fear, Nervous System Spirals & Launch Anxiety
07:41 Using Relaxed Money Tools in Real Time
13:52 The Landing Page Shift That Increased Conversions
19:35 Why Human Connection Beat Automation
28:44 Retention, Re-Enrollments & Repeat Customers
40:12 The Power of Affiliate Relationships
49:03 The AI Tool That Made People Cry
1:05:02 The Future of Online Business & Sustainable Growth
Links and Resources:
Kate's Instagram
The Business Breakthrough Experience
The Digital CEO Dashboard
✨ What If the Breakthrough in Your Business Isn’t More Hustle?
Created by my friend and 7-figure launch mentor, James Wedmore, The Business Breakthrough Experience is a free 3-part live training designed to help entrepreneurs identify the gaps, bottlenecks, and blind spots keeping their business stuck.
Because most people don’t need more information.
They need clarity on what actually moves the needle.
Inside the experience, you’ll explore:
🔹 What’s slowing your business growth
🔹 The mindset + strategy shifts that create momentum
🔹 How to build a more scalable digital business
🔹 What’s actually working right now in online business
This isn’t about doing more.
It’s about finally seeing what needs to change.
👉 Register for The Business Breakthrough Experience and start creating real momentum in your business. ✨
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A lot of people are saying online courses are dead. They're wrong. At a time where everything is |
| 0:05.6 | changing, we crossed the two million mark in our launch. By doing a lot of things opposite, we doubled |
| 0:15.1 | down on human connection. Many people said to me, I feel hopeful for the first time about my financial life. |
| 0:23.2 | Welcome to Plenty, a weekly recalibration of power, money, and safety for high-capacity |
| 0:30.0 | humans. I'm Kate Northrop, bestselling author and creator of relaxed money. And this is where |
| 0:36.4 | neuroscience meets ancient wisdom meets real wealth |
| 0:41.2 | strategy. This is the sacred conversation at the intersection of money, the body, and the life |
| 0:47.6 | you're truly here to live. If you're ready to reimagine what's possible, for yourself and for the world, you're in the right place. |
| 0:56.7 | Let's go. |
| 0:57.9 | So we just wrapped up a couple weeks ago our annual live enrollment for our one time a year live cohort of our signature program, relaxed money, which uses a neuroscience-based approach |
| 1:14.4 | to upgrade people's relationship with money, energetically, emotionally, and practically, |
| 1:23.1 | on the engineering side. And today, I'm giving you the full behind the scenes, you know, |
| 1:30.1 | behind the curtain rundown of our launch debrief numbers. Because at a time when I was just |
| 1:38.2 | at a mastermind in February, and several of the members, these are, you know, multi-seven |
| 1:43.7 | figure business owner, some of them, |
| 1:45.4 | there were freaking out because they were like, our online courses dead is, is our entire industry |
| 1:51.8 | sort of dissolving before our eyes with just changes in algorithms and AI and whatever? |
| 1:59.8 | And at a time where everything is changing, we crossed the two million |
| 2:05.2 | mark in our launch. So we did it by doing a lot of things opposite that everyone else is doing. |
| 2:15.8 | And I want to share that story with you in numbers and feelings today. |
| 2:21.0 | Because I don't only do numbers. I also do feelings because every number has a feeling associated with it. |
| 2:30.2 | And it's important that we tell the story of our numbers along with the feelings so that we can suss out what is what and so that we don't pretend that emotions are not related to money. |
... |
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