The Course Mentors Podcast
Hey there, future course creator!
Ever feel like turning your know-how into an online course is like trying to solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded? Well, grab your headphones because "The Course Mentors Podcast" is here to be your secret weapon!
Meet Aimee and Odette (that's us!), your new best friends in the course creation world. We've been in the trenches for over a decade, and for the last five years, we've been rocking the online course space. Now we're here to spill all our secrets in bite-sized, 15-20 minute episodes that'll fit perfectly in your coffee breaks.
No fluff, no filler - just real, actionable advice that'll take you from "um, what's a landing page?" to "holy moly, I just hit six figures!". We're talking everything from crafting your course to marketing it like a pro and building a business that'll have you pinching yourself.
Whether you're dreaming of ditching the 9-to-5 grind, adding a sweet extra income stream, or just want to trade demanding clients for students who think you're the bee's knees - we've got your back.
Think of us as your personal cheerleading squad, but instead of pom-poms, we're armed with proven strategies and a healthy dose of "you've got this!" energy. We're here to give you the straight-up truth (with a side of fun) to help you crush your goals and create that freedom-filled life you've been daydreaming about.
So, ready to turn your expertise into course gold? Tune in to The Course Mentors Podcast. And hey, once you're done implementing our awesome advice, swing by Instagram @thecoursementors and show us what you've created. We can't wait to celebrate your wins!
Let's make some course magic together, shall we? 🎉
The Course Mentors Podcast
The Art of Course Marketing (Minus the Sleazy Stuff)
Ever catch yourself staring at your incredible course content, wondering why it isn't selling itself? (Yep, we've been there too.)
This week on The Course Mentors Show, Aimee and Odette are tackling the elephant in the zoom room: how to market your course without losing yourself in the process.
Drawing from real experience (including some spectacular failures and surprising wins), we're sharing what actually works - and more importantly, what feels right.
You'll discover:
• The simple shift that'll skyrocket student enrolment rates
• Why most course creators are marketing to the wrong people (and how to fix it)
• The unexpected place Aimee found her most engaged Japanese students
• Our "clarity first" framework that makes marketing feel natural
We're pulling back the curtain on how to showcase the true value of what you teach, whether that's helping pet parents understand their furry friends or teaching entrepreneurs to scale their dreams.
This episode is perfect for:
• Course creators tired of feeling like they're shouting into the void
• Teachers who know their stuff works but struggle to communicate it
• Anyone who's ever felt icky about marketing their expertise
Join us for an honest conversation about turning your expertise into enrolments, without compromising who you are.
Ready to attract your ideal students naturally? Let's make it happen.
P.S. After this episode, you might find yourself actually enjoying marketing. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Want to create your own 6-figure course? Apply to join Online Course School https://thecoursementors.com/application
Got questions or want more free content? Follow us at https://www.instagram.com/thecoursementors/
Catch us every Wednesday for your weekly dose of course creation wisdom. Got questions or loving the show? Let us know on IG @thecoursementors. For more on our courses and mentorship, check out Online Course School's website https://thecoursementors.com/application.
Welcome to the Course Mentors podcast where we talk everything online course success.
Speaker 2:I'm Amy Hill.
Speaker 1:And I am Odette Eade.
Speaker 2:And today we're talking about what it really takes to make your online course sell.
Speaker 1:Before we get into it, though, amy, how's your week been? Actually, it's been a little bit weird. Oh yeah, what happened?
Speaker 2:Well, okay, it's not been like crazy, but my parents are opening a gym, which they decided they were going to do last month. That's quick. I know it explains a lot when you meet them. Well, you've met them. You've met them like a million times, but when anyone meets them, it makes a lot of sense where I come from. But anyway, they've been starting a gym. I've been helping out. It's been crazy. So it's been actually kind of crazy getting out of the world of online courses and marketing a different thing. That's been really fun for me because, you know, I love to stretch my marketing muscle and so it's been really fun to do that in other places.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been having a really good time.
Speaker 2:Love that for you, thanks. Okay, let's get into it. Shall we? Yeah, let's get into it. Look, we're going to open up today's potty waddy. Say that again. Okay, we're going to open up today's episode with one giant truth bomb, it's you not?
Speaker 1:your modules Shocker explained.
Speaker 2:Okay when we say it's you, not your modules we're talking about. When it comes to marketing your online course, you want to be marketing you, not your course inclusions. Your course inclusions shouldn't be a part of your marketing. It's the logistics.
