#99 - ”How the heck do you launch an online course in 2022” - Part 2

And we also get them to do some work around designing their dream business. Like, you cannot go past go. You cannot collect $200 until you have done these exercises, because without that information, you're definitely flying blind.

This is the Doing It Online podcast with your Host, serial entrepreneur, 6 and 7 figure funnel strategist and super nerd Kate McKibben, where every week we're here talking nerdy and sharing the things that actually work to help you do what you do online, but easier and with a ton more profit, too. Are you ready? Let's do it.

Hello. Hello, everybody. It is Kate here from the Doing It Online podcast and welcome to episode number 99. What? I know. How is it? Almost 100 episodes. That seems kind of crazy for anyone who is thinking, hmm, are they gonna do anything special for episode number 100? We just might be. So make sure you tune in for that one. But that's next week. Let's worry about that then. For now, I wanted to dive into part two of our how the heck do you create a successful online course in 2022 series. Now, last week we talked about what your topic, or rather outcome should be for your online program and how to sit down and do a quick little exercise to figure out what. What that really should be and make sure and do some sense checking that that's going to be something that actually is going to really work well for you and your ideal client. So hopefully you have at least one really juicy outcome that you want to turn into an online program, potentially more than one. And over these coming episodes, if you do have more than one, we're going to help you also to again, filter down a bit more and see, okay, well, of those ideas now, which one is the best? Which one, or even not necessarily the best, but the one you should do first. And I want to put again, a little caveat. You know, I like my caveats. For those of you who do have multiple ideas and you're like, I love them all. I want to do them all right now. I'm going to launch one and then another one and another one. I just want to say, whoa, calm down. I'm super glad you're so excited. But, like, realistically and again, lesson that I learned myself the hard way, and I see this happen a lot with clients, but if. If you really want your online program to be amazing, to be all the things you're dreaming of it to be, to be successful and profitable and help you to really make your mark as an expert in this space, to, you know, help you to grow your business to be seen more, all of those things, then you have to give it the time that it deserves. And that time is usually 6 to 12 months as a minimum of focusing on the one idea that is creating it, launching it, learning from it, tweaking it, launching it again. Like, if you've been listening to this podcast for any amount of time or you've been hanging out in my part of the Internet before, you'll know that I'm not a perfectionist, but I am a big fan of dedicating yourself to mastery. And mastery takes iterations, it takes testing things and it takes buggering things up and then learning from it and making it better next time. For your program to do all the things you want it to do, you gotta give it the space. And like, six months is a minimum. Minimum. Most people, it's going to be significantly more than that. Just. Yeah, as I said, just put in that little caveat. Now, today's episode is a juicy one. It's probably going to be a slightly longer one. So I hope you are sitting down, you are comfortable, and we can dive on in. As I said, hopefully you listened to last week, you have at least one juicy idea and now it's time to start fleshing that out. Start putting a plan around what that's going to look like and how you can make that be as amazing for your clients and for you and to make really make sense for your business as well. Because you don't want to be out there and creating a program, spending the time creating a program that is going to make you miserable or that your isn't going to make sense for your clients or that they're not going to get great results from. That's what today is about. Today we're going to talk about, okay, well, what type of program, what format is going to make the most sense for your clients, for your business, for the outcome that you want to solve. And because there's lots of them out there, it's not just about creating an online course and then going, how many weeks should it be? Or how many months should it be? Or there's more pieces involved. I want to talk around some of the more common formats, some of the pros and cons, and then how you can sort of start again. Just some juicy questions to start. Ask yourself to help you to narrow that down and come up with what hopefully is going to be the best outcome, like I said, for your clients, for you, for this, this program. So to start off with, let's go through the different types of formats. So the more common ones like a membership site. Membership sites, traditionally they are a lower monthly price point. They have traditionally drip feed out new content every month. That is one of the big cons is that you're either having to create content or to tee up guest creators every month. And it can become a bit of a beast, particularly if you don't have team. They. I think a lot of people look at them as hey, this would be an easier thing to set up because I'm going to be having new things every month. I only have to create like one module now and then I have to create one every month rather than creating a whole program upfront. But it is kind of one of those false economy things of the. Okay, yes, it might be easier right now, but it actually is going to be a lot more work overall. As you can probably tell, I'm not a super fan of membership sites. I know for some topics they make so much sense. Like we had a client and she was a crochet coach. That was actually the name of her business. So for her she had basically sort of like after the initial trainings of teaching people how to learn to crochet, then every month releasing a new pattern that they all went through together and it was a really great community. Like I just made sense for her outcome. For other things it makes less sense because particularly something that is anchored in a really strong pain point or is that sort of bigger juicier thing is people want to know that there is like there's a start and a finish. They want to know that they are going to have certain steps to follow and that it's not just going to be this bombardment of information.

