Jay Clouse [00:00:14]:

Hello, my friend. I'm coming to you with one of our

Jay Clouse [00:00:16]:

greatest hits episodes this week. One of my favorite episodes of this podcast, my interview with Kat Norton, AKA Miss Excel. I think this is a fantastic primer on TikTok and also just getting out of your own way and doing what you're interested in doing. This episode got some of the best feedback that we've ever had on this show because Kat has a different approach to creating content that really leans into the emotional and energetic side of things. So I hope you enjoy it. You may notice that the artwork in the intro of this episode says creative elements. If you are new to the show, that was the previous name of the podcast before rebranding to creator science, but don't be alarmed. It don't be thrown off. It's the same show. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Kat, which we'll get to in its entirety right after this.

Kat Norton [00:01:03]:

I was in, like, turmoil. I remember my boyfriend coming to my room being like, what's wrong? Like, I was, like, in tears sitting there because My head was like, you cannot make a TikTok, but my gut was like, make the TikTok. Hello, my friend. Welcome back

Jay Clouse [00:01:21]:

to another episode of Creative Elements. We are headed back to the weird and wonderful world of TikTok today. A place where you may see somebody drinking kombucha for the first time, a place where you may see somebody riding a skateboard and listening to Fleetwood Mac while drinking Cranberry juice. Or a place where you might see somebody dancing while explaining Excel functions. I'm not sure I totally grasp TikTok, I don't know if I'm built for TikTok, but to find out, I'm bringing in one of those viral TikTok stars. I'm bringing in Kat Norton, AKA, Miss Excel. Today, Kat has 860,000 followers on TikTok, 632,000 followers on Instagram, and she has made more than $100,000 from her Microsoft Excel courses in a single day. Before she was miss Excel, she was working a regular high paying job. But like a lot of us, the pandemic sort of changed everything.

Kat Norton [00:02:18]:

I was traveling every week as a consultant at my day job. I was doing securitization, reviews her banks, And all of a sudden with the start of the pandemic, I had stopped traveling. And I was really bagging my parents' house at that point, and had a lot of extra time on my hands, though, too. So I started diving into all different modalities and ways to become the highest version of myself. So I started meditating and, like, going into my limiting beliefs and reprogramming them and reading a ton and learning about the minds. I'm super into, like, quantum physics in the That's kind of what I study for fun. And so I was diving into all these different things, and all these dots started to click.

Jay Clouse [00:02:59]:

So Kat began questioning whether her day job was giving her everything she wanted out of life. She wanted to indulge her other interests, which included dancing, teaching, And, yes, even Microsoft Excel.

Kat Norton [00:03:10]:

Fast forward to June of 2020 was when I was on the phone with my friend. And we were talking about different, like, side hustle ideas, things I could be doing. And on the side of my day job, I had been teaching Excel for fun internally for the company. So I've been doing that for four and a half years. They'd fly me around the US hosting these large scale Excel trainings. And I was like, what's a way that I could take this skill set and have a bigger impact? And my friend was like, What if you put it on TikTok? And I was like, TikTok, you know, 27 with a corporate job. I can't just make a TikTok. But the second she said it, it was like a lightning bolt hit my head.

Jay Clouse [00:03:54]:

As you'll hear in the interview, it actually took Kat a while to post her first TikTok even after that bolt of inspiration. But once she began publishing, she saw results very, very quickly.

Kat Norton [00:04:05]:

Few weeks in, I had my first video go viral on TikTok, and it hit 3,700,000 views. I looked down at my phone, and I had a 100,000 followers. And I was like, woops. I had never done anything influencery before. I, like, if you looked at my personal Instagram, he'd like, this girl is not an influencer, but I was like, okay. I I gotta learn how to serve this audience. I gotta learn how these apps work. You know?

Jay Clouse [00:04:32]:

So in this episode, we talk about how Kat overcame her fear of posting on TikTok, how she thinks about energy management, how she earned more than $100,000 in a single day and why she thinks the key to all of this is taking what she calls messy action. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode as you listen. You can tag me on Twitter or Instagram at jklaus or leave a comment here on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe if you have not already, but that's enough of me. Let's talk with Miss Excel. Let's talk to Kat Norton.

Kat Norton [00:05:17]:

I saw the Excel screen above my head to that Drake song, the two z slide, you know, like, left foot, right foot slide. To the left and the right function in Excel. And when I saw it, I was like, how the hell would I make that? Like, I have never video edited my life. I'm like, how does one get an cell screen above their head. And but I I was, like, stuck on this vision. So for the next 48 hours, I was in, like, turmoil. I remember my boyfriend coming to my room being like, what's wrong? Like, I was, like, in tears sitting there because my head was like, you cannot make a TikTok, but my gut was like, make the TikTok. And it was like a Friday afternoon, and it was 3 o'clock. My schedule just magically opens. I had all these meetings. It was like cancel, cancel, cancel. I was Uh-huh.

Jay Clouse [00:06:06]:

I love that feeling.

Kat Norton [00:06:06]:

