Why I Keep Coming Back to Leonie Dawson (And Why $99 Might Be the Best Money You Spend This Year)

I am a school librarian. I work with sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who are frequently convinced that nothing matters and occasionally convinced that everything does. I spend my days surrounded by books and children and the particular chaos of a middle school where I have joined many, many committees to try to make the school as awesome as possible.

I am also, on the side, trying to build something.

In the plans are writing workshops over Zoom. A writing retreat at Cambria Pines Lodge. Affirmations for people to listen to when they need a boost. Writing groups. A book on living thoughtfully. A book on living MAGICKly. An email list of people who showed up because something I wrote made them feel less alone and they also want to hear about whatever thoughtful thing I've discovered in that moment and why. A small, slow business built in the margins of a full-time life.

Most business advice I've encountered was not written for me. It was written for someone whose whole job is the business. Someone with a team, a budget, a block of uninterrupted hours on a Tuesday. A bro of some sort, doing things the bro way.

A bunch of years ago — I don't know, 2007? 2008? — I somehow found Leonie Dawson online. I joined her email list, where she referred to me as "Goddess Andie," as in her opening salutations were, "Hello, Goddess Andie!" She spoke of mermaids, magic, and making money. She invited me to join her membership program for $99 a year. At that time, no one was offering online membership programs, and holy cow, spending $99 on something on the internet was unheard of.

So I admired her from a distance for years.

The Extraordinary Leonie!

A Little About Leonie

She is Australian. She is completely, wonderfully unhinged, and I mean that as the highest compliment.

She cusses freely and amusingly. She talks openly about her ADHD not as a disorder she has learned to manage but as a superpower she has learned to utilize. She makes art. Lots and lots of art. She is unapologetically, cheerfully herself in a way that is either inspiring or alarming depending on what you were expecting. She is fun, she is a truth teller, and she is one of the most heart-centered entrepreneurs I have ever encountered.

She also happens to be a practical business coach. She built her entire business with a commitment to work no more than ten hours a week. She will tell you exactly how she did it. She has also made every mistake, so you don't have to.

These two things — the unhinged creative and the practical businesswoman — coexist in her completely. They are, in fact, related.

During the COVID lockdown I found myself with not only free time but tons of creativity and no outlet. So, I started a podcast — and I decided to finally invest in one of her courses. At that time she was not offering memberships; you could only purchase one course at a time. So I dropped $199 on 40 Days to Create and Sell Your eCourse.

It was SO FUN to take. Leonie walked me through every step of creating a course from scratch — from figuring out what I actually knew that someone else might want to learn, to naming it, to recording it, to getting it out into the world. I have never taken a course that made the next step so obvious. I came in with a head full of ideas and left with a sound structure.

Then I took Money, Manifesting and Multiple Streams of Income. I come from a family of educators. Multiple streams of income were not really discussed in my home, although my parents did have a stint with buying and renting out a property. In this course, Leonie gave me permission to think about income differently than I'd been taught. The idea that money could come from more than one direction — that building multiple streams was not greedy or unrealistic, but just sensible — was genuinely new information for me. Not new information, exactly. New permission. And she taught me--reminded me--that I don't have to do things the bro way. I don't have to be wealthy at the expense of others, instead, I can use my money to make the world better.

I went on to take Creative Goddess Embodied, which is exactly what it sounds like: a course for those who may need some support in finding--remembering-- their innate creativity. It helped me get through a tough block, fun and be creative!

Midas Touch was class that came with loads of encouragement and meditations--all around money. This course helped me get in touch with that part of me.

I have joined her coaching calls, too. She is the same person on a coaching call that she is in her courses — direct, funny, unapologetically herself, always useful. She will tell you the true thing you didn't want to hear and make you grateful she said it.

Who This Is For

Leonie's work is a good fit if you're building something real alongside a full life — she built hers with a commitment to work only ten hours a week so that she would have time for her family! It's for people who want practical tools from someone who has actually done the thing, and it shows you where to start without a team, a big budget, or Tuesday afternoons free.

Her signature move is here's-everything-I-know-now-go-build-it. Which, for me, has been exactly the right amount.

She Also Has More If You Want It!

For people who want more structure, accountability, or direct access, Leonie offers two higher-tier options worth knowing about.

The Take Action Club ($99/month) is for people who want a productivity system and community alongside the course library — monthly calls, a framework for actually doing the things, people to do them alongside.

The Grow Mastermind ($495/month) is her most intensive offering. Personal coaching, direct access, the kind of high-touch support that moves things faster. It's a serious investment and designed to be one.

Both are real and worth knowing about. But for most people I know — building something in the margins of a full life, without Tuesday afternoons free — the Unicorn Biz + Life Academy at $99 a year is the place to start. Get in the library. Do the work. See what happens.

A thing about Leonie that you should know is that she always delivers more than expected. Always, always. And I love that business model.

The Price You Actually Need to Know

I am currently a happy member of her Unicorn Biz and Life Academy. I pay $99 a year for all her classes and monthly group coaching calls. $99. A year.

This is not for one courss, its for every course she has ever made — Make Your Money Back, Creative Goddess Embodied, 40 Days to Create and Sell Your eCourse, Money, Manifesting and Multiple Streams of Income, Midas Touch, all of it — plus her annual life and biz planners, included. I think she mentioned in her latest podcast that she has over 140 offerings? Wow.

$99. That's less than two dollars a week.

I want to say that again in a different way, because I think it's easy to read a number like that and let it slide past and fall into that "Oh... that's a good deal... maybe I'll do that... someday..."

If you are building something — anything — a business, a creative practice, a side income that might someday become something more — you are going to need to learn things you don't know yet. About pricing, about selling without feeling gross about it, about making something and getting it out into the world. Or even just making it for the fun of it!

Leonie has courses on all of it. She has made the mistakes. She will tell you, in her own unhinged and occasionally profane way, exactly what she learned. And the whole library — plus monthly coaching calls, plus the planners — is only $99 a year.

Have I mentioned the planners? She has My Brilliant Year workbooks that are fabulous--one for planning your life, and one for planning your biz. So helpful, expecially for someone like me who is well highly trained in educational pedagogy and the teaching of writing, but has never once in her life taken a college business class.

So, yeah. $99. For an entire YEAR.

One More Thing...

I'm running this as a practice launch this week. I'm learning what it actually feels like to recommend something like it's a real launch — multiple emails, a blog post, the whole thing — so that when I launch my own work (see above re: classes and workshops and audio affirmations, etc.!!), I've already had the practice.

It feels super vulnerable to say that out loud. But I figure you'd rather know.

ALSO... if you join the Unicorn Biz + Life Academy through my link before Sunday, March 29, 2026 your name will go into a hat. One winner will recieve a 30-minute Writing Story Session with me on Zoom. We will find the story you most need to tell right now.

I'm capping it at one. I have a full-time job, and I want to do this really well.

I earn a commission if you buy through the links above, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend things I've used myself.