How Experts License Courses to Companies

So what if I told you that we could take a course or a training or a workshop that you've been delivering, let's say for $2,500, and turn around and license that same workshop to a different buyer for $250,000? Most people say to me after they learn about licensing, they have read Ben Hardy's like 10X book and they're like just going, oh my gosh, this is my 10X opportunity. And it really truly is. As a matter of fact, it's more than 10X. For most of our clients, we have 300x the ROI on some of their programs that they are licensing. So if you're looking to expand the reach of your work, you want a simplified business model, you're burned out on launches, you don't want to be throwing a ton of money away in ads anymore. You're looking for this next level design of your business and you have proven methods, processes, systems, trainings that you have delivered. Could be a workshop format. It could be a process that you have taken individuals through one-on-one. Doesn't even have to be built out yet, but it's proven and it's yours. Then you are ready for licensing. If you do not have that, then you are not ready for licensing, and you do not qualify for licensing, because an organization will see right through the fact that you have not delivered predictable results in the past. As a matter of fact, one more story to tell. I just got an Instagram message from a client who actually licensed the backside of our training program to one of her clients for her employees, for only 5 people, for $100,000. So, you can see, she licensed to somebody who Already an existing client, more of a use case and more permissions of the systems she was already being paid to teach. Today, I'm going to pull back the curtains on a business consulting model that most of you have never heard of before. This is a model that I've been quietly doing for almost 20 years, and I've been helping my clients who are subject matter experts, consultants, speakers, authors, and actually experts in their space develop this same model for almost 17 years. You may have heard of it because you've landed here on this video and somebody said, hey, I think you should license your content. So, if that is why you're here, we're going to unpack the details of what content licensing is. Let me kind of break it down for you and take you back into history a little bit. So when I first started licensing, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I didn't really even Google it then. Googling all the time wasn't like a big part of our business activity about 20 years ago, and YouTube was just getting started. But I knew I needed a change in my business. I had a thriving business consulting practice. I actually even had online courses and webinars and doing all the things that So many business coaches are out there continuing to double down on and do a great job of today. But I knew that that model was not for me. I knew that I needed to scale and expand the reach of my work. And so instead of just doubling down and continuing to do that, I started licensing my content. First, I started with only licensing one course to a local business. Then it grew to 8 courses. Then I licensed a business in a box and started licensing to corporations and then sub, sub licensing and all these different things. But the reality was nobody knew what licensing was then. And frankly, so many people have no idea what licensing is today. And so I'm glad you found me. You are in the right place. I'm April Beach. I am the industry leader in consulting experts like you on how to build your IP and services and programs into content licensing offers. And so this is for you. If you've been wondering what it is, or if somebody told you you should check it out, you are certainly in the right place. So what if I told you that we could take a course or a training or a workshop that you've been delivering, let's say for $2,500 and turn around and license that same workshop to a different buyer for $250,000. So that's actually what happened to one of my clients. She was teaching a workshop. She had charged companies $6,000 to teach this workshop for years. She was a leader in her space, and that was her model. She was very well known, still is very well known in the leadership consulting space. But we took that same workshop, that same framework, and turned it into a licensing offer, and she licensed it to the same company. Was working with for $298,000. So that's what we're going to unpack for you here today. We're going to talk about what licensing actually is, who it's for, who it isn't for, how we can literally take content that you've already created regardless of what business model it's built in and how we can move it to a new audience, how we can take what you're currently doing with individual sales and actually sell it to companies and why companies value this. We're also going to dive into exactly how, and I want to share with you how to get started in this direction. Again, I'm so glad that you found me. By the way, please subscribe to this because all of the trainings that I deliver here are proven from decades and decades of coaching leaders like you. And I want to make sure that you have the right information at your fingertips. So we're going to talk about what content licensing actually is and What it isn't. We're gonna talk about the 3 types of content that companies line up to license. So from little teeny assets to huge programs and how to choose which one of those is actually right for you to move forward in. And we're gonna talk about 2 different buyer paths, meaning you don't have to license to huge corporations. As a matter of fact, you'll learn that one of my favorite licensing buyers are small businesses just like you. So if you are in this place where You're looking at the coaching and consulting space and wondering how valuable your services and your expertise are going to be for individuals in the future. If you are looking at the changes within AI and wondering how your business model is going to continue to compete, or if