Amish and Avani had no technical and no digital marketing experience when they started the Champions Program.
Yet, they became one of our star students, winning the Ultimate Champions Cup in 2021, and creating a six-figure digital agency from home – all while raising a new baby.
How do you go from knowing nothing about how to provide web design and SEO services to businesses and corporates to having the confidence and skills to build websites for them, improving their bottom line and getting $10,000+ for website builds and $3,000+ per month for SEO? That’s what you’ll hear in this interview.
WATCH THE VIDEO or read the transcript below to see how the Champions Program accelerated Amish and Avani’s online business success while they raised a new family.
See how this couple completely retrained in digital skills to build a six-figure digital agency while starting a new family…
Matt Raad: Hello again, everyone. It’s Matt Raad here, CEO and co-founder of eBusiness Institute, where we train people how to earn a full-time income online rather than working in a corporate job or in a bricks and mortar business.
We love doing these interviews and chatting with our recent graduates to see what their experiences and journeys have been like. And we especially like catching up with them after a couple of years to see where they’re up to.
Today, we have a very special couple from our Champions community, Amish and Avani. I’m going to give you the best rap ever because you guys are crushing it.
We all had so much fun hearing your update at the recent Champions Bootcamp.
I want to say a special thank you for coming along today and agreeing to share with our wider community your amazing journey. You both got out of your previous roles, completely retrained in digital skills with us and are now running a very successful six-figure digital agency on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
And as we heard at the Bootcamp, you both set some pretty high expectations, and it looks like you’re kicking some significant goals now.
So, I wanted to unpack your journey and give people an idea of what it’s like to retrain in this field.
Amish started the Champions program with no technical experience
Matt: You’re out there using your new digital skills and starting a new family. And there have been some interesting insights around that one, aren’t there? Particularly while you’re launching a new business and starting a new family.
Amish: It’s been an exciting journey. There’s even a funny story about Avani being at the hospital and me asking her some SEO and website questions during labour. But we’re still together and quite good with the business.
Matt: And that’s dedication for you. You guys are one of our couples who have had what we call a “Champions Baby” while doing our course.
So, did you start the Champions program with us two years ago?
Avani: Yes.
Matt: And Amish, you are not from a technical background whatsoever. But it was mainly you who jumped into it?
Amish: Yes. I love the idea of serving the business community. My passion is about reaching out to businesses and delivering something of value.
But I am completely non-technical, and I think my business partner would say that’s still the case, but we’ve come a long way.
Avani: Yes, you have. I sometimes allow him into the back end of websites now, which he was not allowed before. I think he’s built a fair amount of digital skills over the years.
He learned his digital skills by building a website from scratch
Matt: Like everyone on this course, we all learn how to build a site from scratch. That’s one of the core skills we teach here.
Amish, whilst you jokingly say you have no technical skills; you definitely love SEO. You understand it to the ninth degree. I know you do because of the conversations we’ve had. And you can actually build a very good website as well. You know exactly what goes into it.
Amish: Yes. It’s something that I took up as a challenge. I built a couple of websites, and obviously, SEO was something that I enjoyed from day one.
That has always been my strength. I love doing the research and finding a way to where I can get the customer the results they’re after. That is my passion.
Creating roles in your Digital Agency
Amish and Avani have designed roles that are aligned to their unique skills and interests.
Matt: You are a husband-and-wife team working on this. What are your roles?
Avani, are you the more technical one, mainly building the websites?
Avani: Yes, I’m building all the websites. We do have a team now, but I am still building a lot of the websites. So, I am the builder, and Amish is the SEO champion. But obviously, our roles do overlap sometimes.
With the years that we’ve done this now, it’s reached the space where we can cross over into each other’s work. And that’s good because we provide each other with a support system while knowing our individual roles.
Matt: Awesome.
By learning the same digital skills, they are able to change their roles as their family grows
Matt: The other cool thing about both of you training with us is you’re both on the same page. You know exactly what each other knows. You’ve both built sites together and separately, and do the SEO.
