Can You Sell Courses Sustainably?

Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie Chenell, and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories. It's about the grit it takes to get there.

Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Million Dollar Grit. Today I'm talking about sustainability in course selling. I had a DM comment from someone who said, "Is it realistic? Like, is there a way to actually make selling courses sustainable and predictable?" And as someone who has sold millions in courses, I'm going to answer affirmatively, yes, but I think we need to come to an understanding of what the word sustainable actually means. I think what she meant and what a lot of people mean is, can I actually trust it? Can I go get a mortgage on a house? Can I plan a vacation? Can I buy a new car with the money that's coming in from courses, or is it gonna get snatched out from under me? And I think the reason why a lot of people feel that way is because they don't really know how to sell a course every single day. They only know how to do a launch Or they're beholden to an algorithm that may be fickle. I want to kind of dive into what I see working for my clients as well as myself. And I'm going to use a little bit of jargon. I'm going to try to explain it all and, you know, translate, if you will. If we look at two different models of selling, there's launches, which Many of you know what that is. You know, the cart opens, there's a flurry of buying, and then the cart closes, and then the creator does the course with a group of, of students. Evergreen. When I use the word evergreen, I'm not talking about trees. I'm talking about selling every day. And funnels, sales funnels are the way you launch and sell every day. And launch funnels are sales pages. And evergreen funnels are things like webinar funnels and low ticket funnels. Evergreen funnels are the way to get predictable revenue. Can you get predictable revenue through launching? In theory, and many creators sort of back in the heyday golden age of launching did sort of predict with relative accuracy how much their launches were gonna make, and they sort of lived launch to launch, but that's not as effective these days. The people who get paid every day are feeling that sustainability. What do you need to do that? Well, you need an evergreen funnel, and this doesn't mean it's on demand. It just means that the funnel is open to new eyeballs every single day. And that's important. When I say new eyeballs, that means that you need to have a reliable way of getting new people into that funnel on a daily basis. That could be organic content, that could be affiliates, it could be referrals, it could be search traffic, it could be podcasts, it could be YouTube, it could be direct outreach, it could be guest post, you know, guest teaching in other people's groups. It could be paid advertising. You do not need to have like a brand new traffic strategy every week, but you need a dependable one. And if you look at all the ones that I listed, The one that people wish they had is organic content because they feel like that's the most reliable one. It is and it isn't. I mean, it's a hamster wheel of content. Number 2, it's beholden to the algorithm. I think paid advertising is actually your strongest, most dependable way to get leads every single day with the search and the long-tail discovery coming in second. That's just my— opinion. Okay. Now the funnel and the traffic source must work together. The funnel is going to do all the heavy lifting. It's going to push people from invisible, not push, but persuade people from invisibility, meaning they have no idea who you are, into paid. I actually have a podcast episode called The 8 Steps from Invisible to Paid. You may want to go listen to that one. There are funnels that are designed to do all of that heavy lifting. A webinar, a webinar offer. Funnel is probably the strongest one of them all. And what do you need? What kind of offer do you need in order to really run an evergreen webinar funnel? There's a couple things. It needs to be a course that is relatively expensive, $500 or more. So that means it needs to create some sort of transformation, something that is gonna solve an important specific problem that will create a transformation that drives social proof, that drives results, that makes people say, oh my gosh, this course worked really well and allows you to leverage that transformation. And it's also priced in such a way that if you're using paid ads, you can afford to run this funnel and still make money. What— where launches come in is that once you have that funnel running— so a weekly live webinar would be an example— you run that every single week, but maybe a couple times a year you do a live launch. And what that does is it takes all of the leads that through the webinar funnel who maybe didn't buy and gives them a reason to buy. And live launches can have a little bit more energy. They can have new bonuses. They can be a live experience where the creator teaches the, the content live and it gets those people activated to buy. This is the way all of my successful creators are sustaining their life and their lifestyle with courses. And you would think, oh my gosh, they must have multiple, but they don't. They have