That they might not be actually 100% related to where it is that they are right now. Yeah, they. I find like I said, they do make a lot of sense for some topics for some niches. Where I like a membership is when it's more of like a support membership. My favorite model around memberships is where you have a more traditional online course that might be four modules, six, eight whatever it is where you take people through those that fundamental training that they need to get the outcome and then again if it makes sense and there's people who are going to need a certain large enough percentage of people are going to need more support, more help going like it's not just some people be able to blitzer in their time and they are happy to then go on and, and and just apply it themselves and and and figure out themselves but other People, particularly if they've had a good experience, like I'm still, you know, it's going to take me a bit longer. Again, remember, most people don't finish a program in the set time. To have ongoing support can be really useful for people. And that means that you're not out there creating new content all the time. You're just turning up and answering questions, providing support, giving feedback, whatever that looks like. That's sort of some different ways of doing memberships. A straight online course, you know, it's pretty straightforward. You know, you have a set like, again, have a set outcome, you break it down into steps that becomes modules. You run it either evergreen or live. Then there's the, a mastermind version or Mastermind sort of format where it's usually less around, a more structured learning and just more around again that. That higher level of support, higher level of access to usually yourself to start with. But then it can be to guests and guest mentors and things as you scale up. It's usually really focused around connection, advice, accountability. So again, that might be something that really makes sense for your outcome. And again, traditionally it's, it's a much higher investment because of all of those things. For some markets they're like, I know the things I need to know. It's just about getting it done. I need help getting it done. Or I need, you know, to be able to bounce ideas off people or it's quite lonely doing what I'm doing by myself. Business owners, that's why business owners love masterminds, particularly solopreneurs, because it's like I would like to be in a room of people who get it and who I can ask questions and learn from and be inspired by. So, you know, the mastermind kind of setup can work really well for certain topics and things. Then there's what I call a live workshop. That is where for again, for certain outcomes they can. It can be something like if you're wanting to build your own website or write your. Again, I'm staying in my sort of zone here. But it could be. Write your launch emails like people could. There could be something that people put off that they can diy, but traditionally they drag it out, they put it off and hey, maybe they like to all come together on a weekend or for a day or a few hours, sit down, be taught what they need to know, be given a bunch of templates and then like the majority of them is. Is it. The majority of the benefit for them is that they are going to have it blocked out in Their calendar. They're going to sit down, they're going to show up, they're going to get it done in a certain amount of time. So for some people it's that, okay, this is going to make sure that I do it. That is the thing that is really valuable for them. Holding like a short sprint, helping them to get one, achieve one thing, or create one thing in a short period of time. Sometimes a live workshop can be really, really powerful. And sometimes they're not about actually doing it's just about condensing down the learning as well. Maybe they are. They don't have a lot of time. They don't want to be having the content dripped out a couple of hours every week. They want to just sit down, do an intensive, learn everything they need to learn in a short period of time and be done and be able to go and start implementing it straight away. Then you have what I like to call the toe dip offer. And the toe dip offer is, it's, it's really just like it's a mini version of an offer. And for some people, if this is their first course, then creating a toe dip offer can be the best option because what it essentially allows you to do is it's not so much around generating huge amounts of profit or essentially necessarily any profit this first time around. It's about allowing you to, like the name says, dip your toe in something that is pretty easy to create, pretty easy to set up, pretty easy to sell, but still means that you're going to. Gives you that experience of what is it like to actually sell something? What is it like to send out an email launch, what do I need to set up? Like, do I need, I've never done a checkout before online. How do I do that? How do I deliver a course online? How do, like, it lets you sort of learn all these things. And for some people, those are pretty big, tough lessons, but it lets you do them in a much lower expectation, lower stress kind of