Yeah. Like, you you know, like, all that stuff starts lining up and you're like, alright. Alright? I'm listening. Am I supposed to do something right now? And So I do this dry run of a video. I don't even do my hair and makeup. I'm like, I just wanna record this video of me dancing and see if I can somehow get an Excel screen above my head, and I did it. Watched a YouTube video on video editing for, like, 40 minutes, kinda got a baseline going, and I was able to edit it. And I was like, oh, This is actually pretty cool. So I get super excited. Do my hair makeup without 10 more videos. And I started editing them all, like, that night. I was super excited about it. And the next morning, I think it was, like, next morning. I wake up It's like 6 AM. And my boyfriend and I were sleeping, and I tapped on the show. I'm like, babe wake up. And he's like, what? And I'm like, miss Excel. And he's like, what? I'm like, miss Excel. Like, that's what I'm gonna call it. And it's I I get a lot of, like, ideas. Like, the second I wake up. I don't know if the ideas wake me up or what. So, I, like, grab the handle on TikTok, And it was June 7 2020. I posted my first few videos. And by the 4th video, one of them reaches a hundred thousand views. Wow. And at that point, it starts getting shown to all these people I know because I I didn't tell anybody I was doing it besides my mom, my boyfriend, I'm like, this is gonna be my little secret side project. I didn't even know how to use TikTok. I was just, like, posting stuff, trying to learn, like, captions, algorithms, times to post. I was just, like, googling things. And it it was really the messy action there that helped this take off. And by the 6th video, the CEO of an IT company reaches out and is like, Hey. I love your teaching style. I'm looking to create G Suite training videos. So the Google version of everything I was doing for students, parents, and teachers because this is around the time when the schools were going digital. So formed in LLC got a green screen, a ring light, and I started filming videos after work and selling them back to the sky. So I kinda, like, within the 1st week there, had this ecosystem going where I was a freelancer making content selling it. I was making miss Excel content, like, 10 hours a week. So I was helping people. And then I still worked my 40, 50 hour a week day job, and which is kinda like shuffle in between the 3.

Jay Clouse [00:08:28]:

Man, there are so many important points to that information you just shared with us. 1st and foremost, pretty short period of time from, like, existential crisis and dread of, like, how do I become the highest version of myself to actively Doing something and putting something out there. So one quick clarifying question. Were you actively using TikTok at time as a user? Like, were you consuming a lot of TikTok content?

Kat Norton [00:08:55]:

No. So I didn't even have a TikTok account. My only account is miss Excel. So I had never even used the app before. I my friends weren't really using it because it was kind of a younger generation thing at the time. I feel like now a lot of them use it, but At that that time, I was like, it wasn't something I was doing at all.

Jay Clouse [00:09:13]:

So what were the narratives you were telling yourself as you had this idea that you obviously had some compulsion to try, but, also, I know it took you a couple months to to make that first video. So talk to me about, like, what was going on in your head when you were pre publishing on the platform?

Kat Norton [00:09:31]:

For the 1st, like, 2 months there, it was just me versus me. Like me working on myself, clearing limiting beliefs, getting myself to a spot where I can energetically hold the amount of attention that comes through from being on social media. I grew up with an anxiety disorder. I was incredibly shy, hated any attention on me. So that was stuff I had to clear out before putting yourself dancing to a left function on TikTok, because let me tell you. You you gotta have your your stuff together before going and doing that just from a mental health perspective because there's a lot of dark energy on the internet. There's a lot of rogue comments and things. So I needed to be in a place where all of that would just roll off, and I could show up authentically as me and just do what I needed to do on the platforms. So by the time I actually got the hit from miss Excel, it was like, early June. And then a week later, I started posting. So that time period was a little shorter, but, you know, the time leading up to getting myself to a place where my consciousness was open enough to actually get an idea like that that was so out of the box and have it stick and have me not like, blocking out a hundred reasons why I shouldn't do it or why I should do it tomorrow or the next day, you know, and where I was actually able to be like, okay. This is a killer idea, and you can actually do it. So I remember I opened up the TikTok app. When we were first talking about it, I downloaded it. And I looked, and there was no one really teaching Excel at all on TikTok. And that's where I was like, oh, are they just not interested, or is it Just no one ever did it. You know? And that's where I'm like, I'll just give it a shot.

Jay Clouse [00:11:04]:

A lot of people listening to this have the same, you know, inner trappings and propensity put things off and not be ready to receive all the energy as coming back from social media. How would you recommend people go down the path of Clearing that and fixing it, getting to the point where you are today.

Kat Norton [00:11:21]:

There are tons of different modalities in this space, and this is something I'm also incredibly passionate about is helping people get to that spot where they are living in their authentic self, and they're not having this, like, shell of themselves out there where they're like, oh, I wanna be like that, but I can't. And it's it's a process of removing all those limiting beliefs. So three things that I did. So the first thing I did was I read the book breaking the habit of being yourself by Doctor Joe Dispensum. So he does an incredible job of demystifying the mystical. And for my logical exal brain, I needed some concrete proof about the law of attraction. I wanted some scientific experiments. I wanted to know how this stuff worked. And so for me, that was a really big part of getting my conscious mind on board and being like, Okay. Like, this isn't all, like, think positive. Good things will happen. You know, like, this is some concrete things going down. So once my conscious mind was on board, I started doing a program called to be magnetic by Lacey Phillips, which is a really structured way of doing inner child work shadow work and, like, really being able to identify the limiting beliefs that you have and kinda, like, getting down there and figuring out what you to clear. So for me, that was like a structured way to do it, but there's tons of different modalities there. And it's really important to just like find one that resonates with you. And then the third thing I got into was meditation. So I personally do kundalini yoga. So that's a type of yoga that integrates month intra and movement. And for me, it's a lot easier than, like, trying to sit there and close my eyes and go like, oh, when, you know, blank out my mind and stuff. That where I'm doing movements and saying things, and I have a specific eye gaze and specific breath, like, concentrating on all those things. Me right out and gets me into a theta state where I'm able to kinda go in and clear out different neural pathways and things going on. So For me, it was, like, the 3 of those. I kinda just dove in fully for a couple months, like, twice a day. I was doing those reprogramming exercises. I was meditating every day. I reading and learning about the brain and how it works to kinda like biohack myself. You know? And then the byproduct was I woke up one day. I was like, I could do anything. What do I actually wanna do with my life? You know?

Jay Clouse [00:13:31]:

Yeah. It's really remarkable because we're talking March to June, seemingly, like, you at least made enough progress where you felt comfortable doing it, but that seems like a really short amount of time to, like, clear out a lot of head trash, which is what I call it. I'm not necessarily reflecting on how cute. You think.

Kat Norton [00:13:47]:

It's a great term.

Jay Clouse [00:13:48]:

It's incredible. So it it does sound like you are somebody who, when you commit to something or are drawn to something, you're going really deep into it. And, like, you're you're committing. And doing it. Would you say that's true?

