Agnes Maas & Gamifying Your Digital Product with Jiffy Courses

Joanna Newton sits down with Agnes Maas of Jiffy Courses Online to explore how she and her husband transformed a niche digital product into an international sensation. Agnes shares actionable insights on solving real-world problems in online education, the power of staying focused on a niche, and proven strategies for scaling a digital business worldwide. If you’re looking to take your digital offer global—or want to learn from a founder who’s done it—this conversation is packed with practical takeaways for female entrepreneurs, coaches, and creators.

Website: Jiffycoursesonline.com

Freebie: Gamify Lite: https://www.jiffycoursesonline.com/official-gamify-lite-tutorial

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BastiaandeKoning

Agnes Maas is co-founder of JiffyCoursesOnline, a business that helps Kajabi users improve their online courses, websites, and sales through powerful, ready-to-use templates with built-in extra functionalities. Together with her husband Bastiaan, she turned a niche product into a global success—serving creators in over 40 countries and generating consistent 6-figure revenue. Their work focuses on solving one of the biggest challenges in online learning: student drop-off. With smart design, strategic features, and a clear message, JiffyCourses helps course creators boost motivation, increase completion rates, and build loyal customer bases.

Time Stamps:

03:48 Agnes Maas on Jiffy Courses Online

05:55 The Importance of Niche Focus

08:39 First Product and Early Success

13:12 Marketing Strategies and Lead Generation

17:40 Scaling and Future Plans

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Transcript

Episode 099: Agnes Maas

Agnes Maas: [00:00:00] And I guess that I was the one who saw real potential because I thought, this is fantastic.

If you can add something so small, but so, powerful to a course, so many course creators will want to have. This will be so happy to. Give something extra so they can have, so they can motivate their students better. So it was my idea to, bring gamify, uh, that's what, what it was called back then.

Bring gamify to the world. 

Joanna Newton: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Her First Podcast. I'm excited to bring you today's episode about growing a national digital brand. Now today you have me, myself. My name is Joanna. I'm the co-founder of Millennial Marketer. A course creation agency that helps people create their own digital online products.

You'll notice today that Michelle is missing. She is away while we're filming this episode, but I do have a very [00:01:00] special guest. Today we have a very special guest and colleague of mine, Agnes Moss. Agnes is the co-founder of Jiffy Courses Online, a business that helps Kajabi users improve their online courses, websites, and sales through powerful, ready to use templates, with built-in extra functionalities. Together with her husband Bastion, she turned a niche product into a global success Serving creators in over 40 countries and generating consistent six figure revenue. Their work focuses on solving one of the biggest challenges in online learning. Student drop off With smart design strategic features and the clear message, Jiffy courses helps course creators boost motivation, increase completion rates, and build loyal customer basis. Welcome Agnes. We're so glad to have you 

Agnes Maas: Hi. 

Joanna Newton: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Her First Podcast. I'm excited to bring you today's episode about growing a national digital brand. Now today you have me, myself. My name is Joanna. I'm the co-founder of Millennial [00:02:00] Marketer. A course creation agency that helps people create their own digital online products.

You'll notice today that Michelle is missing. She is away while we're filming this episode, but I do have a very special guest. Today we have a very special guest and colleague of mine, Agnes Moss. Agnes is the co-founder of Jiffy Courses Online, a business that helps Kajabi users improve their online courses, websites, and sales through powerful, ready to use templates, with built-in extra functionalities. Together with her husband Bastion, she turned a niche product into a global success Serving creators in over 40 countries and generating consistent six figure revenue. Their work focuses on solving one of the biggest challenges in online learning. Student drop off With smart design strategic features and the clear message, Jiffy courses helps course creators boost motivation, increase completion rates, and build loyal customer basis. Welcome Agnes. We're so glad to have you 

Agnes Maas: Hi. it's so great to be here. Um, I'm so [00:03:00] honored to be a guest in your podcast. My first podcast actually. Thank you, Joanna. I.

Joanna Newton: So excited to be the person that you're doing your first podcast episode with. actually use the JE courses templates in all of our course creation. So we're very familiar with how it works, the power that it can have to really transform someone's like Kajabi learning experience.

So I'm excited to dig in today to learn more about the growth of that business, like how it got started. What that mission was. Um, 'cause those are actually things I don't know that much about. Um, so why don't we start with, you just sharing a little bit about your business in your own words and what that business looks like today.