Speaker 1:It's the details. It's the details. It's like not what you see first, that's for certain.
Speaker 2:Your ideal clients are not lying awake at night thinking about your worksheets.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I know you worked hard on them, but you did. You certainly did.
Speaker 2:I'm sure they're gorgeous. They are, but they are dreaming about the transformation that you promise them. People don't buy courses because they like worksheets or modules or videos or activities. They buy better versions of themselves. They're buying the outcome that you're selling.
Speaker 1:For Amy. They're dreaming about speaking Japanese, go to Japan and being able to order a coffee For somebody else. Maybe they're lying awake thinking gosh, I wish I could just train my dog. I wish I could finally get rid of that beautiful, lovely, gorgeous, but really annoying anxiety.
Speaker 2:Dreaming about writing their first novel and learning how to write properly, or learning how to sew and make their own clothes, or learning how to finally crack $10,000 a month in their business. Whatever it is, the outcome is what they're dreaming about. It's what they're lying awake thinking about. They don't actually care about individual worksheets.
Speaker 1:They'll ask about how long your course is and you know what is it that I'm going to be doing and you can. You know you'll have to explain. Oh, there's worksheets, there's videos, there's this sort of thing, but it is not first and foremost what's going to sell them on your course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the biggest and most important things that you can learn at the start of any business journey, whether it's online courses or something else, is the difference between marketing and selling, and I think that that is so important to really illustrate it. I always say that it's like car sales. Right? Marketing is the video that you see of someone driving on a hillside, their head, the winds blowing in their hair. It's like the sexy version. It's the better version of them. It's them driving a sexy car, being sexy, living a sexy life. It's. It's's being the idealized version of themselves driving this really cool car, having a really cool life. That's what car ads show, and every time you see a car ad, you'll see it. It's every single time it's someone having a really cool life in some way.
Speaker 2:Sales, on the other hand, is the dealership floor, and that's when you go in and someone is selling you on the details. They're telling you it includes a sunroof, it has four doors. These are the features. You can buy it with a hatchback, you can buy it in a sedan. Those are the features, those are the inclusions, and, when it comes to marketing and sales, understanding the difference between those two is incredibly important. Marketing is selling the idealized version that your product or your course provides them or gives them the better version of them. Selling is explaining the details, the logical part of the purchasing behavior.
Speaker 1:They were already coming in to purchase the car, because you sold them the dream already. It's just now, whether they want the hatchback or the sedan.
Speaker 2:And so when we say that people buy idealized versions of themselves, they buy better versions of themselves through your online course. They're buying the transformation that you're selling. Whatever it is that you promise people they can achieve through your course. That is what people are handing money over for. Ad comes on and it's so cool and it's so sexy and it's the better life that you can live with this car. That's what you need to be. You need to be on instagram being the car ad. You need to be the better version, the idealized version that you're selling.
Speaker 2:If that's dog training, have the best behaved dog ever. If that's business coaching and you're a business coach and you sell someone making more money, you need to show that you make more money and you need to live that life and show time freedom. You need to show that you travel. You need to show that you have all of those things that people are wishing for. If you like I do you sell languages, you need to show up speaking those languages and showing people that you really can go to Japan and you can have conversations with people. If you do what debt does and you do sewing or hard skills like knitting and crafting, you need to show people the things that you can craft and create with those skills. It's endless.
Speaker 1:Obviously, we can keep going through examples all day long, yeah, and sometimes there's like slight exceptions or variations to this. Maybe you're a psychologist, maybe you're not going through the exact thing your client is going through. Therefore, show your other students getting these great successes. There's always a way to show that transformation and that dream being achieved, whether it's through you, that's usually the case You're at least the first example or the prime example of it, but otherwise it is your students as well.
Speaker 2:So marketing is about making a promise and selling it. It's about saying with this product, with this course, with what I do, you can look and be and have all of this right. Right, but the secret to online course marketing is that it has to be you. You have to be at the forefront showing that that promise is true. You cannot and this is going to be so hurtful for some people, I know you cannot outsource your marketing, especially in the online course world. You just can't. It has to be you.