Amish, you love the research side and doing the SEO. Who does the sales work out there?
Amish: I have always enjoyed sales, so initially, it was all me. But our bub is 18 months old, so Avani’s getting back into it too.
Matt: I know. Go, Avani. High five!
Avani: Look, I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve done it previously but took a step back because he’s so good at it. He loves getting into somebody’s business and learning all about it.
So, in the last six months, I’ve been getting back into the sales aspect and loving it.
Amish and Avani built a 6-figure Digital Agency in under 2 years
Matt: When Amish and Avani joined the Champions program and retrained in digital skills, they had a crack at every strategy we teach.
You guys bought a couple of really nice passive sites to learn on. And you built some semi-passive sites of your own. But your primary strategy that’s taken off like a rocket is building websites for local businesses, and you are now known as one of the best web designer Sydney.
And for our readers to understand what that means – it’s allowed you to create a very high cash flow within your family in a very short space of time. That’s because you do such a good job for your clients.
Their first website build was for $500
Matt: I want to take you back in time and remember your first website build.
In our community today, Amish and Avani are legends. They’re charging thousands of dollars up to tens of thousands for website builds.
But do you remember one of my first coaching calls with you? I didn’t know you as well back then as I do now. And you were showing me your first website build you were learning on. How much did you charge for that first site, and what was my reaction?
Avani: We charged $500 for our first build because we were learning on it, and it was somebody we knew.
Matt: That’s good.
Avani: It was a good-looking website. But there was also an opportunity that he had given us to work with him. Just saying those words out loud, I’m thinking, “Whoa. Did I really?” We did!
Amish: I still get in trouble for them because I was the sales guy, and I got that job. Avani said, “You got me a $500 job?!”
Avani: We even argued over the GST, whether it should have been $500 + GST.
But today, they charge a minimum of $3,000
Matt: Fast forward to now. What would you charge for the same website?
Avani: Today, we charge anywhere from $3,000 up to $20,000, depending on the type of website we’re doing and whether we’re working with small businesses or large corporations.
That’s the average pricing, which could go up depending on the actual build and how complicated it is.
Amish: And the clientele.
Matt: Wow. Just two years ago, you were charging $500, and today it’s a minimum of $3,000 up to $20,000. You’re getting website builds in that range because you’re working with a range of corporates.
Do you pinch yourselves now, looking back at your journey?
Avani: Yes.
Amish: It’s been very satisfying, to say the least, because obviously, you get more with the same amount of time you put in for a $500 website. It’s definitely more valuable for your time.
Avani: We’ve reached the stage where we’ve seen what we’ve done for our clients. Our big goal has been for every redesign, web build, and SEO job we’ve done; we’ve made an actual difference to their bottom line. And when they see that, they come back.
Matt: That is super cool.
How Money Mindset helped Amish grow their online business so quickly
Matt: A question I’m sure many of our readers have is, how the heck have you done this so quickly? Because as the best SEO agency Sydney, I know you’re charging anywhere from $1,000 – $3,000 a month for ongoing SEO. And of course, you’re very good at it.
But Amish, you were sharing with me earlier about confidence and money mindset. Has that been one of the reasons you’ve been able to grow so quickly?
Amish: When I initially started, I wasn’t too comfortable going out and getting $1,000 a month for SEO jobs.
So, for me, it was incremental. It’s happened over time; I initially did SEO jobs for $150 and saw the value it’s made to the customer’s business.
They are able to see the value they give to businesses, which allows them to charge more for their services
Amish: With a lot of businesses we work with, it directly impacts their personal life because a lot of them are small to medium businesses. We have been able to improve their business as well as personal life drastically.
And that’s where I saw the value in what we do and how it’s impacting them. Now, we start from $500, and quote up to $2,000 – $5,000. That’s the price.
Matt: Listen to how easily that rolls off the tongue. $5,000 a month recurring. You only need two to three clients like that each month, and you’ve replaced your income.