you're in the space where you have this established business consulting service, or you are a subject matter expert who speaks, speaks on stages and leads other individuals, whether in business or in, in personal endeavors, and you are wondering, what is my future business model going to look like? This is the perfect place for you. You have looked at maybe some of the changes that have happened in the coaching consulting space where not as many people are buying and attending online courses and not as many people are diving into your webinar funnels. Or maybe you just turned 50 like I did, or you're approaching 50, or you're, you know, past 50, and you're like, this is for the birds. I need a different business model. I want to design this next level of my life and I wanna know my options and I wanna know whether or not licensing is an option for me. And whatever that is that you're doing, thought leadership or hanging out with your kids or just going on a sabbatical for a year, which I've had 2 clients take a, a year sabbatical in the last year alone as we have built licensing into your business. So you've built something that works. You know it works. You're very, very good at what you do. You've been selling it to individuals. Maybe you've been trapped in that launch mode and you have watched this B2C course market Become oversaturated a little bit and you're ready for something new and you are wondering, is licensing an option for me? Can I fit licensing into what I'm doing? Or maybe is licensing like the model to move forward with? The sole model, just, just throw all my gold into that basket and move forward in the licensing model. You're gonna find those clear answers today. Please like and subscribe and let's go ahead and dive in. I'm April Beach and I've been coaching experts for 30 years and I am so glad that you have found me. Let's go ahead and dive in. I promise. I promised you today that you'd understand what content licensing is, and we're going to go through some of the foundations of Content Licensing 101. Just so you know, there are multiple other videos here in this YouTube channel where you can tap into where we talk about pricing and we go a little bit more in depth into the types of content you can license. But if you're really interested in licensing, join us for my next Profitable Licensing Blueprint. It is a live webinar that I actually do with you and take you through a worksheet to identify what you have that is licensable, the industry that would buy it, and we set your pricing range. You'll find information on how to join the Profitable Licensing Blueprint in the notes below. And I would love to see you and work with you personally to help you get that clarity. So let's go ahead and talk about what you can actually expect at the end of this episode. You're going to be really clear on what is content licensing and is this for me? Do you have something that's licensable? Would this model work for you? And whether or not this is a good use of your time. I am so much more interested in having you spend valuable time doing business endeavors that align with your future. And so not only do I want to introduce content licensing here for you, but I want to disqualify content licensing for you if it isn't a good fit. So that's just kind of how I roll. I'm trying to disqualify things which I think are equally as valuable as qualifying something for you. So let's go ahead and dive in. What actually is content licensing and why does this matter to you? So there's a $16 billion corporate market where companies actually pay to bring in outside trainings and expertise like And so whether you are licensing to a large company or a small business, I want you to know that there is a very valuable market for licensing. And I have other trainings where we actually break down the data that your content, your methodology is becoming even more valuable in the age of AI instead of less, which is something that not a lot of us would have expected. And the numbers are so impressive. So check out related videos I have for you regarding AI and content licensing in addition to this one, and you are going to gain a lot of confidence about the value of your IP. So, the reality is, is the money is already there. Companies large and small are continuing to license assets, trainings, and programs like yours. But what does that actually mean for you? So, what is content licensing? Content licensing, or licensing itself, is a legal term. And it means, in layman's terms, we are giving another organization permission to rent your content from you. They don't get to keep it. They don't get to own it. It's not theirs. They're going to rent it for a certain period of time based on the rules you set. So that's one thing I just wanna lay out there. Most of you guys are really familiar with music licensing or brand licensing. If you have a child that is into like Marvel Comics or whatever, they may have a water bottle with Superman on it. That is licensing. And most attorneys actually that come across our work and that we work with and our clients work with dance all the time in that space of music, IP, software licensing. But the type of licensing that is my expertise is actually different. This is also why it's so fun. Attorneys are actually clients of ours as well because of the fact that we do and we package, we bring together IP licensing in a different way than other leaders and companies do. So we're talking about taking your framework or your method or your process or your system, and we are going to take that training that you've done and that you've gotten other businesses results for and give another company permission to insert it into their ecosystem. So if you have a proven method, framework, course system, anything that you have done. So the prequalification for licensing is you have to be very good at what you do, and you have to have original intellectual property. You cannot go to ChatGPT and have it build you a course and think you're going to go and make money licensing it because the companies themselves can