Speaker 2:People are purchasing from you. They want to see that you are the person that can take them through that journey and they want to trust that it's you that can do it. And so oftentimes people purchase just because they can see that you're living the life, proving that it's possible. And the reason why that's so important is because in any industry, it doesn't matter if you sell shoes or if you coach people how to get to $50,000 a month. It doesn't matter where you are in business. You will always have competitors, and if you don't now, you will in the future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. You're not an institution. You're not selling the prestige of a university with a hundred years of culture behind them, you know, and a huge reputation. You're selling what you can bring to the table. You're selling the fact that they can't get this anywhere else because you're the one who should be teaching it, and that's a big advantage. You know, the people who are buying courses aren't going shopping around at universities as well, you know. You know you are special, you are unique. You have things to bring to the table they can't get anywhere else and you're selling. You're selling to these people. Hey, we'll jump on a zoom call once a week. You know they want to jump on, talk to you know who you are. You want to get to know them. You want to get, they want to get to know you. You're, by default, a part of your course anyway. You really need to lean into that, because it's an advantage that absolutely nobody can take away from you either.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:Totally.
Speaker 2:Totally man.
Speaker 1:Which is really comforting because you know you're always thinking about, you know what's my, what's my point of difference. Why would people buy from me and not them them? We see a lot of people come to us. They want to create an online course, but, you know, maybe there's another online course in their industry or maybe someone is doing something similar so what?
Speaker 2:I can guarantee? There are people for them and there are people for you, absolutely every single time even if that other person is further along the line than you.
Speaker 1:Maybe they have a PhD in it, it doesn't matter. Not everybody wants to learn from that like maybe intimidating expert, or that like super professional figure. Maybe they want to learn from that chick that they think that they can, you know, sit down and have a coffee with and discuss things with, do you know?
Speaker 2:Do you know what? Sometimes the vibe just ain't there. Yeah, I know this is a little crazy to say, but every single one of our students and there's hundreds of them now I see us in all of them.
Speaker 1:yeah, I'm like, you guys are our friends yeah, actually, one thing we've always said is we work with the people who's like values in line with us. You know, I say vibes match you say vibes, vibes match.
Speaker 1:I say values align Because you know you attract what you put out. We go around and we say we don't make crap courses. Sell with authenticity, don't be scammy, don't use high-pressure sales tactics. Therefore, we have these amazing chicks coming to us who are like hey, I have these skills, I really think it could make a really cool course and I think it could help people.
Speaker 1:Exactly us who are like hey, I have these skills, I really think it could make a really cool course and I think I could help people exactly and they want to sell with that integrity.
Speaker 2:You know so. Not one single person comes to us and says I want to make a million dollars tomorrow morning and it's your responsibility and I want to nothing, nothing. The people who work with us are so aligned with what we do because we're so strong in our message but so strong in who we are and what we're sharing.
Speaker 1:We stick to our convictions. And you know what?
Speaker 2:if somebody wants to go make a get rich quick scheme, lmm bullshit course like that's okay, but don't do it with us yeah, we're not your people yeah, and I think like if you take us as an example, right when it comes to doing online courses, there's probably a billion people you can go learn online courses from totally right now. Yeah, probably, I know, I know, I know, I guarantee that. No one is like making an excel spreadsheet and saying well, with person a, you get nine videos, and with course mentors, you get 11 videos.
Speaker 2:Like, no one's doing that. Literally no one has ever done that. No, but people will come and work with us because they agree with us, because when we say something with conviction because we're pretty convicted women people will nod along and say, fuck, yeah, that's how I feel. I like that finally, how refreshing, how refreshing. And then that is what they'll come and choose to work with us. Yeah about. And I think that you know, it's not just because there's a million people doing online courses, which I don't know how many people there are, but it's not because, there are other people doing it and I teach Japanese in my other program.
Speaker 2:There's, like, a lot of people doing Japanese my parents about to run a gym. They're not the first people to open a gym. But the most important thing when it comes to online course marketing is not your inclusions, your videos, how many worksheets you've got. It's not how many steps are a part of your program. It's about you, your method, your expertise and what you bring to your program, your personality, what you believe in, what you're convicted about. Those are the things that people give a shit about and align themselves with, and I'm sure there are so many people that see our content and go no, I don't agree with that, I want to make a million dollars overnight, or no, I don't agree with this or the other thing. And that's great. That's so good because there are so many more people that do agree with us is what I was going to say that do agree with us, um, and they can go and find someone else who aligns with what they believe. And that is what businesses it's choosing who you align with, absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know, I teach Japanese. I do the online courses. In both instances, people who are not for me will not find me, and it's good. It's good, you know, and I say this all the time like I don't want I teach Japanese. You guys know this right? Yeah, I've said about a thousand times Okay, thank you. I just want to make sure it's clear, because I said the other day this is a bit of a tangent, but the other day I was telling somebody about how I speak Japanese and I've never told this person before and I just kind of like entered it into the conversation. It's someone I'm friends with, but I just don't really talk about it. Anyway, she said what you teach Japanese people? And I said no, no, I teach the Japanese language to English native speakers. And she said how? And I said like, do you speak Japanese? Do you have you been to Japan?