Avani: If we can show the value to a $5,000 client and bring him 3X that or 10X that, it’s working for them.
Matt: Avani, that’s your goal, isn’t it? Because you’ve seen the results. Earlier, you told me that you love generating 3X in your client’s results.
Avani: Absolutely.
Providing exceptional SEO service for a locksmith allowed Amish and Avani to increase their rates by 1300%
Matt: I will mention one specific niche you’ve built because it’s seriously impressive to any long-time SEOer like myself.
You didn’t realise at the time how impressive this was, but you guys managed to SEO a locksmith. How did the results go there?
Amish: It started slow because he was my first client, and I charged him a pretty minuscule amount for SEO.
But they trusted in what we were doing and the basics I explained to them. For a lot of locksmiths, SEO is a foreign concept.
It took a while for them to come on board. But a couple of months down the line, they started ranking and saw the graph going up (the exponential curve). They started ranking in their entire region, and it’s just gone another level.
He’s so happy with the results that he’s set up another business, and we are doing SEO for them too.
We’ve gone from charging someone $150 a month to charging them $2,000.
Matt: Perfect. And it’s worth it because SEO’ing the locksmith niche is pretty challenging. So, it’s seriously impressive to get that. You hit the graph, and he must be one happy client.
See how Amish and Avani are now working with big corporate clients
Matt: You guys have a range of clients, from small businesses to big corporates. And you have people like locksmiths and local accountants etc.
We don’t have to name names, but can we take a look at some of your favourite clients? What’s the typical range you charge for ongoing SEO for these more corporate, bigger clients?
Amish: Because they are all Australia-wide for their production services, the corporate ones start around $3,000 a month.
We have a quote in place at the moment where we’ve quoted $8,000 for SEO for them. That’s because they have a slightly bigger market.
Matt: Yes, they want to rank in more places.
I know you’re looking forward to that one. I can see the smile on your face, and it’s right up your alley. Both of you are researching that market, aren’t you? You’re having fun already working on the SEO.
They find their corporate clients through local business networking
Matt: Now, I want to talk about my favourite site.
Amish and Avani have built a fantastic site for a big corporate selling medical and industrial equipment.
How did you get that job, and what did you charge for them and the ongoing SEO?
Amish: We got the customer through BNI.
Matt: Through networking?
Amish: Yes, we get most of these jobs through networking. Our strategy from day one was to put ourselves out there and network.
How a $3,000 per month SEO job turned into a profitable web rebuild
Amish: So, we charge them $3,000 for SEO. They also wanted the website to show some more value, but it really wasn’t up to the mark. They hadn’t done anything about it.
That’s when Avani came into the picture. We’re like, “We need to rebuild the website.”
Avani: The website was a secondary thing for them. I think they were really gung-ho about the SEO side of things. But when we looked at the website, we said, “Look, we can get people to your website, but it’s another thing to convert.”
We now call ourselves conversion specialists because when we look at the website, we get into the mindset of the customer avatar.
Matt: That’s good.
Avani: We look at what the customer avatar sees when they land on the website. And this wasn’t a website that would have converted clients.
We could have done all the SEO at the back end, but landing on a website that’s not converting wouldn’t have worked.
So, we did a rebuild for them. We didn’t charge as much as we would normally, but we still charged $7,000 because they were already doing ongoing SEO.
Amish and Avani call themselves the Conversion Specialists
Avani: Like all our customers, we want to do a fantastic job for them. So for us, we wanted to ensure they’re actually converting.
Matt: When we discussed this client on a mentoring call, you said you would generally charge a lot more. It was a very nice web build.
Amish: Yes, we usually charge around $15,000 because of the number of pages and the company’s industry.
Matt: But you wanted to look after the customer, and I think you did the right thing. The three of us discussed it at the time; it makes your SEO look better because the site needed rebuilding. And that goes hand-in-hand with the ongoing SEO.