We'll go back in a little bit and kind of talk about your beginnings, but where are you at right now and how does your

Agnes Maas: Yes. Yes. Oh, uh, I'd love to do that. Well, our business is centered around Kajabi, and I think many of your listeners know what Kajabi is, but it's an all-in-one platform that lets you create market and sell digital products, like online [00:04:00] courses and memberships and coaching, and you don't need many tech skills.

That's why we like this. Platform so much, well, we thought we could improve it. So together with my husband, BA Coning, we help Kajabi users to improve their online courses, to improve their websites, improve their sales. Well actually they're all business. And we do that by providing. New functionalities built into Kajabi templates.

So things that people think of, think of of, oh, I wish Kajabi could do this or do that. Well, they just need to visit our website and they'll find it. but our business is very niche. It's, uh, well we're based in the Netherlands that's a very small country in Europe Business are sold worldwide.

We sell them in over 40 countries. most sales are, uh, in the United States, but we sell them in South Africa, in Norway, in Japan, in Australia. Well, really everywhere. And I really like that worldwide vibe. I've got this, map, in the office where I put pins in every country and every state that we sell a product in.

I, um, I really love that. [00:05:00] I wanted to tell Basian is the programmer in our business. He creates, all those genius extra stuff. But, um, when that works, he's ready with it. He, he's, he thinks it's okay, but I, I'm the one who creates the sellable products. I tell the world about it, and I always have the Kajabi user mind.

What do they need? How can I help them? I try to listen To the audience and, try to find better ways. And I'm really a pain in the ass for Basian because I always want more, I always want extra things. So, uh, but we're a good couple together.

Joanna Newton: That's good. And so it must be so interesting in your day to day like. Being a couple as well

Agnes Maas: Yes.

Joanna Newton: business partners and, and that experience, but that must be really fun and, and really interesting. And it's good that you can push on each other, right? And like really push to have the best possible product.

And it shows in what, in what you do. One of the things that we talk about a lot in this podcast is the importance of

Agnes Maas: Mm-hmm.

Joanna Newton: and. One thing. I think people, especially a lot of the people I talk to, like a lot of the new business [00:06:00] owners that I talk to, they get nervous about having such a specific niche because they start to think like, well if my audience is so narrow, how am I gonna sell?

And how am I gonna build a successful, profitable business? But you picked a very specific niche, like you work with Kajabi. Users and your templates are for use inside Kajabi. When you were first starting coming up with the business idea, what made you really decide to pick that niche and were you ever tempted to try to be for more 

Agnes Maas: We really focus on Kajabi and we have been thinking about do we have to extend? feels a bit risky as well. This, this, the day Kajabi stops, our business stops. We have got actually three businesses and they're all about Kajabi. but uh, we also find that once you start, uh, focusing on a single.

thing, like for in our example, Kajabi, you really get an expert at it. You really are. Uh, well, we're known [00:07:00] worldwide. E so many Kajabi users known us customers know exactly what's possible. We know exactly what you can do with this product, and it makes people come to us. and if there's somebody else that can tell you more about online courses in general, They have a problem with Kajabi. They will not go to the online courses in general person. They will come to us. It really helps us to, uh, to focus on a certain, uh, on a certain subject. And within Kajabi we focus on online courses. That's our, we, we do all Kajabi, but, uh. Our main focus is to solve the problem that many, course creators, uh, face students dropping off, stopping with their course, uh, memberships, the, uh, members that won't last, for a few months.

so that hurts. That hurts the, lean learner's outcome, the learner's results, but it also hurts the business of the course creator. So we really try to solve that.

Joanna Newton: Yeah, and one of the things, again, a thing that we. Talk a lot about in this podcast as well, other than picking a specific [00:08:00] niche, is making sure that you understand a problem, like what is your customer's

Agnes Maas: Yes.

Joanna Newton: and then you have a really viable solution. And when you're getting started, one thing I recommend is to start with one problem, one solution.

Eventually you might solve multiple problems or have multiple solutions for the same problem, but like, if you wanna make a name for yourself that like, what's the problem? What is the solution we can offer and really, really getting that message out in the world. And sometimes, again, people wanna solve all of the problems and have all of the solutions, but when you get really specific, people find you, like people are like, wait, this is the problem, this is the solution.

Let me find that person. So can you talk to us about what was the first problem that you solved and what was the product that you matched with that? 

Agnes Maas: Our first problem was, Basian really loves to play with, with Kajabi and programming, and he does it, uh, in the weekends and in the evenings when he's supposed to do something else. But, problem he, he [00:09:00] was facing was, well, when you have a course, how can you make it more, interesting, exactly what I, what I was telling earlier.