Speaker 1:it's so confusing she said but you're white yeah, so listen.
Speaker 2:Okay, for context, I teach Japanese. All right, that's the context, one and done, and I won't mention it again, just kidding. I'll mention it every single episode. But for Japanese I don't teach, and I'm going to be so broad here. I don't teach anime, like I don't teach about how to understand anime, and that's great because there are so many people who do, and if you buy my program, you're going to be very severely disappointed. If you really want to watch anime, that's going to be just. That's going to disappoint you. But there are so many people who specialize in that and then they can go and do those programs and they'll be happy and I'll be happy and no one will be disappointed.
Speaker 1:Yeah when you teach the people who your values align with, you both have a really good time yeah, and I think sometimes people find marketing so damn confusing because of strategy hopping.
Speaker 2:And what strategy hopping is is people come up with a I don't know a strategy on social media, right, like, make sure you're posting three TikToks a day, that's the next thing that's going to make your business explode. Or make sure that you're releasing a YouTube video. Or get on YouTube shorts because they're brand new or whatever the fuck, I don't know All of the new things that are coming out right, and people say that is the thing that is going to make your business explode. It will explode. Not those are tools, it's just a thing to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those are tools to deliver your message, but if your message isn't there and you don't know who you are and what you're sharing and what your message is and what your expertise is, you will have nothing to share on those platforms, which will make those platforms feel so hard because you'll say what do I post on Instagram? What do I post on YouTube, what do I post on TikTok? What do I post on YouTube shorts, what do I make a blog about? Oh my God, that's what makes social media and marketing in general difficult.
Speaker 2:So if you right now listening, are in a web of I don't know real stories, posts, tiktoks, posting times, hashtags, lead magnets, running tripwires, doing upsells, doing webinars, doing masterclasses, and you're listening to all of that, thinking like what these are all the marketing like this is so stressful, and you're listening to all of that thinking like what these are all the marketing like this is so stressful, I want you to know that some of those things are just tools that can help you deliver a message, but the secret, the magic of your marketing is the message that you're delivering. That is the thing that people will connect with, that is the thing that will make people purchase and that is the thing that people can see their idealized version in. If you don't know what that is, it's time to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Pretty important stuff.
Speaker 2:So, when it comes to marketing this week in your business, what I want you to do is I want you to make things simple again. I want you to tell your story. I want you to share what it is that you've been able to accomplish and share why you teach it.
Speaker 1:Over and, over and over again. You know once it's not enough, reintroduce yourself, say it in different ways.
Speaker 2:Talk about what you know. Talk about why you know it. Talk about how you know it. Talk about why you give a shit about teaching it. That is what people connect with. That is how people will see their dream version of themselves in you and that is what will make people feel aligned with you to purchase. The rest of it is just noise, beautiful hopefully now you understand.
Speaker 1:It is all about you. It's about your magic, your methods. People want to hear about it. You're the one who's going to be teaching them. Talk about yourself, why you do what you do, why you work.
Speaker 2:I hope that this episode stripped that back a little bit and showed you that the magic of marketing and the secret to actually making good marketing content is talking about you, your method, why you do what you do and why you give a shit about it enough to teach it. It's not about all of the latest trends and fads, those are just tools. And it's not about your online course features and inclusions. Those are kind of like save those for the car dealership yard, the sales yard sales floor.
Speaker 1:What is that?
Speaker 2:called the dealership floor. I don't know the dealership floor. Save it for the dealership floor. That's your sales page. The rest of it talk about you. Talk about your story.
Speaker 1:Let them connect with connection. That's it, but that's about as simple as it can possibly get. I hope that this episode helped. See you guys next week. See you next week. Bye.