Let's B-Honest | My Review on Marie Forleo's B-School

It's that time of year for B-School, and if you are debating on if B-School is the right step for you, I want to give you my honest opinion. I am not an affiliate with B-School, I am just an alum that took the courses last year from beginning to end while juggling a full-time 9-to-5, trying to figure out my own small business, and try to get enough sleep to do it all again the next day.

Who is Marie Forleo? What is B-School?

For those of you who do not know, Marie Forleo is the lady behind MarieTV where every Tuesday she posts a new video on "How to create a business and a life that you love!" But her main course of action is B-School. You can only sign up for B-School once a year and it is ~$2000! No matter which way you try to cut it, that is a lot of money, and that investment doesn't come with a shortcut to success, by just watching a bunch of videos.

B-School is an online course where you HAVE to work at it. You have to set aside time to watch the videos, read through it, do the work, and make notes. You have to find what resonates with you, and you have to figure out how to make the content work for YOUR business. B-School only gives you a roadmap to success. If you ever feel like the information is too "generic", then you aren't going as deep as you need to. There is a wonderful online community you can bounce ideas off of and give each other feed back, she has a great customer care team, and you really have to be in the position to really go deep with yourself and your business in order to take that content and create success.

The Big Pros:

Once you sign up for B-School you are a B-Schooler for life! So that means when the program launches again this year, I will be able to go through the content again. This lets you go about the program at your own pace and revisit the program again. It's kind of like when you watch your favorite TV show again for the second time, there is SO much going on, that you might miss the little details. I love that I can keep using this as my foundation with the big changes in my business.

B-School offers a roadmap to success! Before B-School I would spend HOURS just doing research trying to learn things like online marketing strategies, blog content ideas, newsletters, who and why it is important to know my ideal client...I would spend so long looking up stuff, that I didn't implement, or even know how to implement what I've spent hours learning. Each week I knew exactly what I was going to focus on, and I had a clear understanding on how to make it happen.

I gained a wonderful community of creatives. Through the program I got really great friends who are also small business owners, but the most valuable thing is that out of the thousands of people that signed up, I became friends with 3 important small business owners, and for over 6 months we talk to each other just about everyday to hold each other accountable for things going on in our business. 

It challenge me to really go there. It challenged me to go deep in my business. See how my personal beliefs can impact my business, and that I can literally have a perspective that with what I do I'm able to make the world a better place. Now if that doesn't get you out of bed every morning!

The Big Cons:

This is actually, technically, a pro, but unfortunately I got the short end of the stick with this particular offer. B-School has great affiliate programs! What this mean is that if you sign up with someone who is a B-School affiliate then that person gets half your tuition payment and you get more training and bonus material through that affiliate. It's great because it also makes the groups smaller. The reason why I have this as a con is because the particular group I signed up with I felt didn't really give much to offer, especially thinking that I paid $1000 to be in that group. But I wouldn't have met the 3 creatives I began a Mastermind with and that in itself is priceless.

There is no magic fairy dust, you HAVE to do the work! Things can feel "generic" or too vague at times, but if that is the case you aren't going as deep as you need to. The course information is offered to a wide variety of small business backgrounds. When you feel like you need something a little deeper, that is when you need to reach out to the online groups/chats with specific answers to get the best you can. I always felt like every piece of information was extremely valuable.

If you aren't an online e-course person, and more along the lines of a service based person like myself, you really have to figure out how to make the information work for you. It isn't impossible to do, but sometimes it can be a little challenging. I never felt like information wasn't insightful, but there were times I didn't think this would work for my particular business model, or that I would like to circle back on the topic later.

My Final B-School Thoughts:

The thing is, there is no fairy dust in running a business, it is HARD work. B-School is no different, I would get aggravated with some of the assignments because I couldn't figure out how to implement it. It's a huge time investment, and sometimes I felt like I couldn't really give it the time it deserves. To me the investment was so worth it. There is no doubt that people have had tremendous success with the program! I am not one of those people who at the end of 8 weeks created a 6-figure income and travel the world every other day. But I did get to become sustainable and leave my day job and pursue Quaint+Whim full time because of the confidence and community I got through the program.

So yes, I will be doing this program again the next go around, and I'm excited to see where it leads me.

If you have any other questions or concerns about B-School from someone who is a small business owner and not an affiliate, leave a comment below, other people are probably thinking what you are, I would love to try and answer it!