Kat Norton [00:14:00]:

Absolutely. It's it's really the messy action with that too because I am definitely an analytical person. Where I used to just sit and take a ton of time analyzing the outcomes and this and that and really learning to trust and just go for it. Has been huge for me. So that, like and it's really a great way to overcome the mental barrier too, because a lot of us will sit there and just analyze, like, Okay. If I make an online business, like, how am I gonna make money? Like, it has to be this or this. You know, that's not gonna work. We're realistically, the way I started making money, day 6 on talk was a side hustle that came out of nowhere. That was something I could have never predicted, and the only way I got there was just, like, trusting myself, knowing great shit's gonna happen. If I put myself out there and believe in me and don't give up on me. And I just that's kinda how I've run the whole business from here. I'm just like, as long as I know, I'm not going to give up until I get where I'm going. There's no risk. And I just kinda went into it with that mentality.

Jay Clouse [00:14:58]:

This may seem a little meta, but you talk about this messy action, which I also lean into. I have a bias for. And then I usually go back and, like, revise that thing that I messily created. Are you a ship and then revise, or are you a ship and then learn and ship something better the next time, person?

Kat Norton [00:15:16]:

I'd say it's kind of a combo. I ship learn revise. So I get something out. I get the feedback. I learn, and then I revise the product because My products are all digital courses, so they're super easy to just pop in there. And, oh, a new product comes out in Excel. I could just pop in the video, you know. Versus having to, like, redo an entire version of a product.

Jay Clouse [00:15:37]:

Let's talk more about this. What bounds do you put on yourself when you see an action you wanna take? Like, how messy is too messy? Is there a too messy? Because I've been struggling with this lately. I know there are things that I wanna make, and I start to over engineer them in my head. And I've been thinking, well, what if it was easy? What if I gave myself, like, a 2 hour time block to make this? How would that turn out? Would that be good enough? How would I construct that 2 hours to make it good enough. Tell me about the bounds that you put on yourself when you're about to take action.

Kat Norton [00:16:06]:

One of the big things I really consider too is How is this choice going to implicate my lifestyle? So a big part of how I'm able to come up with creative ideas and keep building and growing is because I prioritize a lot of time on myself. I probably work maybe, like, 20 hours a week. Like, I make sure there's a lot of time for me to just be creative and flowy and to live the life that I set out to create for myself. Right? Like, I was like, I don't wanna work myself into the ground. I wanna maintain that balance. So that I'm able to show up and serve. And whether that means, you know, when things get too high, I start delegating. I finally started hiring. You know, I have a virtual assistant now, a video editor, I have my boyfriend now does all my sales. So, like, that's been a great way to, like, kinda take things off when it raises too much. So then I can be fluid. So for example, my whole business has pretty much been inbound leads. So things are just flying my inbox all the time, like crazy cool opportunities where I leave that space, I can go in and take them. So really just following things that truly light me up. Like, something that's been on the radar that, like, I know I'm going to do, but right now, I know I've bid off a lot, so I'm kinda, like, holding pattern on the messy action for it. Is doing more of the coaching space and talking about mindset. And I've done a few, like, keynote speaking opportunities on this at different companies and I know it lates me up. I know people have been asking for it, and it's just one of those things where I'm like, I need miss Excel as like a completely well oiled machine. Before I jump into that so I can go full out. But the courses already come to me. I've already mapped it out. Like, the downloads have been flowing. I know it's coming, but it that's one thing where I'm like, okay. I know if I try to do that right now, I'm going to, like, jam myself in a hole energetically and feel like a scarcity of time. Where I like to live in a place of abundance, and that helps more opportunities come in and keeps me more agile.

Jay Clouse [00:17:58]:

After a quick break, Kat and I talk about her approach to creating consistently viral content on social media. And later, we talk about how she generated more than 1 $100,000 in revenue in a single day. So stick around and we'll be right back. Welcome back to my conversation with Miss Excel, Kat Norton. Something I appreciate about Kat is not just her content itself, but how she shows up in that content. It's a weird little nuance, but there's something about her energy she brings to TikTok that attracts positive interest and support from viewers and the media. So I asked her how we can show up and have that same level of positive inbound opportunity.

Kat Norton [00:18:40]:

So the first step is clearing out the limiting beliefs. So for example, if you have limiting beliefs in your head when you go to post something on TikTok for the first time or you're like, Oh, no one's gonna see it. This is the wrong day to post. This is the wrong time. No one's gonna like it. Oh, my hair didn't look good. All these things, you are energetically blocking that video. From being blasted out. Like, it's essentially like putting this wall up in front of it. So my biggest tip on all of this is really just clearing out the limiting beliefs first before going in and taking that time before diving into all the business and all the minutia to work on you because you are your greatest asset. The business will be incredible, but for me, when I wanna grow Miss Excel, I work on me because I can only call in what I can hold. For example, when it was October of 2020, I think it was like 50 plus press outlets picked up my story within, like, a week. Globally. I was getting

Jay Clouse [00:19:34]:

Amazing.

Kat Norton [00:19:35]:

100 of messages, podcasting, opportunities. It was, you know, Forbes, fortune, business attire, like all these massive CNBC, like, everybody picking my story. I was on TV. It was just, like, the craziest time. And things started happening. Like, my eyes were twitching. I started having anxiety attacks. Like, weird. Like, I was getting shaky because my nervous system was having trouble holding all the abundance. It was all incredible things. It was everyone, like, so much love so much support, so much incredible things. But, like, for me, I was like, okay. Like, this is where I get do the work on myself. This is where I can do meditations to expand my nervous system so I can keep growing this thing. And that's what I did to get myself to a place where now bigger things have been able to come through. So it's really just having that relationship with yourself and understanding that there's layers to this. Like, yeah, there's strategy, yeah, there's quantitative metrics, Yeah. There's goals and ROIs and tracking and all those things. I ran my business for the 1st year and a half. Like, I hit 7 figures without tracking a thing. I literally just now I'm having people put tracking things on my website because they're like, what? Like, how are where are these leads coming from? Like, I don't know. They just come. And, like, because I I've I've been running this whole thing on my intuition and just, like, feeling into myself and being like, okay. Like, This is what I need to do. This is what feels good for me, and I can show up fully, and that will result in supporting tons of people and bringing in the financial aspect. So it's really just kinda having that understanding that there's more going on than just, you know, oh, I followed the steps and, you know, I I did. I posted at the time and did that. There's just such another layer to it that I think overall, the entrepreneurship space misses sometimes when it's just that grind grind grind mentality. Where for me, I was like, okay. I need to prioritize myself. I need to get myself to the highest version and just trust. I don't have to know how it's gonna happen, but trust, that those opportunities are gonna fall. And then you build the trust muscle. Right? So, like, all of a sudden, massive things start falling on my lap. And I'm like, What's happening? And then I do it again, again, again, and then you start to build that trust muscle with yourself and you could start playing in these other realms. Where you can go in and call in the opportunities and things that your conscious mind can't even think up. Like, half the things that happened to me, like, I've never reached out for press once. Wow. Every single press opportunity and podcast has come to me. Like, I've never, like, sent email like, hey. Put me in Forbes. Like, it all just, like, lines up because I energetically got myself to a place where I knew I was there already, and then it matches and comes in. So it's It's also a layer of confidence that I needed to get. I had very low self worth before starting all this where I energetically just align myself. I'm like, I know I'm a billionaire, and I'm through time to get there. And when you stay on that frequency and act and take on behaviors that are aligned with that version of yourself, the other parts start to come into play. So it's really just holding myself accountable to that space and being like, when I wake up and I'm having a rough day or something, I'm like, yo, is this where you're trying to be? Like, you know, like, let's let's we have all the tools for this. Let's get out in nature. Let's meditate. Let's do things to get myself to a place where I'm like, this is where you're supposed to be in this lifetime. You know?

Jay Clouse [00:22:46]:

That's incredible. All that has come to you so, so good. You said something really relatable a minute ago, which is like this this narrative we have before we post something where we're We're kind of limiting our expectations almost of what's going to go out where we're saying, like, this is a wrong time. Is this any good, but we post it anyway? Speak to the logical part of my mind that says, how does that actually play through to the result?

Kat Norton [00:23:09]:

Yeah. I mean, it's all the limiting beliefs attached to the content. So I view content and a piece of content essentially as an energy transmission. So when I'm creating something and I'm sending it through the phone to you, I'm giving you an energy transmission. But I'm coming through that phone and I'm like, hey. Here's the Excel tip. That is a lower frequency energy that is reaching to you. Right? You're not gonna feel as engaged with not gonna captivate you, where if I do things on the back end to get my frequency up to such a high place that when you see that video, you cannot take your eyes off it. You've I have people who don't use Excel that just like my vibe and just follow my stuff and they're like, I don't even, like, use any of these products, but it's just, like, having that. And that's just, a part of being in your authenticity. So, like, for example, if you don't like dancing, don't dance. You know, for me, like, one of my favorite things is Excel. And dancing and helping people. So for me, it's just such an authentic place to come from. So it's not like, you know, you have to dance on TikTok or something. It's just really about having the energy that's authentic to you, which is what helps it grow. So for example, like, 5 a bad day, I don't post. Because I know that my frequency is just gonna, like, lower that down. I put so much work into the content. Each one of my pieces takes like an hour. So I'm like, I I want it to go through and to hit and to have that correct frequency when it's going through the algorithms and, like, getting to people's phones.

Jay Clouse [00:24:31]:

I've been thinking about this a lot lately because as we've added video to the show, it's removed some level of shield from me. And I'm finding that there's there's some limitations to some of my natural mannerisms. In video because I'm not, like, the heightened version of myself. I don't wanna be performative for performatives sake, but I know that if I'm able to be, like, the and I'll I'll follow that up with a quick story and then and get your take on it. When I was researching your story and preparing for this interview, I watched the 12 minute clip that came from the my first million podcast where Sean was talking to Sam about your business. And I'm sitting on the couch watching this clip on YouTube. I usually listen to audio, but I'm watching this on YouTube and Sean's talking. And I keep catching myself, smiling. And it's because Sean is constantly smiling as he talks, and I can't help it. And I think to myself, do I ever smile when I'm interviewing somebody? So talk to me about this this energy transfer because this is really interesting and really important. How do I get myself to the 11 version of myself, or is that even what I should be aspiring to do?

Kat Norton [00:25:48]:

It really depends on the modalities that work best for you and a trick to kind of navigating that and figuring out your patterns with it is I'll ask myself what will make me so happy in this moment? What is a baby step I can do and I can take to raise my frequency? And for me, like, whether it's, like, going out in nature, go to that coffee shop and get the cup of coffee, eat a piece of chocolate, go have a dance party, like, It really it depends on, like, what will make you happy in that moment. And when you do that, that is gonna raise your frequency up a notch. So it's really just a game of getting yourself super hyped. So especially before podcasts and stuff, like, I had a great meeting before this. I was so excited to talk to you, and I just, like, had my frequency up in a spot where that's able to come across on the camera compared to, like, if I just woke up or something and I'm out of it or I'm having a bad day, like, that would come across on camera. And then always remembering a smile helps a lot too, because that you're absolutely right. It will translate through the camera, especially in video. Sometimes even when I'm talking, though, people, if you're listening to this, could typically tell when I'm smiling because it just, like, comes across in my my voice.

Jay Clouse [00:26:55]:

So talk to me then about energy management because there are all kinds of people who talk about time management and how to time block and batch record and create these things, but I'm getting the vibe from you. That you optimize your schedule more for energy management than time management. Is that true? And if so, how does that look?