So how do you keep your. Students motivated, and that's when he came up with a, course template that allows you to, reward your students with batches. So as many batches as you like. So for all kinds of activities, they can get a batch. And it's very small. It's one of the most elementary gamification elements you can add in a course.

but that's what's the first thing he created. It was in 2021 and, he just, told his, clients, uh, you already had about it. I created something new and you sold some of them. But it was not, not even really interested in, but people were really happy with it. And I guess that I was the one who saw real potential because I thought, this is fantastic.

If you can add something so small, but so, powerful to a course, so many course creators will want to have. This will be so happy to. Give something extra so they can have, [00:10:00] so they can motivate their students better. So it was my idea to, bring gamify, uh, that's what, what it was called back then.

Bring gamify to the world. So, uh, we created, uh, an English website for it, sales vehicle. then it started. 

Joanna Newton: that's really cool. And I love, I haven't heard that story before and I love that something that you kind of created. As a passion project, right. Started using with your service-based clients. then you said like, Hey, more people would want this. Right? So you took something, you kind of tested it, you used it with people, and then brought that to the world.

Created a website, created a marketing strategy, and like said like, Hey, let's get this in front of more people. And it worked. And I didn't realize that was only since 2021. And now your templates are like, you have free versions inside Kajabi, and you partner with

Agnes Maas: Yes,

Joanna Newton: things and you've really made some big strides, like in the amount of time since you've had this product. now on your website, can you [00:11:00] tell me about what it took? so you used this with clients? And you had it, then you built an English website to start like getting more people to just buy the template. Can you tell me about what it took to sell your first template? Not to a

Agnes Maas: Mm-hmm.

Joanna Newton: but like through your website, like what, what that was like and what you did to make that

Agnes Maas: I must say we were very lucky with that one. We created this English website. but it was, well, it still felt like something on the side. That was in August, 2022, so we got noticed. We got noticed by, uh, some template builders that work with Kajabi Builder.

We got noticed by Kajabi, and they wanted that template with those badges for their, platform that really put us on the map because, uh, we created a light version, and we created a pro version. And that's when it really started ru running and it was. Going berserk, I must say. So, um, I even quit my job.

I had a daytime job as a financial advisor, and I decided to, [00:12:00] uh, become Jiffy for a hundred percent. 

Joanna Newton: That's amazing and I love that like when we think about a lot of the pieces of your story is you found a problem, you created the

Agnes Maas: Yes.

Joanna Newton: It was so specific the people who, the billion dollar software company, that you're connected with saw it and was like, people have to have this.

Right. And that helped to catapult your business. and again, I think what's so clear about that is you were so specific on your audience. you knew them, you knew what they needed. And then everyone was like, yes, this is a 100% yes because we need it. And whenever we show. you know, we demonstrate a lot of what JE courses can do with our clients. and when we show them like side by side, this is what, you know, you could do with like baseline Kajabi. And then this is, this is the extras that these JE course templates are going to give you. It connects with them so quickly, they kind of get like, okay, like I get why this is so important and helps with the learning [00:13:00] process and helps with all of that.

So that's so cool. I love that story. so now you are,

More established. You've had your sales, you've had your initial sales, your initial solutions. What kind of things do you do on a on a regular basis to generate new leads? Like how do you find new people to sell your products to?

Do you focus on social media? Do you focus on like blogging and SEO? Like what types of strategies do you use to help people 

Agnes Maas: Yes, 

we're, we're focusing on, uh, heavily on organic lead generation by giving people real value and asking, without asking anything in return. So, we developed a lot of free tools, uh, clear demos for our templates and, we post on social media and. But I must say, social media yeah. Is not our forte.

It's something we are always talking about. So we should do this more. We should, uh, improve this. But Basian, has a YouTube channel. He, has his, uh, YouTube videos that show, [00:14:00] what our templates can do. And what we also do is we use, uh, networks. Like affiliate networks and all kinds of people find us and they think fun.

Hey, this, this is interesting. And we make sure it's all very easy and, and helpful and so they don't feel pushed, but they do feel that they get, get a lot of value. So they. Keep on, uh, reading my Giffy journal, my weekly newsletter and things like that. So it's very a natural way that we grow up, but we keep on growing, so, uh, it's going really well.