do that, and they're actually failing at that. We're at an 89% AI program creation failure rate because of the fact that it doesn't have. Someone's unique methodology and human genius behind it. It doesn't have the you behind it. And so, it's very important to realize that if you do have methods and frameworks and processes and systems, maybe you have created courses, you're in that space where you've probably created a bunch of courses. At one point in time, I had 56 online courses. And we have so much IP, which is why I love licensing. You may be like many of our clients. That have created multiple systems and solutions. And so licensing is something that you can qualify to do. It means instead of selling it to individuals, we're now going to package it and set some rules around it where you can actually release it to other companies with the right rules and permissions. So let's kind of break down some of the numbers here. So if you have a $3,000 program and your program can increase sales for another company, but you've sold it $3,000 to an individual, that program can be worth well over $30,000. It can be worth well over 10x to an organization utilizing that program. And so, I want you to consider, what do I already have that I have built? What do you have that you are currently selling or that you have sunsetted? I would highly recommend considering the things that you are still doing and you're looking to expand in a different scalable market, but also taking a look at the things that are collecting dust. Maybe programs and services and courses that you are no longer selling. Maybe you've outgrown your audience. A lot of our clients, you've been in your space for a long time. You're an expert in what you do. And as you've grown, some of the programs that you used to sell or the services you used to sell are no longer relevant to the audience you serve, but they're still excellent. Those are the things I want you to be thinking about. So we're taking the same program and we can 10x Plus your organizational value when we release it to other companies in a licensing structure. Most people say to me after they learn about licensing, they have read Ben Hardy's like a 10x book and they're like, just going, oh my gosh, this is my 10x opportunity. And it really truly is. As a matter of fact, it's more than 10x. For most of our clients, we have 300x the ROI on some of their programs that they are licensing. So if you're looking to expand the reach of your work, you want a simplified business model, you're burned out on launches, you don't want to be throwing a ton of money away in ads anymore, you're looking for this next level design of your business, and you have proven methods, processes, systems, trainings that you have delivered— could be a workshop format, it could be a process that you have taken individuals through one-on-one, doesn't even have to be built out yet, but it's proven and it's yours— then you are ready for licensing. If you do not have that, then you are not ready for licensing, and you do not qualify for licensing, because an organization will see right through the fact that you have not delivered predictable results in the past. So if that's you, go back, keep working on it, keep testing it in the market, come back to me, attend one of our webinars or one of our trainings, and we'll help you realize when that program or that system can be validated for use for licensing. All right. So that's like a general understanding of what licensing is. Licensing also is not franchising. So there is a legal difference between licensing and franchising. I'm not an attorney. I'm not allowed to give you legal advice here. I highly recommend you, if you're wondering between the two or whether or not this is a good venture for you to go into, that you seek legal advice for that. I will say licensing is a much more simple model because we don't have the same control and we don't have the same management responsibilities that come with a franchising model. Licensing is very, very simple. We package up your content, set the rules, set the price, plan the rollout, and release it. It is a very, very simple next-level business offer that can be added to your existing services, and it can be sold by itself. So you can still license while you're still delivering your same consulting services that you do. Most of our clients do that all the time. All right, so let's talk about what specifically are some of the things that companies actually are looking to license. So I like to break it up into 3 different levels of content, and these levels align with how much, how valuable your release of your material is. So level 1, these are public pieces of content. So let's say, for example, you record videos like I'm recording a video here, and you're no longer releasing that on your distribution channel, but you may be an expert in geology or you may be a sleep expert. You can actually license content to be publicly distributed from other organizations to increase the value of what they're delivering. That's level 1. We don't play in that space a lot with our clients, but it is something that's available that I wanted to let you know. Level 2 is where it really starts to get fun. This is where you have one piece of an asset, of a tool that can fit into something else that an organization is doing. So, think of it as like a little puzzle piece that you can add it to existing trainings or services or ecosystems or solutions that another company is delivering, and it augments it. So, these are tools and trainings and systems and materials and software and AI components that augment other things. So, if you have AI systems you're building, if you have software, if you have small workshops If you have an assessment, one of my favorite things to license is an assessment. It's an assessment that you can deploy for other companies to actually utilize either with their clients or publicly facing. Assessments are an amazing thing because I can actually have done podcast episodes on how to build assessments and the power of them. But one of