Kat Norton [00:27:12]:

I think it's a very underrated thing is the energy management that a lot of people don't talk about as well. So one of my favorite tips for this is really separating out my activities by the energy type. So there's 2 different types of energy And you could view them in different ways like left and right brain type energy, you know, the creative and the more structured. They call it masculine and feminine energy, which doesn't necessarily necessarily mean, like, boy girl, it's more so, you know, like, the masculine activities, for example, are like, I wake up. I get nice coffee. I bang through all these different tasks on my to do list. I'm whipping out emails, you know, like that type of energy versus the creative flow state energy where I wake up. I go for a walk in nature. I meditate. I journalize. And then those are the days where you get those creative. Downloads that tap in. You tap into that right side of your brain. Now the energy hack with this that I learned is not trying to switch back and forth between those energy types quickly. So for example, back when I was in corporate, it would be like, okay. You know, you have an 8 hour day. Most of the time in corporate. I was in the masculine energy. I was just cranking through securitization reports. And let's say you're on an internal initiative and they pop on an hour long brainstorming session. If you're coming out from that analytical left side of your brain and you are just all jazzed up and then you go into the creative flow state meeting. For me, it takes at least 2 hours to really get into that state. So I look to optimize myself and my time and my energy by having a full creative day, and then I'll have a full get shit done day. And, you know, and I kinda, like, balance them back and forth. So I'm my best creative self. And I'm my best, you know, like, left brain analytical diving in spreadsheet itself. And without trying to flip back and forth throughout the day, And that's just a concept I think a lot of people don't talk about, but for me, from an energy management perspective has been huge. And then the other thing is, like, we talked about before where if you feel yourself dipping. Like, something happens. You have a road conversation. You gotta weird text or something happens on social media. Being able to flip yourself out of that state is huge. There are thousands of different tools at our fingertips. We have access to the internet. If you do, It's easy or, you know, your friends might know different modalities and things. There are so many ways to flip yourself into a higher vibration. And for me, that's been a really helpful hack where if, you know, something happens and all of a sudden, I feel like a little anger or something off. That's where I'm like, okay. This is good. This is what I get to work on. And then I'll jump into a meditation. There's one called, like, fist of anger where I go like and breathe a breath of fire for 5 minutes. I come out. I am so calm. It's like hours of therapy. I just walk out. I'm like, Kye, let's restart the day and just, like, knowing I have those tools in my pocket, and it really just depends what works for you. Right? There's tons of tools but just having what works for you and being able to manage your own energy because no one else can do it for you. Everyone's responsible for their own energy. So it's really understanding yourself and taking that time to get to know yourself and how you work. And then you can be able to leverage those tools to just maintain that higher version of yourself.

Jay Clouse [00:30:26]:

I love this. This is the nudge I need to go out and buy, like, the Tony Robbins mini trampoline.

Kat Norton [00:30:33]:

Oh, that looks amazing. I love Tony Robbins. I saw him live once, actually. He's very incredible. Like, talk about energy.

Jay Clouse [00:30:40]:

Was this pre or post launch of the business?

Kat Norton [00:30:43]:

So that was, I wanna say, 2019. So my boyfriend and I have always been kinda into this stuff, and it was really around 2019 where I started having more of a spiritual awakening. I actually I went to Morocco on a Kundalini yoga retreat, and that was when I was first introduced to a lot of these concepts for more of the quote unquote woo woo perspective. And then I also, on the other side, my boyfriend was always super into, like, Ed Mylett, Tony Robbins, like, that whole squad, like, Eric Thomas and really, like, having those, like, law of attraction, think positive money mindset type things. So That's where I kinda started first dabbling. And we went to, it was a conference in New Jersey where Tony Robbins had, like, I think it was, like, a 4 hour session. And his energy when he walked in the room. Like, I had chills all over my body. Like, I was laughing. I was crying. Like, it was just such an intense energy upgrade that was so cool and so inspiring to see, especially as a speaker to be able to generate that type of reaction in a room of participants is absurd.

Jay Clouse [00:31:49]:

When we come back, Kat and I talk about how she earned more than $100,000 in a single day. An accomplishment that's rare for any creator, but especially short form video. You'll wanna hear this, so stick around. Hey. Welcome back. If you are already aware of Kat or if you've just listened to the first 30 minutes of this interview, you know that she has earned more than $100,000 in a single day selling Excel courses. That is a real thing that happened for her. So I asked her to connect the dots for us. How does she go from publishing 1 TikTok to now earning over 6 figures in a single day?

Kat Norton [00:32:25]:

Everything was going on in the news about TikTok might get banned in the US and all this stuff. So, you know, I had, like, The haters being like, good luck with that. Like, it's all about to go away. So I was like, alright, I'm a hedge my risk here. I'm gonna add in an Instagram account. So I created the miss Excel Instagram and went viral on Instagram as well. And between the two of them, I started just going viral every, like, month so on the platforms. And each time I did, my audience would grow, like, fifty thousand people in a week. So it was that's how I made those, like, quantum leaps. And now by, like, October, I had, like, a couple 100,000 on both platforms. I have zero products. I'm still kinda like things are, like, winding down with the side hustle. Still work in the day job, but dreaming of, like, running my own calendar, working in a coffee shop, creating things, you know, that the dream is being held. And I'm like, okay. What am I doing over here? And I had a business coach reach out to me and was like, listen. You should really have a have a product. And I was like, oh, so, you know, it was very obvious what the product needed to be. I've been asked hundreds of times by people being like, where's your course? Where's your course? And so I took 2 weeks off from my day job, and I mapped out the most fun, creative, cool Excel course I possibly could. I remember I sat with that outline for days and just infusing it with as much out of the box stuff as I could to make it something where people would actually pay attention. That's the biggest thing with online courses. You lose people's attention because they're boring typically. So I'm like, I want something fun and on brand for miss Excel. It's where we make Excel fun, you know. Like, you count a boring course after that. So at this point as well, my boyfriend and I started the digital nomad lifestyle. So we We're living in our parents' houses. And one day I was meditating, and I had this ping where I was like, we don't have to be here anymore. And Mike's like, what? I'm like, we're we're sitting in, like, his parents' child like, his child bedroom, we're both running our businesses out of it. Like, I have all my furniture jammed in the corner of by twelve room, and I'm trying to run this shit. And I'm like, okay. Why don't we go to Sedona, Arizona? I kept seeing it online. I was feeling so called to go there. I'd never been there. And I found this house that we could rent for 4 weeks. And meanwhile, you know, Mike's dad's an accountant. He's like, this doesn't make financial sense, you know, to spend money on rent right now. But I was like, we need to go. So we got this house in Sedona immediately when we got there, amazing things started happening. Also, Sedona is energy vortex. So if you're playing in these realms, it really helps speed things up. So a lot of people will physically come here when they're launching a business or launching a product. Because the energy is in your favor. So we get here. All these great things start happening. Opportunity start flowing. Like, Mike Lands, the biggest deal of his career. Like, all stuff's going on because he was still at his day job at the time. And I think too from an energetic perspective, switching my location really helped me get out of my current patterning. So that's like another little hack if it is available to you, changing your environment, Because I'd say, like, I think it's like 90% of the thoughts we have every day are the same thoughts. So how would one expect to change their reality? If they're having the same thoughts. Where what we did, we spent 16 months as digital nomads, changing houses every month, switching different states, I lived in, you know, Hawaii, Arizona, Austin, Texas, Miami, California. We just kept bouncing around, so we'd switch environments, switch phones to which restaurants, which where we're living, you know, and I just made a, like, portable studio that I would bring with us everywhere we went. So that October 2020 was kinda where we started that journey as well, which I think really helped, like, crack open my consciousness and make easier to rewire neural pathways because I wasn't just in that same rut of, like, get up at my parents house, go eat breakfast. You know? Like, it was just a totally different pattern shift. But anyhoo, at this point, I'm in California. I whip out that course in 2 weeks, and I start selling it before 4, it is done, which is another big thing in the space. So I started selling the courses in it was Black Friday of 2020. And it was my first signature Excel course. And by January, so 2 months later, it was bringing in more money and passive income every month from the course sales than my day job was every month. Miss Excel takes 10 hours a week, day job taken 40 hours a week, sat down with myself and was like, girl, you gotta rethink your priorities here. I was like, imagine if I applied these 40 hours of mystic saw I would be dangerous even if I applied, like, half of those hours. And so as my gift to myself from my 28th birthday, on a January 15th, I put in my 2 weeks. And my last name in corporate America was February of 2021. So at this point, hadn't even made 6 figures with the business yet. It was really taking a bet on myself. I knew this stuff was going to blow up. I knew I would figure out a way. I had all these people. What do you do about health insurance? Is this that? You know, my day job's like, you can always come back. Like, you're so supportive. And they actually hired me back now as a vendor, and I teach Excel. Which has been awesome. Yeah. They're incredible. I worked at Protiviti.

Jay Clouse [00:37:46]:

Oh, amazing.

Kat Norton [00:37:47]:

So by April 2021, I did my first webinar, which was a free online Excel training. I just pack them. I still do them all the time. I pack them full of tons of free content. And then if people at the end decide to keep learning with me, I give them an incredible discounted rate. And that's how I really started scaling the business and getting the courses out there. And so I did that. It was April of 2021. That's in the business first at 6 figures. And then from there, I went on and scaled it to 7 figures in the coming months by going through different webinars, and I created 9 more courses. In 2

Jay Clouse [00:38:24]:

months. Wow.

Kat Norton [00:38:25]:

Yeah. I just got really streamlined with it, and I could build a course in about a week from start to finish, from, like, mapping out the course takes me, like, 2 days. Filming takes me 2 days. It there's roughly about 12 hours of content, and then I edit for 3 days because I was back when I was editing all my own stuff too. And so I whipped out all these courses, bundled them together, started selling them in bundles, which up my price point, which helped a lot from a financial perspective. Cause if you're selling, like, a $300 product versus a 9.97 product. It's a very different, you know, margin there. And I started scaling it. So meanwhile, Now it's like October of 2021. I have my first six figure day, like, 24 hour period. I was like, holy shit. Like, what's going on? And literally the next say I was on the verge podcast with me like Patel, and we were talking about all this. And that got turned into an article that article got picked up by, like, 50 different news outlets around the world. Next thing you know, all these opportunities are flowing through. Things are happening. Whip out the rest of those courses. It was all at the same time. It was just a wild Q Four is always, like, a crazy time.

Jay Clouse [00:39:28]:

Oh my goodness. What a journey? Incredible You talked about virality a couple times and how that started to become more regular. I think a lot of people think of virality as, like, a slot machine. But I get the vibe that you also don't think of virality as, like, a total slot machine. So how do you think about content creation to give yourself the best shot at virality.

Kat Norton [00:39:50]:

It's it's definitely not a slot machine because it it's very much you know, there's things you can do at not do to easily position yourself in a much better spot. So for example, for me, things that I always look at my content, one is creativity, So having something outside the box, like, people had never seen an Excel screen above their head before. So that way, when it starts going through the algorithm, you got people who are, like, Nice. Excel trick. You got people who are like, what the hell is this girl doing dancing to a left function, creates comments, pushes you through the algorithm, And then even the people that don't care are just like, what? And they're commenting too. And that's also the element of polarity. A healthy element of polarity is something I always look for in content as well. Because if I was just showing you an Excel screen right off the bat, like people who don't use Excel, just swipe on by. There's nothing polarizing about it. But when people see things being combined, like, Excel and dancing that don't traditionally go together, that creates conversation. That's what makes news headlines. That's what creates things. So having that element of polarity to it really helps. And then, you know, things not to do, obviously, like, you need to make sure none of the captions are being cut off on the sides that your videos clear, you know, like, the actual production quality and things that are super important as well because your video could be incredible, but if it's super blurry, it's not going to blow up typically. So it's really kinda just navigating the back ends of creating it. And then another big part is having that energy behind it, you know, if you're having shit day, and then you go to record it and you're just kinda monotone and blah, it's not gonna captivate people. So it's really just getting yourself to a place. And then lastly, clearing those limiting beliefs out because no matter how great the content is, if you're energetically blocking it from going off, you know, that's where people get in those, like, frustrating loops. And then you start forming a pattern when I create things that does not blow up, you know, over time that forms patterns in your brain. So then it's, you know, going in, nothing's unfixable, you know, like, everything is reprogrammable. So even if you're in that spot right now and you're like, oh, Calic, I've been posting for months and it's just not going. Like, Everything is reprogrammable. We can shift the beliefs around it. Shift the mindset around that, and then you see what opens up.