Joanna Newton: Uh, that's amazing and a lot of people, I love that, like growth through networking, um, and that growth through like providing value again in this space, in the digital space. I think a lot of people think that the way to grow your business is by going viral, right? Like having thousands, millions of followers, but you can really build a sustainable, long-term, profitable business.

In all

Agnes Maas: Yes.

Joanna Newton: Of ways. So building affiliate partnerships, being [00:15:00] networking, and because you're so niche and narrow, you are the go-to people, right? For this thing. one of the things that happens, there's a Facebook group for Kajabi users and in that Facebook group people ask all kinds of questions and are looking for things and stuff like that. And one of the really cool things that happens all of the time, and I'm sure you, experience this, is when people are asking questions about things like gamification or how to improve the look and layout of the Kajabi courses, other people will tag.

Agnes Maas: Yes, exactly.

Joanna Newton: and say like, Hey, you have to talk to these people. Right? And that, you know, brings that sale and brings that traffic and you're doing the work and you're networking and it's so clear that you both truly like, love and are passionate. about what you're doing. Like money is great, don't get me wrong, right?

Like your business wants to make money, but you actually care about what you're doing you know what I mean? Like you enjoy doing it, you love doing it, and it's great that it also helped you quit your job and becomes your full-time

Agnes Maas: Yes. Well, uh, uh, I often [00:16:00] think selling is not what I want. I want to help other people to, uh, improve their business to. that's what brings me energy when I have, uh, happy customers. So if someone wants to buy something and I think, well, that will not fit your business, that will not fit you. I say, no, don't do it.

So that's not what I want. 

Joanna Newton: exactly. I'm the same way too. You know, we, my business millennial marketer is built solely on Kajabi is, really focused on helping specific people and sometimes I, I meet people and like, I don't think they're ready for my

Agnes Maas: Yes.

Joanna Newton: yet. I'm like, do this first and then come talk to me. Or I think that a different provider or a different solution so that I don't offer is the right fit for them. I'll say like, Hey, go here. I was talking with someone the other day who wanted to work with me. but we had a language barrier and I work with people who, English is not their first language, but he spoke no English and his website and his course and everything.

Was going to be in that language as well. And I was like, I am not the right person. And I recommended someone who [00:17:00] spoke their language. Like I was like, talk to this person because this is gonna be really challenging. And I've definitely worked on projects in other languages, but it's when you know that person is bilingual and

Agnes Maas: Yes.

Joanna Newton: communicate and translate, right?

Like you can work with people in other if they're bilingual for me at least, right? Like I just know that I wouldn't provide the best. Thing that that person can have. And so much time in business. We're trying to be everything to everybody that we then don't serve. And then you don't get those recommendations 'cause nobody knows who you are or, or what

Agnes Maas: No, but uh, word of mouth is the best, uh, advertising you can, you can have. So, uh, that's very powerful. 

Joanna Newton: Exactly. awesome. So now you know, you're in a really exciting stage of your business. You know, you have some amazing established products. you know, most business owners are always looking for like, what's next? How do they scale? How do they grow for you in J courses right now, what's. What's that step to scale for you? Like how [00:18:00] do you wanna grow the business over the next few 

Agnes Maas: well, one thing we did was change our marketing focus. We always, uh, we, we started with selling just a product. So this is a template, this is what it can do. And, uh. This is how it looks and have fun with it. and we moved to helping people selling the effect, selling the journey, selling the transformation that you can establish with our templates and helping them more.

So one of the steps we took is, uh, starting working with you, which was very, uh. Good, uh, decision because, our templates are very powerful, but, people hardly know what to do with it. So they really need help. So they come to us and, and asking for help, but we do not provide that service. We, we're not course builders.

We're template builders. So, and then we can send them to you and we know that they will get a perfect course that will actually sell. And that's what you want to do. Of course. we want to scale by, expanding our network with, uh, working [00:19:00] together with, uh, with other peoples.

So one of the things that, we want to do is, well, we have our newest template, which is shopping. It's a shop page template for, for Kajabi. all our templates are protected with, uh, license keys, but we want to. this one has a different kind of license key, so you can, uh, start licensing in it to other template builders, to other Kajabi template builders.

So they get our framework and they can, with the building functionalities, and they can start creating new designs with them and, sell them themselves. So it's a whole new scale, uh, for us, for, for doing business. if it, this, uh, could be a very. Big change for us, we want to be more visual on YouTube and things like that.