the reasons why even a small assessment is so valuable is because you are increasing for your company that brought it in, the licensee, their ability to generate leads, or if it's not used as a lead generator, you're increasing their ability to deliver more intuitive and expert services to their employees or to their clients, however they're using it. So that is one example of that level 2 licensed content. Doesn't have to be huge. It's just something that another organization can add to what they're doing, and they will pay you handsomely for that. It's very, very valuable. And then level 3 is what I call completes. These are complete standalone trainings and workshops. They also could be small enough to be a level 2, but these are larger programs. Sometimes some of our clients are licensing, you know, train-the-trainer programs or licensing with certifications, licensing, and then they have separate consulting services they deliver. Perhaps maybe they're licensing with some physical products. They have a workbook or training manuals. So, we're creating hybrid licensing offers that are very, very customized for not only the company who's bringing it in, but you get to choose how you customize it. So, how are you bringing it together? It isn't one necessarily little tool. It may be a more substantial training or tool, and it doesn't have to be delivered live. It can be delivered on demand, and you can deploy that into another organization. Those are custom completes, and that's the space I love to play in with our clients. And some of the case studies that you see on our webpage and And some of the case studies that we share from our, from our clients, all of our case studies come from either that level 2, which is the one puzzle piece, or a complete. So let's recap. A small piece of content that can be publicly distributed that isn't necessarily a company is going to pay a ton of money for that. And then a level 2 is one piece or a tool to augment another company. And level 3 is a complete where we get into more customized licensing offer creation. Could be a train-the-trainer, could be a certification, or it literally could just be straight licensing of a program. Program. Also, examples are for our clients that are doing licensing with software licensing as well. So content licensing hybrid with software licensing also fits into a level 3. So let's kind of pause for a second as we're going through those, and I want you to think about what do I actually have that is licensable? Again, if you are excited about what I'm talking about— and frankly, most people are, they see these videos, or I go into masterminds, or I speak on And people's minds at this point are just like completely blown because I want you to see your IP in a different light. Right now, you should be realizing how valuable all of the things that you have already created are. And all of the time that you put into developing your systems, whether you're selling it or not, is so valuable and it can be deployed in other organizations. Think about how many hours in the trenches it took you to fine-tune your Whether it's a complete program or just a tool. So that is what I want you to be realizing right now is how valuable your content is. So then the third thing I want to go through is who do you actually sell it to? Who is actually going to buy it? Now, this is a great time for me to pause and say, make sure you're signing up for our next Profitable Licensing Blueprint because we align your content with the different buyer types I'm going to unpack for you here to make sure it's right for you. So check Check the notes below, and you can click the link and register for our next profitable licensing blueprint. Get worksheets, and I will actually work through this with you, customized to you step by step. So I want to make sure that you know that that is available to you. But let's kind of talk about the two different pathways of now who's going to buy this? How can you sell it? So the first one is an organizational pathway, an enterprise path, and this is where we look at larger companies. Organizational pathways include corporations, universities, school districts, government, hospitals and healthcare systems, larger nonprofits. These are larger organizations, and this is one avenue that you can certainly go into licensing. I want you to have at least some experience in that area or warm leads for us to close those licensing deals quicker. But we also have multiple clients where we have sold absolutely cold into large organizations as well because we have a licensing sales system. But I want you to realize, who do I really want to work with, and where would my content be deployed best? So, personally, I want you to be thinking about, who do I want to sell to? What conversations do I want to be having? Do I want to be having conversations with corporate at an organizational level? And, you know, deals on the organizational level can range from $25,000 to over $1 million. So, these are usually really large deals. The other thing I want you to know, however, with this is some of these deals, because they're larger, take longer to close. And so, if you want to license to a larger organization, that's great, but just be mindful that we want you to have a lot of irons in the fire about this so that you can be having as many sales conversations at a time. You also need to be mindful of the buying cycles of the industries that you want to sell into. So, there are certain types of year when different types of industries actually buy programs like yours, and you need to be become acquainted with those buying cycles and those seasons for large organizational buyers. So, let me share with you a story about this. So, I have a client who is a professor. Actually, she doesn't even have her own business. She has a very unique area of expertise, and we are licensing her training into a manufacturing corporation. And that is very valuable to them. It's actually, her training actually fits in the wellness space, and it's incredibly valuable. So, this is an example of