Jay Clouse [00:41:54]:

We haven't covered TikTok all that much. On the show. The first episode that we really covered it in-depth was talking with Tory Dunlap back in January of 2022. And I was on board. I was like, okay. You know what? I'm gonna give it a shot. And then she told me that she was posting three times a day to make the algorithm happy. And I said, just kidding. I'm going to not do that, but that's not what you do. So talk to me about what you've learned about playing nice with TikTok and how we should be thinking about content frequency.

Kat Norton [00:42:22]:

What I always say with that is energy overrides the algorithm. So, for example, I, you know, I've had, like, my most recent post that blew up. I I hadn't posted for, I think, like, a week before it, and then it went and still went viral. So it's really I'll give it in the beginning. I was posting once a day for that 1st month. I'll give it that. But I think that was just because I was so hyped up on it, and that's what felt good for me at time. I wasn't posting, like, oh, I have to post. I have to make something, you know, like, if you're coming in from that frequency, then it's going to sabotage your content. Where for me, I was just so excited that, like, you know, my 4th video people start watching. I was like, okay. I'm gonna make more, you know, and I was so inspired. That it didn't feel like work, and that's where it was just flowing. Then, obviously, as the business grew, my time got divided more, right, And so I didn't have as much time to make content. So I started posting, you know, once every few days or, you know, and it's still the accounts will go viral between the press or TikTok or Instagram were on something. Usually every, like, month or so, I'll have something happen. You know? It it's really I just kinda follow my intuition on it. Like, for example, I just got a killer video at now I'm like, amazing. All I have to do is just film the pieces and hand it to someone. So now I'm able to bump out more content. So that's something I'm working on this week because I have a ton of ideas. But, yeah, so it really is just like flowing with your own energy. And if you're doing things that feel icky to you and you're doing something where you're you know, I don't wanna post this. Oh, I have to make something. Like, that's the energy we want to avoid. So for me, posting every other day felt really good or a times a week felt really good, and I'll just make that content incredible. Like, that's what I ended up doing. It's not as quantifiable. You know, it it's it's AI. It's still it has, you know, things going on. It's not like you do a specific thing and it always works.

Jay Clouse [00:44:08]:

You mentioned that a lot of your core sales come from webinars now. And I could see where your your business model would be, like, TikTok Birality, drive to an email list, pitch a webinar, sell a course. But I think you go TikTok straight to webinar, to email course. Is that the pipeline? And is is getting people in the webinar more impactful than getting them to subscribe to an email list?

Kat Norton [00:44:32]:

Yeah. I definitely put more attention into driving the webinar sign ups because on the back end, I just add them to the email list. So it's really, like, And then that's where, you know, they get the follow ups and things like that, the reminders, and whatnot, but really just getting them straight to the webinar sign up because that essentially accumulates an email list. But it also gives them the link to join the webinar, which helps a lot.

Jay Clouse [00:44:53]:

How do you structure those for success? Like, what if if someone here hasn't done a webinar before, What should they be thinking about to pull one off that is successful and drives people to take action?

Kat Norton [00:45:04]:

Give tons of free content. There is never enough free content, like really going in and providing so much value that people's minds are blown, and they're like, woah, there's so much I actually didn't know about Excel. Like, maybe I need to take this course. And then there's people who are, thank you for the free lesson, and they just leave. And that's great too. Like, it's really just coming from a place of serving and not, like, come from a place. Oh, I have to hold this back, you know, and, like, some like that. Like, I don't play games like that. I'm like, yo, you wanna learn Excel. I'm gonna tell you the most important stuff right now. Like, come through. Let's do this together. I'm gonna make it clean, easy. And then Typically, most people are really inspired to keep learning with me too because it's also it can be viewed as an example of your teaching style. So people are able to see the level of energy and things that I bring to the training. And that's without video editing, you know, once we edit and do things, of course, is our way cooler, you know, but even just from the webinar, people are like, oh my gosh. She makes things make sense. Like, I wanna learn with her. And that's kinda how it just grows that area of the business.

Jay Clouse [00:46:09]:

I know webinars are typically recorded and then sent out to folks who registered or maybe even people that didn't register explicitly, but I think you put a focus on making sure people get their live. Do you find that there's a a difference in How likely someone is to take action if they attend live versus if they actually studiously watch the replay afterwards?

Kat Norton [00:46:28]:

I would say the more people you can get on live. The better, typically. It's it's kind of the excitement of the moment and the community aspect too that really comes into play there. Like, we have an open chat forum, and people are just 100100100 of comments are blowing there. Everyone's saying where they're from? Everyone's super hyped up. They're, you know, what are we drinking? What are we doing? You know, every it's like party, you know, and you wanna be at the party. You don't just wanna watch a video of the party, you know, and especially from a conversion perspective as well, it's obviously much higher live than it is on the follow-up emails because a lot of people don't actually take the time to watch it, but it's really like you're invited to the party, like, come through. You know, that's where the action is.

Jay Clouse [00:47:10]:

I love that. It's this this energy transfer flows through every aspect of your business, it seems. Yeah. You mentioned something a minute ago in passing that you created, like, 10 courses in a matter of weeks. How would I, as someone who, literally has, like, 3 course ideas he wants to build. How do I efficiently do that? What guardrails do you put on yourself to not over engineer to not spend all of your time scripting or editing or recording, how do you structure your time to get that that outcome?