have one signature offer that creates a valuable transformation, and then they have a funnel that allows them to get paid every day, and then they have a way to get new eyeballs into that funnel every single day. If you're thinking, well, uh, what about low ticket, right? Aren't there people making predictable, sustainable revenue with low ticket? Yes. However, it's harder. Because the volume you need is much, much greater. And in order to do this successfully, you often need multiple products. But if you just offer multiple products to an audience, then people get confused. They don't know what it is they need to buy. And this is where you get those Stan stores or buffet of courses. And then, you know, you're really just like waiting for the customer to decide. The creators that are doing well with low ticket are sequencing how their low ticket products are offered to their audience. They are picking one course that they're running the bulk of their paid traffic to, what we call top of funnel, where most people are coming into their world through that first funnel. They're being introduced to a couple of offers. They're taking them up on those offers. Then they're getting in some sort of email sequence, and then eventually they're offered something else. And then when you go to their page, there's usually just one offer on their page and that's how they're doing it. I also have a few people who do low ticket, but they, in addition to these evergreen funnels, they have to continually run flash sales where they are using paid ads for a limited time, a discount, 20% off or whatever, and they have enough courses. That they're just like repeating these flash sales all year round. I feel like low ticket is one of those misleading containers where people who are beginners in the online space think, well, I can sell a $15 PDF, and you absolutely can. And it's a great way to get market validation to see if people will buy it. But if you're hoping to quit your job, you know, $15 PDFs are not going to do it. And I want to use, you know, our favorite internet, uh, girl these days, Jessie Jean. I mean, she had a furniture flipping ebook or PDF that was, I think, $37, and she made $25,000 with it. I mean, that's just— that's an impressive amount of money for a small PDF and just goes to show the power of her traffic. But is she going to build an entire sustainable, like, company or living on a $37 PDF? I mean, she could, but I bet if you asked her, she would say, that feels a little risky to me. That feels a little bit like I'm just, you know, hoping against hope that Instagram continues to grow my account at the rate that it's growing now, and that everyone's going to want a furniture flipping guide. You know, it, that can feel unsustainable. And I have a lot of people coming to me who are in the course creator world who have tried these templates and PDFs and things like that. And they're like, okay, I want to make sustainable money now. And that makes sense. And this is the model: signature offer that has produced a transformation, that generates social proof, with a price high enough that we can run paid ads, because eventually you might want to get off the content hamster wheel, and then a couple launches a year. To pick up or scoop up those leads that maybe didn't buy. And that is a reliable way to build a sustainable income. What do I mean when I say sustainable income? I mean between $30,000 and $50,000 a month. It's lifestyle business money. It's the kind of money where you don't have to hire a big team. You're making, you know, between $350,000 and $550,000 a year or so. Your costs are relatively low. You show up once a week to do your webinar, a couple times a year you have launches. If you want to bump that up and get closer to $1 million a year, maybe you offer some sort of high-ticket backend for a very small percentage of your customers. We're talking like 3 to 5% of your customers take you up on that. That is sustainable, and I think most people want that more than they want a big $10 million company and a founder exit. That is fundamentally different strategy. Anyway, I hope that is helpful. If you are not on my email list, please go to emailsbyjulie.com and sign up for my email list. I have been doing this thing where I post a reel on Instagram and then I, because I can't just leave it to 2 minutes, I have a lot more to say, I create a Google Doc. And in that Google Doc is what I would say if Instagram gave me more time, right? Long form. And I put that Google Doc in a comment automation. Well, everyone on my email list gets all of those Google Docs whenever I produce them. So if you go to emailsbyjulie.com and sign up for my email list, you will get every single one of those docs. Those of you commenting on my Instagram account, I appreciate you. That helps me get amazing engagement. And I hope this was a helpful topic. As always, if there's something you want me to discuss, please DM me on Instagram and let me know. Most of my content these days is driven by customer questions, and I love it. Talk soon.

And there you have it, folks. Another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, harness your grit, and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie Chenell, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.