way. Then when you go, okay, well that, you know, that worked. This, that's good. I feel like I would be more confident now to do a bigger course. You could then use that toe dip course, could then become a bonus or it could become a freebie or something like that. So that's your sort of really your main options. And then sometimes you got some hybrids like some people have, as I sort of said at the start, sometimes they do like a course membership hybrid where you might go through the course together over a certain amount of time and then it becomes like A membership afterwards. Other people do like a course mastermind hybrid. It is that more higher level investment but it has a set curriculum behind it. You know, these are the main ones to think about. So I just hopefully from hearing the breakdowns of these and with your certain outcomes that you've already sort of highlighted, it's some of them should be sort of jumping out to you as like this makes the most sense. I feel like this would help my clients. How do you now? And if they're not, don't worry. I got a process for you. This is what this episode is really about. What I always encourage my clients to do now that you're so familiar with what the different formats really are, but is to sit down and first of all I want you to just. Let's start with the what is the absolute ideal scenario? Like if your client had a magic wand and was like, okay, apart from having the option of just waving the wand and it's instantly solved. But if they knew that they still are going to have to participate, still going to have to solve this themselves or learn how to solve it or whatever it is, or have someone come in and help them or do something for them, what would their ideal scenario be to solve this outcome? Like how much time are they happy to spend on it? How quickly do they want it solved? How much are they wanting to be a part of this? Or how much would they like someone else to do it for them? What are the things that they really don't want to have to do? What kind of, you know, people at sort of different phases in their lives in their learning journeys along this sort of path. Sometimes people, they really want to get in and get their hands dirty. They're like one of the benefits for them is okay, I'm going to get a new skill here. I'm going to learn how to do this really well. Other people, like, I do not have the time for this. I just need to have this point problem solved as quickly and easily as possible. And I would love it if someone can actually help me do it, not just tell me how to do it. Some people will look at a program and go, oh my gosh, that just looks like so much work. There's so many videos. I don't have time for watching all these videos. Other people are going to go, oh wow, look at all these videos. That looks so valuable. I can't wait to dive in every client. And this is why when helping clients inside our programs like ecosempire with this and kind of how they're Going to map this out and structure it. Like a lot of people go, oh, does this program sound good at six modules, 12 videos, blah, blah. I'm like, what? Just what does your client want? Because some people, six videos is too many. Some people it's not enough. Some people don't even want videos. Some people just want you to come in and charge them more, but do it for them. Sit down and think about like step, really step into their shoes. And if you don't have that, like, if you actually haven't had much time and experience working with clients one to one, this is where I probably would encourage you to go and offer some one to like even just for a limited time, some one to one services to really start to learn this, to really start to see where is it that people are wanting the most help with? Where do they get stuck again and again? What is the stuff that they just don't want to do? What is the stuff that they really value? Because that is gold when you really can know that stuff about your clients. So that's, that's, that's scenario number one is we want you. And of course I'm not saying that this is what you go and create, guys. I'm saying we're just going to start there. We're going to start by designing like how much content are they really, do they want to, is their life going to enable them to really be able to absorb over what period of time, like how quickly do they want this outcome? And of course they all want it right away. This is where you start to go now with the next couple of questions. Sense, check it a bit, okay? Add some reality into this dream and you're going to just refine it back to trying to find that happy balance between what is going to excite your clients and make your clients so happy and help them to get the best possible results with what is actually going to be profitable to deliver, particularly based around what they're happy to invest and then also what you're going to enjoy delivering, what's going to make sense for you and your business. It's this, this decision that you make here. It actually I think a lot of people just go, oh, just make an online course. And they don't. Or oh, it's just going to be a community and they don't stop to think about this, stop to ask, to answer