Now, you’ve got a client who you can really look after. You’re charging $3,000 a month, and your work on it is phenomenal. And they’re thrilled with the whole process, aren’t they?
Amish: They absolutely love it.
There were a few processes involved because they’re a big company and have many procedures involved in the marketing teams. But we’ve gone past that and delivered something that exceeded their expectations. They love us.
Matt: Absolutely.
Why their clients never leave…
Avani: One of the things Amish and I are both very sure of is – what we promise, we deliver.
I think that’s one of the key factors why our clients have stuck with us since the beginning. We’ve never had a client come back unhappy because they’ve seen that we always overdeliver on what we’ve promised.
We don’t set expectations that we can’t meet, and we don’t deliver less than what we’ve promised.
Matt: Yes, and I’ve seen that firsthand. I’ve worked on many sites with you, and they’re beautiful. You’re coming up in leaps and bounds. And the good thing is you can use this website build as your resume piece to show other big corporates.
…And their client base and industry continues to grow
You’re getting some exciting ones now that you would never have thought of, including charities. And a wide range of interesting SEO-related web builds.
Amish: I know. It’s been an exciting journey working with artists, first nations and clients, and then we have NGOs. It keeps things interesting rather than pigeonholing ourselves to one industry.
Avani: We were thinking, “Should we niche down and just focus on one industry?”
We actively took a call because we love working with clients across the board and enjoy it. We’ve narrowed down a few industries we love, but we’re not niching down to one single industry we want to be a part of.
Amish and Avani are able to run their online business…no matter what life throws at them!
Matt: On the surface, this looks fantastic. You’ve got a wide range of wonderful, small businesses that you can look after in your community, all the way up to some big corporates that I know you both love working with.
You’re doing fantastic work, and you’re both passionate about SEO. It all looks just wonderful and perfect but…
Look, we’re laughing and having fun now, but it hasn’t always been that way. You’ve had a few little challenges over the last couple of years with COVID and a new family and everything.
How they grew the agency while raising their new baby
Matt: What was it like? You are building this amazing business, but halfway through, you had a Champion baby.
Avani: I won’t lie; it was a struggle! It was probably one of the toughest times of our life, and we didn’t have a support system here. We were pretty much on our own.
Raising this little bub is the most brilliant thing but also the most exhausting thing in the world. And we were building up massively in the growth phase of our business.
One of the key factors was taking the time to divide our roles and knowing what each person has expertise in. And then, we built our team at the back end.
Avani: We made sure we had the right people involved with us. It gives us a support system to turn to, which we didn’t have until now.
Matt: I want to say big congratulations because it was a challenge for you, but here you are. During COVID stuck in Narrabeen. It’s a nice place to be stuck, but you said no.
As you said, you had no family support, and your business was also taking off.
Avani was still helping Amish with SEO even while in labour!
Matt: You have to tell the story. When little Amira came along, what were you guys doing? What was happening in those few hours?
Avani: Amish touched on this at the beginning. It’s a funny story, and I think it sets a precedent for how we are as a couple and shows his dedication and love for our clients.
Matt: That’s right.
Avani: I was in labour for 12 hours. It was an exhausting, hectic journey. But Amish comes in and puts a laptop in my face while I’m having a contraction.
Remember, back then, I was not allowing him to go to the back end of the websites and make changes on his own.
So, he was coming to me, saying, “Hey. I need to make this change. Can you tell me how to do it?”
I’m just looking at him, going, “This is not okay!” I physically didn’t have the energy to say anything. I should have hurled something.
Amish: But she did sort me out, and the client was happy.
Matt: Yes, so you’ve got an SEO baby literally whilst you are giving birth. You’re in the hospital in labour and working on a client site.
But that’s the beauty of this business too. I want to relate; anyone in corporate would think, “Oh. That’s crazy. You’re working on all this stuff.” But I know it’s a fun business.