somebody who's an established expert. She doesn't have have online courses, but she's a professor. She is probably the top in her industry and her area of expertise that she teaches. And we are licensing her methodology in the form of training programs to— her first deal is a large manufacturing organization. So see if you can see yourself in that type of a story, in that type of a deal. And now let's talk about the other buyer. These ones are my favorite. These are what I call licensing quick sells. These are when you license to smaller organizations. So these are to your clients, they're to your competition, they're to other small businesses, they're to Main Street USA, they're to regional offices, networks, and associations. I love licensing to these small to mid-sized organizations because the deals close faster. They might not close for as much, but we can close 5 deals for a small to mid-sized company usually within the same time frame as we can close a large corporate So, I want you to realize there are multiple pathways to licensing. And a story about this is a client who's actually a practitioner, and we actually created a business in a box that she is licensing to her competition. If you've ever heard me say, my slogan is turn your competition into your clients, this is exactly what I'm talking about. So, if you have systems and trainings and methods and processes, they might not even be related with your area of expertise. We can oftentimes license business operational systems as well, then we can actually package them up in business in a box and license them to other companies or your competitors that maybe haven't nailed those solutions yet. Maybe they're just a little bit behind your level of success in your industry. And of course, we can license those into adjacent industries if that strategy isn't the right one for you. So what I want you to know is both of these pathways are real, and both of these pathways are producing Meaning both of these pathways are buying content from my clients right now for licensing, and they will buy your content and your trainings and your systems as well. So most experts assume that you just have to do corporate licensing, and that's the only real licensing. That actually isn't the case. And so I want you to know that the pathway to smaller businesses is a very valuable pathway, and those deals close faster, and they can be equally it is lucrative. As a matter of fact, one more story to tell. I just got an Instagram message from a client who actually licensed the backside of our training program to one of her clients for her employees for only 5 people for $100,000. So you can see she licensed to somebody who was already an existing client more of a use case and more of permissions of the systems she was already being paid to teach. So licensing fits really well on top of programs and training programs that you're already delivering, and you can actually increase the value of what you're already delivering without even changing a thing. And that's one of the things that I'm so happy to open up the pathway of awareness for you. And one of the things that makes people the most excited when they come here and they find our services and our business and this YouTube channel and my podcast. So let's go ahead and do a little recap here. Here's what you know now. You know that licensing is renting your intellectual property. You get to keep all ownership and control of how it's released. You know that there are 3 levels of content that companies line up to license from courses and methodology to tools and software and trainings. And that, you know, already your mind is probably just like unpacking all of the things that you've created, whether you're selling them or not, whether they've built, been built into something as far as deployment or not. Those things are very valuable. And then you also know that there are 2 different paths to buyers, the large organizational buyers and smaller buyers. The large organizational buyers are bigger deals. They take longer to close. They're very valuable. The smaller buyers are smaller deals, smaller financial value, but you can close more of them and you can capitalize on an audience You probably already have. And guess what? You can do both simultaneously. So which path makes the most sense for you? Do you feel like, I want to license to corporate and organizations or universities and educational institutions? Or do you feel like you already have this audience and that you want to go the path of small businesses? Comment below, drop it in the comments. I would love to know if you want to do large buyers or smaller buyers. And of course, a little bit about your business in your area of expertise so I can continue to connect with you further. And of course, if you haven't yet, please subscribe to this YouTube channel and share this video. It really means a lot to us. What we teach is very specific and unique. And so people usually find us by word of mouth and shares and referrals like you. And so I would really appreciate you subscribing and sharing our work. That would really mean a lot to us as well. Certainly you can connect with me on my new Substack, which is pretty pathetic right now, but I write about more things than, than licensing and business. It's a licensing and life site. You can find me at April Beach on Substack. And I would love to dive into our Profitable Licensing Blueprint workshop with you. Currently, I teach them live and they go for about an hour plus Q&A where I will give you our worksheets and together we'll unpack and decide exactly what you have that is licensable. We'll align it with these exact industries and the buyer sizes, and you will also leave with a detailed licensing price range. So you're gonna leave with a valuable range of what you can charge for your licensing asset. So check out our licensing blueprint. The link is below, or of course you can go to aprilbeach.com and check out all of our consulting services. I would certainly love to support you. Thank you guys so much, and I will talk to you soon.