these questions. And again, it is one of those things that sometimes you don't know what you don't know until you know it. Right? Like you may think that a Membership sounds amazing. And then you get in there and go, oh my gosh, this sucks. That happens. You can always pivot, you can always change your mind. But I just really want to help you to make the best guess, the most educated guess you can right now to make give you the highest likelihood of whatever you do, spend your time and money investing in being the right choice for you. But just know that there is no such thing as failure. It's all feedback. Even if you do make the wrong choice, you're going to learn a hell of a lot. It's going to be super valuable. It'll help make your next offer even more amazing. Okay, let's get back to the little, you know, the little exercise. So I said paint out that ideal scenario. If you don't have the detail, go and talk to someone who's in your, your ideal client kind of, you know, category. Go and do some one on one work. Go and stalk them on Facebook groups and things like that. Go find out like what is it that they are saying, what is it that they would. You'll like. If you do get your detective hat on, you will be able to find these some really juicy stuff. We always get our people going through ecourse Empire. The very first thing they do regardless of where they are in their business, if they're starting from Scrat or if they already have like a six figure business, is we get them to do a survey of the, of their existing clients or of their ideal clients. And we also get them to do some work around designing their dream business. Like you cannot go past go, you cannot collect $200 until you have done these exercises. Because without that information you're, you're definitely flying blind. All right, next step, you've painted out this ideal scenario. Next step is ask yourself again. Let's ask some questions here to refine it down. First question is how long do they really need to do the work and to see the results. Because again, this is also so, so different. Like you might have if it's, you've got a program where you're helping people to build muscle, they can't do that in a weekend. You might be able to teach them all the things they need to know in a weekend. They might be able to map out their plan or create themselves a program or learn the exercises. But they're not going to start seeing any muscle right away. Right? They're going to feel sore, sure. They're not going to see the results. Some things need a short amount of time. Maybe you're teaching people like one of the things that we teach is how to, to create your own webinar. How to actually write a webinar. How to. And we've kind of got it down inside our live webinar project. It's usually around about a four week process to, you know, to map it out, to write it, to write the emails, to promote it, to actually run it. It usually takes about four, four weeks. We know that that's a pretty good timeframe. Also know that most people take a little bit longer. We allow for that as well. But sit down, go to do the work realistically and to get some results. What is that timeframe? Then I want you to ask yourself, would these people prefer to be able to do it condensed? Like is their ideal situation that they, that this can be learned or done or just gotten over with in a short sprint or some kind of condensed offering? Or is this something that is going. Because it's going to be a longer journey that they are going to need maybe less intense but longer running support. Next you're going to ask for the, for the best results for them. Like can they get a really good outcome if it's done completely diy, do they need sun done with you? So maybe that's in the form of having a work along workshop where people attend and do it together and can ask questions. Or maybe it's a form of having templates or there's lots of different ways of doing done with you. Or is do they really like, are these people, they're not an expert in this at all. They really value the outcome, they really need it, but to be honest, they need someone to actually do it for them. Is that like you need to know, you need to know this stuff. Can it be DIY can be done with you or does it need to be done for them? Even if not all of it, but part of it. Let's bring it even more down to reality. We're starting to like we're bringing in some of the definition here. So we're definitely going to talk pricing in detail in an upcoming episode. But for now just sense check, gut check. Like is this outcome and is this something that your ideal client is happy to invest in, big or small? And again, caveats, I like those when we talk about ideal client is like every ideal client category has a range of how much they're willing to invest. But some, some category, like for example, if you're into crafting or something like that. Like again we'll use the crochet example that I mentioned earlier. Like not many people are happy to invest tens of thousands of dollars. There may be like some board millionaires who are like, yeah, sure, come to my house, teach me how to do a custom crochet something or other. They might be, but most people in the