I’m not recommending that working on your business during labour is normal; we’re all laughing about it now. But it’s a relatively easy business to run when you’re passionate about it, and I think you guys are definitely the epitome of that.
Their business continued to grow, even while overseas for four months
Matt: Of course, once little Amira was here and COVID lockdowns ended in Australia, you guys returned to your family in India.
You were already building excellent sites for these corporates. And obviously, you can run this business from anywhere and do the laptop thing.
But was there another bit of a challenge while you were there?
Avani: Yes, so we went back to India. We were supposed to be there for two months, but we got COVID while we were there. And I had a mini surgery.
But this business gives us a flexible lifestyle. It’s something we’ve been really conscious of.
Everyone in our team works from home. Sometimes we meet in person, but no one’s forced to come into an office setup every day.
And it was great for us to build this business while we were overseas.
Amish: I think even with COVID, a lot of customers are open to people working remotely as long as you deliver. And that’s exactly what we did when we were stuck for a month. We continued with the work we had to do.
Avani: And good communication. I think that is the key to running a business like that. You’re communicating with your clients and not just leaving them going, “Where are these guys? Why have they disappeared on us?”
We had excellent communication with all our clients. We were checking in probably once every two weeks to ensure things were still on track.
Matt: Perfect. We did a Zoom call too. It’s very easy these days.
The digital agency gives Amish and Avani the flexibility to work from home or an office
Matt: I notice you’ve got an office in Sydney now, in George Street. That’s impressive you’ve got availability to premium office space.
But these days, are you still doing a lot of work from home? Are most clients happy just to jump on Zoom with you, or do you have to do many face-to-face meetings?
Amish: I prefer face-to-face when meeting someone for the first time. After that, we’re happy to take it on Zoom, and that’s how they prefer it.
Avani: I think post-COVID, it’s a little bit of a mixed bag where some clients want to be on Zoom and don’t want you to come in. If you drive all that way, they feel obligated to commit at the beginning.
Whereas on Zoom, it’s simple. We both get to stay where we are. In saying that, we enjoy seeing our clients face to face.
Matt: And getting to know them and their business details. So, you love meeting the client face to face, and for the rest of it, you can work from home with your little one. It’s very flexible.
Do you work from home when you’re doing the research side of things?
Avani: Yes, we work from home, we work from a car, we work from outside bub’s daycare in a cafe.
Matt: Awesome.
Avani: As long as we have a laptop and a charging point, we’re good.
Matt: You’re good to go. That’s all you need.
See what it’s been like for Avani running an online business as a new mum
Matt: Avani, when it comes to dealing with clients, I want to ask you a question as a female and as a mum.
Your latest client was a huge corporate client. When you were talking to them, could you share with everyone how you went with the sales call and how you landed the job?
Avani: Yes, this was a sales pitch that Amish was meant to do, but he wasn’t feeling well that day. So, he pushed me into the deep end.
It was the first client-facing meeting I had done in two years, and I was presenting to ten start-up founders and corporates.
Matt: Wow.
She gained the confidence to return to sales and land a big corporate client
Avani: I can see now that I love client meetings. I acknowledge that’s only happened in the last couple of months.
Before that, I was out of the client-facing world with the bub and the pregnancy. I wasn’t comfortable meeting them and having these conversations. Using Zoom instead worked really well for me.
So, I think it’s incredible that I can now stand in front of these people after all that time and chat with them.
I always pushed back to Amish and said, “I’m not going in. You go and meet the clients.”
Amish: It was incredible that she took it on board and did it.
It’s not easy for someone to be out of action for so long and then go out in a boardroom and present to ten people, where it’s a big SEO pitch.
Matt: Yes, and this is in Sydney, and they’re all in suits.
Avani, you come in, you’re a new mum, and you’re talking SEO when Amish normally does that.
Avani: That’s right, and I didn’t know anyone in the room or in that team because Amish was handling all the communication until then.
It was a bit daunting, but it was a fun pitch. I came out of the meeting feeling like, “Okay, that was the push I needed to get back into the client-facing meetings.”