Kat Norton [00:47:41]:

It's a mindset thing. It's totally all mindset. If you're going into it and you're like, oh my gosh. This is a mountain of work. How am I going to do this? Your body's not gonna wanna do it. It's gonna be like, you know, I don't wanna start that. I have other things I can do for me. My biggest hack with it is I will sit there and map out the step and I assign hours to it. So I'm like, okay. Realistically, if I sat down with a cup of coffee, I can map out this thing in 3 hours. If I film it, it's, you know, 12 hours of content. That's 12 hours of filming, 6 hours, 6 hours, add on extra hour each, you know, as a buffer. And so let's choose 7 hour days. And I'm like, okay, editing. If each video's roughly 5 to 10 minutes, because I do many videos, I'm like, how long is that gonna take me out of each one? Maybe 10 minutes, each one. I map out the hours. And then you're sitting there and you look, you're like, oh, it's 40 hours standing in between me and getting out and serving my community. It's 40 hours between me and that extra income stream. 40 hours between me and this, like, mental block I'm having that, like, rides on you back your head where you're like, do it, do it, do it, do it, and you're like, making promises to yourself that you break, which is all bad for your psyche and shit. Like, it is so empowering when you get that done and you feel so good on the other side. And it's a haul sometimes. Like, what I do is I just those weeks, I will do 40, 50 hour weeks, and I will sit down and, like, just crank it all out one shot versus dragging it out. Because I'm like, if it's between me 40 hours, I can make this 40 hours last 3 months. I can make the last 1 week. Which one am I gonna pick? Which one's more it. You know? So that's really it's like leveling with yourself and being like, okay. Like, I'm done letting this, like, dangle over my head and, like, have all thoughts and judgments about it. I'm gonna pull this down, be like, yo, what's actually here. Line that shit up and then just knock it out. You know?

Jay Clouse [00:49:23]:

I love that so much because the amount of time that I waste just thinking about the thing ahead of me and, like, dreading it. Like, just the wasted energy of, like, I want this thing done as opposed to just applying it to the action of doing it, it accumulates and would be such a large number. I'm not even gonna do the mental math because it would be so painful. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything that feels challenging? Is there anything that you're chewing on and struggling with, or what is the next step for miss Excel?

Kat Norton [00:49:53]:

Yeah. I mean, from a challenge perspective, I just view all challenges as blessings and learning opportunities. So it's really like if something ever pops up. It usually doesn't last long, and I'll just do the research and figure it out or hire the person or do you know, for example, my more recent, like, challenge, I'd say was, like, getting through and creating the content all the time with my current schedule where I'm still prioritizing myself and my mental health. And that's where I'm like, okay. I'm going to call in the perfect video editor for me, and I found my perfect person. And it was just, like, calling in the right people in the right positions and, like, when something gets to a point where I'm, like, Oh, I don't like this aspect of the business anymore. This stresses me out, or this keeps me up at night. I get rid of it. I hire it out. I figure it out. You know? And, like, just really clearing out mental blocks. Like, any mental blocks I had, like, for example, my mom was, like, working crazy hours and was so miserable at her job. And I I've retired my mom. Because from that perspective, I'm like, you being so much happier. It's just like, going to make me so much happier knowing that you're happy. And, like, that's a big goal I've had this year is just, like, positioning my family in a in a place for success and, like, giving to them and, you know, being able to, for example, add my parents out at our house in Sedona. We bought our dream house a couple months ago and for them to for them to see that was just, like, those heartwarming moments where I'm like, okay. Like, this is my why. Like, I want to make their experience on the planet, like, the best that possibly can for the rest of their life and, like, anything I can do to serve them. So, like, between them, like, Mike and I, my community, like, just really figuring out, like, way to serve and things that light me up, kinda just make the challenges seem like blips on the radar and things that are much easier to overcome versus, like, mountains and things. And I mean, in the future of miss Excel, we're we're about to turn up. So second half of the year, I've been I've been, away. All of June. And I it it was a lot of fun, weddings, traveling, things, but not a work environment. I was back on childhood bedroom. I was taking meetings from a little, like, kiddie chair from my childhood that my mom used as a step stool in her closet and had that on the floor and my computer on her bed. So it's the only place with good lighting for meetings. And I was like, oh, I cannot work like this. Right? So now that we're back, we're back in Sedona. We're back at our house. We're, building out studios in here. I'm just so ready to turn up from content perspective where I've been working with an incredible team on this newsletter as a whole new offering to my community being able to provide more support in that way. I'm working on a super cool NFT project, like, looking to scale the business, create more products, and, you know, revamp my existing courses, just so much a assignment and energy and just like, I'm ready to go. Like, the second I got back here, Mike, and I started mapping out our goals and stuff for the second half of the year. We're doing a business planning session after this today because Mike also came on my team full time as VP of sales, CFO, does all now. So we work together out of the house. It's been so amazing. So now it's really just like, we're like, let's turn up. Let's go. So, it's it's a lot of excitement going into the second half of the year.

Jay Clouse [00:53:03]:

This conversation with Kat got me really fired up, rethinking how I approach content creation, and specifically how it relates to the energy that I bring content. Am I showing up the best way that I can? Are you showing up the best way that you can? I think for me, it comes back to a lot of times how much crusher am I feeling? Do I feel like I'm under the gun for a deadline? Is that hurting my energy? Is that preventing me from really showing up the best that I can? Be the same is true for you. If you wanna learn more about Kat, you can visit her website, miss excel.com. That's miss excel.com. Or miss.Excel on TikTok and Instagram. Links to all of them are in the show notes. Thanks to Kat for being on the thank you to Connor Connaboy for editing this show and Nathan Town Hunter for mixing this show. Thanks to Emily Clouse for creating the artwork and Brian Skiel for creating our music. If you like this, I'd love for you to tag me on Twitter or Instagram and say, hello. You can find me at jplouse, or leave a comment here on YouTube. If you're not already subscribed, please do so. Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you next week.