crafting space, it's not a big pain point, it's something they do for fun. How much they're willing to invest is going to be on the lower side. But if you are in something like maybe the health space or the business space, something like that, there is generally a much bigger range there. Like, you know, health space, maybe you help people with gut health. And again the range there is the people who are going to take a supermarket supplement and that's all they're happy to invest in or it's going to go all the way through to people who are happy to go and stay and pay thousands of dollars every day into a, some kind of retreat where they're going to just lie there and be pumped full of vitamins and colonics and whatever and they hopefully walk out the other side completely fixed. There's a, there's a big range there. And choosing where your target market sits in that range for in their head, what is seen as a similar outcome. Gut health is an important decision to, to make. So hopefully you kind of do have that bit of an idea. Again, we're going to talk about this more in pricing, so I'm not going to go off on a tangent, but just do, just do that sense check that like think about your ideal client right now. Think about like realistically is this offer, like is this pain point? Are they going to invest, happy to invest a little bit or are they happy to invest a lot? Like it's something that's painful enough, they just want it done, they want someone's help with it. Like how much do they value this outcome? Because that is going to reflect with, okay, what type of setup is this going to be if they only want to invest a little bit, Maybe a membership is the right thing or a course. If they really are like, no, this is so valuable to me. I know this is going to change my life or I know this is going to change my business, or I know this is going to help me find the partner of my dreams or something really big and juicy, then they are probably ready to invest a lot. This is where that sense check is kind of coming in around what makes sense for how you format your program. The next question again, this next layer or filter you're going to add over this ideal scenario that you've created is it's another sense check is around your energy and your input. What is your ideal scenario? How much you know, one to one contact or one to many contact or touch points are you able to do or is your current team able to do without feeling drained or burnt out? And it's totally okay. Again, I wanted to give you guys a real life example here. It's totally okay to go. Look, I really want to get this pro, like whatever your program is that you're dreaming of go. I would love it to have like 500 people in it and I know for it to work well that really they're probably going to need like every person's going to need two one to one sessions to check in here and check in there and get some good. Like I know that when I've worked with people that they just need that they can probably go through most of it. But there's two spots where they're going to get really stuck and for them to get that best result, they need to have that access there. But I can't do that myself, right? I can't do 500 one to one sessions. That would be insane. Just remember that you're going to grow this from scratch, that you're probably going to start out with 10, 15, etc. There's different ways of building those in and that over time as you're gearing towards that goal of 500 people is you can bring on team members to do this and do this with you and take on. You can have people on your team whose job it is to do these calls. And when you've got 200, 300 people in your program, you're going to be able to easily afford them as well. Just again with that, with that sense check sense, check it for how you're going to start but still have that idea in the back of your head of like how you're going to scale it because that's, that's really important as well. Now, hopefully it's becoming a bit more clear what type of format is going to make the most sense for your clients, for you, for this outcome. You're going to help them with. And like I said in upcoming episodes, we're going to help you to put a price on it. We're going to help you to market it. It's all going to be amazing. If you got a any value bombs out of this episode, we'd love to hear what they were. Make sure you hit us up @hellofunnels on Instagram. Let us know what aha moments you. And if you want any extra help, if you'd like us to help you to map all this out, you can come and join us inside Ecourse Empire. We have a couple of spots open at the moment. We'd love to see you inside the program, but otherwise, guys, make sure you come back next week where we do have something a little special for our 100th episode. Can't wait to, well, not see you. But you hear us then. Until then guys, keep doing what you do and we'll see you online. Bye.

Thanks so much for listening to the Doing It Online podcast. If you love love this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. And if you're ready to take your online course sales to the next level with your own six or seven figure funnel, let Kate show you exactly how today@Stealmyfunnel.com.