I think a lot of people forget that when you become a mum, there are so many changes that happen inside you. Changes happen to your body and your personality. So, to get back to that takes a little bit longer than it would for somebody who’s just coming back from a holiday.
Matt: Yes. And also, running this business has worked well for you being a new mum, Avani.
Being a new parent motivated Avani to grow the digital agency even more
Matt: I know I’m biased because this is how Liz and I started online. And it seems a lot of other Champions go through it too. But a turning point for us was when our kids came along. That’s when our online business just took off.
And it seems to be the same with you. Have you got any words of advice for any new mums or mums to be?
Avani: Yes, so I think we’re the same as you guys, and this all took off for us when having our bub.
When becoming a new mum, a key factor for me was having the digital skills you were teaching, Matt. You offer virtual training and give us the digital skills we need to make our business happen.
There’s so much out there you can do while having a family that couldn’t have been done before. There is always a question of, “Are you going to be the primary caregiver?” And then there’s that guilt from not being there for your baby.
But what we’ve learned here gives us the best of both worlds.
Matt: Well, a big congratulations to you both. Everyone in our Champions community loves hearing your story, and it inspires so many people. We all had a big laugh at the last Bootcamp when we saw you both over the weekend.
Look at all your success stories. I’m sorry we couldn’t give you a second Ultimate Champions Cup. You’re only allowed to win one. And you’ve got it over there in the background. You guys are our students of the year for last year. So, a big congratulations there.
Advice for someone starting their online journey
Matt: For our readers who are starting on this journey, when you look back and what you guys have achieved here, it’s been absolutely fun. You have to pat yourselves on the back for what you’ve done over these last two years.
Do you have any advice that could help someone new on this journey?
Amish: I would ask the question, “What do you want to offer?”
Irrespective of what you want to do online, you can pick any strategy from what Matt and Liz Raad teach and make it your own.
We chose the agency method, but someone can decide to do the portfolio or another strategy that eBusiness Institute teaches to help future proof your income online.
The skills are there to be learned and implemented. You can do whatever you want online and whatever you want to make of your life.
Avani: And I would say reps, reps, reps.
Matt: Good, Avani. You’ve learned well. That’s our number one saying in Champions, and you guys blitzed that.
That’s how you increased your confidence from starting at $500, and it helped your mindset. You just did the reps, reps, reps, and that’s the thing we all really admire about what you’ve done.
Even through some of the challenges you faced – having a new baby, getting stuck in India for four months in the middle of building this amazing digital agency. You guys have just stuck it out. Reps, reps, reps. You’re very deserving of our Student of the Year Ultimate Champions Cup winners.
So, I do want to say a big thank you for sharing your story today and helping to inspire so many people.
Avani: Thank you for inspiring so many people as well, Matt.
Amish: Yes, without you, the platform, and the training you provide, it wouldn’t be possible for us to see the light. We’re really grateful to the business, you, Liz and all the Champions community.
Avani and Amish’s online journey all started from the 3 Day Digital Investors Summit
Avani: And I’m just going to share one little thing before we hop off.
I still remember when we started with Digital Investors. Amish dragged me into the 3-Day Workshop and said, “You just have to sit here with me.” I said, “No, I don’t want to do this.”
But I think coming along to that event and seeing how genuine you and Liz are is what converted me. And I can 100% say that seeing other people just like us across the board helped us make this decision.
We knew we really wanted to do this and create a business where we can actually help our clients at the end of the day.
Matt: Perfect. See Avani? You’re keeping that tradition going now. You are helping to inspire so many other people to follow in your footsteps over the coming years.
So, a massive thank you to you both for coming along today and sharing your story.
Avani & Amish: Thank you.
Learn the Digital Marketing Skills Started It All For Amish and Avani
If you want to learn how to build websites, check out the WebDev Accelerator Course.
If you want to learn how to buy websites, take a look at the Digital Investors Program.