Uh, but most of all, we want just want to keep innovating. Kajabi keeps changing and, and we want to always be the, the one that, that comes with new possibilities. The, we're the one that lead the way in what is possible with Kajabi, and we want to provide the best experience. Possible with Kajabi, but as you [00:20:00] hear, our focus is will stay Kajabi.

Uh, that's, uh, our main business. 

Joanna Newton: be becoming that like go-to person right is so important and right. Software changes, Kajabi releases and new features, they have changes. And if people start to learn, like. We know that Jiffy courses will have the first

Agnes Maas: Yep.

Joanna Newton: To market for that feature. If we know that they're gonna have that update ready, they're gonna be so much likely to pay attention to what

Agnes Maas: Yes.

Joanna Newton: Read your newsletter. Follow what that, what that is. I worked for a startup in the, the EdTech, um, world during COVID. we did work for AP Exams, so we help people, we help students learn how to do well on the advanced placement exams that are offered for high school students in the United States. during COVID, they changed the exams. Went from like a four hour test to a one hour test. It went from in-person to online and it was this crazy experience. And we were new to the game. We were a startup, but we were the first to market with a [00:21:00] course that prepared students for the new exam. And the bigger companies weren't able to to shift. Like they weren't able to shift out 'cause they were too big. And it was literally. I mean, the exams are in May the COVID shutdowns were like mid-March, the exams were in May.

But we were a young, nimble team. We could just be like, okay, let's make a new product in two weeks. And we did. And that put that company on the map. Right. Like that made everyone go, oh wait, like these people are doing it. in business, I think it can be really easy as an entrepreneur to when something changes, when there's a challenge, when you know there's some sort of setback, that, that could negatively impact your business.

You might say like. You know, oh no. Like this is gonna hurt me. You know, Kajabi could change something about the inside of the courses. That could mean you have to change 

Agnes Maas: Yes.

Joanna Newton: Like that is a thing that could happen, and you could see that as a loss. you could see like, oh, I have to do this awful thing again.

Or you could say, if I do this [00:22:00] first. I'm gonna gain a whole new customer base because the people that we're using those templates over there have to come to me because I'm the only one that's up to date. So you can actually start, I think the best entrepreneurs start seeing, Problems in the world, changes to software, changes to regulations, they start to see those things as opportunities.

Like, how can I create, okay, this crazy problem is happening. How can I step in and create a solution for my audience to then. Bring my business forward, right? And, and if you can be that type of entrepreneur, you can have these like leaps

when everyone else is floundering. Like when everyone else is floundering and you say, no, I'm gonna do this.

I can see that leap 

Agnes Maas: exactly what we try to do. It's, uh, our shopping template is created for Kajabi Cart and Kajabi Cart was just released and we already had our shopping template. uh, we're so close to Kajabi, so we knew this was coming. We were, uh, better testing and they actually asked us to create such a template.

So that's really. Good. But we had to [00:23:00] be very, very fast and uh, and yes, it's just a. Focusing and, and seeing the opportunity, but it's the same as you say about course as well. Kajabi's really investing on community and we want to, come up with something that will really fits that as well. But it's sometimes it's, it's not always easy to come up with, uh, with something new, but, we really want to do that.

We're really looking for opportunities. 

Joanna Newton: and again, as an entrepreneur, you have to choose, right, and pick and choose what you do, and opportunities are gonna come your way. And you say, you know what? I'm not worrying about this one, but I'll

Agnes Maas: Yes, of course.

Joanna Newton: And, and that's what's important, right? You're, you're growing and changing. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today. I really enjoyed, I learned a lot about the background of your company and, and how you grow, it's really refreshing to talk to someone who's building a very successful global brand without the. pressure of trying to create constant, constant content on social media without like crazy expensive ad ad [00:24:00] strategies without over complicated marketing systems., Building a business based on really just adding value, showing up, you know, really understanding your problems, your solution, your niche, and using networking to grow to a successful global brand. if our listeners want to connect with you farther, where can they find you to learn more

Agnes Maas: Yes, of course. Um, well, they can always find us, uh, our website, which is, uh, uh, gfi courses online.com. our email, it is hello@gficoursesonline.com, and they can find me on Facebook, ACH mass. they can also watch basian on YouTube. At Basian, deconning, all those difficult Dutch names.

Joanna Newton: Well, thank you so much. To make it easy for everyone, we will put those links in the 

Agnes Maas: Thank you.

Joanna Newton: so you can connect with them. if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it with a friend who works on digital products that could really benefit from what Jiffy Courses offers.

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