A mother of twins who went from being £35,000 in debt to earning £16million in just six years has revealed the steps she took to get ahead and is teaching others how to do it too.
Sunday Times bestselling author Lisa Johnson, 46, turned her life around after growing up on a council estate and being bullied at school.
She is now a global business strategist who helps ambitious people create passive and semi-passive income streams, ie. regular income from a source other than your employer.
Since 2017, Lisa has helped over 50,000 budding entrepreneurs through her One to many course and the Race To Recurring Income challenge, and some have even become millionaires.
In the last seven years, Lisa has earned £16 million and says she once won £1 million in an hour.
Lisa Johnson (pictured), 46, is a global business strategist and host of the number one Making Money Online podcast.
Since 2017, Lisa has helped over 50,000 budding entrepreneurs through her online courses, and some have even become millionaires.
Lisa welcomed her twin sons Finnian and Albert 12 years ago. At the time, her marriage was failing and she was forced to return to work when they were barely five months old.
In addition to making millions launching her business products, Lisa is the host of a #1 podcast, Making Money Online, and a passionate anti-bullying ambassador.
Lisa said: ‘When I started this business all I wanted to do was be able to leave my job. I thought: “If I could earn £2,000 a month, that would be it.” That’s all I wanted.
‘In 2021, during the global pandemic, I made £2.5m in a week – £1m in the first hour from sales from a single release. I take Joe Bloggs off the street and teach them how to make money with the knowledge in their heads.
“And it doesn’t have to be too complex; it could be someone who teaches hula-hooping or sewing patterns, it doesn’t matter.”
Lisa added: “Remember that an expert is the person who knows the most about a particular topic in a normal room, not on the Internet or in the world.”
Lisa grew up living in social housing and suffered a lot of bullying for being poor and wearing second-hand clothes. When she was 16, another student threatened her with a knife, so she left school fearing for her safety, while being told that she would amount to nothing.
She began working full time as an administrative assistant, but at age 23 decided she was destined to do more.
Lisa said, “I asked myself, ‘What’s something hard to do that not every person can do that tells you if they’re right and if you’re worthless or if they’re wrong?’
Lisa began studying law at the age of 27 and has had successful careers in law, banking, and the entertainment industry.
‘I decided to do a degree because I thought if I can get a degree while working full time and getting a decent qualification then that means I can do anything.
‘So that’s what I did. I earned my law degree at 27 while working and realized I could become whoever I wanted to be. That’s when it all started, I climbed the corporate ladder and the rest is history.”
Lisa had successful careers in law, banking, and the entertainment industry, but despite all she had accomplished, she felt unfulfilled and like she was on the wrong path.
When she welcomed her twins Finnian and Albert 12 years ago, Lisa realized she was spending more on childcare than she earned from her personal assistant job.
She said: “I had done quite well getting this job in Canary Wharf and I was earning £60,000 – no one else on the council estate I grew up on was earning that.” So I thought I had done well.
‘Then I got pregnant with twins and my marriage was failing. Then I had to go back to work when they were five months old and I realized very quickly that it wasn’t going to work.
“I needed a 9-5 job close to my home and got a junior administrative assistant role, which meant I went from earning £60,000 to a £20,000 job.”
Believing there must be a better way financially, she created her own wedding planning business, but admitted she “made all the mistakes” because she had no idea what she was doing.
Dissatisfied with her corporate careers, Lisa now works with entrepreneurs to help them turn the “knowledge in their heads” into passive and semi-passive income streams.
Within six months of launching her strategic business, Lisa had made £100,000 in profits. She went on to earn £220,000 in her first year and by the end of the second year she had earned over £1 million.
It was a rocky start as Lisa found herself £35,000 in debt, but after dedicating her time to learning everything she could about business, she turned things around to make the business profitable in just five months.
She said: “Then I spent a year attending all the free webinars, I couldn’t afford to pay for anything because my credit cards were maxed out.”
“So I went to the library, read every business book I could get my hands on, and turned that business around to make it profitable.”
Lisa then began teaching others everything she had learned about business.
In 2017, he realized his passion was helping people grow and scale their businesses online, so he launched his strategic business.
Within six months he had made £100,000 in profits, £220,000 in the first year and over a million by the end of the second year.
It now offers its programs to those just starting out in the business and those looking to grow their companies up to seven figures.
Through her first course, One To Many, which is a program to teach entrepreneurs how to make money online, Lisa developed the CASHH system (her five key steps to generating passive income online).
Lisa said: ‘I noticed that while I was teaching people how to make passive income, I was saying the same thing over and over again. These are the five steps to generate passive income to make money online.
When people complain that they don’t have the time or resources to achieve their business goals, Lisa reminds them that she was a single mother with four-year-old twins and had a full-time job when she started.
‘The C stands for client: Before you decide whether you want a membership or a course, you need to determine who you want to help and who that client is.
Then you go to A, which is for the public. You grow an audience of those people you said you wanted to help. It could be in a Facebook group, on an email list, or on Instagram. You put them somewhere so you can talk to them.
‘So the first S is structure and systems. It’s become really easy with systems like Kartra and Kajabi that help you figure out how to get your course to people.
“So, an online platform where you can put your courses and your membership, and then you just need to determine its structure, i.e. do you prefer audio, video or workbooks, etc.?”
The next S in CASSH stands for “sell,” which Lisa calls “launch,” so this is all about how to “launch” an online course.
She believes that one of the keys to her success and making a lot of money at once is because she learned to take the plunge. Now she can earn £2 million when she launches a new product. Finally, the H in CASSH stands for happy.
Lisa said: ‘Remember that any passive income isn’t very passive at first. You’re learning how to launch, you’re learning how to write a course, and you’re growing your audience.
‘It only becomes passive the second, third, fourth, fifth time you expose it in exactly the same way. But the only way to achieve that is if the customers are happy, because then they will tell other people.’
Lisa, who was bullied as a child for being poor and wearing second-hand clothes, is a passionate anti-bullying activist.
When people complain that it’s “impossible” or blame “hectic schedules” for their lack of success, Lisa reminds them that she was a single mother of four-year-old twins and had a full-time job when she started.
Lisa worked on her business from 5 to 6 am, during her lunch break, and from 9 to 10 pm on construction. One of her top tips is to encourage people to turn off Netflix for an hour at night and that will give them the time they need to start building a business.
Then, after a few years of putting it all together and working hard, he insists that they will make a lot of time thanks to their passive income stream.
In addition to making millions from these business product launches, Lisa is also the host of the Making Money Online podcast, where she shares valuable tips on how time-poor people can build successful and lucrative businesses.
Additionally, she is passionate about helping the bullied, bullies, and bystanders through her work.
She said: “I’ve been bullied by everyone since day one: by classmates, by competitors, by my own coaches, by clients, all kinds of people, but now I know how to deal with it.”
‘Now I realize that no answer is an answer. You don’t have to get involved. One To Many now makes me millions every year, but the most important thing for me now is making a difference for others.’